Ray Comfort's Blog, page 55

My "Misrepresenting" Atheism

"I thought for sure Ray said he would stop misrepresenting atheism a long time ago." DBW

There are no rules with atheism. They have no pope to wave at them and tell them what to do. They don't have an Atheist Bible to instruct them, and so they don't even have a clear agenda as to what they are supposed to be doing.

Some believe that nothing created everything (see sidebar video for a list), while others deny that any say such thing, in spite of the evidence. Some say that they don't know what created everything. Some won't even use the word "created," because it signifies you-know-Who.

Some believe nothing created everything, but that the "nothing" they believe in, wasn't nothing. They think it was something, but not God.

Some say that they "know" that God doesn't exist. Others say that you can't know because you need to be omniscient (like God) to know everything. Some Atheists say that they have no beliefs, while others rightly say that it's lame to say such a thing.

Some atheists admire Richard Dawkins and believe anything he says as though it were gospel, while others don't. They say that he doesn't speak for them. Some think macro evolution and micro evolution are the same thing, when they're not. Others know the difference. Some believe that the rumblings of Nature are Nature making cruel improvements, others don't.

Some Atheists think that they are primates, and some aren't so sure when they think about it. Some think that the earth is eternal, and some know that such a belief is scientifically impossible because of the Second Law of Thermodynamics.

The list is never-ending because with "no-rules atheism," anything goes. Their beliefs are so diverse, there's no way anyone could correctly represent them or what they believe, even if they wanted to.

I'm sure you would agree with me when I say that no two human beings can agree on any one thing. This is because human nature has been utterly corrupted by sin. We all think that we are right. Husbands disagree with wives, children with parents, and neighbors fight like cats and dogs. Catholics disagree with other Catholics, Moslems with Moslems, politicians fight each other tooth and nail, and Christians bicker with each other big time.

Despite the confusion in all this, God is faithful to lead you if you are seeking truth. Just open a Bible and humbly pray for His direction.

The Scriptures simplify the whole complexity of contention with this wonderful truth: "He who has the Son, has life" (1 John 5:11-12). It's a light in the darkness of these times. God knows those that love Him and who are His, and that's all that will matter in eternity.For Evangelism Resources, please visit LivingWaters.com.

An Atheist's Reminder to Give

"Could Living Waters spare some money for the Japanese Red Cross, or another good charity? I know 'give' isn't your first reaction to tragedy (that would be 'exploit'), but the Japanese people need help, right now, and they're not going to be too concerned about the character of whom it comes from."

Some of you are new to this blog, so I thought I would set a few things straight.

I appreciate this kind reminder from atheists, to support the Japanese. However, I had already sent support through the American Red Cross.

For those of you who keep comparing me to the Westborough Baptist church, I want to point out a few things.

First, I have never said that God sent the recent earthquake and tsunami as some sort of judgment. There are an estimated one million earthquakes each year throughout the earth, so how could I possibly know which are just the earth shaking, or God judging a nation?

Second, it is very clear that the Westborough Baptist church is a hate-filled church. Those who have been with this blog since its conception will tell you that I don't hate atheists.

If I did, why would I give away thousands of dollars-worth of dinner vouchers, send financial help to atheists when asked, make and give away genuine leather jackets and vests to atheists, as well as give away thousands of books—just to atheists?

If I ever have a meal with you, I will be quick to pick up the tab. Ask the Orange County Atheists—40 of them invited me to dinner once. The Westborough Baptists don't do things like that.

Neither do they tell you of God's love and mercy, or preach the cross. If you search this blog you will find hundreds of references to the love of God—and you will find that, almost daily, I plead with you to get right with God. Misguided though you think I am, why would I do that if I didn't care?

The Westborough Baptist church doesn't honor or respect all men. They dishonor our courageous and self-sacrificing soldiers, and our flag. I honor all men and love this country, and I will continue to preach the gospel that was so honored by our godly Founding Fathers.

So go ahead and liken me to these hate-filled folks and say that I'm in this for the money if you wish. But you now do it knowing that it's not true.

http://www.redcross.org/For Evangelism Resources, please visit LivingWaters.com.

The Atheist's Explanation for Killer Quakes

An atheist can't blame God for the earthquake that recently took so many lives in Japan. As much as he would like to, he can't say "God-did-it!" because he thinks there's no evidence for God. Blaming Him for it would make as much sense as his blaming Snow White for a snow storm.

But atheistic evolution says that there is a good reason for the 8.9 earthquake killer quake and the horrific Tsunami that followed. It is nature making improvements. Everything is evolving and getting better.

People being crushed to death or drowned in a Tsunami is just part of the work of evolution. Cancer, suffering, pain and death are also nature improving things through evolutionary change. It was evolution that improved nature when it gave the leap to the frog and the bark to the dog. It gave oxygen enriched air to the lungs, the wings to the bird, and brains to the nerd. It also gifted us with the four seasons, myriads of colorful flowers, the snow-caped mountains, the cool running streams, music, love and laughter. It all started with nothing, and over millions of years, here we are in this wonder called "life." That's evolution for you...making things better.

So if you tragically lost loved ones in an earthquake or through cancer, atheism says that you will just have to deal with it because it's all working for the good of...well...nature. It's like a beehive, or communism. If you have to be stung to death for the good of the hive, or shot to death for the good of the State, it doesn't really matter because you are nothing more than a very small cog in a big wheel. You are part of a species that will fail to survive. Richard Dawkins was right when he said "Blindness to suffering is an inherent consequence of natural selection. Nature is neither kind nor cruel but indifferent."

If it sounds hopeless and depressing, it is. Evolution has left you as nobody among billions, on a dot of a planet among trillions, waiting around for the pains of life and ultimately death. You don't know where you came from, you don't know what you are doing here, and you don't know what happens after death. But that doesn't matter to an atheist. All that really matters is that you are free to enjoy yourself here and now by throwing yourself into fornication, adultery, pornography or homosexuality. Anything goes, because there is no God and no Hell. Probably.

The Christian world-view is a little different. It says that when there are killer earthquakes, or tornados, or hurricanes that ravage humanity, it's a confirmation that we live in a "fallen" creation (see Genesis 1-3). When cancer kills hundreds of thousands each year, or when a loved one dies, it just confirms the truth that we live in a fallen creation.

It also confirms that God is not the smiling divine butler He's made out to be. He is angry at humanity for all its evil. Disease, pain, suffering and death endorse the biblical account of both man's sin and God's holiness.

Despite our sinful rebellion, God is rich in mercy and will grant everlasting life to all who will repent and trust in the Savior. The cross of Jesus Christ is proof that the most vile of us has great worth in the sight of Almighty God. Jesus took punishment for our sins, and rose from death to save us from Hell. He paid the fine so that we could leave the courtroom; such is the love of God.

So there you have it. You can choose to believe that nothing created everything, that you are no body waiting to die, and enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season and end up in Hell. Or you can obey the gospel and get right with God, find everlasting life, have a reason for life, and then enjoy "pleasure forevermore."For Evangelism Resources, please visit LivingWaters.com.

Imposing the Atheist Worldview

"And when all the people heard Him, even the tax collectors justified God, having been baptized with the baptism of John. But the Pharisees and lawyers rejected the will of God for themselves, not having been baptized by him. And the Lord said, 'To what then shall I liken the men of this generation, and what are they like? They are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling to one another, saying: 'We played the flute for you, And you did not dance; we mourned to you, And you did not weep.' For John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine, and you say, 'He has a demon.' The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, 'Look, a glutton and a winebibber, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!' But wisdom is justified by all her children'" (Luke 7:29-35).

I love the way the Bible exposes how modern atheists, just like the religious leaders at the time of Christ, reject the will of God and try to impose their will on others.

Those who accept God's will, will always justify Him, but those who don't, try and justify themselves and religiously try and impose their will on others. The irony meter hits the top when atheists say that God doesn't exist, and in the next God-given breath, accuse Him of genocide, or of encouraging slavery. It is superfluous to say it, but if God doesn't exist He didn't kill any Canaanites or encourage slavery.

So what does an atheist want from the Christian? He wants him to dance the childish dance of secularism. He wants the Christian to adopt the secular worldview and forget all about Judgment Day, Hell's existence, Jesus, the cross, and the promise of everlasting life.

Notice how the Scriptures reveal that those who refuse God's will, whine no matter what. They can't be pleased. The modern idiom is "damned if we do, and damned if we don't." There is no compromise between Christianity and this sin-loving world. We are either living in the kingdom of darkness or the Kingdom of Light.

Those who are in the world hate the light and won't be satisfied until its last flicker goes out, leaving the world in moral darkness. That day is getting close. We have a generation that has given themselves to blasphemy, pornography, fornication, homosexuality, adultery, and every other dark sin their heart desires.

And in darkness they will stay, until the light of what the Bible calls "the Great and Terrible Day of the Lord" exposes their evil deeds and they get their just due. May this world come to its senses, and come to Christ, before that Day.For Evangelism Resources, please visit LivingWaters.com.

No Atheists in an Earthquake

Earthquakes have been on my mind recently; not just because of New Zealand and Japan's recent killer quakes, but because I read a first-hand account from a friend who was in the Christchurch when it struck. That frightening account convinced me that the many quakes I had been in were nothing but "tremors."

I live in Southern California, and there is a very real chance that we will get a big one soon. So I have been considering the options, and have come to the conclusion that I won't be getting under a table. One picture convinced me that the safe place is beside something solid...not under it.

The picture was of one of the two-foot high crushed cars caught under a collapsed San Francisco freeway, after a massive quake. Beside the car was a two-foot high "safe zone." If the driver had known that he could get out and lie beside the car, the odds are he wouldn't have been crushed in it.

Such thoughts make sense, and help me create a plan of survival for the future. Good information is our most precious commodity. It can make us rich, save us pain, and even save our lives in an earthquake. Many people are dead today because they didn't bother to find out what to do in a quake. Others are no doubt dead because they were given bad information.

I watched the sad figure of Christopher Hitchens talk about his future and the drastic things he is doing to make sure he has one. I also watched him tell an audience that he didn't need ten minutes to disprove God. He got a laugh, but the item didn't make us privy to how he disproved God. My guess is that he didn't. Instead, he more than likely spoke eloquently about hypocrisy, or amputees, or biblical atrocities, slavery, or evolution. None of these things disprove God's existence, because it can't be done. No doubt, few in his audience noticed, nor cared. They were there to be entertained and any information about their eternal future wasn't important to them.

However, here's some information I have found to be true, for those who think their eternal is important. Each of us have to face a holy God on the Day of Judgment, whether we believe in Him on not. God has graciously provided a safe zone for those who repent and trust in Jesus. It's now up to you as to whether or not you believe that information, and make provision for the future that counts.For Evangelism Resources, please visit LivingWaters.com.

Are Atheists Children of God?

"And if my child continues to deny that I exist, I send him into everlasting torment? Nice chain o' logic there." Jim Delpy

If your child denies that you exist, I think it would be wise to take him to a good child psychiatrist. If you clothed, fed, and educated him, and even gave him his own room, taught him right from wrong, loved him and nurtured him, and he denied that you exist, he certainly needs evaluation or he's just plain rebellious to a point of being really weird. Either way, you should make that trip to the psychiatrist.

Your alluding to God sending His children to Hell is a typical mistake often made by those who profess to be atheists. God never sends His children to Hell. All of them will go to Heaven. However, children of the devil will go to Hell, and that's what the Bible clearly says we are until our sins are forgiven, and we are born into the family of God.

The things that comes so naturally to us—lust, pride, greed, anger, hatred, selfishness, ingratitude, etc., are not attributes of God, but are from the god of this world. Jesus said that he is our father and it's his will we readily do.

The second big mistake atheists make is that they trivialize both sin and God's righteousness. They see little wrong with greed, hatred, lying, anger, lust, pride, envy, ingratitude, stealing, adultery, or the killing of a baby in the womb. This is because until we come to Christ, we are "ignorant" of God's righteousness. How true that is. We have no idea of what "holiness," or "perfect righteousness" are, but that's what we must face on Judgment Day.

If you lift your hand to strike your dog, there probably won't be any repercussions. Try and hit a police officer and you may go to jail. Try and hit a judge, and you will go to prison. But if you lift your hand to strike the President of the United States, and you will probably be shot before you even get a hand to him.

It's the same crime, but each one has a different punishment, depending on the status of the one whom the crime is against.

Every time you sin, in thought, word, or in deed, you are sinning against a morally prefect and holy God, and at the same time you are "storing up wrath" that will be revealed on Judgment Day. If God gives you justice, you will be damned. You have fair warning, and you may repent and be forgiven because of what Jesus did on the cross.

He took the wrath of the Law of God upon Himself, so that your case could be dismissed. You can be forgiven every sin you have ever committed, if you trust alone in Jesus Christ who died for sinners and rose again on the third day. You are not a child. You are a grown human being, so please give this some mature thought.For Evangelism Resources, please visit LivingWaters.com.

A Question for the Thinking Atheist...

I watched a program on the National Geographic channel recently. It documented the hunting down of Nazis who escaped to Argentina after the Second World War. The hunters were passionate to see that justice was done. They didn't wanted to simply kill the Nazi leaders, they wanted to try them in the criminal court so that justice would be done. The heart of their passion was "You have to pay one day for the crimes you commited."

The question is, "Why?" Why punish anybody for anything? These people committed crimes many years earlier, and punishing them wouldn't bring back any murdered Jews. So what's the big deal with the desire for justice? If you can't give any answer to that question, there's something deeply shallow about you as a person.

Justice is what separates man from the beasts. We are not evolved primates--as evolutionists and atheists would have us believe. It's our intuitive morality that puts us head and shoulders above primates. We crave for justice because we are made in the image of God.

Each of us has an inner knowledge of right and wrong--we also know that we were created by God, despite any fantasies as to the contrary. Con-science means "with knowledge," and with that knowledge is a dread that we are morally responsible to Him. The Bible likens this to light, and says that we stay away from the light in fear of it exposing us for what we are. Criminals. Hell is not just a cuss word, or a place to where we may conveniently send Hitler. It's a reality. That's why each of us needs the Savior. See needGod.com for details.For Evangelism Resources, please visit LivingWaters.com.

Atheists Question my Education

A number of atheists want to know details of my education, and have also asked what religious credentials I hold, suspecting that I am unqualified to speak for God.

I was automatically placed in the top class in high school, which meant that I was taught French and other subjects that turned out to have little to do with everyday life. Even then I figured out that students passed exams, not because they were intelligent, but because they had a good memory and could regurgitate crammed knowledge onto a piece of paper. From kindergarten through high school I had 13 years education, and attained "School Certificate."

I left school at 17, began working in a bank, and later started a successful business when I was 20 years old. I came to know the Lord at 22, and began seven years training in a local church, was then ordained as a fulltime pastor and spent 3 ½ years pastoring in Christchurch, New Zealand.

I also preached open air almost daily for 12 years in "Speaker's Corner" in the heart of our city. During that time I began receiving invitations to speak throughout the country, then overseas and ended up speaking in over a thousand churches from almost every denomination and in many countries.

In 1989, I responded to an invitation to be on pastoral staff at non-denominational Calvary Chapel in Southern California.

So there are my credentials. They're not too impressive, but no one needs credentials or even an education to refute atheism. A child could do it.

ADDENDUM
"Wait a minute is the French Engineer correct, I assumed by School Certificate you meant you Graduated, are you a HS drop out?"

In many countries students don't have a "Graduation." They attain school certificate and leave.For Evangelism Resources, please visit LivingWaters.com.

The Atheist's Invisible Father

Here's a typical reaction to my question about how the first fish was able to test his new lungs that evolved, over time, under water: "Ray's stupid, erroneous, childish, ignorant imaginings of what the theory of evolution is are designed to make evolution into another creation mythology."

Our resident expert believer did kindly take the time to explain how fish got lungs. Steven J. said, "It would have involved individuals who spent most of their time in the water and, on occasion, ventured briefly onto land (perhaps to seek food, perhaps to escape drying ponds and seek new bodies of water)."

So he believes it wasn't one fish, but a group of "individuals" (what is commonly call a "population") with gills, that ventured up onto the land to look for food or water, gasped, and then went back to their pond that lacked food and water. They kept repeating that process for the time that was necessary for them to develop genes that produced an offspring that would evolve lungs, and the needed heart--that could deal with the new input of oxygen. This would have taken millions of years.

The key is to believe that all this happens because of "time." Frogs can turn into princes, with the magic kiss of time.

The theist is accused of a thoughtless "God-did-it." For the evolutionary atheist it was a matter of "Father-Time-did-it." He waved his wand, and made the impossible possible.

Of course, an evolutionist wouldn't express the process in such a trite way. For him, time just is. But it's the magic of time that makes lungs and hearts, something we don't know how to do--from nothing, at this point in time.

With all this, I have finally figured out where I stand on this theory. I have no belief in evolution. I have a non-belief in the theory and will I stay that way until someone provides me with real evidence, instead of all this childish conjecture.

One believer did say, "If you insist on 'God did it,' then the question is which God? How do you know? When did God do it? How do you know? How did God do it? How do you know? How can we test a supernatural claim? We can't. Case closed."

They are good questions (and they do have good answers), but the questioner made a one-word mistake as he concluded. He should have written mind closed rather than case closed.For Evangelism Resources, please visit LivingWaters.com.

Who Was the Greatest Man--Atheist or theist?

"When the messengers of John had departed, He began to speak to the multitudes concerning John: 'What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind? But what did you go out to see? A man clothed in soft garments? Indeed those who are gorgeously appareled and live in luxury are in kings' courts. But what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I say to you, and more than a prophet. This is he of whom it is written: 'Behold, I send My messenger before Your face, Who will prepare Your way before You.' For I say to you, among those born of women there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist; but he who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he'" (Luke 7: 24-28).

Who do you think was the greatest man who ever lived. This excludes Jesus of Nazareth--who wasn't simply born of a woman. He was "only begotten of the Father"). He wasn't of the sinful descent of Adam, as all men and women are, despite the fact that some who think that they are apes and that original predecessor was an ape.

Do you think the greatest man was a scientist, a politician, or perhaps an author? There certainly have been great men; men such as Churchill and Einstein, or Ghandi. But they all fade when compared to a wild man who was clothed in camel's hair, had a leather belt, ate locusts and wild honey, and shouted at people in a desert. John didn't wear fine clothing, live in luxury or have a great education. He was a prophet. He spoke for God, and Jesus said that not a human being that has even lived was as great as John.

God chose this man when he was still in the womb and set him aside for one purpose--to be a special messenger to prepare the way for the Messiah.

So why don't we see prophets like this in contemporary society, telling us what God requires? Hebrews chapter one tells us:

"God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds; who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become so much better than the angels, as He has by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they"(Hebrews 1:1-4).

So if you want to know what God requires of you, read the words of Jesus (particularly the Gospel of John). He tells us that He came to suffer and die for the sin of the world and rise on the third day--so that each of us could escape the terror of Hell and have everlasting life. He said, that to enter Heaven, every one of us must be born again. So make sure you not only hear what He says, but that you obey His words of warning.For Evangelism Resources, please visit LivingWaters.com.