Sunday, April 5, 2009

Why An Atheist Could Not Hear The Voice Of God.

Some people do not believe you can hear the voice of God. If you do not believe that it is possible to know God, this might be understandable. If you claim you are an atheist then, you would be inclined to ridicule someone who claimed to hear the voice of God, because you would be sceptical about hearing the voice of God.

Most atheists are really skeptics. This is because they are uncertain whether God exists, not because they are sure that God exists. Even if an atheist were to hear the voice of God, it would be difficult for the atheist to recognize this as God's voice. This is why an atheist could not hear the voice of God.

When I was twelve years old, I heard the voice of God. You might think that I was gullible at the age of twelve. Well, I was a thief. I was a liar. I was many other things, as well. And I was gullible, to a certain extent. As a twelve year old, I tended to trust adults, but not so much other children or even older youth. When I heard the voice of God as a twelve year old, the circumstances were more convincing that even if it was not God who was speaking to me, what I heard could qualify as being God's voice.

Where I grew up, thieving was frowned upon and if anybody was caught stealing at school this was shameful. It was a different story when it came to stealing from shops. Shoplifting was seen as a sport in a way, but one where there was an immediate prize. I was introduced to shoplifting at the age of eight by older boys I associated with and found acceptance into their little gang through nicking stuff for everybody. They all stole, but sharing the goodies was part of the membership dues, so to speak.

One school associate of mine, who was not a member of that gang I was involved in, went shoplifting with me once. We had that much gear, we had to steal bags to put the stuff in. In fact, I had difficulty carrying the stuff home in the large leather bag I had stolen. My mother asked me where I got all the stuff from, and I said I had found it on the roadside. She told me that she would find the owner. I agreed to that thinking she would be giving me all the goodies back. Somehow they all disappeared and I never ever saw the leather bag again. And my mother wouldn't tell me what she did with all the gear.

We moved house to the other side of town and I ceased associating with that particular gang. As a consequence of this, shoplifting was not something I was doing very much. In fact, I stopped. But when I was twelve, I was with an associate who shoplifted on a regular basis. We were in the basement of a toy shop and decided to take some stuff without paying. There was only one person working in the shop, so we thought this would be easy. My associate had already taken some expensive toy and was up the stairs. There was only myself in the basement. I was about to put my hands on what I had decided would be good for me to steal when I heard a voice say, "That is against God!"

At first I thought it was my associate playing games with me. Only it did not sound like his voice, it was a deeper voice like that of an adult. I looked around the aisles and no body was in the basement. I went upstairs and there was my associate waiting for me. We walked past the shop attendant and down the street. My associate wanted to see what I took. He had an imitation pistol. I had nothing. My associate couldn't understand why I had nothing. Then I told him what happened. He thought I was hearing things and going mad. From that time on we had nothing to do with each other.

If I was an atheist I would have been uncertain if that was the voice of God. But as it was, I believed there had to be a Creator and he was God. I believed God existed. I had no real proof that God existed, I just accepted that God existed. My friend, the angel who would appear to me from time to time, did not tell God existed. If he did, I have no recall. In fact, I cannot remember whether my angel friend had ever spoken to me when I was young. I know I used to speak to him and tell him what I thought. He seemed to appear when I was feeling despondent and I would tell him my troubles.

Initially, when I heard the voice say, "That is against God", I thought it was my associate. But then when I didn't see him in the basement, I realized it wasn't him because the voice was deeper than his and an adult's voice.

You might think that this was my conscience speaking to me. Some people believe their conscience is the voice of God. There is good argument that a person's conscience is God's voice, and everybody hears the voice of God, but when they commit sin by doing something evil like stealing, lying or commit some other violation of the moral code, people harden their heart by suppressing their conscience. This is how people become atheists. When a person hardens his heart by suppressing his conscience, he becomes uncertain that God exists.

In my case, that was not my conscience speaking to me when I heard that voice because it was as if the person was standing right behind me and not something within me speaking to me. I also heard the voice with my own ears. The voice was not a product of my imagination and neither was I in a hypnotic trance or merely thinking the words. What I was thinking was whether the toy machine gun was too big to get past the shop attendant without being seen.


2 comments:

Thesauros said...

Hi - I've had a similar experience. When I was about 20 or so, I was working as a bar-tender. Someone came up to the bar to report a fight going on outside. I went out and (I can hardly relive this) - in fact I won't. I'll only say that I hurt someone really bad. Why he didn't die I'll never know.

Anyhow, as I turned to go back into the bar the crowd that had gathered parted like the Red Sea and this Thought, this Voice, this Thought-Voice said, "You are a very sick young man. You need Me."

I remember my head snapping up and my eyes going way wide and I was looking at the people kinda sideways to see what their reaction was. Obviously they hadn't heard anything out of the ordinary. It was still another 6 or 7years before I became a Christian but since then I've talked to other people who've had a similar experience. All of them are now Christians. Some were Christians at the time and some weren't. That's where I got the term "Thought Voice." Anyhow -

I've heard many atheists say something like, "Why won't Jesus just appear in front of me? Then I'd believe." The fact is, even if Jesus appeared in front of an atheist it wouldn't make any difference. That would be a miracle and atheists don't believe in miracles. If Jesus just appeared, the atheist would come up with a naturalistic explanation of go merrily on h/her way.

Happy Riches said...

Interesting term, "thought voice".

The difference between a thought and voice is the former can be expressed silently, while the other requires sound.

I suppose we could say thought could be like "light" and voice would be like "wind".

A dog may hear the same command, but if it is not its master's voice, the dog often will not respond accordingly.

In a car one day with an acqaintance sitting in the front seat, and his mother sitting in the back seat, I spoke and his mother did not hear me. When my acquaintance spoke, his mother instantly recognized his voice and responded.

We recognize sounds, whereas understanding thoughts are not so easy.

To have "thought voice" suggests that there is more to the thought than an idea, because is needs some form of sound to be voiced.

In this context, a "though voice" would stand out as not being a person's normal thought, but one that has emphasis attached to it.

Such a thought suggests external influence. I can understand how a person having such a thought would ponder it rather than let it fly pass the bat.