Are You an Atheist?
I am. How’s that for shock value? It is true in the sense of what the early Christians were accused of many centuries ago. Let me explain.
Let your imagination go back about 2,000 years and consider what things were like. Worship of deities was ubiquitous, everyone believed in the gods. They didn't understand the natural world in the scientific ways we do today. Most phenomena in the world was understood in divine terms. For example, the wind was moved by angels or divine beings. The sun, moon, and stars were controlled by divine action.1
Every nation and ethnic group had a pantheon of gods they used to explain all sorts of good or bad things that happened. Except for the Jews who were unique, as far as I know, in their monotheism. Except that their monotheism had some qualifiers, they believed in many divine beings. This included Satan and other "sons of God", some faithful to God and some rebellious. See Job 1:6, 2:1, 1 Kings 22:19-23, Zechariah 3:1-2.
In Jesus’ day the Romans were the superpower of the whole known world, and they had hundreds of gods. Their pantheon evolved over time because they incorporated the gods of the other nations they conquered into their mythology. This was true of most cultures and peoples, they didn't deny the existence of any gods, but usually considered their own gods to be more powerful. Into this environment Jesus came and taught the fulness of God’s plan. He sealed it with his death and proved his divine sonship by resurrection. His followers became known as Christians. It was radical and different, from the point of view of the Romans it was an atheistic religion.
But we are called atheists. And we confess that we are atheists, so far as the gods of this world are concerned...2
The Christians, then, worship this God alone, who is unbegotten and eternal...But those who think that we are atheists because we do not believe in those gods whom the public worship, let them know...3
They do not attend our shows, they take no part in our processions, they shrink from our sacred games...They despise our temples, they have no fear of our gods, they make no supplication for life.4
Something people noticed about this radical new religion were the good works it produced. One example was how they would rescue abandoned infants and raise them as their own children. In that day, it was common for an infant that was not wanted to be dumped outside the city wall and abandoned. Some Christians who noticed this would go out at night and rescue these babies. If they were dead they would bury them, if they were alive they would care for them. Giving birth to a deformed or disabled child was a bad omen, or evidence of angering the gods. The Romans looked upon these activities as suspicious and subversive. It was a powerful Christian witness and one of the many reasons for the rapid spread of Christianity.
This eventually brought about societal and political changes. By 438 CE, Roman law punished those who abandoned their children and protected those who rescued and raised them. 5
Considering all that, how do we measure up as Christians in the post modern world? Do we take the gods issue seriously? In this era it is less about things that are worshipped and more about who we worship. What about the idols of materialism, free love, pop culture stars, comfort and security, technology and entertainment, power and control. How about our own self? We tend to keep him on the throne of our worship space and do whatever we can to keep him happy. Even our closely held religious beliefs can be something we own and not in subjection to the true God.
In other words, are we atheists to all but the true God? Are we convinced of the fact that these other gods are not gods at all, but tools of the enemy to deceive and destroy our faith? Are we ready to answer the tempter with firm conviction? In the book of Daniel three young Godly men were commanded to bow down to an earthly king’s image, and their reply is inspiring.
Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego replied to him, “King Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and he will deliver us from Your Majesty’s hand. But even if he does not, we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.” Daniel 3:16-18 NIV
The way to learn about the true God of creation is to study his Word. He will reveal himself to the humble seeker. The results will show, we will be firm and unashamed in our rejection of all other gods. This will result in Christian works and exercising whatever gifts God gave us to help others. It may seem radical to the unbeliever, they may scoff and persecute. It is possible that those we thought were friends will turn away. Believing loyalty to the Most High will bring rest and joy to our lives in this world. It will give us the reward of someday sharing in Christ’s resurrection.
But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead. Philippians 3:7–11 NIV
This was the ancient near eastern view of the cosmos. By Jesus’ time they were discovering additional facts about the universe. The Romans inherited much of their astronomical knowledge from the Greeks, particularly the works of Ptolemy, Hipparchus, and Aristotle. They understood the earth and other heavenly bodies were spheres, but didn’t understand gravity or what influenced the motion they observed. It is unclear how much of this was known by the common man, many of them likely still thought of it all as controlled directly by divine beings.
Tertullian (c. 155-240 CE) from his writing “Apology”
Athenagoras of Athens (c. 133-190 CE) from “Plea for Christians”
Marcus Cornelius Fronto (c. 100-166 CE) a Roman Imperial Tutor in his letter to Emperor Marcus Aurelius
If you would like to read in more depth about this, check out the following books;
The Kindness of Strangers: The Abandonment of Children in Western Europe from Late Antiquity to the Renaissance by John Boswell
Roman Children by Suzanne Dixon
Love and Death in the Ancient World by Keith Hopkins
The Rise of Christianity by Rodney Stark
God's Rivals: Why Has God Allowed Different Religions? Insights from the Bible and the Early Church by Gerald R McDermott