I wanted to take this opportunity to tell you how God used your ministry in my life. I grew up in a Christian home and I easily accepted Christianity as a child. When I became a teenager, however, the challenges proffered against my faith were very convincing. On the one hand, I had people telling me that science disproved God. On the other hand, I was told by Christians that I needed to “just have faith”. Nobody in my life could answer the challenges offered by my teachers and peers. I began to think that I had to turn my brain off in order to be a Christian. And so, I stopped going to church at around 15 years old, my faith retreated into a private internal existence, but you really couldn’t see a difference between me and an unbeliever. If you asked me whether God existed then I’d say yes, but I had basically abandoned Christianity… God is good, however, and he preserved me from total apostasy.
When I was about 30 years old, on a whim, I decided to search YouTube for a debate about the existence of God. I told myself, that if the Christian was trounced then I should just face the music and abandon the belief in God altogether. I wasn’t hopeful for the Christian position. Once again, God is good, and I randomly watched one of your debates (though I don’t remember which one). At the conclusion of the debate, I was astonished. Thinking that, maybe you just got lucky against a particularly weak opponent, I searched out debates that you had with others. I watched so many of your debates and it became apparent to me that Christianity wasn’t a religion for those who wanted to shut their brains off, but instead had good answers to the philosophical, historical, and moral objections offered against it. That experience put me on a path that eventually led to rededicating my life to Christ. God used your ministry to bring me back to Him, and I am so grateful for His mercy and your ministry.
I don’t want others to needlessly walk away from Christianity like I did. I want to help show others that the intellectual barriers to Christianity can be overcome directly, and that despite the intellectual noise from the culture that God is here with us, and they can truly get to know Him personally. So, I applied and was accepted into the M.A. – Philosophy program at Biola. I begin my studies this month. I just wanted to write to you and let you know how God used you in my life and to say, “Thank you.”
Your Brother in Christ,
-Joe
