Does that statement, “Everyone is a believer…” get your attention? I hope so because if we can understand that truth, it will help us know how to respond to those who think they don’t believe in anything.
You see, everyone believes in something. I recently finished reading Nancy Pearcey’s book, Finding Truth: 5 Principles for Unmasking Atheism, Secularism, and Other God Substitutes.
She writes, “Humans have a tendency to look to some power or principle or person to make sense of life and give it meaning. And that constitutes their de facto religion, whether they use theological language or not.” (Location 397 Kindle).
She also states, “We could say that every concept of humanity is created in the image of some god.” (Location 404 Kindle).
She shares a story of a young adult who told her at a speaking engagement,
“I don’t think I’m a Christian anymore.”“That’s interesting,” I (Nancy) said. “What have you accepted instead?”“What?”“If there is no God, what then? What do you think is true, and how would you support it?”The teen was speechless. Her entire focus had been on reacting against her parents and church. It had not occurred to her that she now bore the responsibility to think through the options for herself and make an informed search for truth. (Location 2897, Kindle).
We all respond to life and people based upon our belief system. No one has a perfect belief system. All of us are like a color-blind person saying something is a particular color. The Holy Spirit wants to help us correct our color blindness. He also wants to use us, even with our imperfect and incomplete perspective of Christianity.
If you’d like to explore more about these ideas, I highly recommend Nancy’s book. It has helped me see that I can more effectually respond to another’s beliefs with grace and peace. I can ask them questions about their belief “filter” and seek to understand what they believe because every person is a believer.
(P.S. I don’t receive any benefit from recommending this book. But I wanted to share it with you because it was so beneficial to me.)