Hearing atheists offer their opinions on eternal judgment and the afterlife is quite fascinating to me. The most fervent atheists will take to the keyboard with missionary zeal to mock and deride the Christian faith and everything related to it, but there tends to be more of a serious solemnity in their tone on subject of heaven and hell. Inevitably, they will bring it up and raise concerns over how unjust the process is. They are particularly staunch in their criticism of the threat of hell and tend to attach responsibility for determining the fate of others to the caprice of the Christian. You can take solace in knowing we have absolutely no role here.
Several have insisted that Christians are in the habit of terrorizing children with threats of damnation if they don’t do what they should. I find this quite difficult to believe as I’m not personally aware of anyone who has adopted such a tactic with a child. Not only would the prospect of instilling fear be ill advised or even abusive, our desire is to bring up our kids in the joy of knowing Christ. When I have expressed scepticism, in each case, the professing atheist has assured me that they were treated to these threats as children and continue to carry some level of trauma over this.
While this sounds much more like a caricature rather than an accurate depiction of how Christians behave; perhaps these atheists were born into the Hollywood version of a Christian household. Even if their assertion is taken at face value, I am loath to understand how there could be any residual impact. After all, atheists love to insist that Christianity is a fairy-tale with promises of “happily ever after,” fairy godmothers and sugar plums. How can that be their impression of the faith if they are so emotionally scarred through these dire “sword of Damocles” level threats? Why isn’t their perception more like a slasher film with visions of Freddie Krueger dancing in their heads?
Obviously if they genuinely saw Christianity as a hoax on a par with belief in Santa Clause, then clearly they would not retain that level of bedwetting anxiety. After all, if I’m a grown up who was told from childhood that I would be relentlessly poked by business end of a unicorn if I didn’t behave, this would not keep me awake into adulthood. I’ll take it a step further and say that I completely reject Mohammed as a prophet and am sufficiently confident that my strident denunciation will not actually cause me to lose out on an eternal reward with a bevy of virgins tending to my every whim. Regardless, if atheists insist that the trauma remains, there are only a few logical conclusions:
- They are lying because their objective is to mark Christians as evil and blame us for being the cause of their decision to socially distance themselves from Jesus.
- In reality, they aren’t fully convinced of their atheism and genuinely fear that heaven and hell are tangible realities.
- They have reservations and are hoping to hedge their bets by trying to suggest that an external cause led to their renunciation of Christ and, should the day of judgment come, they want to be in that number, marching with the rest of the saints.
I don’t know fully what to conclude, but if the first scenario is true, then one has to question their motivations in creating this fabrication. When I consider the other intriguing aspects of my exchanges with atheists, I have reason to believe that the last 2 possibilities may be true.
For starters, while atheists commit to a worldview in which objective moral values cannot exist, there is a determined need for them to be seen as “good.” In open debates with apologists like Frank Turek, Ravi Zacharias, J. Warner Wallace, etc., atheist questioners demand to know whether the Christian is saying atheists can’t be “good” simply for rejecting objective morality. Even if we set aside the head-scratching notion that a demographic that embraces morality as subjective has a felt need to be deemed objectively good, why would this matter to them? For the record, I come down in the exact same place as these apologists – atheists can act even more morally than many Christians because we believe that moral duties are imprinted on us by God. In fact, this explains why atheists would be fixated on being seen as “good,” even while rejecting the standard that makes the term meaningful.
Since atheists do equate “being good” with going to heaven and therefore argue that they should be welcomed into paradise over many Christians, there is some key facts that need to be understood.
Heaven is not earned through being good. What is needed is not self-assurance that we are “good people,” but in fact, just the opposite. It is the awareness of the depth of our sinfulness based on God’s perfect standard. A blood sacrifice is required to cover our sins sufficiently to be accepted despite our condition. Jesus, through his death and resurrection, became a perfect sacrifice on our behalf. It is by accepting this gift of grace and committing our lives to serving and honouring Christ that we can be welcomed into heaven. Anything short of this will leave us outside of his presence. If this is either confusing (which I understand) or you write it off as ridiculous, then this only highlights why believing in the efficacy of “good deeds” as a ticket to heaven fails.
Instead of getting into some deeper theological explanations of how this works, I have come up with an analogy that should help.
Imagine you take on a job at a company and fully invest your time, energy and life into doing your job well. You usually get along with your coworkers and can be counted on to show up on time each day. You don’t abuse your sick days or time off and often even work well into the night after everyone else has gone home. You take shortcuts now and again, sometimes take extended lunch breaks and sometimes bring home office supplies. On occasion you prank your office mates and can be belligerent – sometimes either gossiping behind the back of the C.E.O. or even storming into his office uninvited to complain about how he runs his business.
Eventually, the boss calls you into his office and lets you know that you are fired. This only affirms for you how unreasonable and irresponsible your boss has been. You are outraged and argue that you worked hard and spilled much blood, sweat and tears into doing your job. You point out how you have been more reliable than many if not most of your coworkers who you proceed to name for him. After unleashing a tirade about how unfair this is, the C.E.O. who waited for you to take a breath responds.
He affirms that despite exaggerating some aspects of your performance, it is a fairly accurate account or your work history. He then hits you with a few points that you overlooked. For one thing, you took on projects he never asked you to do and sometimes those efforts, even when successful, overall took a toll on the bottom line of the company. He mentions the fact that you were often cutting with your coworkers and rude to the maintenance staff while he has a policy that explicitly prohibits any disrespect and requires that all warrant honour – whatever their station. You had a duty to apologise and make amends, but instead you carried grudges. After a few other unpleasant revelations, he drops a major bomb.
While he saw you around the office and at your desk, he has no recollection of you or record showing that you had ever been hired. In fact, he points out that you are actually on the rolls of his greatest competitor and most of what you did was bringing him business. You would have known – had you applied for and been offered a position – that each person had specific assignments that he alone gave out. In the end, you were taking up space in the office to undermine the business and wanted the extremely generous pension that you never earned. He shows you the door and let’s you know that your true employer will have you in his records and their will be a payday there. As you leave his office, you go with a sense of dread and are sure you hear, “I’m sorry” as you step out into the darkness.
To be very clear, this is not an attempt to frighten or disturb anyone. It is merely my best attempt to get across a reality under Christianity that is consistently misconstrued. Before closing, I want to address one final point of contention that many atheists like to bring up. I am referring to the unjustness of the deathbed conversion whereby even a Hitler or Stalin could potentially sneak their way in if they utter the sinner’s prayer before taking their final breath.
God cannot and will not be mocked. It isn’t like rubbing a lamp, expecting the genie is duty-bound to grant your wish. Anyone hoping to take the Hitler option for themselves is in big trouble. God will not be mocked. As I mentioned above, good works do not get you into heaven; only a sincerely contrite heart that grasps the fullness of who God is and into the darkness of our own hearts and submits fully to God. Chances are, it would be like the man who is exposed for leading a double life and apologises because he regrets getting caught and hopes to do damage control to salvage his reputation. There is no remorse in such cases and God knows each person’s heart. Believe me – this is seriously flawed thinking. The irony is that having the opportunity to turn one’s life around later in life is the only hope for the God-mocking atheist. By allowing yourself to be transformed and forgiven, you have the opportunity to receive the same promise of heaven as the Christian who sought to honour God throughout his life. If anyone had reason to deem this unfair, it would be the Christian who submitted themselves to God as a young child. The story of “The Prodigal Son” beautifully demonstrates this principle. Christians are delighted when we can invite others to become part of the Christian family and actually choose heaven instead of stumbling into hell. Non-believers are free to mock, but now can’t claim they had no warning.