Originally published March 17, 2009

There’s No Such Thing as an Atheist Part 1 Part 3

Another way that we instinctively know God exists is the pre-programming of our hearts. Just as some computers are sold with certain software already installed, we come with the software of God’s law already installed in our hearts:

For when Gentiles who do not have the Law do instinctively the things of the Law, these, not having the Law, are a law to themselves, in that they show the work of the Law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness and their thoughts alternately accusing or else defending them, Romans 2:14-15

It’s called a conscience, and we’re all born with one, whether we’re raised in any particular religion or not. We know when we’ve messed up. How do we know? We feel guilty or ashamed.

Somehow, guilt has gotten a bad rap these days. Don’t believe the hype. Guilt is good; a gift of God, even. Not long ago, I heard a popular television preacher telling the thousands of people in his church that, “God doesn’t want us to feel guilty.” While it’s true that a Christian need not be plagued by feelings of guilt over things for which he has already asked and received God’s forgiveness, initially, when we do wrong, we most certainly should feel guilty.

God has lovingly designed us with a sense of guilt and shame in order to draw us to Him. Guilt is to our relationship with Christ what a toothache is to our relationship with the dentist. The toothache tells us something is wrong with a tooth, it needs to be fixed, and we’d better get to the person that is qualified to fix it right now. If no one ever felt guilty, no one would ever see his need for salvation and turn to Christ in repentance, without which, salvation does not take place.

So, how do we make the connection between our conscience and the God who created it? How does our having a conscience prove that God exists? Well, it does require some introspection, but for anyone who will take a few minutes to sit down and think about why he feels guilty over his wrongdoing, the answer will become apparent.

We know that feelings of guilt and shame do not stem only from participating in criminal activities. Most of us are law-abiding citizens, and yet we have still felt guilt over wrongdoing which may have been perfectly legal. Ironically, by the time someone commits an actual crime, he may have suppressed his conscience so many times that it has become seared and he does not experience feelings of guilt for what he has done.

Alright, if we’re not breaking the law and still feel guilty over some particular behavior, could it be that we feel guilty because we’re hurting someone? Well, generally speaking, we certainly should feel guilty if we hurt someone’s feelings or reputation, or if we disappoint or betray them. But, how would that explain our feelings of guilt over things that have no apparent effect on others, or that no one knows about? What about that piece of gum you stole from the store as a kid? How about that test you cheated on in college?

“Wait,” you may say, “the kid stealing the candy and the student cheating on the test aren’t feeling guilty, they’re feeling afraid that they’ll be caught and will have to suffer the consequences.” True, guilt and fear of being caught usually go hand in hand, but they are definitely two separate feelings. We know this because we can feel fearful of consequences for performing actions we know to be right. Ask any good Samaritan who helps someone despite the fact he knows he might be sued later, or a missionary who knows he may be harmed if he shares the gospel, or a German who hid Jews from the Nazis during World War II. Fear of getting caught and guilt over wrongdoing are two different things.

So what other explanation could there be for the guilt we feel over our wrongdoing which is not breaking the law, not hurting anyone, and which no one else will ever know about?

because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. Romans 1:19

Our hearts know, even if we don’t want it to be true, that there is a God.

Apologetics

Throwback Thursday ~ There’s No Such Thing as an Atheist Part 1: The Battlefield of the Mind

July 19, 2018August 2, 2018 Michelle Lesley

Originally published March 12, 2009

There’s No Such Thing as an Atheist Part 2 Part 3

There’s no such thing as an atheist. Or even an agnostic, for that matter.

An atheist is someone who says there is no God. An agnostic is someone who says we don’t or can’t know whether or not there is a God.

I recently heard someone say that there are no atheists, only rebellious people. The more I think about that statement, the truer it rings. Why? Because it is impossible not to know there is a God.

It first enters our consciousness that there is a God when we simply look around at our surroundings. The Bible says:

For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. Romans 1:20

All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. John 1:3

It’s as simple as looking around and saying, “Wow. Look at all this stuff. How’d it all get here?”

The other day, I was involved in a discussion with a non-Christian who was wondering how anyone could possibly disbelieve evolution. Laying aside all the details, I believe the thing that most bothers many Christians about the philosophy behind the theory of evolution as well as the Big Bang theory is that, in many cases, these theories are not an attempt to describe how God might have created the universe, but how the universe might have come into being without God.

It couldn’t have. There’s no way.

We know this, not only through the attributes of the things we’re observing – that the botany, biology, chemistry, astronomy, physics, etc., of Earth work too well together and are too intricate and complex to have happened by mere accident or coincidence – but also in the way we think about the things we’re observing.

Have you ever looked at anything – your car, your dishwasher, your computer, your favorite painting – wondered about its origins, and come to the conclusion that it simply materialized of its own volition out of thin air? Of course, you haven’t. We don’t think that way because that goes against every iota of life experience we’ve ever had. If we see an object, we know someone made it. Our experience feeds the logical way we think about this relationship between an object and its maker.

In addition to the overwhelming scientific evidence and intricacies, and our life experience which God has provided to show us that He made this place, Romans 1:20 (above) tells us that the design of our brains is pre-programmed to make the connection between creation and Creator. We could not be “without excuse” if we were intellectually incapable of comprehending the relationship between the two, nor if we had not been created to think logically and rationally, deducing conclusions from the evidence available to us.

Our minds bear witness to the existence of God, in that:

since there is such an intricately detailed, well designed creation, it must have been made by an intelligent, powerful Being.
all of our life experiences lead us to the conclusion that if something exists, someone made it.
our minds think logically and deduce conclusions from the evidence we observe.
we have intelligence and are able to comprehend the relationship between a creation and its creator.

Apologetics, Movies

Movie Tuesday: The Marks of a Cult

July 11, 2017February 4, 2026 Michelle Lesley

“A fascinating analysis examining the core of Christian orthodoxy; where denominations within the true Church ends…and a cult begins.

Once again, The Apologetics Group has developed a scholarly presentation addressing a vital current issue. This new production not only deals with how to identify The Marks of a Cult, but in its own right is a type of “mini-systematic theology” that will greatly benefit any individual or church group. I highly recommend it for a better understanding of cult beliefs and practice, as well as, developing your understanding of historic Christian theology.” Dr. Kenneth G. Talbot — President, Whitefield Theological Seminary

In today’s religiously diverse and relativistic culture, labeling a group a cult may seem extreme to many people, not to mention rude. Even people who believe in absolute Truth and further believe that Jesus is the only way to eternal life can get confused about just what constitutes real Christianity. Just why are Baptists properly considered Christians, but Mormons are not? Or why is the Jehovah’s Witness religion classified as an anti-Christian cult while Presbyterians or Wesleyans or Pentecostals are simply seen as denominations within the Christian faith?

With the explosion of different sects that claim to honor and follow Jesus, how does one differentiate between true Biblical Christianity and an aberrant religious movement? Just what are “the marks of a cult?”

Join us for a journey into the heart of Biblical revelation and the constant struggle of truth against lies, the apostolic faith against the “doctrines of demons.”

This new documentary from The Apologetics Group does more than simply point fingers. It explains in great detail the absolute essentials of the Faith and just how and why Christians can properly and necessarily refer to certain sects as “cults.” Not only a tool for recognizing and understanding false teaching — and for reaching people held captive to it — The Marks of a Cult is also a powerful apologetic on the need for Christians to become more rooted in the Biblical historic faith, with its creeds and confessions, and to be better prepared to give “a defense to any one who calls you to account for the hope that is in you.” (1 Peter 3:15)

Featuring: Dr. James R. White, Alpha & Omega Ministries — Dr. E. Calvin Beisner, Knox Theological Seminary — Dr. R. Fowler White, Knox Theological Seminary — James Walker, Watchman Fellowship — David Henke, Watchman Fellowship — Dr. Steve Cowan, Apologetics Resource Center — Craig Branch, Apologetics Resource Center — Clete Hux, Apologetics Resource Center — Jerry Johnson, The Apologetics Group“

My posting of this video is not a blanket endorsement of any of the people who appear in it nor The Apologetics Group ministry. I do not endorse or recommend any participants in the video nor the organization which produced it insofar as any of them deviate from my beliefs as stated in the Statement of Faith and Welcome tabs at the top of this page.

Basic Training, Bible

Basic Training: The Bible Is Our Authority

February 17, 2017May 27, 2025 Michelle Lesley

For more in the Basic Training series, click here.

The Bible. Scripture. The Good Book. It used to be so blatantly self-evident that God’s written Word was the foundation and standard for the Christian faith that it was assumed. A given. You learned, “I stand alone on the word of God- the B-I-B-L-E,” when you were three or four years old, you believed it, and you moved on.

But take a look at the Westernized version of Christianity these days. The fruit of abandoning the authority of Scripture is chilling. From the demonic tremoring and barking antics of New Apostolic Reformation “churches” to the rebellion of female “pastors” to the “gay Christian” movement to “Christian” abortion doctors, it’s clear that an astounding number of self-professed Christians and churches don’t submit to Scripture’s mandates for their beliefs and practices.

“Whew,” you might be thinking, “my church and I must be OK. We call homosexuality sin. We’re pro-life. Our pastor is male. And the wildest our congregation gets is when Brother Joe bellows a good, hearty ‘Amen!’ during the sermon.”

Those are all good, biblical things and I don’t want to minimize them. But is it good enough? Are there other, more subtle ways you or your church aren’t submitting to the authority of Scripture? And what does it mean that the Bible is our authority, anyway?

Have you ever played Monopoly? If you have, you know that you’re supposed to use a Monopoly board, two dice, the and the game pieces and Chance and Community Chest cards that come with the game. You also know that there is a standard set of Monopoly rules that are supposed to be followed.

Suppose a friend invited you to play Monopoly but wanted to use a checker board instead of a Monopoly board. Or wanted to create a new rule that you would get $500 for passing Go instead of $200. Or that you could get out of jail without rolling doubles.

Monopoly was created in 1903 by a lady named Elizabeth J. Magie Phillips. Magie created the game to teach people the consequences of having large or valuable tracts of land controlled by private monopolies¹. Each piece of the game and each rule was created with that teaching goal in mind. To alter the rules of the game is to, at best, be out of alignment with Magie’s intentions and purposes, and, at worst, to not be playing Monopoly at all. If you want to truly play Monopoly, learn the fullest extent of the lesson Magie was trying to teach, and respect Magie as the creator of the game, you’ve got to play by her rules. All of them. Even the ones you don’t like or particularly understand.

Many of the same principles apply to Christianity. God set Christianity up a certain way with His own intentions and purposes. If we alter His rules, we’re, at best, not lined up with those intentions and purposes, and, at worst, not practicing Christianity at all. If we really want to honor God, grow in Christ to the greatest extent and truly be practicing biblical Christianity, we’ve got to play by His rules. All of them. Even the ones we don’t particularly like or understand.

But what many Christians are doing today is taking their “Monopoly game” of Christianity and assuming it’s for their own entertainment, better quality of life, or positive feelings. And because they’re largely ignorant of the Creator of the “game” and His purposes and intentions behind said game, the players start tossing out His rules whenever those rules don’t fit the purposes and intentions of the players.

God created you and me and the world and Christianity and the church for His glory. He gets to make the rules. We follow the rule book (the Bible), not because those rules will make us personally happy or successful, but – simply and ultimately – because they are given by God and glorify Him. What He says goes, and we honor Him by our obedience. We need to remember that our role in the game is player, not Creator. Players submit to the authority of the Creator.

When the Creator says…
I created the world in six literal days and here’s how I did it, we don’t dishonor His word by trying to cram evolution in there and make it fit. We believe Him, and we teach what His word says.

When the Creator says…
Ladies, I don’t want you to preach, teach Scripture to men, or hold authority over men in the church, we don’t search for loopholes. We search for ways we can humble ourselves and serve God in ways that please Him, not ourselves.

When the Creator says…
Here’s how I want you to pray, we repent of using unbiblical prayer methods such as private prayer languages and contemplative prayer, and we pray the way God wants us to pray.

When the Creator says…
Pastor, I want you to preach the Word, that means pastors preach rightly handled, in context Scripture- not a stand up comedy routine, not the storyline of the latest blockbuster movie, not a half hour of jokes and personal anecdotes, not their own opinions and self-styled doctrines.

When the Creator says…
I want you to stay away from people who teach false doctrine, it doesn’t matter how much we like that teacher, how good she makes us feel, how much we think she’s helping us in our walk with the Lord, or that we’d rather “chew up the meat and spit out the bones.” We reject her, and her teaching, and listen to those who teach sound biblical doctrine instead.

We bow the knee to what God’s word says. Period.

Ladies, if you don’t want to cripple your growth in Christ, one of the worst phrases you can utter about Christian beliefs and practices is, “Well, I just think…” followed by your own personal feelings or opinions. You don’t write the rules.

The Bible says:

You are not your own, for you were bought with a price.
1 Corinthians 6:19b-20a

…you…have become slaves of God…
Romans 6:22

If you’re a genuinely regenerated believer, you are the slave of Christ. That means you don’t get to hold, or live by, your own feelings or opinions any more. That’s what lost people do. You are only entitled to God’s opinions as set down in His written Word. Your opinions don’t matter.

When it comes to Christian beliefs and practices, your experiences don’t matter either. It doesn’t matter what kind of so-called supernatural experience you had where you babbled incoherently or “heard God speak” or saw a “vision” or whatever. If your interpretation of your experience conflicts with the written word of God, your interpretation of your experience is wrong. Something may have happened, but it wasn’t God. (And if something supernatural happened and the Bible says God doesn’t work that way, there’s only one other option.)

When you decide what you’re going to believe and do based on your own opinions, feelings, and subjective personal experiences rather than the written word of God, what you’re doing is saying, “I know better than the almighty, all-knowing God of the universe.” You’re setting yourself up as judge over Scripture. You’re in charge, not God. Doesn’t sound much like a slave, does it?

That’s because Scripture says those who truly belong to Christ will have a heart to keep His word. We will stumble and fall along the way. We will sometimes mistakenly believe things we shouldn’t. But one of the hallmarks of a Christian is that she loves and strives to obey God’s word. Because, as Christians, the Bible is our authority.

Additional Resources

What does it mean that the Bible should be our sole authority for faith and practice? at Got Questions

For the Authority of Scripture by Dr. John MacArthur

Divine Authorship and Authority at Ligonier

The Authority of the Bible by Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones

Bad Fruit, Diseased Trees, and the Authority of God’s Word

¹Monopoly (game), Early History, Wikipedia, February 16, 2017
²Amadeus photo and quote courtesy of Orion Pictures, Amadeus, 1984.

Basic Training

Basic Training: Orientation

January 27, 2017May 28, 2025 Michelle Lesley

It’s an honor for me to be able to say that my family has a love of country and of military service. My dad served in the Army, as did his dad. My husband served in the Air Force. Our oldest is currently serving in the Air Force, and his younger brother is currently serving in the Navy. Numerous members of my extended family have served or are serving in every branch of the military.

If you’re close to someone in the military, maybe you’ve heard him tell heart-wrenching or horrifying tales of combat. But often, the more humorous stories are the ones that transpire prior to battle- while greenhorns are being transformed into soldiers, AKA: boot camp.

At boot camp, recruits undergo rigorous physical training, but they also learn the most basic of military customs, procedures, and protocol: how to stand in formation, how and whom to salute, how to march, how to properly wear their uniforms, and so on. Sometimes they goof these things up, and their drill sergeants…well…let’s just say their drill sergeants correct them in such a memorable way that the recruit won’t goof it up next time.

The military doesn’t expect civilians to know military procedure, which is why basic training exists. But they certainly expect seasoned soldiers, sailors, and airmen to know the fundamentals as well as they know how to breathe. We might chuckle at the story of a rookie confusing “attention” with “at ease,” but a lieutenant? A captain? We’d wonder what was wrong with him and why he hadn’t been properly trained.

Now, ladies, you and I may never march in the infantry, ride in the cavalry, shoot the artillery. We may never fly o’er the enemy, but we’re in the Lord’s army! Yes, sir! (A little VBS humor there for all you oldsters like me.) If God has been our C.O. for a while, we should know the basics of Christianity and the Bible.

But, sadly, I’m discovering more and more Christian soldiers who are clueless about some of the some of the most fundamental tenets of our faith. Not because they’re dumb. Not because they’re rebellious. Not because they don’t sincerely love the Lord. But simply because they’ve never had a drill sergeant who properly instructed them in these things.

Maybe that’s you. Maybe you’re a Christian who has spent most of her life in a church that was heavy on comfort and encouragement and light on doctrine. Maybe you’re a baby Christian who’s never darkened the doorstep of a church. Maybe you’ve been in a good church all your life and were out sick the day a particular subject was taught. We’ve all missed something along the way. Nobody has “arrived” yet. We’re all still learning, and we’re all in this together.

That’s why I’m starting a new blog series today that I’m calling Basic Training, and it’s for everybody, whether you’ve been saved for five minutes or fifty years. We’re going to cover several of the practical basics of church, the Bible, and Christian living. Things like…

Repeating a prayer doesn’t necessarily make you a Christian.
Christians are to join, and faithfully attend and serve, a doctrinally sound local church.
While Christians are not under the Old Testament law of the tithe, we are to generously, regularly, and cheerfully give offerings to our local church.
Homosexuals have to repent of their sin in order to be saved, just like everybody else.
Baptism is important and isn’t optional for a believer (not to become a believer).
Ditto the Lord’s Supper.
Being “led” by the Holy Spirit and studying and obeying the Scriptures He authored are not two separate and unrelated things.
Scripture prohibits women from preaching to, teaching Scripture to, and holding authority over men in the gathered body of believers.
Just because Jesus didn’t address a particular topic during His earthly ministry doesn’t mean we can do what we want to about it.
The Bible, not our own feelings or opinions, is to govern what we believe and what we do.
Cohabitation and sexual activity prior to or outside of wedlock are sins.

I probably won’t address every single one of those topics, and there are others I will address that aren’t included in the list above, but you get the idea: basic things you would expect someone who’s been a Christian for years to know and are surprised to find out she doesn’t.

Here’s where I need your help. As you can see, I’ve got a good list of topics started, but I don’t want to leave out something that’s important to a lot of people just because I didn’t think of it. What are some things you as a new believer, or someone who’s new to sound doctrine, need to know? If you’re older in the faith, what are some basic biblical teachings or issues you’re surprised to find other believers just aren’t aware of or knowledgeable about? Comment below and let me know. Let’s help each other out!