How should Christians stand up
for their faith
in such an anti-Christian world?

As Christians, the two things we can do to stand up for Christ are to live according to His Word and grow our own knowledge of Him. Christ said, “Let your light
shine before men…”

(Matthew 5:16).

This means that we should live and act in a way that supports the gospel. We should also arm ourselves with knowledge, both
of the gospel

(Ephesians 6:10-17)

and of the world around us.

First Peter 3:15

says, “But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give
the reason for the hope that
you have. But do this with gentleness and respect.” All we can do is live and teach as Christ would and let Him take care of
the rest.

Critics of Christianity have
become more vocal recently.
This is partly because there are many people who do not believe in God or understand the truth
about Him at all. Yet the
apparent increase of anti-Christians is also due to
perception. As with many topics, those who truly despise Christianity are the loudest and most vocal of the non-believers. The vast majority of those who
do not believe don’t care enough to bother believers. The
few angry, vocal, bitter unbelievers make enough noise to seem more numerous than
they are.

The typical insult from the non-religious crowd is to refer to believers as “ignorant,” “stupid,” “brainwashed,” or to otherwise suggest that those who have faith are less intelligent than those who do not. When a Christian stands up intelligently for his faith, the terms change
to “bigot,” “extremist,” or “zealot.” When people who know that the believer is kind and loving hear this, the atheist starts to look like the fool that
he or she is

(Psalm 53:1).
Most non-believers have no
personal reason to see Christians negatively, but they sometimes hear so much from
the loud anti-Christians that they just assume it is so. They
need examples of Christ-like
living to see the truth.

Of course, when someone claiming to be a Christian says or
does something that is not
Christ-like, the angry, loud crowd is there to identify him as a typical religious hypocrite. This
is something we have been
warned to expect

(Romans 1:28-30; Matthew 5:11).

The best thing to do is to cite a passage of the Bible that speaks
against what the person did,
and remind the atheists that just because a person says he is a Christian, and even if he thinks he is a Christian, that does not
mean that he is.

Matthew 7:16,20

tell us that true Christians will be known by their actions, not merely by their profession. And remind critics that absolutely no one lives without sinning at all

(Romans 3:23).

An important thing to
remember is that no one, no
matter how persuasive, can force anyone to believe anything he doesn’t want to believe. No matter what the evidence, no matter what the argument, people will believe what they
want to believe

(Luke 12:54-56).
Conviction is not a Christian’s job. The Holy Spirit convicts
people

(John 14:16-17),
and they choose whether or not to believe. What we can do is present ourselves in a way that is as Christ-like as possible. It is sad that there are many atheists who have read the
entire Bible looking for ammunition against Christians,
and that there are many Christians who have hardly read
the Bible at all.

It’s hard for the angry crowd to accuse a Christian of being a hateful, cruel bigot when that person demonstrates a life of
kindness, humility, and compassion. When a Christian can discuss, debate, or debunk secular arguments accurately, the label of “ignorant” no longer fits. A Christian who has read the secular arguments and can politely expose their flaws helps
to deflate the stereotypes
advanced by atheists. Knowledge is the weapon, and it is invincible when we let Christ
direct us in how to use it

God Loves You So Do I