He described the world today: wars, persecutions, poverty, illness and diseases, starvation and so on, and he asked "Where is your God in all this? Why is He allowing it to happen?"
The Christian fellow tried to explain that God is in control, He does not make bad things happen, He allows them to happen, but he was not making much progress. The atheist maintained that if God loved people He would make all the bad things stop. The fact is that He does not exist.
The reality is that we don't know where God is in all this suffering. If we believe that He exists, then we know that He is suffering with us to see what we have made of this world and His many gifts to us. To put it bluntly, He left us in control and we messed up. If He took the reins once again He would be taking our free will from us and reduce us to mere robots following His will.
But try explaining all that to someone who does not believe in God's existence anyway.
The atheist turned his attention to Christianity and outlined how many wrongs Christians did over the centuries. How many wars Christians fought believing that God was on their side and how much evil they inflicted on society.
Yet again, a difficult point to defend. The reality is that we should not judge Christianity by the behaviour of Christians. Many Christians are far from being that, and Christ Himself would be ashamed to be associated with them. Many use the term Christian as a badge of identity rather than a way of life. For example, In the UK about 47% of people identify themselves as Christians. Yet regular weekly church attendance (all denominations) is around 5%. According to my maths this implies a lot of people are lying.
Indeed, Christians have done many wrongs throughout history and still do. Cynically, I would say they are exercising their free will to do so. However there is a great difference between Christianity and the way Christians behave.
Christianity means following Christ. Believing that He is the Son of God, that He died and was raised from the dead to redeem humanity, and to obey His Commandments. Namely to love God and to love one another. It is a difficult way of life. Some would say impossible.
Living every day as Christ's example. Loving and caring for everyone we meet. Not just feeling sorry for those worse off than us and needing help; but also being compassionate enough to do something about it. Forgiving those who have wronged us no matter how much we have been hurt. Being a true Christian role model for others.
This last one is really difficult. Being a true Christian role model for others.
When we look in the mirror, what image of Christianity do we portray. One that others would wish to emulate or avoid at all costs?
Now that's the real test of our Christianity. Not just a badge or a description of who we are, but a way of behaving that would identify us as different.
