LEARNING FROM CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS III

The Hitchens brothers are a study in contrasts. Both Christopher and Peter are atheists, but Peter defects from that faith and becomes a Christian. A factor in his desertion was the attitude of Christopher who was angry, belligerent, and pugnacious. That helped start his brother questioning--Is that what atheism produces--hostility toward most things and most people? Whatever he saw in his brother, it wasn't appealing. Peter didn't want to wind up that way.

THE CONTRAST

Let's contrast that with what the Christian is to show: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. That's what Peter wanted to see. Looking at Paul's command to us, we see something else: "make it your ambition to lead a quiet life and attend to your own business." There was a restlessness about his brother Christopher; he was always upset about something, always attacking something or someone. That got old and ugly over time for Peter. 

PETER'S ATHEISM BECOMES OFFICIAL

But in his younger day, Peter was as bellicose as his brother: when he was still in boarding school at the age of 15, he chose to make his rebellion against Christianity and all of the conventions of his upbringing official by the ceremonial burning of his Bible – a gift from his parents - in the school yard.

He said, "I was sure that we, and our civilization, had grown out of the nursery myths of God, angels and Heaven."

After burning the Book, he intentionally began to do the things he had always been instructed were wrong: using foul language, mocking the weak, lying, stealing, using drugs, and betraying friends and family members. Peter and Christopher were two proverbial peas in the proverbial pod.

WAIT! THAT PICTURE!

It was staring at a picture– Rogier van der Weyden’s "Last Judgment" – that Hitchens felt a sudden and true conviction. Seeing the naked figures as they fled the fires of hell, all of his intentional rebellion and misdeeds came back to his mind, and with them, the realization that his life was a testament to the truth found in the painting: that misdeeds required justice, and that if anyone required saving from this justice, it was he. (From "Christianity Today")

Here's how Peter described the day he saw hell while on a cycling trip to Burgundy: I saw Rogier van der Weyden's 15th-century 'Last Judgment:' I had scoffed at its mention in the guidebook, but now I gaped, my mouth actually hanging open, at the naked figures fleeing towards the pit of hell. I had a sudden strong sense of religion being a thing of the present day, not imprisoned under thick layers of time. My large catalogue of misdeeds replayed themselves rapidly in my head. I had absolutely no doubt that I was among the damned, if there were any damned. Van der Weyden was still earning his fee, nearly 500 years after his death.”

This reminds us of Paul's evangelistic message to the Athenian intellectuals on Mars Hill when he spoke to them about Christ and the Judgement to come: "God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent, because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead.” (Acts 17:30-31) Not only that text, but also Revelation 20:11-15 declares the coming Judgment. Jesus Himself spoke of it: "Nevertheless I say to you that it will be more tolerable  for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment, than for you.” The atheist was running scared.


That old, old painting put the fear of God into Peter Hitchens. He came back to the faith of his childhood; no longer was it a myth unsuitable for the age of jet engines and penicillin. The Bible-burning prodigal had come home.

THE CONCLUSION

What can we learn from Christopher (and Peter)? A combative, argumentative, stance can be a turn-off, just as Christopher's was to his brother. Dr. Andy Woods has a wise admonition for us: "If you clash with everybody everywhere you go, you're not growing in Christ."

We also see that atheism can produce an I'll-show-you-attitude, as Peter delighted in breaking all the moral principles he learned from his parents and even burning the gift from them, not in private, but publicly. That attitude too, becomes unattractive after awhile. Is a life of betraying friends and family something to be admired? Is mocking the weak winsome?

On December 15, 2011, death came for Christopher. Did he come to faith? As far as we know, no, he did not.

Christopher (left) and Peter Hitchens