Is there a difference between an atheist and anti Christ? Seems to me that to not believe is one thing,?

Question

but to take a critical, insulting stand against Christ and His believers is dangerous ground. I would be a little nervous about that.

Answer 1

Yes, a great difference.

To be an anti christ, one would first have to believe in your christ.

...Atheists don't.

Answer 2

since an atheist doesn't "believe/accept in Christ" they surely would not believe in/accept the anti-Christ.

Answer 3

Atheists by definition "know" that there is no God. If they "just don't know," then they would be agnostics. So they think they know everything, because to "know" such a thing would require knowing all there is to know, and not finding God in any of it.

The Antichrist, on the other hand, is a being or person who embodies satan and torments and persecutes the Christians at the end times. There is also the spirit of the antichrist, which would influence a person with such an agenda as the antichrist.

The first is just someone who is not a Christian, and the second is a person who is purposeful in their hatred and evil intentions against Christ and his followers.

"for whoever is not against us is for us."

Answer 4

But Christians take a critical, insulting stand against Odin and His believers...

Shouldn't they be a little nervous about that? Are they Loki followers?

Answer 5

Why?  Do you worry about offending Zeus?

Ridiculous ideas deserve ridicule.  We are finally becoming less hesitant to display this publicly.

Answer 6

Jesus might have had some good ideas, but the behavior of his believers over the past 2000 years (up to and including today) has been ... disappointing, to say the least.  Criticism of the conduct of Christians should not be construed as being "anti Christ".

Answer 7

If they don't believe in God and Christ, they also clearly wouldn't believe they're on shaky ground.

Answer 8

You have to believe in something to be against it.

By the same definition you use, does that make believers the anti-Zeus?

Answer 9

Veiled threats? Jesus must be so proud.

Answer 10

If you're against Jeebus then you have to believe in him, obviously, thus you are not an atheist.

Answer 11

It is dangerous only if you think Christ is real -- a real power in the universe.

If he is not (a real power) it is exactly the same thing as ridiculing the ancient Greeks for believing Apollo was a prophetic deity.

I'm just afraid of your god as I am of Apollo.

Which is to say that I am not.

("Fear is the last refuge of the incompetent")

Answer 12

I guess you only have something to worry about if you actually believe in Jesus.  Atheists do not, so they have no reason to worry.  Besides..someone has to criticize Christ's followers.  "God" knows there's quite a few that don't monitor their own behavior.

EDIT--the point is that your question is invalid for the reasons cited in these answers.

Answer 13

It's one thing to not believe. It's another to criticise and insult Christ directly. But is there something wrong with being constructively critical of Christ's "believers"? It seems as though one could easily think of Christ, whether as an individual, as God or as fiction, as an altogether reputable and respectable teacher without necessitating agreeing entirely with everything Christians attribute to him.