"Does your reasoning with the Ten Commandments find success, in your experience? I watched a bit of 'Hell's Best Kept Secret' last night, and it seems (though I haven't had the chance to finish, which I will probably do at some point) that your method grows out of the Commandments being 'the key.' It never actually does anything for me because it requires both a God a moral obligation to Him from the outset, so I'm interested if other atheists have been convinced." T.S.

This is a very good question. Let me qualify the word "success." I see success as simply planting seed. I personally can’t convert a soul. It’s like having a garden. I sow the seed God created, and He makes it grow in the soil He made, through the sunshine and rain He provides. (Our greatest scientists cannot make a seed from nothing. Nor do we know how to make soil from nothing.)

I sow the seed of God’s Word into the soil of people's hearts, and God makes it grow (once again, His seed and His soil). Every time someone listens to the message and has an open and honest heart (good soil), it’s a "success" for me. Here’s a Christian-ism that I hope makes sense. Your theology will dictate your methodology. In other words, what you believe about God, will dictate the way you share your faith. I believe that the Bible clearly teaches us that God saves people, and that I don’t. I am just a sower of good seed. So I can’t say that anyone has been "converted" by my efforts. God should get all the praise when people are converted. When we pick an apple off a tree we planted we shouldn't get too puffed up, because we should know that a child can plant a seed that can grow into a tree.

Regarding your question about atheist converts. They often have "hard" or "stony" soil. They lack the good and honest heart necessary for the seed to take root. This is because they lack what is commonly called "reason." They will concede that a painting necessitates a painter. Only a fool would say that paintings happen by themselves. They will concede that a building necessitates a builder. Only a fool would say that buildings happen by themselves. However, they will suddenly become unreasonable when asked if creation necessitates a Creator. This is why God’s Word calls the professing atheist a "fool" (see Psalm 14:1). The Bible even predicts that the fool will then pat himself on the back and say that he is intelligent (see Romans 1:22). That sure sums up the average atheist.

But there is a reason for their denial of simple logic. The Bible tells us (in Romans 8:7) that their problem is a moral one. Their "carnal mind" is in a state of hostility towards God and His Law. There’s no moral dilemma with paintings or builders, but when God is brought into the equation, they are deeply offended by the thought that they are morally responsible to Him. So, they abandon reason (honesty), and the seed of life therefore finds no root.

Despite this, many atheists have come to know the Lord, because the Ten Commandments speak to the conscience rather than the carnal mind. They have suddenly found themselves in the dilemma of knowing that they have sinned against the God in which they don’t believe, and that quandary was solved through repentance and faith in the Savior.

P.S. Of course, this begs the question "Who made God?" Some think it can't be answered, and conclude that God therefore doesn't exist. But that's about as sensible as looking at a painting, not knowing where the painter came from, and therefore concluding that there was no painter.

God is not subject to the dimension of time. He dwells in "eternity" (the place we go when we "pass on"). And where there is no time, there is no beginning. God is eternal--without beginning or end...kinda like space. There's no brick wall at the edge of space, saying "The Beginning" or "The End." If you think there is, ask yourself, "What's behind the brike wall?"