Pastor Mark Driscoll: Atheists are Satanists

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Medium (Personal)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2024/06/16

Should a Christian contend in the arena of religion? We’re just in Jude 3, doing a lot of application: Contend. Now, as we get into this, I’m going to hit a lot of issues very quickly. Some of you are going to have very specific questions… I co-authored called Doctrine. I did a revision at the 10-year anniversary a year or two ago. It’s about 500 pages. It’s around 1,000 footnotes. It answers tons of questions, and I want to give it to you for free because I can’t hit everything in this sermon, but I’m going to try. I want to talk about contending for the faith, once and for all, delivered under the saints in the realm of that which is religious and spiritual. So, first, we will start with Jesus and the atheists. Atheism is this: There is no God. A-, no, -theos, God, there is no God. Statistically, 4% of Americans now identify as atheist.

Pastor Mark Driscoll, “Atheists are Satanists” (June 11, 2024)

Pastor Mark Driscoll has been an entertaining find in the international Christian space, largely for the obvious media and marketing sophistication driving him. He has qualifications, primarily in communications, which is a reason why he does well.

A few days ago, he spoke on the need for Christians to contend in the arena of faith and spirituality. Particularly, as he references in the first portions of the clip, he sees a need to reinforce the Doctrine of the faith.

What is Driscoll getting at here?

Driscoll references Jude 3 in passing at the outset, which says, “Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt compelled to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to God’s holy people.”

The basic idea is Christians need to fight for their faith and sinfulm people are, ultimately, doomed. Driscoll’s primary brand has been the provision of a lot of free content on Christ and the Bible online, whether in sermons or lectures for a long time.

His opening salvo on atheism seems more or less correct, “So, first, we will start with Jesus and the atheists. Atheism is this: There is no God. A-, no, -theos, God, there is no God. Statistically, 4% of Americans now identify as atheist.”

The 4% is factually correct. Based on reportage from the Pew Research Center, 4% of Americans identify as atheists. He did a better job characterizing the atheist demographics in the United States than the rhetorical humour of Bill Maher.

The inflammatory title merely reflects the communications wing of Driscoll’s preaching. He quotes a piece of scripture to set the tone about contending for the faith and gets the fact right on the percentage of the population who identify as atheists.

It would be nice to see a larger framing because the number of atheists isn’t the real story in the United States. The larger religious narrative in the United States is the 28% of Americans who identify as without a religious affiliation, of which atheists (and agnostics and nothing in particulars) are a part.

Even in the opening statements of Driscoll’s preaching, I do not see a representation of Satanism, whether the Church of Satan or The Satanic Temple, in it. So far, marketing and advertising, what about the rest of his clip?

Jesus Christ is the only founder of any major world religion who declared himself to be God. Atheists are like, “There is no God.” Jesus is like, “Howdy.” Yes, he declares himself to be God. I will prove it to you with one verse. This is why Jesus was sentenced to death and executed by the governmental and religious authorities. John 10:30–33, Jesus answered, “I and the Father are one. So that those who were present picked up stones,” that is to execute him, “to stone him. But he said to them, I have shown you many great miracles from the Father. For which of these do you stone me, we are not stoning you for any of these. But for blasphemy, because you, a mere man,” what? ‘Claim to be God.’ Jesus says he’s God. Jesus is the only founder of any major world religion who says he is God. If you are going to contend, sometimes, you are going to contend against the atheists.

Once again, Driscoll gets the scripture accurate and factual in John 10:30–33. Only a small detail, we have to accept an entire book as a historical fact when it features zombies and posits magical realms. Life isn’t Lord of the Rings. When Driscoll claims Christ was the only one, that’s factually incorrect. We can find them even today! Lou de Palingboer was a charismatic leader of Dutch background. He both claimed to be a messiah and to be God. God keeps coming back and dying, apparently. Here Driscoll is not contending with atheists, he’s contending with other theists, other theists who claim to be messiah, and other theists who claim to be God. That one is straight across the plate, and Driscoll missed it. Again, he’s not saying only those who claim to be Jesus but also those who claim to be God (who are messiahs). That’s quite common, in fact. Yet, if we stick to his caveat of any major world religion, then, of course, Jesus would probably be the only one. Although, Krishna, apparently, claimed to be a divine incarnation of sorts. He continues:

Other times, you will contend against the agnostics. Jesus versus the agnostics is this. Agnosticism says we can’t know. A- means “no.” -gnosis means “knowledge.” They mean we have no knowledge of whether or not a God exists. He may or may not; we don’t know. We can’t know. We won’t know. This is the fastest-growing category of spirituality in the West. They are called the Nones. Now, 3 in 10 Americans, especially younger generations, identify as Nones. Let me say this: Jesus Christ is God in the flesh on the Earth. We have all the knowledge we need.

That’s the stickier part. He may have been confused at the moment, as his preaching tends to be coffee-paced. He’s correct on the definition and wrong on the styling. Different types of agnostics will define the “don’t know,” “can’t know,” and“won’t know” distinctions differently. Most would fall into the don’t know category. We do not know if God exists. That makes sense. Following this, they shouldn’t necessarily adhere to a belief status of knowing or not if God exists. A more absolute sense is “can’t know” or “won’t know.” It’s projecting not only a lack of a mental model for a God, but even a methodology to garner knowledge about a god at any time in the future. Driscoll jumps to equating the agnostics with the Nones. That’s not entirely correct, especially when referencing the 3 in 10 Americans bit. Agnostics are part of the Nones, not the Nones; the Nones are 3 in 10 Americans, part of who are the agnostics. It’s a crucial distinction. It’s confusing the bread for the whole sandwich. Driscoll’s running his mouth too fast; he’s falling off the tracks. Let’s continue:

Every Christmas, you get a Christmas card that talks about Jesus. It calls him Emmanuel, which means “God with us.” The agnostics are like, “We don’t know.” Jesus is like, “Right here, preaching, teaching, doing miracles. And when you kill me, I will come back and prove the point. I am who I said I am. I am God.” In addition, what we are seeing today, especially with younger emerging generations, is an increased contending in Jesus versus the occult, the occult are demonic spiritual practices forbidden by the Bible. Everything God creates. Satan counterfeits. The occult is a counterfeit of spirit-filled. Instead, it is being demon-filled. This would include Wicca, witchcraft, the New Age, new spirituality, psychics, channelling, Astrology, Clairvoyance, Divination, the Freemasons which are a cult and an occult, Oracles, Tarot Cards, Ouija Boards, Native American Shamanism, Spells, Sorceries, spirit guides, Auras, Palm Reading, and Paganism. You’re like, “What does this look like?” Go to Sedona, or wait for Halloween, either way, that’s what it is.

The appeal to many of Pastor Driscoll is a) a sense of humour injected into traditionally tepid sermon waters and b) more masculine-oriented themes and preaching, which implies a sense of tacit aggression with it. That’s why more men are going to this church than other churches, in terms of ratios. The early section of this quote is more Christian dogma, so nothing new there. When he mentions an increased contending versus the occult, in one sense true and in another false, another option increasingly prevalent is a lack of care. Younger people simply disidentify with Christianity. That’s apathy, not contending. For those who engage in occult practices, they may not take this as a contention with Jesus or Christianity, or the Bible, at all. It’s the opposite; it’s the Christians who disapprove of them and, therefore, contend with them, which may make some react in turn. It’s important to get this right on the frame. Driscoll’s framing makes things seem as if the world versus Christianity, but, in fact, as many have experienced who simply live their lives: It’s Christianity versus the world if that that flip makes sense. The Christianity of Driscoll is one used as a sociocultural and political club against others. More:

So, what we’re seeing today is an explosion in the occult. Technology and social media is allowing people to gather around what was previously outlier pagan practice, is now becoming mainstream. So, I’ll show it to you. This is a clip this week from TikTok. One of the most popular hashtags is “WitchTok.” It’s how to cast spells and how to consult the dead, and how to communicate with demons. It’s teaching largely young girls how to be witches. And what’s interesting, WitchTok has 21 billion views. Here’s what’s curious: do you know how many people there are on planet Earth? 8 billion. 21 billion clicks just on one social media platform to learn how to do witchcraft.

Driscoll isn’t saying too much new here if thinking about the general cultural and social fear many Christians harbour in relation to the occult or what they deem as The Other. Social media, witches, spells, and the like, which do not do anything except waste these young girls’ time, are the latest in the fearmongering, amongst themselves, of Christians in North America. It’s simply the ironic continuation of a clash of some Christians with modern technology and other beliefs while using technology to spread Christianity against those same beliefs. If it wasn’t TikTok or witchcraft, then it would be another technology and another alternative belief or practice. He says:

That being said, now we’re going to deal with Jesus versus the world religions. I’m going to hit them very, very quickly, but I’m going to look at four things. I’m going to look at their founder, their writing, their view of God, and their view of Jesus. Number one, we’re going to start with Jesus Christ and Christianity. Our founder is Jesus Christ. Our writing is the 66 books of the Old and New Testament. God wrote a book. If you want a word from God, open the Word of God. We believe the whole thing. And we believe that when you read the Bible, the Holy Spirit reads you. And it’s the only book, when you read it, the author will sit down and meet with you, and he loves you, and he wants to speak to you through His Word. That’s what we believe. Our view of God is Trinity. Probably not a shock. You’re at Trinity Church. One God, three persons, Father, Son, and Spirit. All Christians and major creeds since the beginning of the church have always agreed that there is one God in three persons, Father, Son, and Spirit. Co-equal, co-eternal, sharing all the divine attributes. And Jesus Christ, we’re about Jesus. Fully God, fully man, born of a virgin, lived without sin, died on the Cross, in our place for our sins, rose from the dead to forgive our sins, conquered Satan, Sin, death, Hell, the wrath of God, verified his resurrection, ascended into Heaven, is ruling and reigning, is King of Kings and Lord of Lords, and He is coming again to judge the living and the dead. Amen? That’s our team.

The rest simply rouses the troops through a repetition of what they already believe, which is a weird phenomenon. I do not know formal services in which atheists, agnostics, or nothing in particulars need to go and say, “Yes, we do not believe in a God of the universe, in Christ as messiah, or the Bible as the word of God…” etc. I do not see it. I’ve interviewed a lot of these people. It’s not there. The closest might be the Sunday Assembly, but they aren’t even that. Now, given the misleading and provocative title about atheists as Satanists, Driscoll is known for inflammatory remarks about women, about LGBTI persons, and about other religions and no religion. Does he do this for marketing and advertising or for truth value? Since he posted an inflammatory title and never once spoke on atheists as Satanists and merely demonized others and demarcated what his congregation believes and doesn’t believe, I leave the answer on the former, which is to say what has always been true about Driscoll: He’s a performer, not a preacher.

License

In-Sight Publishing by Scott Douglas Jacobsen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Based on a work at www.in-sightpublishing.com.

Copyright

© Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing 2012-Present. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. All interviewees and authors co-copyright their material and may disseminate for their independent purposes.