The Nature of the Unbeliever
As Christians, we love people and desire for them to be saved. We pray for their salvation, we share the Gospel with them, and we urge them to repent of sin and trust in Christ. And we try to remove intellectual stumbling blocks. But many Christians often make a critical mistake: they assume that what the unbeliever says about himself and his beliefs is true. They assume that the unbeliever has correctly evaluated his own beliefs and has truthfully stated them. After all, who could know a person’s beliefs better than the person himself? The answer is God. The Lord knows the hearts of men better than they know themselves; this would have to be the case since God is all-knowing (Jeremiah 17:9-10). Furthermore, God has stated in His Word that unbelievers are self-deceived and do not truthfully report what is in their hearts. A failure to recognize this lies at the heart of many unbiblical approaches in defending the faith.