Atheism Is The Denial of Fools – Sunday Thought For The Day

Atheism is the blind denial of fools that is based upon the refusal to believe there is One greater than they and greater than every facet of creation.  Of all the sins I was guilty of before I turned to Christ for salvation, I am most grateful that I believed there was a God and that the reality of His presence was undeniable; and I believed that long before I accepted Christ as my Savior.

Following are the last recorded words of some of the most famous and revered men in the history as they were dying, and gasping their final breaths on earth.  These men had lived their lives applauded for their atheism, but read what their dying moments were like.  The last words they uttered were cries of desperation, agonizing fear, pain, and the realization that what they had refused to believe was all very real and they were staring into an eternity of suffering from which, they would never be set free.

• THOMAS PAYNE – Leading atheistic writer in American colonies: “Stay with me, for God’s sake; I cannot bear to be left alone, O Lord, help me! O God, what have I done to suffer so much? What will become of me hereafter? I would give worlds if I had them, that The Age of Reason had never been published. O Lord, help me! Christ, help me! No, don’t leave; stay with me! Send even a child to stay with me; for I am on the edge of hell here alone. If ever the Devil had an agent, I have been that one.”
• SIR THOMAS SCOTT – Chancellor of England: “Until this moment I thought there was neither a God nor a hell. Now I know and feel that there are both, and I am doomed to perdition by the just judgment of the Almighty.”
• VOLTAIRE – Famous anti-Christian atheist: “…I am abandoned by God and man.” He said to his physician, Dr. Fochin: “I will give you half of what I am worth if you will give me six months of life.” When he was told this was impossible, he said, “Then I shall die and go to hell!” His nurse said: “For all the money in Europe I wouldn’t want to see another unbeliever die! All night long he cried for forgiveness.”
• SIR FRANCIS NEWPORT – Head of an English Atheist club, to those gathered around his deathbed: “You need not tell me there is no God, for I know there is one, and that I am in his presence! You need not tell me there is no hell. I feel myself already slipping. Wretches, cease your idle talk about there being hope for me! I know I am lost forever! Oh, that fire! Oh, the insufferable pangs of hell! Oh, that I could lie for a thousand years upon the fire that is never quenched, to purchase the favor of God and be united to Him again. But it is a fruitless wish. Millions and millions of years will bring me no nearer the end of my torments than one poor hour. Oh, eternity, eternity forever and forever! Oh, the insufferable pangs of Hell!”
• CHARLES IX – French king. Urged on by his mother, he gave the order for the massacre of the French Huguenots, in which 15,000 souls were slaughtered in Paris alone and 100,000 in other sections of France, for no other reason than that they loved Christ. … He finally died, bathed in blood bursting from his veins. To his physicians, he said in his last hours: “Asleep or awake, I see the mangled forms of the Huguenots passing before me. They drop with blood. They point at their open wounds. Oh! That I had spared at least the little infants at the bosom! What blood! I know not where I am. How will all this end? What shall I do? I am lost forever! Oh, I have done wrong.”

The record of the final words of these so-called famous atheists are real.  Now read the words spoken by those who died at the hands of despotic rulers.  Read the confidence and resolve of those who died as Christians while receiving torturous abuse to their bodies, juxtaposed to the comfortable surroundings of those listed above.

Tradition holds that the Apostle Paul was beheaded.  Following are among his last words: