Atheist, June V, stated: “After spending about 3 years on Topix forums and being informed on a daily basis that my religious beliefs were stupid … I came to finally agree. However … when I wanted others to agree that their religious beliefs were also stupid … I found out in a hurry that they didn’t agree with me. For mysterious reasons, agreement only seemed to work one way.”

A Christian response…

June represents “the seed that was sown on rocky places” as she is part of the unrepentant “many” in this lost and dying World seeking death in sin and Hell (Matthew 7:13-14); June is knowledgeable about God and His righteousness as per the Scriptures but she never truly trusted in Jesus Christ as Lord. There are “many” who have a mental assent relevant to Jesus’ deity and His reality but never trusted in Him as Messiah (Matthew 7:21-23). It is these unfaithful people my Lord spoke of in the Parable of the Sower and the Seed in Matthew 18.

Jesus and the Parable of the Sower and the seed…

Hear then the parable of the sower. When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart. This is the one on whom seed was sown beside the road. The one on whom seed was sown on the rocky places, this is the man who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; yet he has no firm root in himself, but is only temporary, and when affliction or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he falls away. And the one on whom seed was sown among the thorns, this is the man who hears the word, and the worry of the world and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful. And the one on whom seed was sown on the good soil, this is the man who hears the word and understands it; who indeed bears fruit and brings forth, some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty.”  Matthew 18:13-23 (NASB)

Jesus said…

“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. 22 Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ 23 And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.’ Matthew 7:21-23 (NASB)

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I too walked in a World of compromise from my teenage-years to my mid-30’s playing games with God, possessing a knowledge of partial Truth, but justifying my sin by spiritualizing the few Scriptures I knew and twisting them to mean something they did not mean; I was fully aware of my self-deceit but found comfort and justification in same none-the-less.

It was not until my first actual read/study of the New Testament, at 35-years-of-age, that I found Jesus Christ was truly Who He claimed to be and it was during that first read that my life was changed forever. That was 27-years ago and I only give thanks and praise to my God for His mercy and faithfulness for having given me the grace to know Him personally.

Those who play games with God are rather easily swayed away from the Truth because they have no root in the Holy Spirit and they live according to the old proverb…

“For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world by the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and are overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first. For it would be better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn away from the holy commandment handed on to them. It has happened to them according to the true proverb, “A dog returns to its own vomit,” and, “A sow, after washing, returns to wallowing in the mire.” 2 Peter 2:20-22 (NASB)

But Jesus has said concerning those who have truly entered into a relationship with God the Father by grace through faith in the Son and having been subsequently sealed by the Holy Spirit of God…

Jesus said concerning His faithful…

“My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.” John 10:27-30 (NASB)

So then, we see a sharp delineation and contrast between those who play games with God and straddle the fence of faith, unbelief and disobedience compared to those who have humbled themselves and fully trusted in Jesus as Lord and subsequently received the Holy Spirit as a Seal of relationship (Ephesians 1:13). The differentiation is as stark as death v. life in the Spirit and Heaven v. Hell in Eternity.