He must cast away all pride and high thoughts, and conceit of his own goodness. He must be content to go to heaven as a poor sinner saved only by free grace, and owing all to the merit and righteousness of another… He must be willing to give up all trust in his own morality, respectability, praying, Bible-reading, church-going, and sacrament-receiving, and to trust in nothing but Jesus Christ.
J.C. Ryle

Why People Dont Believe

Why People Dont Believe

WHY PEOPLE DON’T BELIEVE

There are many reasons why people don’t want to believe in God or in Christianity. In fact, Christians are not a majority in the world.. they are the minority and always have been. There are many reasons why a large part of mankind has rejected Christianity.

One reason people do not become Christians is out of ignorance. This is not ignorance that there is a God or that there was a person called Jesus Christ, but ignorance to the facts which validate Christian faith. Many times this ignorance is self-imposed. Some people are not even bothering to consider the claims of Jesus Christ, while others are actively refusing to believe.

Some people claim that they have intellectual problems with the Christian faith, when usually what they have are intellectual or emotional excuses. This is not a problem of the mind, rather it is a problem of the will. It is not that they cannot become Christians; it is more a matter that they will not become Christians. People are ignorant of the credentials of Jesus, by and large, because they choose to be. Given that their will is to deny religion, they will find any excuse to continue in this denial.

Another reason is the simplicity of the Gospels. It is so simple to become a Christian that even a child can do it. In fact, the Bible tells us that we must become as children to enter the kingdom of God (Matthew 18:13).

The apostle Paul taught, as Jesus did, that Christians would never be the majority and that not many prominent people would believe. Although there have not been many “great” world leaders who have practiced Christianity, there have been some.

Further, some people don’t become Christians because of the mistaken idea of what Christianity really is. Many think that Christianity is nothing more than a set of negative commandments which tell people “Don’t do this and don’t do that”. They get the idea that when you become Christian, you resign yourself to a life of unhappiness, restriction and boredom.

Since nobody wants to live that way, they write off Christianity as something to which they don’t want to commit their lives. While some Christians give a negative impression of what Christianity is, the impression is, sadly, not accurate. When you trust in Jesus, one becomes more free, rather than being bound. Jesus himself told us that we “will be set free by believing”. Jesus sets people free from the things that have them in bondage so that they can be the type of people they were meant to be.

Others withhold themselves from religion because of some specific sin in their life. Many people love their sin to the point where they’ll let it keep them from getting to heaven. To become a Christian, a person must repent of their sins, and this many people are unwilling to do. As Jesus said: “Unless you repent, you shall all likewise perish.”

In short, there are many reasons why people reject Christ, but there are no good reasons.

WHAT DOES IT OFFER?

We are living in days where people are pessimistic about the future. There have always been pessimists, but now there is a general feeling of hopelessness regarding the future. With the advent of tactical nuclear weapons, fear has engulfed our planet. Examples of this fear can be seen in the following statements:

“It is becoming more and more obvious that it is not starvation, not microbes, not cancer, but man himself who is the mankind’s greatest danger” (Carl Jung “Epilogue” MODERN MAN IN SEARCH OF A SOUL, New York, Rutledge Books)

“The real problem is in the hearts and minds of men. It is not a problem of physics but of ethics. It is easier to denature plutonium than to denature the evil spirit of man.” (Albert Einstein, cited by Mead, p. 192). How right he was!

“Today, even the survival of humanity is a utopian hope” (Norman O. Brown, LIFE AGAINST DEATH, London, Sphere books, Ltd., 1968, p. 267)

“The world has now become too dangerous for anything less than utopia” (John Rader Plat, THE STEP TO MAN, New York, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., 1966, p. 196).

The problem of lack of hope and meaning to life is not unique to our generation though. It has been expressed by others in the past who have felt the same emptiness as our modern world feels. To a larger segment of the population, this life is all there is and there’s no hope beyond the grave, but this idea is nothing new. Compare what some of the writers in the past have said concerning death. “Once a man dies, there is no resurrection” (Aeschylus); “There is hope only for those who are alive, but those who have died are without hope” (Theocritus); “When once our brief light sets, there is one perpetual night through which we must sleep” (Catullus).

Against this background of pessimism, Jesus Christ offers real hope. Thus, Christianity offers a full life to those who will accept Jesus. He promised: “I am come that they may have life, and have it more abundantly” (John 10:10).

Ralph Barton, a once-renowned cartoonist, left this note pinned on his pillow before taking his own life. “I have had few difficulties, many friends, great successes; I have gone from wife to wife, and from house to house, visited great countries of the world, but I am fed up with inventing devices to fill up twenty four hours of the day.” (Bill Bright, JESUS AND THE INTELLECTUAL, p. 14).

Shakespeare commented on life too. “It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing”

What a contrast to the words of the apostle Paul written just before his death… “For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith, in the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day; not only to me, but to all who have loved His appearing.” (2 Timothy 4:6-8).

Christianity offers the world genuine hope.

God Bless you.

Rob

This information was taken from the book “Answers to Tough Questions” by McDowell and Stewart.