Atheist claims Christianity is essentially a metaphor: “A Christian friend said that I needed to get closer to God. That is a visual metaphor, because, in reality, nobody can get closer to God.”

Christian response,

You are a naturalist…you are locked into and obsessed with naturalism…you have boxed yourself into the temporary, the discernible senses, that which is suffering decay via entropy and genomic degradation and you cannot see the Spiritual…a World that is more tangible, real, permanent, infinitely more intricate and superior than this temporary World constrained by Time and physics…but that’s your life in atheism and evolution and it will be your death as will Hell in your unbelief lest you repent and believe in Jesus Christ as your God and Mediator for your sin (John 3:16-18; John 8:24).

It is written concerning the atheist,

“13 And this is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom, but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words. 14 The natural man does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God. For they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. 15 The spiritual man judges all things, but he himself is not subject to anyone’s judgment.…” 1 Corinthians 2:13-15 (Berean Study Bible)