You all may have wondered why I posted that exegetical paper regarding “Wisdom”, well it was because I had to remind myself of wisdom of God and when to share it and when not to “throw stones to swine” as it were.
Not that I am calling any person “swine” per se, but the analogy is that to wasting that which is valuable to those who would not value it; and that is what happened the other day. I learned a valuable lesson in sharing (or knowing when not to share) information. Folks, I have been a bit sheltered lately, most of the folks I converse with about “spiritual” matters are atheist and people of other faiths. And you know what? Most of those conversations go very well, even in our disagreement.
Why? Well simply, because those conversations are had with mutual respect. Respect goes far beyond this new political construct of “tolerance”, it is much more. With mutual respect, people can agree to disagree and learn from each other by understanding one another. A recent conversation I had (with someone I shall not converse with again) taught me a lesson. The difference between an “Atheist” (One who does not believe in any gods) and something I’d like to call an “Anti-Christiest”. An “Anti-Christiest” is one who pretends to be an atheist, but in fact, just has a problem with Jesus and the Gospel and by extension Christians.
Generally, I can talk to “atheist”, I disagree with their position, but, most I have come across usually intelligently present their position. An “Anti-Christiest” on the other hand, usually is full of emotion and lacks reason, they are generally angry at some aspect of the Christian religion OR more often angry at the Christian God ALONE, the God they once believed in because He let them down or did not meet a need of theirs at some point in life.
You find these type at the most extreme side have perhaps had a tragedy befall them or lost a loved one; or in less extreme cases feel rejected by some group of Christians for whatever reason, and as such reject all Christians and Christ because of that. Now in the Spirit of Christ, we should extend love to these people and compassion, showing the Gospel by our actions, and sharing words when necessary; however, there can be a point where you just have to dust your feet of the ground you walked with them and move on.
This point, is when it becomes apparent, the person does not respect you or your faith, as they try to denounce Jesus, not just as being the “son of God”, but to the degree that they deny he historically existed at all. You see, that is when we leave the realm of belief and faith, and go into historical facts, and when you have someone who isn’t happy just not believing that Jesus is the Messiah, Son of God in the “Christian” sense, BUT who has to DENY That he ever existed, that is when it's time to shake the dust off and move on.
This type of thing is intellectually fraudulent and disingenuous at best, ANTI - CHRIST at worst. You see, “Anti-Christ” isn’t so much an individual person with 666 on their head, no; it is a spirit, a way of thought, which is against the very idea of Christ. Again, this is not a general thing that applies to non-believers, not at all, this is specifically for the “Anti-Christiest”, these can be of any faith (even professing Christrians) or of no faith, people who hate the very idea of Jesus (not those who disagree with it). Nonetheless, I learned my lesson. I’m just saying…
I think "anti-Christianist" would sound better; "anti-Christiest" sounds like someone who hates Hercule Poirot.
All I can say is, I know people like this are out there, but I really do think they make up a relatively small percentage of atheists. And honestly, anyone who's personally upset at God just isn't an atheist in my book. (No True Scotsman fallacy, I know, but still...)
Posted by: Will | 04 April 2008 at 10:38 PM
Hey Will, glad you stopped by. I agree, I don’t think this type represents most atheist, and I would agree that by definition they aren’t really atheist at all.
Posted by: DJ Black Adam | 05 April 2008 at 07:30 AM
Cool new term! Anti-Christiest. Good play on words.
But I applaud you at least doing what you can to spread the gospel. We all have to at least try.
Posted by: Zack | 05 April 2008 at 11:15 AM