dear atheist

allow me to reintroduce God to you

My favourite movie is The Dark Knight. Christopher Nolan is a stellar filmmaker. I’ve only watched one of his movies, Dark Knight. I plan on watching the rest later. My friend says they’re great too. I trust his judgement.

After watching The Dark Knight, I couldn’t keep quiet about it. I’m sure I brought it up in my subsequent hundred conversations. “Have you watched The Dark Knight?” I would ask with a glint in my eye. There’s a feeling I get when there’s a glint in my eye. I can’t describe it. But when it happens, I know.

The Dark Knight is marked by philosophy and legendary character work. Heath Ledger’s performance as the Joker was phenomenal. He did not just play the Joker. He became him. I loved the Joker’s mind. He was different. He called the human moral code a joke and likened madness to gravity. His arguments were controversial yet strong. You should watch The Dark Knight.

When you find something good it’s natural to want to share it with the world.

God is good. He’s great, in fact. What comes next isn’t ten reasons why God exists. I raved about The Dark Knight because I loved it and wanted everyone else to. When someone has a strong opinion, an even more logical argument won’t be enough to sway them. When you doubt something, a good argument can change your doubt to a conviction.

Most atheists I know are in two categories: those who once believed and those who have never. Here’s one thing all atheists share, they attribute their unbelief to logic. Simply, a man living in the skies doesn’t make sense. This conclusion is fueled by numerous arguments, the most famous being, if God is who people say He is, why is there so much suffering and evil?

There’s another category of people. I’m not sure about branding them as atheists. They believe a man in the sky exists, but they think He’s bad. They consider Him a biased and cruel tyrant who favoured the Israelites and destroyed the Ammonites and Amalekites — those nations whose names are similar. They argue that even if those He destroyed were bad, there must have been some innocent people among them. Does that not make Him unreasonable and unfair? So they say, “If there’s a man in the sky, I’ll not worship Him.”

I’ve been an avid reader since childhood. One of the books I read the most was the Bible. I started with a Bible Stories book. I read about Noah’s Ark, a nation marching through a divided sea, a man who commanded the rain to not fall for three years, and the most famous death in history. I loved all the stories. They were amazing.

At first, I thought they were just that — stories. And then I realized people believed the Biblical events happened. No way. No way a burning bush spoke. No way ravens fed a man. No way a man turned water into wine. It was hard for me to believe. But when I was a child, I was gullible, so, I eventually believed despite the numerous doubts.

Now that I believed, I was imprisoned by God’s million rules. I became like the disciple who told Jesus, “This is a hard teaching.” I wanted to be bad, but my fear of hell didn’t let me. So, I tried to be good, but I failed. I heard people ask God to forgive their sins, so I did the same. But soon, I was scared He would grow tired of forgiving me.

I tried praying sometimes, but it was a drudge. It felt like I was talking to no one. I never heard Him respond. The idea of a man in the sky didn’t make sense, but I believed it because I was scared if it turned out He was real, He would send me to hell. The thought of heaven wasn’t exciting. But it was better than hell. Hell was nightmarish.

I didn’t understand what Christianity was. It made believing incredibly hard.

One day, I asked Google, “What is Christianity?” It showed me an article that changed my life. The article said that God wants a relationship with us. I had been in a religion. God never wanted a religion. A religion has hard and fast rules. It’s ritualistic. A religion contradicts its own purpose. It’s meant to give life meaning and set people on a moral path. Rather, it leaves us with more questions and nudges the badness in us.

God wants you.

Dear atheist, allow me to reintroduce God to you.

God is the Creator of the universe. Before the universe, there was God. He is neither bound by space nor time. How could such a being have a creator? The laws of the universe are the products of His wisdom. He ensures that the planets aren’t too close or far apart. If Saturn gets too close to Earth, Earth will be torn apart. God is the one who’s keeping the two at just the right distance apart. The thin line between the universe’s existence and its implosion speaks of its Creator’s perfect work. All He had to do was speak. God is the Divine artist. The universe is His masterpiece.

God created me. He created you. When it was our turn to be made, God didn’t speak. He used His hands. It’s fitting that His best work received the best finishing touch. He breathed into us. The Bible calls this breath the breath of life. Animals have life, don’t they? What’s special about ours? We have a soul.

God is a king. He wanted us to rule on earth as representatives of His kingdom.

God gave us His nature. The Bible says we were created in His image. We’re supposed to be reflections of God’s nature. God is pure and righteous. But He also gave us free will.

The king laid down the law in the Garden of Eden, the home of the first man and woman. He allowed them to eat from all the trees in the garden except one. The consequence of going against this would be death.

Adam and Eve chose death. The serpent made them doubt God. “Did God really say you must not eat the fruit from any of the trees in the garden?” The shrewd serpent asked. Adam and Eve didn’t stop breathing after they ate the fruit. A fruit? God was mad over a fruit? No. Adam and Eve were separated from God because they disobeyed Him. Separation from God is death.

What is free will? The freedom to choose. If you can choose, then there are options. God gave Adam and Eve life. But He didn’t withhold an alternative from them.

God could not have us live forever anymore. We had become rebels. But He couldn’t let us go. So, what followed is the greatest redemption story ever.

God found Abraham. Abraham became righteous because He believed in what God had destined for Him. He was righteous because of His faith. This foreshadowed God’s redemption plan. Abraham’s descendants would form the nation of Israel, God’s people. The other nations were vile. They were God haters. So, they had to be punished. Even Israel suffered God’s wrath when they sinned. But God is merciful. He doesn’t get tired of forgiving.

To be a part of God’s family, you must be righteous. Adam and Eve’s sin was the genesis of the human race’s unrighteousness. Remember, we first had God’s nature. But Adam and Eve chose the sinful nature.

God loves me. He loves you too. He is love. Have you ever loved someone before? Did you not wish for them to return your love? God does not want a human race that obeys Him out of fear.

God is love, but He’s also just. It’s like an itch. Sin can’t go unpunished. The punishment for sin is death — eternal separation from Him.

Imagine a court scenario. God is the Judge. We are the defendants. The verdict is punishment by death. But the Judge stands up and says, “I’ll take your place.” So, he bears our crimes and pays the penalty. Would we not love such a Judge?

That’s what God did. He sent Jesus, His son, to die in our stead. When Jesus died on the cross, He did not only suffer a physical death. While He was on the cross, He bore our sins and so was separated from God. That was why He cried, “My father, my father, why have You forsaken me?”

No one has seen God. But we can see Jesus. Jesus is God. He lived the perfect life — a sinless life. He showed us what God’s original plan was. And then, He restored God’s original plan — a righteous people in fellowship with God, the Father.

When Jesus died, our sins went with Him. He arose three days later to symbolize our resurrection as new people free from the bondage of sin and fit to be a part of God’s family again. This was the greatest act of love. This is grace. It is the greatest showing of mercy.

So where does this bring us? Jesus has done the work. Now it’s our turn. First, we must believe. Our belief signifies an acknowledgement of our sins. I once thought I was good because I didn’t steal, kill or hurt anybody. How low my standards were. How low our standards are.

When you believe, you assume Jesus’ nature. Jesus is perfect. It doesn’t mean we’ll instantly become perfect. But we become less imperfect as we let God’s Spirit work in us. We are weak and unable to attain perfection on our own. A man can only be perfect with God’s help. The Message Bible puts this beautifully, “And so we are transfigured much like the Messiah, our lives gradually becoming brighter and more beautiful as God enters our lives and we become like him.”

Christians aren’t members of a religion. They are people who imitate Christ. Jesus loves, so a Christian must love. Jesus called love the mark of a Christian. I know sometimes we Christians can be mean. That is not the Christian way. I apologize for our hypocritical behaviour.

A Christian is driven by three things- hope in the beautiful life God has prepared for us, faith in Jesus and the greatest of the three, love for God. We love Him because He first loved us.

I’ll end here. This was only a reintroduction. Let me leave you and God now. He already knows you. He already loves you. He’s waiting for you to know and love Him. If you seek Him with all your heart, you will find Him. God bless you.

When Peter called Jesus the son of God, Jesus called Him blessed. He said He didn’t know that from books or teachers, but God let him in on who Jesus is. Finally, the Message Bible says, “Before you trust, you have to listen.” Do you feel that nudge in your heart? That’s God speaking. When you hear that voice, nothing can ever take your faith away.

Dear atheist, this is God. But it’s just a bit of Him. There’s more to discover. I apologize. I said I would end. But I continued. When you love someone or something, you rave about it. Before you seek God, let me show you the way. The way is called Jesus. No one goes to God except through Him. God loves you. God bless you.