International Atheist Day



“The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God.”

Psalm 14:1


In an era of inclusion where everything in the world is celebrated, good bad or indifferent, April 1 has been known for decades as “International Atheist Day” as every group of people need some form of recognition, a day to call their own and celebrate their beliefs or lack of. There cannot be a more fitting day to be a holiday for the atheist than on “April Fools Day” since it was God Himself who describes best the key demarcation of a foolish person. God says a fool is anyone who says there is no God. So, on this first day of April we recognize, but we do not celebrate the freedom not to believe in the God who created the heavens and the earth.

Because God is love He does not force a person to believe in Him. What separates mankind from the rest of God’s creation is that men and women were created distinctly unique in the image of God, blessed with the ability to reason. It is what separates us from the animal kingdom. Even our founding Fathers recognized that ever human being has inalienable rights given to us by God, and the chief right is the ability to worship God.

No one is born an atheist, atheism is a choice or better put a denial as God reveals Himself to every person. All a person needs to do to believe in the existence of God is look around. It’s that simple the psalmist declared, “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows His handiwork” (Psalm 19:1). God’s fingerprints are everywhere in the world. As the saying goes, “behind every creation is a creator and behind every design is a designer.” Nothing, absolutely nothing in the universe happens by chance, including you and me. We are all fashioned by God.

The reason Jesus Christ was born into this world is so that the world could be saved. God so loved the world that He gave His Only Begotten Son. Up to the time of Christ no one had seen God. The proof of His existence was the universe, creation in and of itself was the proof that God was there. Yet creation lacked something, it only proved the existence of God, that there is a God. It was Jesus who came to reveal the Father to the world as He and the Father are one. To see Jesus was to see God. To hear the words of Jesus was to hear the voice of God. No longer did men need to say, “show us the Father” as the Father had come to earth in the person of His Son, in Jesus Christ.  

Some say, “seeing is believing” and that is perfectly fine as Jesus made that possible when He came in human flesh so now you and I can celebrate “believing is seeing” as that is exactly what faith provides. Faith in Jesus opens our eyes to believe what was right there all along. When we see Jesus its as if we have gone from darkness to light as its Jesus who makes sense of the plans and purposes of God. Jesus came to explain God to us, to make Him known so that no longer would men be in the dark as to the heart and mind of God and His plans and purposes for our lives.

So, on this day, International Atheist Day let the church continue on in the work of the Lord, focusing our lives on knowing Jesus and making Him known to world desperately in need of living proof of the existence of God as they hear God’s voice as we share His Word and showing them God’s love that is personified as we live our lives in reflection of His as we walk in His ways. The best way for a follower of Jesus to celebrate April fools day is to consider this…

Will you and I whom the world considers foolish for loving, serving and following Jesus be ashamed of believing what the Bible teaches when the world calls us fools or even worse? Or will we out-celebrate the world, not only in spite of their insults, but because of them? Will we be like the apostle Paul who said in 2 Corinthians 12:10, “For the sake of Christ, I am content with insults?” The choice is yours, the choice is mine.

“And if it seems evil to you to serve the LORD, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.”

Joshua 24:15


I LOVE YOU!

Michael Osthimer

Recent

Archive

Categories

no categories

Tags

no tags