A Nielsen poll just before Christmas astounded some of our revisionist atheists (like David Marr, SMH), with them concluding “God is not dead” (as though God’s existence depends on us!) According to the stats, we are saying, as a nation, that we believe in a god (68%). I wasn’t particularly surprised by this, but it was nice to see the journalists surprised. We are not a secular country after all, they said. And we are predominantly Judeo-Christian, (half the country call themselves Christian). Muslims amount to less than 2%, and all the other faiths are smaller percentages still. There had been a dropping off in the number of people who confessed “faith in God” since 1900, but it has not fallen in the last 10 years.
The Bible says that we all have a knowledge of God, but we suppress that knowledge, because we don’t want to face up to being responsible to God. Instead of worshipping the one true God, we make alternatives, gods in our own image, or we just deny he is there at all.
There is certainly no place for triumphalism here though. There is a gaping void of knowledge out there. People believe all sorts of strange things about God, with many who call themselves Christian having big doubts about whether we can trust the Bible.
However, it does give us something to think about. With most people, we don’t need to prove God exists. That is not an issue with most people. The issue is, how can we help people know God personally and authentically- the God and Father of The Lord Jesus Christ? How can we teach people, and help people avoid the superstition that comes from belief without knowledge? And how do we help convince people of the importance and benefits of joining a Bible based church? Belief is not the same as belonging. We need to let people know that church is a place where they can find resonance and find meaning for their lives, and that God wants us to meet with other Christians to spur one another on to love and obedience.
(Andrew).

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