Explore

It’s the season for giving

The atheists think so too!

123rf.com/Andriy Kravchenko8124-presents

by

First published in Prayer News, December 2011.

At this time of year we think about the greatest gift that mankind ever received—when the Creator became flesh in the humble birth of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. For centuries this has been celebrated by the act of giving gifts to each other at Christmas time in remembrance of the ultimate gift. After all, the Creator said “It is more blessed to give than receive” (Acts 20:35).

Many Christians also give throughout the year to ministries like CMI, as a means of seeing this wonderful Gospel message spread into the community. This is because it is actually a command of Jesus to take this good news to everyone (Matthew 28:18–20). Although most of the world celebrates and gives gifts at Christmas, the very reason for the season is under attack. (I know some will take issue reading this because of the disputed origins of Christmas, but please put that aside for a moment and consider the big picture context of this article. Then please see Celebrating Christmas? and the related articles below for the historical facts.)

Humanists are working directly against missions organizations (such as CMI) to prevent the spread of Christian beliefs.

In many Western cultures, mentioning Christ at Christmas time is now deemed inappropriate ‘lest we offend those of a different point of view’. Am I exaggerating? Not at all. Many years ago, before I entered full time ministry, I managed large shopping malls. At Christmas, it was usual for the malls to be decked out with lots of Christmas decorations to remind people of the special time of the year (and, of course, to encourage Christmas spending). The traditional nativity scenes took pride of place, and even in the streets of our cities such displays were common. But in case you haven’t noticed, there’s been a not-so-subtle change. The displays are often now generic, and politically correct with no reference to Christ or the very reason we celebrate Christmas in the first place. School teachers are not even allowed to mention Jesus in their classrooms to teach the historical meaning of Christmas to children. In addition, there is a worldwide move to have the terms BC (Before Christ) and AD (Anno Domini—‘The year of our Lord’) replaced with BCE (‘Before Common Era’) and CE (Common Era). Wow! Talk about rewriting history! [Update: see Denying the greatest event in the history of the world.]

Atheists passionately believe their cause. How passionate are we?

The greatest promoters of this politically ‘inoffensive’ position are the aggressive ‘new atheists’ (see for example The totalitarian intolerance of the New Atheists). Sometimes they might say, “Well, there are many faiths, and so we should be considerate of other beliefs.” But, their target focus is clearly on the Christian faith. They know Christ is the Creator revealed in flesh—it’s a core doctrine. If the Savior can’t save us, who can? This is the same method employed in attacking Genesis because it is foundational to the Gospel of Christ. Undermine Genesis and the entrance of sin and death into God’s very good Creation, and you’ve destroyed the very reason why we need a Savior. Salvation becomes meaningless. Ironically, these non-believers are keen to promote their own religious views (as in, ‘there is no God’) with evangelistic zeal, and to put it bluntly, many of these atheistic organizations are ‘not short of a dollar or two’.

It is ultimately a spiritual battle, so, if Christians do not respond and rise to the challenge, then such inactivity is actually letting the enemy win this ‘war’ and have his way.

Because many humanists are passionately opposed to Christianity, they are working directly against missions organizations (such as CMI) to prevent the spread of Christian beliefs. For example, a major scientific organization here in the US once produced an evolutionary handbook for every high-school science teacher. Concerned that creationist beliefs were growing, it was promoted and distributed by the openly atheistic NCSE (National Centre for Science Education) and its leader Dr Eugenie Scott (a vocal critic of creationists). The NCSE is a ‘faith funded’ organization that relies upon donations from like-minded vigilantes. However, due to the giving of active and faithful Christians, we were able to fund brilliant creation scientist Jonathan Sarfati’s efforts to write a response. The result was the book Refuting Evolution, which became the biggest-ever-selling creation book of all time. (It can now be purchased in bulk with subsidized pricing for witnessing). It has even won university professors to Christ.

Besides their own individual supporters (the same way that Christians support ministries), such humanist groups also have many major and high-profile benefactors. When the spectacular PBS documentary series Evolution hit TV screens around the world a few years ago, few people were aware that Paul Allen, one of the co-founders of Microsoft, had donated vast sums of money to help produce the series. There was also an accompanying website which provided additional free resources. The NCSE even had the gall to encourage churches to add evolution to the Bible by producing a free ‘church study guide’ for the series, to help Christians ‘understand’ and reconcile evolution to the Bible. They canvassed churches far and wide. Once again, we were able to provide solid answers to refute their claims in the form of daily website responses which were later incorporated into another best-seller, also by Dr Jonathan Sarfati, called Refuting Evolution 2 (which has been re-released in an updated and expanded version).

Give us the ability to respond

Dear friends, if you’ve ever wondered if there is a battle going on, this should help you understand what we are up against. The humanists are getting behind their beliefs and doing everything they can to rid the world of Christianity. Atheistic and compromising evolutionary ‘churchian’ views have proved to be a stumbling block to a belief in the Bible. CMI is ready and able to counter the challenge. It is ultimately a spiritual battle, so, if Christians do not respond and rise to the challenge, then such inactivity is actually letting the enemy win this ‘war’ and have his way. God gave everything He could to save us. How much will we give, in whatever shape or form that may take, to counter the opposition? Would you please pray about how you will be involved?

Creation magazine—‘The world’s best witnessing weapon’

8124-mag-stack

Is this hype? No, because this is what our readers tell us! As one of our subscribers, you will have seen some of the countless testimonies we receive about the evangelistic ‘power’ of the magazine. Like this one from David A.:

”My two friends … loaned me a copy of Creation as they could sense that I was at the point of needing help. After reading this wonderful magazine, … and praying to our Lord, I opened my heart to him again and allowed his love to sweep over me. Praise his name. As an ex evolutionist it was your magazine and the answers it gave that caused my heart to change. I thank you and bless you for the work you are doing.”

It’s for this reason that we are keen for its circulation to grow, and to see it passed on to as many people as possible. On our webstore you will see great opportunities to buy 4 gift subscriptions and get one free (5 subscriptions for the price of 4). Will you join with us in getting the good news out there?

First published: 5 December 2013
Re-featured on homepage: 25 December 2023

Helpful Resources

Christianity for Skeptics
by Drs Steve Kumar, Jonathan D Sarfati
US $12.00
Soft cover
Refuting Evolution
by Jonathan Sarfati
US $8.00
Soft cover
From Creation to Salvation
by Lita Cosner Sanders
US $14.00
Soft cover
Ha-Mashiach
by Dr Arnold G Fruchtenbaum
US $20.00
Soft cover