Worse Than His Bite

I noticed that one of our guest atheists said that he knows all about the Bible because he was once a “strong Christian.” Hold it there for a moment. He was once a strong Christian? Let’s analyze what he is saying. A Christian is someone who knows the Lord: "And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent” (John 17:3, see also Hebrews 8:11). So our atheist friend is admitting that he knew the Lord? He is admitting that God is real and he has turned his back on Him? If confronted with such a thought, he will predictably say, “I thought I knew the Lord.” If that’s the case, then he was never a Christian. He thought he was, but he wasn’t. He was a false convert. There is one well-known atheist who has an itinerant ministry, who says that he was a Christian pastor for 17 years. That’s impressive. Judas only managed to fake it for three and a half years. This man faked it for seventeen years--in a pulpit! His name is Dan Barker. A number of years ago I emailed Dan and explained about the Judas thing. Barker bit back that if I ever contacted him again, I would hear from his service providers. Wow! I must have struck a roar nerve (deliberate spelling).We often call these people bitter “backsliders.” However, they aren’t backsliders, because they never slid forward in the first place. The correct term for them is “false converts.” They are mentioned in Mark chapter 4, and in the Book of Peter, where they are likened to a pig that goes back to it’s filth, and a dog that returns to its vomit.