I’ll be getting back to the “identity issues” I promised to write about last week as soon I get a chance (probably Friday). In the meantime however, today has been declared by Atheists and Agnostic groups around the world to be ”International Blasphemy Day.” I don’t know if the Atheist Agnostic Association on campus is doing anything for this, but I know in the past they have put on “blasphemy challenges,” encouraging people to deny the Holy Spirit in exchange for a free slice of pizza.
How should we as Christians respond to this kind of offensive behavior? For those of us involved in Sojourn, this question hits close to home, as some of the Atheists and Agnostics engaging in these activities are our friends. Dr. Al Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, KY, recently posted an article on his blog, offering some helpful advice:
1. First, take no offense. Refuse to play into the game plan of those sponsoring International Blasphemy Day. The Lord Jesus Christ was and is despised and rejected of men. Our Lord bore the scorn heaped upon him by his enemies. Christianity is not an honor religion. Believers in the Lord Jesus Christ are not commanded to defend his honor, but to be willing to share in the scorn directed to him. Is the servant greater than his master?…We must be those who take to the streets with the Gospel — not with a defense of our honor or the honor of our Lord. When Christians forget this, we lose our Gospel witness. The history of the church includes far too many instances of this loss. We dare not add another.
2. Second, mourn the blasphemy. The warning of Jesus is clear — blasphemy has eternal consequences. The worst form of blasphemy is the refusal to hear and believe the Gospel. For that sin there can be no forgiveness. We must mourn the blasphemy, not because honor is at stake, but because souls are at stake with eternal consequences. God will ultimately and perfectly defend his honor. On that day, there will be no escape for unrepentant blasphemers.
3. Third, see this observance for what it really is — an unintended testimony to the existence of God and the foolishness of those who deny Him. The sheer foolishness of a blasphemy contest with t-shirts and mugs betrays the lunacy of it all. They can do no better than this? One testimony to the power of God is the fact that his self-declared enemies come off as so childish and manic. The heathen rage and God sees the foolish grasshoppers.
You can read the entirety of Dr. Mohler’s post here: Why Do the Heathen Rage? International Blasphemy Day
May International Blasphemy Day be for us a day to love our Atheist & Agnostic friends, and pray that God would mercifully reveal the reality of Himself to them.
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