The Up and Coming American Culture: Atheism and Starbucks

It seems that each day I am confronted with realities of living in a post-Christian, secular culture. The outright attacks on the very existence of God, or at “best”, attacks on His Truth and the subsequent attempts to squelch those who proclaim it are increasing at an alarming rate. From attacks by respected scientists, like British writer Richard Dawkins (The God Delusion), to our own American phenomenon, Starbucks, the attacks just keep rolling. Try as they will though, God is still standing, and by his grace, so too will this preacher! Take for instance the alarm I felt when I found in an article at WorldNet Daily, that Starbucks has released a coffee cup with another of their vintage anti-God messages. The attack comes in the form of a “conversation starter” on the back of the cup entitled, “The Way I See It #247”. Here is the message:

"Why in moments of crisis do we ask God for strength and help? As cognitive beings, why would we ask something that may well be a figment of our imaginations for guidance? Why not search inside ourselves for the power to overcome? After all, we are strong enough to cause most of the catastrophes we need to endure."

These segments of rather hip, humanistic, and very post-modern “conversation starters” portray a rising hatred for all things Christian and God-centered. On May 14th, the Larry King Live show hosted several leading religious figures in American culture over what part faith should play in politics, and in particular, the 2008 Presidential election. It was clear from the outset that all but one, he being Dr. Albert Mohler, were bent on the diminishment of God or His Truth, or both. Each of the panel members, except Dr. Mohler, made painstaking efforts to eliminate God from the picture, and instead focus on the anthropocentric issues such as poverty, suffering, disease, etc., all of which have no hope outside of the God they are trying to eliminate.

Another recent example of the rising cultural trend toward atheism was seen on ABC’s Nightline, in which former actor Kirk Cameron and evangelist Ray Comfort squared off in a debate against the “rational response squad”. During not only the debate, but in the extra footage as well, those espousing atheism vehemently, and sometimes violently tried to make their voices heard.

We as Bible believing, evangelical Christians, must wake up to the fact that we are no longer living in a “Christian” nation. Indeed, if one is to take the Biblical model of a people who are truly Christian, and not simply the rhetoric of its professing believers, America is anything but Christian. It would be totally incorrect to say that the fight for the existence of God is on the line, because the Truth is that whether any human being ever acknowledged His existence or not, one fact remains, HE IS! (See Exodus 3:15 and John 8:58). According to Romans chapter 1, creation and conscience are enough to validate and prove His existence. The battle then is over the right for true Christians to believe, proclaim, and live out the reality of God in their lives, and not to have Him eliminated from all of society. It is as simple as this, the atheists, be they, Dawkins, Starbucks, Rev. Barry Linn, the “rational response squad”, or anyone else, hold as their agenda the elimination of God from all walks of life, including your personal life! Theirs is an energized and sweeping agenda to pull everyone to their denial of God and His Truth.

How are we as Christians then to view and to respond to this crisis of belief for so many in our culture.

1) Realize the Scriptural pronouncement

Psalm 14:1
“The fool has said in his heart, ‘there is no God’.”

Romans 1:18, 21
“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the Truth in unrighteousness…For even though they knew God they did not honor Him as God…”

The pronouncement of Scripture is clear, that to deny God is an open declaration of antipathy toward all things good and right, and a love for what is wrong and evil, and thus be judged a fool. This goes against all of modern culture for the following reasons: the judgment is authoritative, absolute, clear, and binding. These are not qualities that our up and coming, postmodern, tolerant, American culture want to hear. However, that does not change the Truth!

2) Proclaim Him from the mountain top

Whenever opposition to God has arisen throughout history, the true church of Jesus Christ has always risen higher. Sometimes through words, sometimes through actions, sometimes through blood, but always with a life and message of great clarity, proclaiming that He Is! We must sharpen our minds with the Word of God and be ready to proclaim Its Truth anywhere and anytime. (Ours is simply to proclaim, the Scripture will prove and defend Itself!)

I especially see that the battles of Modernism are alive and well, and therefore, we must be prepared more than ever to proclaim the Truth of God in science. Darwinian philosophy has so pervaded our culture that I believe that battle must be won on the grounds of showing God’s existence through His act of creation. This is no time for the church to flirt with evolution or its step-children like the Day Age theory, theistic evolution, the Gap theory, etc.

From this launching ground, we must be ready to prove the existence of God through the natural order of morality and human sexuality. In a culture that values impurity, God must be seen through the church’s love of moral excellence and purity. We must demonstrate that God is because we know how to love our spouses, and are only captivated in a physical sense with that one person whom God is given. It is no time for the church to “re-think” its position on moral issues such as adultery or homosexuality. Already some leading “evangelical” personalities have softened or muted their stance on such issues and the culture has seized the opportunity to claim acceptance by God for their lifestyle, because pastor so and so has accepted me. However, if God is not completely Holy and set apart from every type of sin and moral degradation, then He does not exist as the God of creation, and exists only as a created being of human imagination and projection. For the God Who Is, is a God of complete purity. We must realize that our stance on moral and sexual issues, both in word and deed, prove the existence of God.

Third, I believe we must fearlessly and tirelessly proclaim Christ. Only by Gospel proclamation and the Holy Spirit’s enlightenment of radically depraved eyes will anyone ever acknowledge the existence of God. Just as God has appointed those people who will believe that He is and that Christ is their sin-bearer, so too He has appointed you and I to be the instruments through which He will work. We must train our children to stand in every arena of life and proclaim the immutable and unending existence of God.

3) Prepare for resistance

If the church is going to be successful in standing for God now, it must be because we are willing to live differently than the culture, and as such, suffer the consequences for doing so.

II Timothy 3:12
“Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be
persecuted.”

The culture is not simply wanting a dialogue so that their view will be heard, known and accepted. The culture wants everyone to join them in their atheism, and for those who refuse, elimination is their deserved lot in life.

And so, let we who are the true and confessing church of Jesus Christ suffer in their realm of ungodliness for proclaiming Him. This realm and world is not our home, and we must never become so attached and engrained with the culture and its thinking that it bothers us to be ostracized, belittled, or even killed. We cannot hope that culture somehow will become better and more accepting of God and His Truth, but we can pray and labor to become more faithful followers of Jesus Christ!