Hard to say. He used Christian imagery even in the early days (God on Our Side) long before he even came near to being a Christian. I take it as being in the folk tradition and maybe speaking in the terms much of his audience understood.
Highway 61 Revisited, however, is a nicely anti-religious song.
“God said you can do what you want Abe but,
the next time you see me coming you better run.”
By Desire though we are seeing some real interest in religion.
Indeed, the very first line of the song (and thus the album) is a paraphrase from scripture. Old Testament, true, but then he quotes gospel in “Sweetheart Like You” (“In my father’s house there’s many mansions”).
Meanwhile, one of my (many) favorite lines from early Dylan is
I said, Y’know, they refused Jesus, too!
He said, You’re not him.
It’s complex. Note that I said I think he always believed in the “Abrahamic God”, not Jesus, and I doubt that he became a Christian before his born-again phase, but Christian imagery has been present in his work from the very start of his recording career, it’s right in the blues covers from his first album, and “A hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall” is trenched in Christian apocalyptic expressions, for example. Of course he also made fun of religion, between 1963 and 1966 he made fun of everybody, but I think he was never antireligious, as much as I love the first verse of *Highway 61 Revisited *and the whole song.
I was thinking of the first album when I mentioned the folk songs. He was as authentic with the hymns as he was singing House of the Rising Sun without changing the gender of the song - and selling it.
I’ve read Revelation and I don’t see Hard Rain quoting it particularly. The structure is Lord Randall but the images are his.
And I’ve seen interpretations of Highway 61 as being all about religion, not just the obvious first verse, with the road representing religion. But as always that is just one interpretation. I would not claim even the old Dylan as an atheist.