I don’t know any atheists. If I do, they haven’t told me they are. I do know some agnostics who consider God a “possibility.” Paul had a message for both:
“The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of people who suppress the truth by their unrighteousness, because what can be known about God is plain to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes – His eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, because they’re understood through what has been made. So, people are without excuse“ (Romans 1:18-20).
God’s “Good News” is obvious, too. A.W. Tozer wrote, “Even those persons who’ve never heard of the Bible have still been preached to with sufficient clarity to remove every excuse from their hearts forever.”
God’s “voice” is the source of wisdom. “Does not wisdom call out? Does not understanding raise her voice? …To you, O people, I call out, and my voice calls to all mankind. You who are naive, discern wisdom! And you fools, understand discernment! …For my mouth speaks truth“ (Proverbs 8:1,4-5,7).
Sadly, since Eden men and women have trained their ears to shut out God’s personal call. Tozer commented, “Yet still the Voice sounds and searches. The order and life of the world depend upon that Voice, but people are mostly too busy or too stubborn to give attention.” Humans, due to our inherent sinful nature, are rebellious brats cursed with tunnel vision and selective hearing. As God told Moses, “Look what a stiff-necked people they are!“ (Exodus 32:9).
Truth is, everybody with a functioning brain knows the basic laws of right and wrong in thought and action. C.S. Lewis emphasized two points in his masterpiece, Mere Christianity: “First, human beings, all over the earth, have this curious idea that they ought to behave in a certain way, and cannot really get rid of it. Secondly, that they do not in fact behave in that way. They know the Law of Nature, but they break it. These two facts are the foundation of all clear thinking about ourselves and the universe we live in.”
Some insist God should be totally comprehendible; that there’s no reason for there to be unsolvable mysteries about Him. Yet we live in the most baffling mystery of all – the universe. Recently astronomers announced the discovery of a circle of huge galaxies that shouldn’t exist. They call it the “Big Ring” and it’s 1.3 billion lightyears across. (One lightyear = 5.88 trillion miles.) But you might not have heard about it because the media is preoccupied with trying to convince us men can get pregnant, porn stars are reliably truthful, convicted liars are to be believed, etc.
In addition, everyone I’ve ever discussed my faith with has experienced an event or intangible sensation they can’t explain away. I’ve had two of those myself. Tozer wrote about those profound instances:
“What we saw, felt or heard may’ve been contrary to all we’d been taught in school and at wide variance with all our former beliefs and opinions. We were forced to suspend our acquired doubts while, for a moment, the clouds were rolled back, and we saw and heard for ourselves. Explain such things as we will, I think we’ve not been fair to the facts until we allow at least the possibility that such experiences may arise from the Presence of God in the world and His persistent effort to communicate with mankind.”
I’m a lifelong musician. Yet I can’t for the life of me understand how Beethoven, deaf as a doornail, was able to compose an entire symphony as incredible as his ninth without the distinct advantage of being able to literally hear a single note of it. Nobody can explain it. “genius” doesn’t do it for me because then I must ask “What is genius?” My guess is that Beethoven was channeling God’s Voice without realizing it. God’s creativity isn’t limited to how “in touch” the human recipient is with His omnipotence.
God’s Voice is gentle. Many don’t understand the verse, “The beginning of wisdom is to fear the LORD“ (Proverbs 9:10). The Israelites were certainly scared of Him. At Mount Sinai “All the people were seeing the thundering and lightning, and heard the sound of the horn, and saw the mountain smoking – and when the people saw it, they trembled with fear and kept their distance. They said to Moses, ‘You speak to us and we’ll listen, but don’t let God speak with us, lest we die’“ (Exodus 20:18-19).
However, to fear the Lord properly is to respect His infinite majesty, to approach Him worshipfully and to sincerely love Him for being the merciful God He is. Yes, His Voice can be terrifying when He addresses a multitude but when He speaks to an individual, He does it in a “soft whisper“ (1 Kings 19:12), telling us to “Be still and know that I am God“ (Psalm 46:10). Only then will we hear His voice.
J.I. Packer wrote, “Not until we’ve become humble and teachable, standing in awe of God’s holiness and sovereignty, acknowledging our own littleness, distrusting our own thoughts and willing to have our minds turned upside down, can divine wisdom become ours.”
If you want to hear God speak, read His book. It conveys not only what He has said but what He’s still saying. Tozer opined, “If you would follow on to know the Lord, come at once to the open Bible, expecting it to speak to you. Do not come with the notion that it’s a thing which you may push around at your convenience. It’s more than a thing; it’s a voice, a word, the very Word of the living God.”
Thus, a person has no excuse for rejecting God. No one could even form a rational thought without Him. Cornelius Van Til wrote, “The activity of the mind of created man depends upon God. It can function only in connection with a universe that is itself wholly dependent upon God.”
Even Christians Get the Blues 