In my study of the book of Galatians last week something occurred to me that I don't remember ever giving much consideration before. It is that given the Bible's definition of idolatry, that scripture never really conceptualizes an "atheist".
After all, an "idol" is anything put before God. In other words, anything that I believe will bring me salvation- that is to say life or joy or fulfillment- whatever that thing is that I have made my savior and Lord- is my idol. Another way of saying it is that whatever good thing in my life has become the best thing in my life- has in affect become my idol, and therefore my Lord.
I know my idols by looking at my sin. If my sin is worry, it must mean that my heart is telling me that whatever I think I am losing I cannot live without. If my sin is bitterness, then it must mean that my heart is telling me that I have lost something that I cannot stand to lose. If my sin is some addiction, it must mean that there is something in the center that I cannot see myself living without.
The best way to understand my idolatry, therefore, is to ask myself what sin there is in my life that I feel like I MUST commit.
In this sense, we all have some god (little g) at the center of our heart and therefore we all have some "theos" controlling us, even if we tell ourselves and others that we don't believe in God. Our unbelief in the God of the Bible may well be true, but what the Bible teaches us is that even if we deny the THEOS, we all have some theos in the center of our lives, that has taken the place of the true one.
So, as the atheist says he does not believe in God, the Bible says that it does not believe in atheists.
Click here for an excellent synopsis of C.S. Lewis's journey from atheism to theism.
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