Two Big Reasons People Reject God

Many people reject God, but have you ever wondered why? The two biggest reasons are,

• Religious Hypocrisy

Imagine growing up in a home where your parents forced you to attend Church services but never talked about Jesus throughout the week. They always complained about society as if they were perfect saints trapped in a world of sinners. They never read the Scriptures and they never prayed before meals. They talked openly of the sins of others but never confessed their own.

For millions of people, this is not a life imagined but a description of the life they’ve already lived. I remember a neighbor of ours who did this, and every year, the man of the house would come and steal vegetables and fruit out of my father’s garden. And not just a little, all of it. I remember thinking, that my parents weren’t perfect, but at least they didn’t steal food from the neighbors. It just always bothered me, how people would talk about not sinning and then do it themselves.

No matter what form hypocrisy takes, it’s offensive to God, and to others. Brennan Manning famously said, “The greatest single cause of atheism in the world today as Christians who acknowledge Jesus with their lips, walk out the door, and deny Him by their lifestyle.” While it’s impossible to know for sure that hypocrisy is the greatest single cause of atheism, it’s certainly ranks towards the top. Jesus Himself rejected Rejected Religious Hypocrisy.

People who reject Jesus, are really rejecting the hypocrisy of others. The people who are spreading the hypocrisy are giving Jesus a bad name. Which causes people to reject the real Jesus. Jesus doesn’t claim religious hypocrites, so they who say they are religious will hear, “Depart from me I never knew you, just as the non-believers will.

• Pride

People want to run their own lives, they don’t want anyone -especially God to interfere with the way they are living. They want to be in control of everything they do, and they know that if they were to believe in God, they would have to change their lifestyle. Instead of living by their own list of what’s right and wrong, they would have to take seriously God’s moral standards.

Life without God, is to live without hope -hope for His presence, hope for eternity. Instead of knowing that God has put us here for a purpose, they end up living without any ultimate meaning in life. No wonder Psalm 14:1 says, The fool says in his heart, there is no God.