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Today’s Atheist: Modern Day Pharisees

May 1, 2010 at 9:00 AM Leave a comment

The Pharisees and Atheists - More in Common than Not

The title of this particular blog may seem strange because atheists generally claim no religious affiliation.  However, when we take the time to really look at things, there are more similarities between atheists and Pharisees than not, especially for those atheists who like to refer to themselves as “ex-Christians.”

The Desire for Accolades
The Pharisees (along with the Sadducees) were two groups of religious men.  Interestingly enough, though the Sadducees and the Pharisees both sat on the Sanhedrin (the governing religious board of Jesus’ day for all matters related to Judaism), it was the Sadducees who actually did not believe in any form of life after death.  Of course, this simply proves that they were on this religious board for their own satisfaction and feelings of self-worth.

The Pharisees – interpreters of the Mosaic Law that arose during the time between the testaments – were of course known for their legalism, as well as their inability to comprehend basic Scriptural truth.  They were devout legalists and they loved the accolades of the commoner, who bowed, or moved out of their way as the mighty Pharisee walked through the market place. 

Ancient Gangsters?
Think of the scene in the first Godfather movie where a very young Robert DiNiro hurries across the rooftops of “Little Italy,” in order to be at a certain apartment before the renter arrived home.  That renter was in fact, marching slowly through the streets, enjoying the praises of the common person as they all enjoyed the Italian parade.  As he strode along in his white suit, white hat, and cape, he took out a crisp piece of paper money and while everyone was watching, attached it to the statue of the Madonna, to the delightful oohs and ahs of the crowd.

Of course, the people of Little Italy hated him because they feared him.  He was nothing but a gangster in a dry cleaned, white suit, stealing from the hardworking business owners in the neighborhood.  His white suit gave the impression that he was “pure.”  Looks of course, are deceiving.  What matters to most is how a person comes across, not who they really are inside.  The opposite is true with God.

Knowledge without Insight
For all their religious knowledge, the Pharisees had little to no real insight into Scripture.  They had the same exact same Scriptures that Jesus, Paul and others studied, yet they were completely unable to discern the truth of the Scriptures at all, especially where it related to Jesus, as much of it does.

Anyone who has read the Bible, or even just the four gospels – Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John – is aware of the types of problems the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the Scribes and the religious lawyers constantly tried to create for Jesus.  They always wanted to trap Him in their asinine and superficial arguments, yet were never successful.  All this did was increase their ire and desire to kill Him.

Atheism Then…
The reason that the Pharisees and the others gave Jesus such a hard time had to do with the fact that they refused to believe that Jesus was actually God, the Son.  They were actually religious atheists, meaning, they failed to believe the truth about religion, choosing instead to believe their own inventions about religion.  They rejected truth, replacing it with self-created fantasies.

Their lack of belief, along with their abject failure to understand biblical truth created a situation in which they directed their anger at Jesus, because He consistently pointed out their inadequacies and failures.  He did so for two reasons:

1. the Pharisees constantly confronted Jesus about what He taught or what He did, and
2. Jesus needed to counteract their false teaching that people accepted because they did not know any better themselves

By far, the biggest problem the Pharisees had was that they were unbelievers when it came to Jesus.  What created this unbelief?  Their erroneous interpretation of Scripture and their high view of themselves.  They had placed themselves in a position of authority, yet they did not use the Scriptures as their authority.  They used traditional teaching and their own opinions.  In essence, far from viewing Scripture as the highest authority, like today’s atheists, they had become their own highest authority.

In reality, the Pharisees were religious teachers who had an air of authority, which the people outwardly respected (primarily because of the position of the Pharisees in the community).  They wore their religious garb, presented themselves as “know-it-alls,” and enjoyed their high position in the community.  Ultimately, they were wolves in sheep’s clothing, because they had absolutely no interest in the average Jew, for whom they were supposed to lead and teach.

As far as the Pharisees are concerned, they had three problems:

1. unbelief
2. a high view of themselves
3. turned people away from actual salvation

So how are atheists of today like the Pharisees?

Today’s Atheist
First, they are obviously unbelievers as far as religion is concerned.  They are not unbelievers in every area, and they are not without faith.  With respect to religion – and especially Christianity – atheists are complete unbelievers in any religion that has anything to do with a personal deity.

Proving God Does Not Exist
Let’s be honest and direct here.  Atheists cannot prove that God does not exist.  In fact, they will immediately retort that you cannot prove a negative, which has nothing to do with anything.  In fact, it is a smokescreen.  Why?  Simply because they will tell you point blank that God does not exist.  They will tell you that they know that God does not exist.  This is what they will tell you, so if they are telling you that, they must have a way of proving it, right?  If they have proven it to themselves, then why are they unable to prove it to everyone?

The Religion of Atheism
The reality is this:  atheism is a religion, which utilizes faith in order to exist.  Since atheists cannot prove the LACK of existence of a personal deity, they are then left with a group of beliefs and tenets based on their own thinking and reasoning, which they are unable to prove.  Yet, they pretend that what they believe is a done deal; an incontrovertible set of facts. 

Atheist Rejoinders
Atheists use sarcasm, castigation, denigrating remarks and rhetorical questions and rejoinders to redirect instead of answering direct questions. When they do appear to answer questions directly, it is normally filled with philosophical jargon that the average person could care less about, but since it can have the tendency to sound intelligent, it must be true.  Throwing in words like “paradigm shift,” and other philosophical jargon is done to throw their opponents off balance.  It is nothing more than cannon fodder.

I’m an “Ex” Something or Other
Within atheism, a group boasting that they are “ex” something or others wratchet atheism to the next level.  Whether they are ex-Christians, ex-fundamentalists, ex-pastors, or something else entirely (but still related to religion), they believe they have not only proven that they have debunked Christianity, but they have gone beyond it to bring a new reality to atheism.

Panhandlers in Atheism
When you read books by John W. Loftus, Joe Holman, Dan Barker or others, the level of intelligence is severely lacking.  I do not say that out of meanness.  I say that because it is difficult to read their books without laughing.  There is nothing there that promotes their own set of beliefs that they have debunked Christianity.  How could there be, since nearly everything is based on either their opinion, or someone else’s?  This is especially obvious when these “retired” pastors/evangelists start to exegete Scripture, which is simply the process of interpreting it.  They are woefully (and even painfully) in the dark about the Bible and what it says to us. 

Of course, the saddest part is that they firmly believe they are correct, so when someone comes along, critiquing their inability to interpret the Bible, they simply label that critique as having “no substance.”  This is as far as they go, refusing to offer a detailed rebuttal, because they are actually unable to do so.  When they do stoop to respond to you, they are usually very quick to shift gears, and redirect.  Such is the thinking of arrogant atheists who believe that the only people who must prove anything are Christians.

The Atheist’s New Definition of Christianity
The further tragedy related to the new atheist and their claim they are post-Christians, or ex-Christians has to do with their definition of Christianity.  They firmly believe that at one point they were Christians.  They point to all that they did, all that they believed and all that they taught, which they think made them a Christian.  Unfortunately, the stupidity of this is lost on other atheists and many who also call themselves Christian, who wind up tripping over one another to see who can high-five the fastest.

What IS a True Christian?
The truth of the matter is that there is only ONE way to be a Christian (how could there possibly be more than one?), and it requires faith (confidence, deep conviction, or trust) in who Jesus claimed to be and what He claimed to accomplish for humanity.  Becoming a Christian does not happen by saying a “sinner’s prayer,” or by raising your hand in church, or even walking down the aisle during an “altar call.”  I don’t see any of those in the Bible at all.  Do you?

Being a Christian involves a spiritual element above all things.  It is a spiritual transaction, which Jesus referred to as being “born again,” or being “born from above.”  It is not a “I am a Christian because I felt warm all over,” or ” I prayed the sinner’s pray, therefore I am a Christian.” 

Christian One Day, Atheist the Next?
You cannot BE a Christian one day, and then at some future point, NOT be a Christian!  That is biblically impossible (and I am very aware of the way people twist Scripture in their attempts to show that people can lose salvation).  You cannot lose salvation.  this denigrates God’s immutable and all-powerful strength.  I realize that people argue about this, yet the Bible seems to be clear on the subject, when taken in its entirety.

The problem with today’s atheist is that they are actually very religious.  They are religious about their atheism.

• They use faith
• They believe certain things
• They cannot prove God does not exist
• They are unreasonable
• They are arrogant
• They prefer sarcasm to a straight answer
• The Bible calls them FOOLS
• They call themselves WISE

The atheist of today, is no different from the Pharisee of Jesus’ day.  Both are unbelievers.  Both reject Jesus as God.  Both see no value in the substitionary atonement.  Neither group sees beyond themselves as their final authority.

As much as atheists would like to be free of religious structure, it is clear that atheism is as religious as the next religion.  They do this, all the while denying that religion has a place in society.

When ONE atheist is able to PROVE beyond doubt that God does not exist, I’ll listen.  Until then, their religion of faith is no different from mine, except that they are on the wrong side of it.

Entry filed under: Religious - Christian - Prophecy. Tags: atheism, atheists united against Christians, atheists use faith to believe, pharisees were atheists.