A Friendly Atheist Has 78 Questions for Christians: Conclusion

When I started answering Hemant Mehta's questions for Christians, I knew I wouldn't get to all of them. This is my last post in this series and I have managed to answer more than I thought I would. These last few questions kind of deal with general theology but they're a little more random than the questions included in each previous post so this will seem to jump around a little.

51) What are the minimum requirements for being a Christian?

52) And who falls under that definition?

If I had to strip away everything but the bare minimum, I would say there are 2 non-negotiable items that identify someone as a Christians:

First, he must understand who Jesus is. Jesus is the eternal Son, the second Person of the Trinity, the God who became flesh, who lived, died, and rose again. Next, a person must repent of his sins and accept Jesus as his Lord. Either one of these alone is not sufficient; a person must believe both to be saved.

The Bible attests in many places that demons understand who Jesus is. James 2:19 says, “Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble.” The demons, of course, do not worship Jesus as their Lord. There are also certain cults, like Jehovah's Witnesses that say Jesus is their Lord, but they have a wrong understanding of who Jesus is. To them, He is a created being not equal to the Father. So anyone who believes one or the other cannot be saved unless he believes both.

Who is a Christian, then? Only God knows for certain. Jesus did tell us many times that we can identify them by their fruit. Just like in the parable of the wheat and tares (Matthew 13:24-30), the workers did not know that some of the plants were tares until the wheat began to show its fruit (v. 26). We can ask a person what he believes about Jesus. We can examine his life for fruits. But Jesus knows for certain and at the end of this age, when the harvest comes, the wheat will be gathered into barns and the tares will be burned.

60) If you could go back into time to when Jesus was being crucified, would you try to save Him or would you stand back and do nothing since your entire faith depends on Him being crucified?

Let's be clear about something: Jesus didn't need to be “saved.” At His arrest, when Peter tried to fight off the guards, Jesus said to him, “Put up again thy sword into his place: for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword. Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels?” (Matthew 26:52-53). Nobody took Jesus' life from Him. He laid it down willingly and nothing I might have done could have stopped Him.

My question to Mehta is, will you admit your part in Jesus' crucifixion? Is there any guilt, regret, or remorse for any of the sins you committed for which He died to atone?

70) Can you pause the video right now and tell me what the 10 Commandments are?

71) And if you know them, and good for you if you do, why do so many Christians believe that the first four of them belong on government property and in the classrooms?

Hosea 4:6 says, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.” It has always been a pet peeve of mine that too many Christians will not invest the time nor effort into learning God's word. Having said that, I'm not sure what the point of this question is except to embarrass Christians for not knowing the commandments given by the God they claim to worship. 2 Timothy 2:15 tells us we should, “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed.” I suppose the opposite is also true – if we don't study, God doesn't approve and we should be ashamed!

Richard Dawkins tried to make this same point. When self-identified Christians couldn't answer basic questions about the Bible, he doubted their Christianity. One radio host turned the tables on him by asking if Dawkins knew the full title of Darwin's book. Dawkins hemmed and hawed. So do I conclude that anyone who doesn't know the full title of Darwin's book really doesn't believe in evolution? What does this say about the truth of the theory? So you can see that questions like this really don't prove atheism is correct or that Christianity is false. It's nothing more than a gotcha!

Mehta asked if the first four commandments “belong on government property and in the classrooms?” I'm a big proponent of the First Amendment and I hate the popular paraphrase: the separation of church and state. The 10 Commandments belong anywhere people want to exercise their religion. In other words, people do not give up their rights when they step onto government owned property. I'm reminded of Brittany McComb, the valedictorian at Foothill High School who had her mic turned off during her speech because she was talking about the influence God had in her life. I guess if she had thanked Oprah or Tony Robbins, that would have been OK.

I can agree that the state should not display the 10 Commandments and exclude any other view. I cannot agree that anything religious should be banned from government property. That type of “neutrality” actually makes the state hostile toward religion.

57) Do you really believe Mary was impregnated without having sex?

58) If someone came up to you and said she was pregnant but she was totally a virgin, would you believe her?

I would start by pointing out that Joseph did not believe Mary, either, and sought to divorce her (make a legal ending to their formal engagement). Sometimes, people of ancient cultures are maligned with the accusation that they were unlearned and unscientific. In this case, Joseph understood how women become pregnant and so assumed Mary had been with another man. You could also say even Mary didn't believe at first. She too understood how women become pregnant and asked the angel, “How shall this be, seeing I know not a man?” (Luke 1:34). My incredulity at the claim of a virgin being pregnant would likely have been the same as Mary, Joseph, and Mehta. Perhaps it would take an angel appearing to me before I believed.

What was truly of the virgin birth is also true of every miracle. Even ancient people understood certain things about the world and when Jesus performed a miracle, they knew it had to be a miracle because the world doesn't operate that way. It is by performing miracles, we know Jesus has the ability to keep His promises. Jesus told Martha, “Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live” (John 11:25). He then raised Lazarus who had been dead 4 days.

Jesus spoke the universe in existence. He walked on water, calmed the storm, healed the lepers, gave sight to the blind, turned water into wine, and performed a host of other miracles. Do you really think He couldn't split an egg in a virgin?