Know an atheist or agnostic? Dont give up on them just yet.

Whenever I hear an atheist or agnostic ranting on the TV, radio, or YouTube post, I often wonder what it would take for them to become a Christian and the sweet irony that would follow. Lucky for us, long before YouTube and men like Richard Dawkins, there was a man named Saul. His story is told in Acts 8-9.

Have you ever noticed that Saul became Paul at the height of his murderous anti-Christian campaign? Literally, as he was on his way to arrest Christians, God chooses Saul, enemy #1 to the Christ followers in Jerusalem, to become his spokesmen to all of those outside of the Jewish world. Do we really appreciate how amazing this is? Check this out...

In Acts 7, a young Stephen is stoned to death with the witnesses laying their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul, who was there in Acts 8, '"approving of his execution."

In the very first verses of Acts 9, we are told that Saul was "...breathing out  murderous threats against....any who belonged to 'the Way'  whether men or women, so that he may take them as prisoners..."

But, by Acts 9:20-22-just a few verses later, we are told that Saul was now Paul and that he was "preaching in the Synagogues that Jesus is the son of God" and even better, was "proving that Jesus was the Messiah."  Talk about a career change, right? Needless to say, even the Christians couldn't believe it!

The idea the God would choose to intervene in the life of one whose actions show nothing but the greatest contempt for Jesus Christ and his followers should teach us all a very important lesson about who God is, and how He is at work in the hearts of men and women, and our world. 

Just for fun, here is a very brief list of famous atheists/agnostics/followers of other religions who have converted to Christianity:

C.S. Lewis, Mosab Hasson Yousef (Son of Hamas leader), Ramzi Yusef (former Al Qaeda bomber), Peter Hitchens (brother of Christopher Hitchens, author of "God is Not Great"), Lee Strobel ("The Case for Christ/Faith/a Creator"), Kirk Cameron, Josh McDowell ("More Than a Carpenter"), Anthony Flew (world's leading philosophical atheist), Alister McGrath (professor of Theology at Oxford University), Gustvag Mahler (composer), Bob Marley, Ravi Zacharias, Francis Collins (director of the Human Genome Project), William Murray (son of atheist-activist Madeline Murray O'Hair), Anne Rice, and yes-even serial killers David Berkowitz ("Son of Sam") and Jeffrey Dahmer.