Every time I hear this, it comes as some sort of excuse for someone not being Christian, so lets spell this out.
Demons recognized Jesus himself as the messiah. Did they accept him?
Nebuchadnezzar also recognized god, was humbled by him even calling him “The most High God”, and yet he remained entirely pagan and dismissive of all the Jewish teachings.
The supreme Court of the united states, in all its godlessness declared The United States undeniably a christian nation in the 1982 case Holy Trinity v. The United States.
I would even venture to say Athiest whom reject god even exist will often explain to us how much they hate god through their animosity to the one they only pretend doesn’t exist. How can someone hate something if it does not exist? They know he exist full well in their hearts and try to convince themselves otherwise.
None of these people are christian, not because they don’t “Recognize” god, Its is because they do not accept him. You must be repented unto Christ there is no other way. Recognizing God only says something everyone, including Satan, knows to be true already. Its the equivalent of Recognizing the sky is blue – which no one even needs scripture to be sure of. No where in scripture does it tells us the sky is blue, we’ve all seen it and know it. The only difference with an atheist is, they are the ones who angrily need to debate the fact the sky is blue, whilst looking at it for themselves.
If one does not accept Christ they are not christian, period. ‘Recognition’ means nothing. Aside from that, you are either with him or against him, there is no middle ground. Recognizing him while rejecting him, does not justify a person to Christianity, if anything it puts you in the position of knowingly rejecting god- thus another enemy of christ.
Taken from my own wordpress site: https://angelfishdiary.wordpress.com/2016/07/05/they-atleast-recognize-god/