It’s hard to convince Christians that friendship with the world is hatred towards God. When I speak too bluntly about atheism, I get comments like this one: “I make a distinction between atheist, some of whom I count among my friends, and anti-theists. Atheist simply don’t believe in a god, but are respectful of religion and the devout. Anti-theists hate religion and despise those who follow God.”
I understand wanting to make a distinction between God-haters you like and God-haters you don’t like. I get it. It’s tempting to separate the unbelievers into two groups based on how nicely they treat those of us who profess faith. I’d love to have scripture that says something like, “And though they rejected God, they were friendly toward His children and it was credit to them as righteousness.”
The Bible does not differentiate between different kinds of unbelievers. A fool is a fool is a fool. Rejecting Jesus separates you from God no matter how polite you are to church people. If you are a non-believer with a lot of Christian friends you need to know this — they can’t save you. Also, rejecting Christ while claiming to ‘respect Christianity’ is bonkers. Your Christians friends may give you a pass on that but God will not.
To be blunt (always my preference) Christians should stop applauding pagans for being ‘respectful’ or ‘tolerant’ of our religion. The Bible never credits pagans with any virtues. It is not our place to give credit where none is due.
“John, you jerk!! Why can’t you be nice!!! The Bible doesn’t tell us we can’t be nice to unbelievers!!!”
(James 4:4) “You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.”