The Best of Atheist Tuesday: “The Hell-Fire Club” Loses a Member

Recently I wrote about how important it is to preach God’s Word when all your well-reasoned and logical arguments for the existence of God are mocked, pooh-poohed or ignored by unbelievers. (Read it here.)

Don’t be concerned!

Nay-sayers and scoffers have always been around and will always be around according to the Bible:

First of all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. They will say, “Where is this ‘coming’ he promised? Ever since our fathers died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.” But they deliberately forget that long ago by God’s word the heavens existed and the earth was formed out of water and by water. By these waters also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed. By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men. (2 Peter 2:3-7)

Despite mocking criticisms it’s amazing how God saves ordinary rapscallions and ne-er-do-wells actually by just hearing or reading the Word of God. I was one of those scoffers and God saved me! God will use His Words for His purposes.

The following account is of what happened to a leader of “The Hell-Fire Club” as he relentlessly ridiculed George Whitefield, one of the evangelists during the Great Awakening period in America. This is from an article written by Phillip Johnson, associate pastor at Grace Community Church and a former contributor to Pyromaniacs blog.

There’s a story in the biography of George Whitefield about a man named Thorpe, who was a bitter opponent of everything that is holy. He and a group of his friends—all of them young, rebellious thugs—conspired together to mock and oppose George Whitefield’s evangelistic ministry while Whitefield was preaching in Bristol, England.

George Whitefield had severely crossed eyes, if you have ever seen a realistic likeness of him. And these guys used to refer to him as “Dr. Squintum.” They called their little gang “The Hell-Fire Club,” and they disrupted meetings, mocked Whitefield on the streets and in public places, and generally tried to make his ministry a reproach in their community. Whitefield’s preaching had already made a deep and lasting impact in Bristol, and these young ruffians hated him for it. So this guy Thorpe got one of Whitefield’s published sermons and took it to the local pub, where the “Hell-Fire Club” was gathered to drink together while they make a burlesque of Whitefield.

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Atheist Tuesday: The Sad BloggableTruth

I got an email recently from an adolescent atheist mocking my decision to make “Atheist Tuesday” posts an occasional blog item instead of weekly. Here it is:

SUBJECT: Laughter

Wish you could hear mine. [Presumably his own laughter]

Quitters never win and winners never quit, Steve.

I like the fact that your “Evangelism Schedule” and “Evangelism Training” posts have received no comments, not even from Christians, while your “atheists are bad” post has received over fifty.

Keep up the good work.

Yes, it’s a sad fact that this blog will never be popular.

If I wanted to pander to atheists, I suppose that it would be more popular, but why would I want that? I will end up having to answer over and over again the same Googleable questions that are found ad nauseum on Christian apologetic sites’ comments sections. You know, questions like these:

• What makes your story of creationism fundamentally different from all the others that exist now, have existed before, and will exist in the future?
• Why is there at least some evidence for our scientific theories, but none at all for your creationism?
• Why does your God support slavery, murder, etc.

Remember, this is an evangelism blog “written to be an encouragement to those who share their faith and a motivation to those who don’t.”

I found I was getting off-track and wasting my time answering questions that never lead to salvation. That is, I can try and answer all those questions, but really, atheists will not believe the truth by my answers, only if they have been called by the Holy Spirit.

So, back to the adolescent atheist’s email….

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Atheist Tuesday: Satan’s Subtle Suggestion

There’s the story told of Satan training his junior minions….

He asks them what they are going to tell human beings.

Minion #1 said, “I’ll tell them that there is no God.”

Satan thinks it’s worth a try, but doesn’t think many will be foolish enough to fall for that.

The second minion suggests: “I’ll tell them that there is no judgment.”

Satan thinks that’s better, but still doubts he’ll have much success, because people have an inbuilt sense of accountability, an understanding that actions have consequences. “Don’t any of you have any better ideas?” he scolds.

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Atheist Tuesday: Of Pride, Pearls, and Pigs

I must start off this post today with an apology. Also, I want to repent. But first, let me give you a little background on why I feel compelled to do this….

You may have noticed over the last several months that fewer and fewer atheists are posting on Atheist Tuesdays, articles written especially for them; there are at least two reasons for this.

Reason #1: Unbelievers get very frustrated that I don’t answer all their multitudes of questions, which are inevitably followed up by a plethora of additional inquiries, and then succeeded by still further clarifications. Some of the questions are sincere but the majority of them are a waste of my time when most can be answered by Googling or going to an apologetics site. So I don’t answer them.

And they quit.

One of the more corrosive of the lot wrote this about being “censored” at this blog: “No big deal I was about done with him anyway he is a serious girlyman.” (sic)

Another, ExPatMat, got so upset he wrote, “We’ll have to agree that you’re a expletive deleted. I’m done with this blog.” 

Atheist Tuesday: The Faith Clause

I felt it necessary at this time to re-post this article from a year ago since so many new and fresh atheists have joined in the cacophony of criticism toward me, this blog, and my faith. This is the Ultimate Answer for all those who would wonder why, why, do I believe. I’m almost certain it will fall short of the answers you are looking for, but that’s okay. If you’ve read this before, unbelieving friend, then I invite you to read it again.

I will never answer the majority of the questions unbelievers have about God, questions that deal with proof that God exists; to do so would violate the “faith clause” that is a condition of becoming a Christian.

This part of the contract, which guarantees that a person who repents of their sins and trusts in Christ for forgiveness will have eternal life and not go to Hell, is not found in the fine print but is actually boilerplate stuff.

Here is the “Faith Clause”:

And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him. (Hebrews 11:6)

You see, this is a problem for the atheist. They want proof that God exists first.

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