WHO is an ATHEIST?
A radio message reprint.
by Maurice M. Johnson
How many of you Christians realize that in all probability the god or "God" that most United States citizens think about when they hear of or read on our coins, "In God We Trust", is actually a demon or the very devil himself? We read in the book of Psalms that the nations worship demons (Ps. 106:35-37). We read likewise in Paul's Epistle to the Corinthians (I Cor. 10:20).
The God of This World
My subject is, "Who is an Atheist?". I'm not at all concerned with any uninspired dictionary's definition of the word "atheist". What is the teaching of the word of God on the subject? It is very shallow and unbiblical to think that an atheist is one that does not intellectually believe that there is a supreme being that may be called "God". The Apostle Paul declared by divine inspiration that the devil is "the god of this world" (II Cor. 4:4). In I Cor. 10:20, 21 Paul says, "But I say that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God: And I would not that ye should have fellowship with devils. Ye cannot drink of the cup of the Lord, and the cup of devils: Ye cannot be partakers of the Lord's table, and the table of devils."
As probably most of you know February has been observed for several years now in this country as "Brotherhood Month." The late Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes was the leading Protestant representative in starting the high-sounding and utterly unbiblical confederacy of so-called Christians, Jews and Catholics. It is called "The National Council of Jews and Christians." If there is a religious brotherhood composed of these three classes of religionists it could not by any stretch of an intelligent imagination be called a Christian brotherhood. A hired Santa Claus may easily be persuaded to favor such an anti-Christ conglomeration, where one of the constituent sects does not even pretend to believe that Jesus Christ was the Son of God, but that he was a "bastard" and is now dead. But let no one think that the crucified, risen and glorified Christ of the Bible honors such an impudent fraternity with his holy presence. At all such sectarian gatherings the Lord Jesus is not only not recognized as the door, but is not even asked to be the doorkeeper, though his wonderful name is one of the "door mats." Personally He is as far from those religious triflers as heaven is from earth. My friends, when sectarian leaders in their inventive ability brazenly ignore Christ's Lordship and Headship, their pious brotherhood is both impious and infidel.
Headless Religious Brotherhoods!
What does God the Father think of all such compromises between those who pretend to believe in His Son and those religious people whose very creed excludes the Sonship and Saviourhood of "His only begotten Son"?
Do you know exactly what an atheist is? An atheist is anyone and everyone who does not personally believe in, and who has not personally received, the Lord Jesus Christ as the Lamb of God, the death-conquering Lord of Lords. The word atheist simply means without God. It comes from the Greek word, ATHEOS, which literally means, without God, and it is so rendered in the King James translation of Eph. 2:12, where we are told that we Gentiles were "having no hope, and without God in the world," until God saw fit to bring them nigh. The only possible way anyone can reject Almighty God today is to personally reject His dear Son. Just listen to these terrific words: "For the Father loveth the Son, and sheweth him all things that himself doeth: and he will shew him greater works than these, that ye may marvel. For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them; even so the Son quickeneth whom he will. For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment to the Son: that all men should honor the Son, even as they honor the Father. He that honoreth not the Son, honoreth not the Father which hath sent him. Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment; but is passed from death unto life." (John: 5:20-26) And in I John 5:12 we are told that, "He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life." My dear friends, these are the words of a madman, or exactly as he who uttered them declared, "the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life." (John: 6:63)
Don't use any of the religious liberals, the pre-atomic day modernists —1 say, don't use any of their weasel words, those blood-sucking words that damn Jesus Christ with faint praise. Don't think that you are paying proper respect and reverence to him that spake as never man spake, when you refer to him as a great teacher of God's Word. He was none other than and no less than God the Word. While tabernacling in human flesh, the eternal, uncreated Word was "Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us." Read Matt. 1:23 and John 1:1-14. Remember that Jesus of Nazareth was not even a good man if he was not the God-man. You remember when the rich young ruler came to him as recorded in Matt. 19 and also Luke 18 and began saying, "Good Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?" And Jesus said unto him, "Why callest thou me good? none is good, save one, that is God. Thou knowest the commandments, Do not commit adultery, Do not kill, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Honour thy father and thy mother." Christ did not quote commandments number one, two and three which have reference to man's relationship to God. The young fellow said, "All these have I kept from my youth up." He left out the adjective "good". He didn't call Jesus "good" any more. Christ then dropped commandment number one down by his side in the most practical possible way for that rich young ruler saying, "Yet lackest thou one thing: sell all that thou hast, and distribute unto the poor, . . . and come, follow me. And he went away sorrowful for he had great possessions." He didn't believe that Jesus was God, therefore he didn't believe that Jesus was good.
Good Men Don't Lie!
What about you? Do you believe that Jesus was God in human form? If you don't, don't think that you can believe that he was a good man. Good men don't lie. Read again John 1:9. And then read and re-read John 3:19-21. Listen to them now— "that (Christ) was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world." "And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men love darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God". Do you realize that every thing that was spiritually good in Judaism was and is Jesus, Jesus of Nazareth, Jesus Christ of Nazareth, the Lord of Glory, the WORD made flesh?
The Bible Is Lifeless Words
Without the Living Word!
Tear out the blood sacrifices, the written prophecies concerning Abraham's greatest or one truly great son, and tear out all of the written promises concerning the coming son of David, as Israel's glorious redeemer, Messiah and king, and tear out all of the marvelous promises concerning the seed of the woman as the one who was to vicariously and victoriously bruise the serpent's head and one day perfectly restore the earth to its Edenic beauty and divine perfection; tear the testimony of Jesus out of the Hebrew scriptures and you will have only garbled history and lifeless lies left. There's nothing in the Hebrew scriptures about Adam, Cain, Sodom, Gomorrah, Pharaoh, the ten spies whose carcasses fell in the wilderness, Jezebel, Sanballat, Tobiah and Bel-Shazzar that has kept the Hebrew scriptures from falling into the contemptuous discard of all thoughtful people 2000 years ago. What has kept them alive? Rev. 19:10, "The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy." With the sublime simplicity of unforced truth, the Lord Jesus said to those scoffing rejecters of their own scriptures, "Ye search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me. And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life. I receive not honour from men. But I know you, that ye have not the love of God in you. I am come in my Father's name, and ye receive me not: if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive. How can ye believe, which receive honour one of another, and seek not the honour that cometh from God only? Do you think that I will accuse you to the Father: there is one that accuseth you, even Moses, in whom ye trust. For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me: for he wrote of me. But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my words?" John 5:39-47. In John the tenth chapter the Lord Jesus said, "the scriptures (speaking of the Hebrew scriptures) cannot be broken." Yes, my friend, the man or woman that rejects Jesus Christ is an atheist at heart, even though he or she may, like the devils, believe there is one God, believe and tremble. James said, "thou believest there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe and tremble." (James 2:19)
The Man Who Rejects Christ Is An Atheist
I repeat, the man who rejects Jesus Christ is an atheist. No matter whether he believes intellectually there is a God or not, when his heart has not surrendered to Jesus Christ, he is an atheist. He is without God. Christ said, as recorded in John the tenth chapter, "I am the door." "Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber. But he that entereth in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep." "I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture. The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep." "I know my sheep." "All that ever came before me are thieves and robbers."
The Nail-scarred Christ Only In Heaven
I wonder how many of you Christians realize that probably the large majority of professing Christians do not really believe in the Christ of the Bible, the One and only Living Head of the true church, the church which is his body. No Bible-believing Christian believes that "officiously" ordained clergymen can miraculously transform a moon-shaped wafer and some grape juice into Jesus Christ, spirit, soul and body; to be imprisoned in what they call sanctuaries, houses of God, tents of the Eucharist. However, where is there a Protestant church building, whether high church Episcopalian, Baptist, Quaker, Lutheran, Pentecostalist, or Fundamentalist, or Plymouth Brethren Gospel Hall, that is not regarded by its builders and users as being in some special sense and to some special degree, a sacred house of God? In the case of the largest sect in Christendom, it requires the trans-substantiated, bread-and-wine Christ to make the physical building a sacred "house or temple of God." In the other cases, however, it cannot be the risen and glorified head of the Church who comes down into the denominationally designated meeting house, at the exact hour set by the religious leaders, to make it a holy place, a sanctuary or house of God. The risen Lord Christ is seated at the Father's right hand until he comes in the clouds to catch his church away; while spiritually he is within each believer all the time, twenty-four hours out of every day. What makes the fundamentalist house, meeting house, or church building, in any sense at all a sacred place? It cannot house the risen Christ. Therefore, it has become easier and easier for denominations, whether big, old, highly ritualistic denominations, or the smallest simplest, youngest fundamentalist organization with a name to its organization and a building for its meeting place, to require something other than the person of the Living Christ in their midst.
Jesus Christ Is In All But Reprobates!
It has become easier and easier and easier for those dear people, some of whom are born-again Christians, who go to those houses, calling them houses of God, to accept such things as the National Conference of Jews and Christians as being a religious fraternalism or brotherhood that Christians can partake of. What kind of a Christ will be there? We are living in a day when there are probably uncounted millions of professing Christians who do not believe for one minute in the risen, glorified Son of God. As I have stated many hundreds of times over many different radio stations in many different states for many, many years, I am profoundly grateful for the freedom of religion and freedom of speech guaranteed all United States citizens by our Federal Constitution. Therefore, I do not have one word of adverse criticism about this particular confederacy or against any other religious or brazenly atheistic group so far as their legal right to believe in and speak as they wish in preaching and contending for their particular religious beliefs or non-religious beliefs, during this day of God's grace. Perfectly consistent with this American brand of freedom of speech, and freedom of religion is that blessed freedom still enjoyed by a diminishing number of us who believe that Jesus Christ is the Lord of Lords and King of Kings. We do not believe that He is a saccharine sweet, interdenominational figurehead, or institutionalized sectarian Santa Claus. We believe He is our only redeemer and our only hope. Jesus Christ in us, "our hope of glory." Col. 1:27.
Canned christendom is dead religion. The "god" of all sectarian religion IS DEAD. "The most high dwelleth not in temples made with hands", we read in Isaiah 66. This was quoted by Paul at Athens before a magnificent religious meeting house, (Acts 17) and by Stephen for which sermon he was stoned to death saying, "The most high dwelleth not in temples made with hands". Oh, my beloved Christian brethren, "God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you the hope of glory". Col. 1:27. All of you dear people who believe that your meeting house is a holy house of God, know that the risen and living Lord Jesus Christ is not absolutely essential to your regular Sunday meetings. The Unitarians, who disbelieve in the deity of Jesus Christ, meet in a building very much like yours probably, and may have and usually do have very sober religious services at the same time yours are being observed. Exactly where is Jesus Christ on Sunday morning at eleven o'clock?
The Head of the True Church Is In Heaven
We reverently, and very soberly believe that Jesus Christ of Nazareth personally met the devil in the wilderness and was then and there tempted like as we, yet without sin. See Matt. 4 and Heb. 4:16. He met all that was in the world, in its concentrated essence: the lust of the eye, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life. We believe, and when I say we, other Christians and I believe that Christ the Incarnate Word defeated the devil by using the written word. He had authorized Moses to write it over 1300 years before. After he came to earth, He as the second man in a body of humiliation made like unto sinful flesh, simply quotes some of that writing (that he gave to Moses, 1300 or more years before) to the devil, and thus authenticates his written word (given to and through Moses) by proving its conquering power over man's chief enemy, the devil. Christ is now majestically seated "far above all principalities, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in that which is to come: and has been made head over all things to the Church which is His Body." (Eph. 1:21-23).
All Who Believe In Him Are In Him
According to his prayer, as recorded in John 17 all of those who have believed in him as the Son of God, the perfect sinless, law-keeping, law-fulfilling second man, the Lamb of God who died bearing the sins of the world in his own sinless body on the accursed tree, conquered death and came out with the keys of death and hell — all who believe in him are one. "For by one spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, bond or free, and have been all made to drink into one spirit." I Cor. 12:13. That one body is the church which is His Body. That is the only spiritual contact that Almighty God has with earth today. Did you know that? The only spiritual contact is through the church which is Christ's body. That's why the Lord Jesus prayed to the Father saying, "That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me." John 17:21.
So, if you don't believe in Jesus Christ, my friend, you are an atheist.
And what ever god you profess to believe in is a devil. That's right! "He that honoureth not the Son, honoureth not the Father". Don't forget that! Jesus Christ is not a spare tire. He is not a figurehead. He is the only "way", "truth", "life", "light", & "resurrection". What have you done with Christ? He said, "he that is not for me is against me; he that gathereth not with me, scattereth abroad." Are you an atheist, while you pretend to believe in the living God and have rejected his dear Son? If you have rejected Jesus Christ as your personal saviour, you are an atheist, without God and on your way to hell.