Is Atheism Really Dead?

The following program is recorded content created by the Truth Network. That's 866-34-TRUTH. Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. Thanks for joining us, friends, today on the Line of Fire broadcast. This is Michael Brown, your voice of moral sanity and spiritual clarity, equipping you to stand strong in the faith in these uncertain and confusing times.

Here's the number to call, 866-34-TRUTH, 866-348-7884. Going to be joined by my old friend Eric Metaxas talking about his new book, Is Atheism Dead? And I want to ask you, did you come out of atheism to faith in Jesus? Were you once an atheist or maybe strongly agnostic, and now you are a strong believer? How did it happen? What was the trigger?

What was the process? I'd love to hear from you. 866-34-TRUTH, or if you're still an atheist or agnostic, what is it that is stopping you from coming to faith?

What are the strongest reasons or the strongest single reason that you do not believe? I'd love to hear from you as well. 866-34-TRUTH, number to call. I posted on Facebook and Twitter asking folks that have come from atheism to faith what brought them over. I want to read some of their comments to you as well. But first, October 19th, my newest book, Revival or We Die, comes out.

It's urgent. It's written with fire, with passion. I believe as you read it that fire and passion will ignite in you, that a vision for real revival will ignite in you, that the possibilities of revival will become real to you, that the depth of revival and the intensity of revival will become more understandable to you, that God will stir things in your own heart if you've left your first love, if you become complacent, if perhaps you've lost sight of the realities of the Word of God. I believe as you read this book, something will spark in you. You can go to our website, AskDrBrown.org, and pre-order an exclusive hardcover edition. This is a special printing that we've done, a hardcover edition signed and numbered. Along with that, a video download that will tell you more about the history of the book and take you through each chapter.

So you can get that exclusively on our website, AskDrBrown.org, A-S-K-D-R-Brown.org. And what I want to do is just read an excerpt from this book to you. It is from the chapter called Revival or We Die, and it's early in the book. It's not the opening chapter, but it's early in the book.

I want to read some of this to you because there are some quotes here that are quite jarring, that give us a perspective because, friends, often we lose track of where we really are because we get used to today. I always use the illustration that when I started teaching full-time at a Bible school on Long Island in 1983, I went out and got three three-piece suits. That was the style then, three-piece suits. It was this discount place for whatever, you know, direct to the public kind of little out-of-the-way place. And I think I got the three suits for $75, something like that. It was cheap even back then. But anyway, I switched between them teaching days and, you know, wear other things.

But those are the main ones I switched between. And then sometime after that, we moved to Maryland. Now some years have gone by. I decided to try on one of the suits. And to my shock, this suit had shrunk dramatically. I mean, I knew I put on a little weight, but not that much weight.

There's no way I put on that much weight. I was shocked when I put that suit on. To my greater shock, all three suits had shrunk.

Ah, suits didn't shrink. I put on more weight than I realized. But you get used to it.

You grow great gradually. You backslide gradually. Things happen and you don't realize it. The same with our culture, that things can degenerate in such a way, but we're in the middle of it like the proverbial frog in boiling water. We're in the middle of it. And because of that, we don't grasp what's really happening. We don't see the severity of it. And then something hits us between the eyes.

Boom! It's that wake-up call. Some of the spiritual clarity that we seek to bring to you as we speak. Some of the moral sanity we seek to bring. That's what happens as I read some of these quotes. So let me share some of this with you from the chapter Revival or We Die in my book Revival or We Die.

And team, I need my left screen on. So John Knox prayed, give me Scotland or I die. George Whitefield prayed, give me souls or take my soul. Today, tens of millions of American Christians need to pray, God, give us Revival or we die. There is no hyperbole in that prayer. Without a national awakening, America as we know it is doomed.

Now hear this, friends. 1944. How many of you were born then, alive then?

I'm born in 55 and I'm 66, right? So 1944, you're in your late 70s. In 1944, Reverend Peter Marshall declared, surely the time has come because the hour is late when we must decide and the choice before us is plain.

Yahweh or ba'al, Christ or chaos, conviction or compromise, discipline or disintegration. That was 1944, nine years before the first edition of Playboy. Compared to the epidemic of internet porn today affecting even our children, Marshall could never have imagined America falling this low.

1944 was a long time ago. 1959, Professor Robert Coleman wrote, in a day when unprecedented numbers of people have a form of religion, while at the same time the church seems unable to stem the rising tide of degeneracy that threatens the land, the question must be raised, why this paradox? Should not the church have influence for righteousness in proportion to her numbers? However one may seek to answer this question, it is obvious what we need is not more religion but more power. In short, we need real revival.

And this was written before the counterculture revolution of the 1960s swept the nation. How much more urgently do we need real revival today? 1969, Dr. Bill Bright wrote, we live in the most revolutionary period of human history.

Social band-aids and reform antiseptics give little hope for a cure or even an improvement. A revolution is needed. You can experience this revolution.

In fact, you can help bring it to pass. Also, in 1969, Reverend Tom Skinner wrote, I'm convinced America is at her crisis hour. Revolution is inevitable. It's just a matter of which faction is going to prove strongest and will win out in the end.

I believe most Americans are so apathetic that they will just sit back and go to whoever wins the struggle. The question is what would these men of God say today? 1969 was also a long time ago. It was the year of Woodstock. It was the year of the Stonewall Riots. But friends, I doubt that the most zealous gay activist in 1969 would have predicted the Supreme Court would one day redefine marriage or that the White House would light up in rainbow colors in celebration or that a quote married man would run for president married gay man would run for president or that another presidential candidate would say the transgender rights for the civil rights issue of our day or that a famous male athlete athlete would be declared woman of the year or that the American Library Association would endorse drag queens reading to toddlers.

No way. 1969 was four years before Roe v. Wade. Put another way, 1969 was four years before a court ruling would allow for more than 60 million babies to be aborted in their mother's wombs. How much more then do we need massive awakening today? How much more do we need a sweeping revival in the church that will spark a moral and cultural revolution in society? Okay, I'll stop here.

But you get the point. It is no hyperbole to say revival or we die. It is no hyperbole to say the hour is very dark.

The hour is very urgent. It is also no hyperbole to say that we could be on the verge of the greatest awakening America's ever seen. The cure has to be greater than the sickness.

The solution has to be greater than the problem. The demonstration of God's life changing power has to be greater than what we've seen in terms of Satan's death bringing power and the flesh and the world's death bringing power. And I truly, deeply believe that something is happening. That something is stirring.

It's not just a faith thing. The reports I hear, it's consistent in place after place where Jesus is being preached without compromise and there is place given to the Holy Spirit to move and lives are being dramatically impacted by the presence of God and the word of God and there's outreach to the lost. Things are happening. People are flocking to services. People can't wait to get to meetings and they're bringing friends that don't know the Lord. Those friends are getting touched and coming to the Lord. Something stirring, not just in one church or one location because that's not going to do it but all over America in hundreds of places, I'm expecting thousands of places, maybe it's already happening but just in very, very small seed form. This is the time to seize the moment. I've written Revival or We Die in the spirit of books that God moved on me to write back in the late 80s and early 90s.

Books that burn with fire as I write them and books that burn with fire as you read them. And I believe that this will be another tool to help spark this awakening that can lead to moral and cultural reformation. Spark this revival in the church that will lead to a moral awakening in the society. So by all means if you're able to get this, get a copy. Of course you can just go to Christian Book or Amazon wherever you order your books, Barnes & Noble online and get the paperback book or the ebook due to be released October 19th. But if you'd like to pre-order special hardcover edition signed and numbered and with a scripture verse we just always pray and think what's the right verse to put in with the book when we sign it.

We'll do that. It's our joy to send them out. We pray over the copies as we do. And then if you want to order multiple copies, maybe you want to get one to your pastor or maybe you want to get one to your leadership team. Just say hey want these to be signed to XYZ people will sign each of them individually as soon as the books come out.

We'll get them out to you. I believe something will spark as you read the book. With all my heart I believe it. That's why I wrote it and I couldn't have written it unless I was stirred to write it. I believe God stirred me to write it because He more than we wants to send revival.

He more than any of us wants to pour out His Spirit afresh and touch this nation and touch the world. So go to the website askdrbrown.org. You'll see it right on the home page. Again it's due out October 19th. We hope to have the books in before that time or right around that time and turn them around immediately and get them right out to you. We come back. We change our focus to atheism. We're going to look at some testimonies of how some of you came out of atheism. Take your calls 866-34-TRUTH and then speak to author Eric Metaxas about his book, Is Atheism Dead? Thank you for joining us friends.

Again the number 866-34-TRUTH. Hey don't forget to visit vitaminmission.com. Find out about healthy supplements that you can take for many many different areas of life and about a special coupon code to give you a discount when you get there. As one of our listeners with every order donations made to our ministry. In fact special announcement.

Mark this down. For the first time ever we're doing something on Friday. Dr. Mark Stengler is going to join me known as America's doctor or doctor of the decade leading naturopathic doctor in America. A brilliant man and a lover of the Lord and personal friend. He's going to join me on the air on Friday and it's Dr. Stengler that we're partnering with with these health supplements and he's going to answer your health questions. Now he could also talk about apologetics. He's really strong in the word and theology and apologetics but he's going to come on to join me to talk about health questions. Medicine questions. Yeah. So we're going to open the phones Friday for something we've never done. Instead of ask Dr. Brown it's going to be ask Dr. Stengler. So start lining up with your questions.

It's been an amazing day. Okay so I'm thinking about atheism today because Eric Metaxas' new book asks the question is atheism dead? When Nancy and I met in 1974 at the age of 19 she was a hardcore atheist. I mean she was not just yeah I don't think there's a God but she was she was militant that there was no God. Before she was eight eight years old at the oldest she concluded she remembered concluding it would be great if there was a God it's a shame there is not and was was hardcore atheist when we met looked at religious people as weak and to this day because it was so real in her life before God transformed her and saved her to this day she can tell me no no no you're missing the point. I'll say hey how does this sound interacting with nazis you know that sounds stupid or it sounds like this or it doesn't convey what they're thinking and a lot of our answers will sound strong to us like you know we'll say to an atheist the atheist says okay you're a you're God is like a lifeguard and he sees people out there drowning and and he just lets them drown I you know what kind of person is that what kind of God is that and we say well they're drowning by their own choice and their own free will and etc and she said yeah but the atheist is thinking if the God you believe is that good and that power he is gonna do something to save those people anywhere and and many arguments I've raised she's shown me that from the viewpoint of the atheist they sound hollow and I've had to rethink them and rephrase them so to this day it's something that sharpens me and there are people who are atheists and it's mainly intellectual the others who are atheists and it's it's mainly emotional or experiential but I'm interested to know how so many atheists have come to faith over the years so I posted a question on Facebook on Twitter here's what Manuel wrote on Facebook I started reading the Bible with the intention of proving it was false and when I got to the Gospels I realized that I'd become a believer in God Jesus was like no other person I'd ever known and that was what impacted me the most I would say then that what most changed my mind was the person of Jesus and how the Gospels did not read like a story but like real events I also came to learn various apologetic arguments for God at that time which changed my view of faith I believe faith was blind ignorant but I soon came to realize it was actually quite rational what a great statement what an amazing statement and interesting that just reading the Gospels he came to conclusions that other scholars have come to in terms of the nature of the writing and the biographical content of the writing and of course uniqueness of the person of Jesus Daniel said this not an atheist but was a believer of Eastern religions made a prayer in a crisis to believe in God when God answered my prayer prayer got answered but I thought it was coincidence from then I knew God was just preparing the right moment in two years of carrying I went to church then all lined up I received Christ then all is history let's see over on Twitter Juan says I was an agnostic I think it started with the deep revelation that if evil existed perfect goodness had to exist and then I realized that the resurrection was in fact through the martyrdom of the Apostles then personal turmoil and I knew I needed God so I sought him so it's not interesting Nancy had that same deep revelation that evil existed but in a personified way in other words there there was personified evil hence a Satan hence a being who was completely malevolent and destructive and then the light went on Nancy remembers where she was when I have the light went on if there is personified evil then there is personified good if there is Satan there is God and then of course God made himself real in her life so Juan comes to a similar type of conclusion then the fact that the Apostles the followers of Jesus were willing to die for their faith vouchsafed to him the reality of the resurrection and then go through personal crisis he knew he needed God it's so interesting to see how things unfold you know I talked yesterday about the spirit of fear as it relates to COVID and you know in the past you get the flu okay you get the flu you're not thinking I'm gonna die I'm gonna oh no I'm gonna die but but this is just in the air and although I may just die so a lot of people who were kind of smug in terms of their religious beliefs or discounted any notion of God or something struck with reality of life and death I was talking to someone that lost a loved one and religious person not a follower of Jesus and they were saying you know losing this loved one kind of shook them because it's something made them questionable what's the purpose of this world and why are we here and is there more just open up a new way of thinking for them Cody says the three things for him the reasonableness of Christianity God's spirit quote pestering me yeah I love that word he's got in quotes pestering yep understood and learning about conditional mortality is a viable biblical alternative to eternal conscious torment so for him the idea that God will consciously torment people forever like you know roasting you on the barbecue on one side and flipping you over on the other side forever and ever and ever was impossible for him to conceive of if God was a good and just God but the idea that God would one day destroy the wicked utterly was something that opened up a door of faith for him that's interesting Linda the concept of soul when my brother was sick he was in physical pain but I felt painful also I realized that we have souls when we die our souls have to have a place to go that promote promoted me that you meant prompted me to seek God yeah interesting interesting let's see here um Gale after a ton of seeds were planted God put a New Testament study Bible in my hands and I started reading the intro and some of the gospels and I believed don't ever underestimate the power of God's written word yes yes yes Gale one of the best things that I saw happen in UK a number of years ago in the UK was in response to the rise of these best-selling atheist authors some of them in England Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens being the two principal ones and and atheism taking root more deeply in the culture I mean a you'd be surprised how how many people in the UK outside of the Muslim world so would you get take that religious group out and then it's actually a minority Christian view in terms of true Christian the percentage of atheists was staggered to see that years ago but what one Bible Society did to counteract that was just mass-produced copies of the Gospel of Mark the shortest of the Gospels in a certain sense the most direct to the Gospels so we just get that out just get that out of course it's great to have intellectual responses to atheism by all means and an apologetic responses and philosophical responses on different levels of course by all means we do that but as Gail said don't ever underestimate the power of God's written word Jonathan my depression left and my heart was glad and steadfast knowing I was loved by him Wendy I realized that I'm a sinner looking at the Ten Commandments made me realize I was headed to hell about Jeremy it began when I made the statement there is no truth and a friend asked me is that a true statement come on that's the that's the law and probably popularized by Frank Turk others have used it but dr. Frank Turk when someone says to you there is no truth say is that true that a true statement so for him it began when I made the statement there is no truth and a friend asked me is that a true statement that healthy helped me shift my thinking from atheism to agnosticism but I was still convinced religious faith was for unscientific unintelligent uneducated people looking for comfort just the first chapter of mere Christianity destroyed that notion boom I love I'm I'm getting blessed reading these I hope you are Marcus to be fair I was more agnostic they're just as guilty of having no excuse first was learning realizing the difference between observational and forensic science next was a reminder of how assumptions and the scientific method can drastically affect the outcome then the case for intelligent design then the evidence for biblical reliability and accuracy then the evidence for the resurrection then I accepted Christ so I love that intellectual process getting them to think to rethink to analyze to question to go deeper to go deeper and then to encounter the Lord that's awesome I love that a Trina cosmological design DNA and the fulfilled prophecies of the Bible yeah this is just wonderful to read Daniel supernatural intervention I don't mean the quasi weird coincidences that most Christians ascribe to the supernatural I had a straight-up visionary demonic encounter filled testimony that perpetuated on an ongoing basis for over a year if the Lord can reach out and save me he can save anyone do I have time for one more Matt for me God used a series of people and events spanning about four years from when I was 17 to when I was 21 to rescue me from atheism it started with a health scare at high elevation in Peru the last one was that going to a super small church inadvertently when I was curious meant that I wasn't anonymous and talked with the pastor that's beginning of the process so there's relationship there's supernatural intervention this intellectual process logical deduction all kinds of things the power of the word God moves in many many different ways there's no one-size-fits-all because everybody's different but God moves in these many many different ways to bring people to himself maybe you're next maybe you're an atheist you're agnostic why are you even listening to the broadcast today maybe you're next we return with Eric Metaxas the line of fire with your host Dr. Michael Brown get into the line of fire now by calling 866 34 truth here again is Dr. Michael Brown well there's a brand new book out actually about to be released with a provocative title is atheism dead the author is Eric Metaxas my good old friend Eric Metaxas and it's a complete coincidence it it's an absolute shocking coincidence I happen to decide to talk about the book today and he just happened to be waiting on the phone to do this interview at this specific moment that I was about to in oh sorry it's not a coincidence we planned it ah could it be that this world was planned that this universe was planned that life is not just some random accident that's one of the reasons that Eric wrote the book is atheism dead hey welcome back to the line of fire agreed to have you on my show this time I really do think it's a coincidence I had no idea I didn't even know that you existed I wasn't sure that I existed I certainly wasn't sure whether God existed and now we all know that we exist isn't this wonderful it's just it's just amazing and you know the funny thing is that you actually sound like the guy that I knew from years ago that happened to call in today with the same name I'm the same guy you know the poor the poor audience listening who are these two wackos we know Mike but who's this friend of his honestly Mike I am thrilled to be on with you I'm thrilled to talk about the subject of this book I honestly I didn't know that I was going to write this book so one of these weird things where you just have to assume the Lord gave it to you to do and it's called is atheism dead and and the evidence for God in this is so astonishing I can't take credit for it right it's so astonishing that I have a burden to get this out to believers because I said when you understand how much evidence there is from science you won't even believe it because we've been led to believe that faith and science you know they're on different pages and forget about it and the more science you learn you know the more doubt you get about God it is exactly the opposite and I want to scream it from the rooftops science by God's grace I mean you know one way we know we may be living in the end times is strange things are revealed like evidence from science from you know from from advanced science that we couldn't have known 30 years ago or whatever why do we get to be alive when this stuff comes out so I said I've got to put it in the book it's going to encourage believers and it's going to shock agnostics and people because I don't think they even thought none of us really thought this was possible so since the Lord allowed me to bump into this stuff I said I've got to put it in a book and I want to get people as excited as I am because it's true so obviously for everyone listening this is not just a book to edify you as a believer but a great book to give to friends of yours that say they're atheist or agnostics or maybe that lost their faith and this will kind of jar them back to reality and Eric you know my training my PhD is in Semitic languages I'm not scientifically trained I've read I've learned I've been astonished by what I've read and I've talked to other scientists on this broadcast and I said in your view the more scientific discoveries that are made you think it's going to be harder and harder for people to be atheists and they all say oh absolutely so I mean how long ago was it that we didn't know DNA existed and then you had the so-called junk DNA that couldn't be explained and realized well that's actually not junk so let's start if you had to pick one thing that has been most jarring to learn scientifically which to you is clear evidence of God let's let's start there obviously I have a bunch in your book but well there yeah there are three I mean the book it's called is atheism dead and it really takes its title from the Time magazine article 1966 it was a you know big cover story 1966 is God dead and it was kind of like well the evidence is pointing in that direction blah blah blah blah blah we were kind of at that point in the culture where where people began wondering yeah I don't know it seems like science and logic and reason are pushing faith out and the reason I wrote this book with the title is God dead is that since about that time since about 1966 evidence has been coming in from all over the place but mostly science that is so astonishing and then the funny thing Mike is that people just never hear about it now that it's one thing to have astonishing evidence but then you think if nobody hears about it does it even exist I mean you know if you if you never hear that science is pointing to God you're living in a world where it's not true well I'm here to say it is and then the number one argument from science because I talk about science I talk about biblical archaeology which is also unbelievable stuff has been coming out and then I talk about a piece of itself in the end of the book but the science part of the three things that I write about probably the easiest to grasp is what we call the fine-tuned universe the idea that science keeps discovering things about our universe which it couldn't have known before we didn't have the tools to see these things but now we can see things and measure things and we say holy cow if the earth were a little bit bigger or a little bit smaller there's no life we didn't learn that growing up in school science now says that if the earth were the tiniest bit bigger and I mean just a tiny bit bigger our gravity would be obviously stronger and we would pull down you know poisonous things into the atmosphere that right now we we couldn't breathe them they're they're they're they're drifting up you know they exist but but but if the if the planet were bigger science says yes the our atmosphere we would not be able to exist they say if the planet were the tiniest bit smaller our magnetosphere now people say what's a magnetosphere exactly why aren't we learning about this if the science says the magnetosphere is necessary to keep our atmosphere roughly as it is if the planet were a little bit smaller like say the size of Mars we would have an atmosphere like Mars our our atmosphere would have escaped into outer space I mean that's a really simple thing but this is what science says this is not what some Christians think this is what science teaches and that's one tiny example but everywhere you look science keeps finding things so they say wow what a great coincidence that the earth is exactly the size it is because if it wasn't there's no humanity there's no life we've we've discovered that the planet Jupiter who would think that it matters whether Jupiter is there or is not there what does it have to do with life on earth well we didn't know until fairly recently that and again this sounds crazy this is what science says it says that Jupiter is so huge and its gravity is so powerful that it pulls away all kinds of asteroids and meteors and comets that would hit earth in other words if they're aiming at earth it is the tremendous gravity extending throughout the you know it's kind of funny because you think that gravity it it doesn't it reaches through our whole solar system and it is pulling these things away toward itself we're talking about Jupiter right now and science now says yeah by the way if Jupiter weren't there oh yeah there'd be about a thousand times as many asteroids comets meteors hitting the earth and I write in the book what happens when a meteor asteroid of any site hits the earth it is devastating it's one it's what destroyed Sodom 1700 BC and Abraham could see the smoke from 40 miles away it it's only recently that science understands that that this tiny pinprick in the sky if you if you know astronomy and you look up and you can tell yet today we can see Jupiter that tiny tiny thing of billion and you know so far away if it weren't for that and again coincidence if it weren't for that there's no life on earth those are just a couple of things but it goes on and on and on and every year that has passed we found more evidence and more evidence so it's like science is doing the opposite of what they said science is pointing to God because you think this looks not just you know like like it was created by an intelligence but it looks like it was created with such complexity that it's breathtaking many scientists have lost their atheist faith as a result of this which shake in their faith because they think that doesn't make any sense how can everything be so perfectly perfectly fine-tuned and again I'm not even scratching the surface but it adds up and up and up and up the exit there's a chapter on water in the book no one will believe that water is one of the most baroque intense creations we can't think oh it's just water it is a masterpiece of God the details of of the water molecule again this is stuff that nobody thinks about what science has been thinking about it and science tells us if the water molecule worked slightly different there is no life water obviously when it gets frozen it floats so you think what other liquid when it becomes a solid becomes lighter and floats very very very very few if water didn't have that strange capacity there's no life on earth I mean he goes on and on so that's the fine-tuned universe and you know I'll tell you Christopher Hitchens the famous atheist he was asked once what's the most powerful argument from the other side he goes oh without question the fine-tuned argument and he says all my colleagues would agree that's the one that you know really pulls us up short and what I find funny is that that's that's like you know 15 years ago the evidence keeps coming in and I just scratched the surface in the book but it's going to take people's breath away how God has designed the universe and the earth I mean that's that's to me that's the big one amazing amazing Stephen Meyer a director of the Center of Science and Culture at the Discovery Institute probably most famous for his book the signature of the cell says about the book is atheism dead a beautifully written highly readable compendium of scientific archaeological and historical evidence highly recommended for anyone wrestling with the big questions and when duck you Ross of reasons to believe astrophysicist physicists endorsed the book he mentioned your great oratorical skill and irrepressible humor you know Eric is I as I think of that the way you communicate the picture I've had in my nine's non-scientific mind as you know you go in the opposite direction from the massiveness of the universe and its mathematical precision you get smaller and smaller and smaller and smaller into something that it's like you could put a billion of these on the pin of a headers you know however it's described right and then my mind you got a little factory there and you finally get to like all the way down there's a little guy gives you thumbs up like hey we got we got this running smooth it's like how it's just so did you feel we got 30 seconds before before our break did you feel that God gave you the grace to communicate these really difficult concepts in ways no doubt no doubt that's God's his biggest gift to me is my ability to communicate sort of complex things in a way that everybody can get it I feel that is so important it's not just for scientists it's not just for everybody who can think needs to know the evidence for God is increasing dramatically God is doing it for for this time at the darkness seems all around us the light is shining brighter so yes he's given me that gift and that's why I said I've got to write this book I want everybody to know this stuff not just some scientists all right now I'm I'm also hoping for a miracle that actually get a physical copy of of the book yeah we as soon as they ask would you like to have Eric on of course and I get on your show all the time so get to the mine also but we'll be right back with Eric attacks it's got a few more minutes to go the new book just about to come out but it's already the number one best-selling book on atheism on Amazon that should tell you something is atheism dead it's the line of fire with your host activist author international speaker and theologian dr. Michael Brown your voice of moral cultural and spiritual revolution get into the line of fire now by calling eight six six three four true here again is dr. Michael Brown hey friends Michael Brown here less than 30 minutes from now so for 15 Eastern time you can join us over on our YouTube channel ask dr. Brown ask ADR Brown for our exclusive weekly YouTube chat you get to post any question on any subject that we relate to in any way we get to as many questions as we can for about a one-hour period so for 15 Eastern time of the less than half an hour from now join me at ask dr. Brown on YouTube love to have you there interact we'll have a great time digging into the word and beyond together all right back to my guest Eric Metaxas author of the new already best-selling book is atheism dead Eric you wrote an article about seven years ago in the Wall Street Journal that took off we surprised by and how does that relate to the subject of your book well it's what got me to write this book I wrote I wrote a previous book called miracles and in it I talked about what I just mentioned on this program the fine-tuned universe and the evidence is just crazy and in the last seven years it's increased and increase increase increase and I thought you know I thought I put some of it back in that book miracles and I wrote an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal and it went so viral that it became the most popular shared article in the history of the Wall Street Journal and it was the same thesis as we're talking about now is is science pointing to God I mean most people think that can't be I keep hearing over and over that scientists is is pushing us away from God the more science we learn the less we need God that is totally untrue and that's the thesis of this book is that everything you've been taught the opposite is happening and we need to know that science as every day that passes the more science discovers the more it points atheist agnostics whomever to the God of the Bible or at least to a god and then I I get into other stuff in this gray in the in the book about biblical archaeology most people don't know for example that a guy that I've got to know Dr. Stephen Collins archaeologist believer he discovered biblical Sodom there is an entire chapter in the book it's one of these things that you know when you first hear it you think this it can't be he can't discover this is 1700 BC this is Abraham's time this is so long ago and it must have been obliterated you'll never find it's probably under the Dead Sea this man because he believes in the scripture he was reading Genesis and he says you know what according to this we've never looked where the scripture says it is it's up here north of the Dead Sea on the kickoff plane that this green area this fertile area around the Jordan River he in the in the 90s figure this out and in the early 2000s went to Jordan which you know would be tougher to do a few decades ago he finds a so-called tell these are one of these you know they build cities on top of city to top these have a huge mound of where these ancient cities we find when he says I think this is it they dig when he gets to the 1700 BC level in the excavation boom they find an amazing level of soot five feet deep nobody knows what to make of it there's nothing that can cause this it doesn't make any sense within it he finds a piece of pottery from exactly that period 1700 BC and he sees a glassy green glaze on the pottery he goes that the technology to do this didn't exist until 24th centuries after 1700 BC why is this glazed pottery which I know is from 1700 BC how is this possible they take it to a lab and they determine the only thing that could could have produced this is the heat so intense that it melted the pottery there was an article in nature magazine two weeks ago just two weeks ago where 21 scientists weighed in on all that this archaeologist Stephen Collins discovered 21 secular scientists in the premier journal of the day okay he wrote a peer-reviewed article corroborating everything that he says and saying that the only way this could have happened this destruction was a cosmic airburst event what is that that is when a meteor or asteroid comes into the earth's atmosphere and explodes this one was so powerful it was the equivalent of at least 1000 Hiroshima bombs now you think about that it's incomprehensible what kind of destruction are we talking about well this is what Dr. Collins found I write about it in detail in the book there's a whole chapter on this because I want the world to know hey you think the Bible is folk tales we just discovered Sodom you didn't think you could go that far far back in the Bible you think the party go back the more mythical it is there is zero question that everything it says in early the early chapters of Genesis has been corroborated by scientists and stuff now they're not going to say God is real but they write about this in such detail that you think wow this is you know why did we even find this spot we found this spot because Dr. Collins was led to it by the scripture why did he even look there because he felt this is where the Bible sits out of it and they dig and sure enough they find all this stuff that scientists say well yeah this is exactly what happened this was this kind of an advantage it's so amazing that the world needs to know this believers especially need to know that archaeologists continue to find stuff corroborating the scripture it's crazy I mean it's it's like this should be on the cover of the New York Times you know every other week and the scientific discovery should be on the cover of of these newspapers are but people have sort of ceased covering pro-god stuff they kind of act like now we we already figured out it there's nothing to it and you know we're gonna ignore it well I just said so much stuff has come across my purview I said I need to put this in a book people won't believe it because most of this stuff has not been reported on and when I ask even Christians who know about this stuff a lot of them they haven't heard of some of these things I said they're not they're not going to believe half of what I write in here I don't know if I mentioned it earlier Mike but one of the most amazing I discovered is that two of the most famous dedicated atheist of the 20th century Albert Camus and Jean Paul Sartre these two existentialist atheists both of them came to faith in God right at the end of their lives independently 20 years apart nobody seems to know this and and this is when I have to ask Lord why did you give me this information like why do I get the privilege of telling people this is this is astonishing I mean this is you know it's like saying Hitler became a Christian you know but on his deathbed you'd be like wait wait wait well what would you say like that no I've never heard that these are two people they dedicated their lives to writing books about a world without God and at the end of their lives each of them totally independently one in 1960 the other in 1980 they came to faith in God and it seems to Christian faith I mean you have to read the details in the book but I thought how come I've never heard this the headline this is big stuff so there's a lot of that kind of stuff and I I I'm so excited about this I want I should say I want people to pre-order it because it doesn't come out till October 19th and you know we live in a secular world yeah my next book revival or we die comes out on October 19th so that's further proof come on and here we are today listen Eric you know I had an author on last week and I told him I've never heard him as enthusiastic about his book as he was I've never heard you know I never have been yeah I never have been this is God gave this to me I can't take credit I'm not like some guy that's been researching this stuff for years I just read enough science I met a man named James Tor you may know him he's a messianic believer he's in Houston at Rice University one of the greatest scientists alive on planet earth he's the one that woke me up to be one of the other scientific proofs that because he knows more about this than anybody nobody ever asked where did life come from we argue about okay once there's life how did it evolve did God do it or what I'd you know what how did it happen but nobody ever asked scientists hey excuse me they'll talk he says they're still working on that they haven't figured that out but that's the point everybody says they're still working on it but this guy says no no no no no they're not still working on it they're dead in the water they've been dead in the water for 70 years and he gives chapter and verse so I interviewed him for the book but it's one of those things that if you need proof of God how about the fact that for 70 years scientists have been trying to tell us how life came into being they don't have the beginning of a clue we kind of think like well they sort of know they know absolutely nothing and and and Jim Tor who was on my radio program yesterday were aware that I think tomorrow he gives you details that they are afraid to even talk about it because it's humiliating that they know absolutely nothing there's a lot of this kind of stuff in the book that I think when people read it they're going to be amazed and I think it's a great you know it's a great to give to somebody who isn't sure what they believe they have to be an atheist they just say you know what I don't know I don't think there's any evidence you say oh yeah well tell me what you think about this I think it's going to blow people's minds and I think that you know the scripture about when the enemy comes in like a flood the Lord the Spirit will raise up a standard against them I feel like we're living in a time like that right now where the enemy is coming like a flood everywhere you look at chaos confusion wickedness I think the Lord has put this information in our hands now that we didn't know years ago 50 years ago science can tell if this all this stuff is recent and I think it's the bolster believers to say that the evidence is going to get stronger and stronger as things get darker the light of the Lord is going to get stronger and so I said you know what 50 years ago they said is God dead today we say is atheism dead and five years after that Time magazine headline the headline was the Jesus revolution God said yeah I'm going to fight back the same here friends the new book by Eric Metaxas pre-order it now is atheism dead hey listen Eric right of time but I got a word of advice for you you may want to think about your own radio show you're a pretty good talker you may want to think about that okay I've okay I'm begging everyone please go to my website at ericmetaxas.com I've been cancelled off of YouTube sign up for the newsletter and there's a cheap way to get the book there if you look ericmetaxas.com I'm you can tell I'm excited and I'm grateful to you my friend thank you thanks man great having you out here God bless buddy bye bye all right hey like I said never heard of that excited about a book and he said he's never been that excited I can't wait to look at this myself in more depth is atheism dead another program powered by the truth network