YOU’RE AN ATHEIST? NO YOU’RE NOT.
“I am an atheist.” You say it as a conclusion, as though the question of God has been settled and put away. Yet the Bible presses deeper than labels and asks what the heart already knows. It does not describe humanity as unaware of God, but as aware and resistant, knowing enough to be accountable yet unwilling to yield (Romans 1:18-21). That is not ignorance; it is tension. Denial is not the absence of knowledge, but knowledge held down under the weight of the will.
Even in unbelief, certain things refuse to disappear. Moral outrage rises as if justice is real and binding. Beauty overwhelms as though it carries meaning beyond survival. Death feels intrusive, not natural, as though it violates something we were meant to possess. The Bible says eternity has been set within the human heart, even if we cannot fully trace its source or end (Ecclesiastes 3:11). Something inside us keeps reaching for more than matter can explain.
What is often rejected is not God as He truly is, but a distorted image of Him. A god made harsh by bad religion, distant by disappointment, or irrelevant by hypocrisy is easy to dismiss. The Scriptures speak of humanity exchanging the truth of God for lesser images, reshaping Him into something more comfortable or more dismissible (Romans 1:22-23). Calling oneself an atheist can sometimes be less about certainty and more about distance, a way to keep God safely out of reach.
Jesus Christ confronts this honestly and without cruelty. He does not accuse people of intellectual failure; He speaks to the heart. He teaches that light is resisted not because it is unclear, but because it exposes what we would rather keep hidden (John 3:19-21). If God were truly absent, there would be nothing to suppress and nothing to avoid. The persistent unease of unbelief quietly testifies that the question is not settled after all.
The Gospel does not mock doubt, but it does answer it. God has drawn near in Christ, not to condemn the world, but to rescue it (John 3:16-17). Faith is not the invention of religious minds; it is the awakening of what has been buried. Christ does not come to argue existence; He comes to reveal Himself. Beneath every denial is a deeper knowledge waiting to be reconciled, and beneath every restless heart is a hunger meant for God.
So when you say, “I am an atheist,” the Bible gently replies, “No, you are not untouched. You are not empty. You are not beyond reach.” The real question is not whether God exists, but whether we are willing to face the God who does.
BDD
