Christian Atheist: Intro/Don't Know Him

Today, we're starting a series on the Christian Atheist. This series is from Craig Groeschel's book, The Christian Atheist: Believing in God But Living As If He Doesn't Exist. All information is from the book, verses are from the bible, and examples are personal examples.

(Source)

Did you know that 94% of Americans claim to believe in God or a universal being? Most people do not act that way. If you look at the dollar bill, it says "In God We Trust," except people put more trust in money than they do in God.

Some important terms to think about:

• Theism: Belief in the existence of God
• Atheism: Disbelief in the existence of God
• Christian: Professes belief in the teachings of Christ
• Christian Atheist: Believing in Christ, but living as if he does not exist.

Christian Atheist may sound like a faith problem or confusion. This is not really the case at all. The core problem is NOT about belief, but about intimacy. Belief is not the same as personal knowledge. We need to think of God as a friend and get to know him, as you do with your friends.

Romans 7:14-19  New International Version (NIV)

 ¹⁴ We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. ¹⁵ I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. ¹⁶ And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. ¹⁷ As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. ¹⁸ For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature.^[a] For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. ¹⁹ For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing.

We all sin. We will always sin. We know when things are wrong, but still do them anyway. As we get closer to God, we begin to change. We will still sin, but we will make smarter decisions and grow.

Before we finished, we asked the teens to answer these questions. We wanted to figure out which themes to do during the series.



*All information is from the book, verses are from the bible, and examples are from the book, the bible and personal examples.