Is there anyone in the Bible who clearly did not believe in any kind of God, and was converted by Christ or His followers?
How about someone who was clearly Pagan?
Not just someone who was a sinner, because a sinner could easily be Jewish and just not following the laws very well. I am looking for someone who didn’t believe until Christ.
If you’re willing to expand the definition of “Pagan” to the Roman religion of multiple deities, there’s several examples.
First is a man simply identified as the “Centurian” whose daughter Christ raises from the dead. The man sobs in gratitude and exclaims “Lord, I believe! Help my unbelief.”
Secondly is Saul/Paul, who was a Roman persecuter of Christians who was converted on the road to Damascus.
Well, in “Acts of the Apostles”, pagans are getting converted left and right. Paul converts a bunch, Peter converts a few…Acts is all “apostles convert people/people pick on the Christians”
Of course “pagan” includes Romans… as far as I can tell, it’s only very recently that the definition of “pagan” began to get narrower and narrower…
Anyway, I remember now about Paul, thanks for reminding me. I still wonder if there were any atheists, though.
Capt., is Acts after the crucification?
Well, Saul/Paul doesn’t count…he was a Jew.
The Centurion is the one who gets his servant healed, but he’s not converted. The person who says “I believe…help my unbelief” is a man, not named, who’s son has a demon in him.
Yes, it is. “Acts of the Apostles”, probably written by the same person who wrote “The Gospel according to Luke”, is a look at the growth of the early Christian community after the death of Jesus.
Atheists aren’t really mentioned much in the bible. In Athens, some Epicurians listen to Paul speak, and Epicurianism is an atheistic philosophy, but you don’t see, as far as I can tell, anyone specifically identified as an atheist.
The word is spelled atheist. I’ve seen this misspelling so many times, it makes me wish the schoolmarms had never taught that old “i before e, except after c” rhyme. It isn’t always true!
Ooops, Jomo. I usually spell it right. I’m just tired. Chasing two preschoolers, nursing a baby, and possibly being pregnant takes a lot out of you…