What Would Jesus Say To An Atheist? Series

Summer in the Psalms 2024

Psalm 14

Pastor Jefferson M. Williams

Chenoa Baptist Church?07-14–2024

Madilyn Murray O’Hair, visited the campus of the University of Memphis when I was a freshman.

There was a huge police presence on campus and she had bodyguards because she had received so many death threats.

I wanted to see her talk and try to understand what the fuss was about but my mother begged me not to go, fearing that violence would break out.

What message did she deliver that night? That is there is no God and that atheism is the only logical belief.

She filed the lawsuit that led the US Supreme Court to ban teacher-led prayer and Bible reading in public schools.

I was a freshman in college and had decided that all religion was stupid. Here was a woman who claimed that there was no God and those who disagreed with her were threatening to blow up the building in which she would be speaking.

When I said that to my brother, who had become a Christian, he said something I’ve never forgotten. He said, “Don’t look at Christians. Look to Christ. He will never disappoint you.”

This morning, I’m going to try to answer the question, “What would Jesus say to an atheist?”

My short answer is that Jesus doesn’t believe in atheists. He loves them enough to die for them.

Please turn with me to Psalm 14.

Prayer.

Psalm 14

Psalm 14 has been called the “atheist psalm” because it addresses atheism head-on.

It is a song that David wrote in his journal and one that Jesus would have sung growing up in the synagogue.

Psalm 14 and Psalm 53 are nearly identical and Paul quotes Psalm 14 in Romans 3.

Defining our Terms

Before we get into the text, I need to define some terms.

First, when the Bible uses the word “fool,” it is not speaking of any intellectual deficit. Fools aren’t stupid. Fools don’t have a head problem but a heart problem.

Second, the term atheism means “no God.”

Atheists are people who believe that God doesn’t exist.

Leading the charge are people like Richard Dawkins who wrote “The God Delusion” and Christopher Hitchens who wrote, “God is not Great.” They believe that religion is not just weird but it is evil.

They both advocated that atheists should “come out of the closet” and be proud that they haven’t fallen prey to the poison of religion.

And come out of the closet they have! The “new atheism” has become cool in our culture.

According to a January 2024 Pew Research Center report, 28% of U.S. adults identify as "nones", or religiously unaffiliated people:

Atheist: 17%

Agnostic: 20%

Nothing in particular: 63%

Mark Zuckerburg, George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Brittney Spears, Bill Maher, Johnny Depp, Jodie Foster, Seth McFarland, Carl Rainer, Julianna Moore, Ricky Gervais, and Penn Jillette all identify as atheists.

People who identify as “nones” are not all serial killers and terrible people. Many of them are caring and love their families and see the world as a place to do good to others.

The third term we need to define is agnosticism.

This word means “not knowing.” Agnostics are on a continuum.

On one end of the continuum are people who say, “I don’t know and I don’t care.” Then some people have doubts and questions and are curious about Christianity.

Brian Warner, who grew up to be the industrial rock icon, Marilyn Mason, was an extremely bright kid. In Sunday school, he asked a lot of questions and he said that one of his teachers yelled at him, “Just shut up and believe!” He never attended church again.

Along the spectrum of agnosticism are people who have been hurt in churches, who are horrified by the hypocrisy they have witnessed, and who, according to research find Christians mean, judgmental, and more interested in politics than the Gospel.

If that describes you, I want you to know that I’ve been deeply hurt by church people. I’ve witnessed incredible hypocrisy by those who claim to be Christians. And some of our non-Christian friends are kinder than many of the so-called Christians we have known.

But, like my brother said to me, “Look past Christians. Look to Christ. He will never disappoint you.”

The psalm addresses atheists, not those who doubt or who have questions.

I hope by the end of this sermon, I’m going to show that true atheism is intellectually untenable and help you to move to a more honest position.

The Atheist’s Refusal

The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, and their ways are vile; there is no one who does good.

A story is told of an evangelist who visited Harvard. A Christian student took two of his dorm mates, who said they were atheists to the lecture. On the way back home, he asked if the evangelist made the case for the existence of God. They both said that he was brilliant and had made a compelling case.