An Atheist Went To Heaven (Part 2)

Welcome to Part 2 of our Holy Note breakdown of Episode 311 in which a creator by the name of Big Nick suggests that the testimony of a former atheist who died and went to heaven proves the pre -existence of our souls.

In Part 1, we covered how it is inconsistent with sound doctrine and the testimony of Scripture to assert that an unjustified man could enter the presence of God.

We then commented on the Apostle Paul, who went 14 years without having a visional or revelational experience, as opposed to the quote -unquote super -apostles of his day and ours.

But there is more to address in this clip, namely the concept of repentance that is twisted to support the unbiblical idea that we existed in heaven before coming to this earth.

Nick says that according to the atheist's testimony, angels told him that he was a general in the Kingdom of God before being born.

God literally had assignments for us in the spirit realm before we were born because think about it, when we're told to repent, we're told to do something again.

We are having the mind of Christ again. But how could we have the mind of Christ if the Book of Psalms says that we were born into sin and iniquity?

The only way that that's possible is by us existing in the spirit with God. I truly believe this. It is true, according to Ephesians 2 .10,

that God has prepared good works for us to walk in, but the Bible doesn't say anything about us continuing work down here on earth that we started in heaven.

So how does Nick arrive there? Well, he seems to take the English word repent and sound it out in the

English re -pent as though it means to pent again, and pent apparently means to have the mind of Christ.

So to repent is to have the mind of Christ again, but as he acknowledges, we are born in sin.

So the only way we could have the mind of Christ again is if we had the mind of Christ before we were born.

And so obviously we existed in the spirit with God in heaven and stuff. In both the Old and New Testaments, the word that is used to describe what we most often mean by repentance has to do with a radical change in one's attitude towards sin and God.

In the Old Testament, it is often used with reference to turning away from sin to righteousness. Jeremiah 3 .14,

return, O faithless sons, declares the Lord. Likewise, in the New Testament, repentance is used with reference to the changing of one's mind about sin and God that involves a turning from sin to God.

This is described clearly in Acts 26 .18. When Paul is giving his defense before Agrippa, he recounts the commission given to him by the

Lord, saying that he was sent to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins.

Now, there's a whole lot more that could be said about repentance, but what isn't involved in it is regaining the mind of Christ, as Nick says, that we previously possessed elsewhere before we were born.

When Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 2 .16, but we have the mind of Christ, he simply means that Christ has been revealed to him by the

Spirit of God, which is true of every believer. But what we observe in this clip is someone who takes an idea, and the idea doesn't come from Scripture, but from outside of Scripture, in this case, a testimony.

And so, in order to support the idea, Nick launches from Jeremiah 1 .5, which does not teach the preexistence of soul.

That's not even remotely within the realm of possible meanings for that text in context. And then moves on to take a biblical concept, repentance, and butcher its meaning.

Why? To support the idea. And then with that, to make a loose reference to the mind of Christ without offering any meaning, to then make a logical leap from the fact that since we were born in sin, we must have had the mind of Christ before we were born.

But that logic is founded on a faulty premise and a wrong understanding of repentance that is read into the

Scripture to support the idea. This is not how we do theology. This is not how we formulate doctrine.

This kind of mishandling of the Word of God will result in heresy. Pre -existence of souls is not a Christian doctrine.

It is a belief held in the cult of the Latter -day Saints, but has never been accepted as Orthodox in church history. Now, Nick's application of all this is that if you understand that you existed in the kingdom of God before you were born and that you have assignments and work to finish here that you started up there, then depression and anxiety, which he suggests are inherently demonic, have to go.

When you realize that you have a purpose to fulfill here and finish where you left off up there, depression has to go.

Anxiety has to go. All of these demonic things that try to take you to the realm that you were never supposed to be in, they have to go.

Certainly, there are truths that can actually be found in the Bible that may serve as a healing balm to the inward disorders of sorrow and anxiety and whatever else.

For example, the other day I was meditating on Psalm 77 in light of I'm still working through from things that have happened in my life and I fixated upon verses 19 and 20.

Psalm 77 is a lament psalm and a day of trouble and the psalmist seeks the

Lord by voicing his complaint and then remembering the great works of the Lord in the past, namely the

Exodus. Sometimes we may wonder, like the psalmist, why God would lead us into times of trouble, but looking back we see that he not only led us to trouble, but led us through the trouble.

His way is through the sea. The crossing of the Red Sea was a tumultuous, violent conflict and when we are in the midst of deep trouble, deep waters, great waters, we often do not see the plan of God or the reason or his hand on the situation.

His footprints were unseen, but though the crossing of the sea or moving through the deep troubled waters was a hard event, look at what the psalmist writes.

You led your people like a flock. He describes God's unseen orchestration of the event and the leading of his people through this trial with the calmness and security of a shepherd leading a peaceful flock of sheep.

God was there. God was in control of the trial. It was for my good and his glory, and so I can be comforted in the present pain that I have lingering from past trials by looking back, as the psalmist does, to the faithfulness and goodness of God in them, and from this peace

I may move forward with confidence that no matter what sorrow or situations that tend to induce anxiety in me that come my way,

I know that his way is through the sea, but God will be there like a good shepherd leading me, the sheep of his flock, to the other side, because Christ, my good shepherd, has laid down his life for me and holds me securely in his hands.

The scriptures are truly sufficient for these things, my friends, and we don't need to make up doctrine based on people's testimonies in order to address our troubles.

We need to meditate on the word of God. And do you know what's missing from all of this? The gospel.

Where is the gospel in the atheist's testimony? If he was converted because an angel called him a general and not because he heard the gospel and believed, then he was never truly converted.

And where is the gospel in Nick's application? Is the word of God and the gospel not enough to address your depression, your anxiety, or anything else you may be dealing with?