The famous British journalist, Malcolm Muggeridge, was profoundly influenced by a visit to Cold War Russia where he saw first hand what it meant to live without God.

“Mysteriously, the cross full of glory seems to haunt the first city in the west to have abolished it, to the point that the journalist almost expects the cathedral transformed into an anti-God museum to overflow with the poignant notes of the Russian Orthodox Mass.”

It stirred up a tremendous longing in him to unconditionally turn his life over to Christ.

“Thus the journalist, for the first time grasps the stupendous truth that superman’s victories are all defeats, whereas the crucified Christ is the everlasting victor. In these circumstances, the journalist asks himself, is he to be counted among the deluded mob who follow the consensus and obediently shout: ‘Crucify Him! Crucify Him!’ Or should he not rather, as the disciples were instructed, take up his cross and follow the risen Christ?” 

Ironically, it was God’s absence that helped Muggeridge accept God’s existence.

Are we that far removed from Cold War Russia? Can we also walk the streets of America without any God sightings? We need to accept the fact that the our once bright light on a hill is growing dim, and anyone seeking to be illuminated by the Light of the world will have to begin their journey by stumbling around in the dark. It may not be long before America’s greatest evangelistic contribution to the world will be as one more country where a person can go to contemplate what it means to live without God. Are we prepared for this apologetic of absence?

Quotes come from Malcolm Muggeridge, Confessions of a Twentieth-Century Pilgrim, Harper and Rowe, 1988.