Answer: Atheism, the no-God theory, is tolerated and even favored and furthered in many so-called Christian nations today, whereas the ancient Greeks considered atheism to be both immoral and irreligious, and they therefore detested and banned atheists from their midst. There were very few atheists among the ancient Greeks and Romans, and hardly any after the Pagan Roman Empire merged into the Christian Roman Empire, until about 1800, since which time atheism has been increasing. Atheism denies a Divine revelation, throws out the Bible, rejects the thought of a hereafter, has no place for sin-atonement, disparages all religious feelings and ridicules the thought of prayer. All atheists are infidels (unbelievers or disbelievers), but all infidels are not necessarily atheists, for some infidels believe there is a God but have no faith in a Divine revelation.

Many Christians are themselves in some respects and to some extent to blame for much of the atheism and infidelism that exists today, in part because of their apathy and inactivity in efforts to prevent the spread of these evils. It is also largely due to certain creedal errors from the Dark Ages, which errors are still held and taught by some sectarian Christians. These erroneous doctrines are not only contrary to the teachings of God’s Word, but are illogical, incomprehensible and absurd. Believing that the Bible teaches these doctrines, many reasoning people turn against Christianity and reject the Bible as the inspired Word of God. They thus become infidels or even atheists, denying the existence of God because of the way He is portrayed in some churches.

Eternal Torment Doctrine Responsible for Atheism and Infidelism

The blasphemous doctrine of eternal torment for the billions of mankind, except the comparably few who become Christians, is responsible for many becoming infidels and atheists. It was adopted from the heathen religions and adapted to the furtherance of Christianity. It helped to convert, rather scare, many into joining the Catholic and later the Protestant churches, claiming that the wages of sin is not death, as the Bible teaches (Romans 6: 23), but eternal life in torment; and various figurative, symbolic and parabolic statements in God’s Word, including those on death and hell, were wrested, twisted and misapplied, to make it appear that God is not all-wise, all-just, all-loving and all-powerful, but that He has arranged to eternally torment the bulk of His human creation, even though most of them never had a chance to hear of the only name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved (Acts 4: 12).

Robert Ingersoll, the well-known infidel, is one of many examples of those driven into repudiating the Bible because they believed it teaches some of the terrible and foolish things that were ascribed to it. He claimed that if there is a God of wisdom, justice, power and love, He could never be guilty of eternally torturing billions of His creatures, or even one of them, in the place generally described as “hell,” nor in any other way.

Higher Critics in Christendom Responsible for Higher Criticism and Evolutionism

The pulpits of Christendom are also filled with Higher Critics and Evolutionists, and almost all of our colleges and theological seminaries are graduating more of them, all antagonistic to the Bible and its teachings. These Higher Critics are doing exactly the same work that Thomas Paine and Robert Ingersoll did, only they are carrying on their work on a higher plane – appealing not so much to the gross and vile, but more particularly to the refined, intelligent and truth-seeking. As a result, their influence is a thousandfold more injurious. And the evolution theory, so thoroughly embedded in the textbooks of our colleges, high schools and even elementary schools, has done much to create atheism and infidelism in the younger generation.

Christians in general need to tell the people what the Bible Hell really is, and if they would preach only the Bible Truth on many other subjects (such as the nature of death, why and how the two resurrections from the dead take place, the nature of the soul and how it differs from the spirit, the difference between the Church’s and the world’s salvation, why God permits evil, the length and nature of the Judgment Day, the final fate of the incorrigible wicked, etc.), there would be fewer atheists and infidels.

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