Some people are non-Christian. And some are anti-Christian.
Non-Christians don’t embrace the faith that many of us have in Christ. It doesn’t seem relevant to them. It doesn’t seem credible to them. They’ve chosen a different path. Whatever.
But others are actively anti-Christian. They not only don’t believe, but they use their influence to hurt or hamper Christianity whenever they can. Anti-Christianity comes in many forms, but the type I see most often is is the person who ridicules Christians online for their beliefs, calls people who follow Jesus names, and actively tries to dissuade believers from their beliefs. Some—certainly not all—but some of these anti-Christians, when pressed, admit that they would happily see Christians purged from the earth in a new holocaust. Others would simply like Christians to sit in the back of the bus when it comes to education, politics, media or any other role of influence.
Why are some people anti-Christian?
I’m going to suggest that people are NOT anti-Christian for any of the “reasons” they throw out there: “Jesus never existed,” “The Bible is full of contradictions,” “Christianity is a delusion,” “religion is responsible for all the problems in the world,” yada yada. I’ve heard it all; so have you. It’s a smokescreen, and we all know it.
No, there are more personal reasons why people are anti-Christian. Let me suggest three of them:
1. They’ve been hurt by Christians. Let’s admit it folks: Some people are abusive in the name of Jesus. Some people cover up their poor leadership and poor human relations skills with Bible verses. If someone has been hurt by a Christian, particularly if that Christian was an authority figure such as a parent or teacher, it’s human nature to lump all Christians into the same category as the abuser. They all become monsters. And it’s usually too painful to talk about how that hatred got started, but it’s easy to spout the same tired arguments against Christianity that people have been using for decades.
2. Something tragic happened, and God got the blame. Maybe a parent died. Maybe this anti-Christian was raped or homeless or lost everything. The cry, “Where was God?” turned into “I hate God.” In his or her mind, God became a monster, and who wants to worship a monster? This anti-Christian may classify himself as an atheist, but he doesn’t deny God existence so much because he tallied up the intellectual arguments on both sides of the ledger and found the Bible side wanting. He’s an atheist because it’s too painful to give God room to exist.
3. Some are anti-Christian because they “need” to do something God prohibits, and they can’t stand the thought of being accountable to Him. Jesus said, “People loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil.” (John 3:19) If sin is the best thing you have, then it seems unreasonable that God would try to take it away from you. (Keep in mind that sin is usually an attempt to medicate or soothe inner pain.) Someone like this who needs to avoid Judgment Day at all costs can see Christians only as people who are bringing God’s judgment down upon them. Naturally, someone like this fights back.
There are other reasons why people are anti-Christian, particularly in cultures outside the one I’m accustomed to here in the USA. But people are not anti-Christian because they objectively did the research and decided that Christianity was a bad thing. The intellectual arguments are almost always a smokescreen to cover up the real reasons which are usually too painful to discuss.
How do we respond?
Most significantly, we listen to God’s Spirit and do what He says. God promises to speak through you. (See Luke 12:11-12 as well as Matthew 10:19-20, Mark 13:11.)
But there are some principles that I think are helpful.
Do you respond to the intellectual arguments? Sometimes. See Proverbs 26:4-5. Sometimes I respond because I’m aware that younger believers whose faith is more fragile might be following the discussion, and I want them to know that there are answers to these objections to Christianity. In reality, when you start to pick these so-called arguments apart you discover a few things: Most of the time the so called “arguments” aren’t arguments at all—they’re assertions based on the presupposition that God doesn’t exist and the Bible isn’t trustworthy. And very often the “arguments” are nothing more than name calling and personal attacks thinly veiled with vocabulary. If you know your Bible and a little bit of history, logic and science, refuting 99.9% of these arguments is a walk in the park.
Having said all of this, it is tempting to go after the argument and forget about the person. But we’re called to win people, not arguments. That’s why it’s so important to listen to God (John 10:27), and do what He’s telling you to do. Remember also that we don’t “wrestle with flesh and blood” (Ephesians 6:12).
There’s a great verse in Revelation 12:11: “They overcame the devil by the blood of the Lamb (Jesus), and the word of their testimony; when they were asked to give up their lives for Jesus, they said yes.”
Anti-Christians need to know that Christians are, by and large, decent, caring, loving people. They need to know that the God we serve is a good God who truly cares about them. And they need to know that what we have in Christ is far better than the scraps they’re digging out of life’s dumpster.
How are they going to know that? We need to tell our stories. That’s an important part of “the word of our testimony” (Revelation 12:11).
This is part of the reason why I created a Google+ community “Our God Stories” and a Facebook group with the same name.
Photo credit: Adapted from a photo by conorwithonen, Flickr, Creative Commons License
