In yesterday’s devotion Billy Graham gave a profound quote on the difference between the two worldviews of atheism and Christianity. He said: “An atheist only sees a hopeless end to life. But the Christian sees an endless hope.”1
Sadly, the atheist who lives his life without a belief in a divine Creator must indeed lead a lonely life. By definition he must believe that he has no soul and no immortality. Since he came into existence by chance, and not divine design, any meaning he finds in life is but a by-product of random occurrences. Even the great mysteries of our universe that cause us to ponder just who we are and why we are here are a closed corridor of thought to those who place God as something that exists only in one’s imagination.
Even the atheist, however, without acknowledging it worships a god called self. With no god to believe in he places himself as the supreme person in his universe, and spends the rest of his life searching for a reason for his existence. Searching every pathway, every byway, overturning every stone, examining every philosophy, and experiencing every feeling, as he comes to the end of his journey, the answer he finds is that none exists! In other words, an atheist only sees a hopeless end to life!
In contrast Christianity is a belief system that has an endless hope! I like how the late pastor Tim Keller put it: “All death can now do to Christians is to make their lives infinitely better.”2 My friends, the resurrection of Jesus Christ provides us with the wonderful assurance that when we die, we too will be resurrected to not only an endless hope, but an endless life of pure joy, total bliss, and the greatest privilege in the universe – to worship Jesus for all eternity!
Christianity is the only worldview that transforms lives from bondage to free, from sinner to saint, and from hopeless to hopeful. For the atheist the struggle of life, without the existence of a rational creative force in the background, makes his journey here on earth a mere exercise in futility. The only reality he can count on is physical death. For our atheist friends, they will die, sadly without ever knowing why they were born in the first place!
1 Billy Graham – An atheist only sees a hopeless end to life. But…
2 18 Of My Favorite Quotes From “Making Sense of God” By Tim Keller – MichaelWallenmeyer.com