What People Are Saying
This is how a history professor came to know Christ, and in the process, found a new lifestyle
and allegiance to the God of the Universe. I grew up in a small neighborhood North of Cincinnati. I
remember my parents reading to me as a child. Books like The Hobbit and the Narnia series were
popular in our household. My parents were Bible-believing Christians who read to me and my siblings
stories from the scriptures. At first, these were done in small, understandable chunks. Later, we read the
Bible on our own and gained more understanding about Christianity.
As I grew up, I wondered if these stories were true and not just fantasy like the other books that
I had listened to as a child. This especially was the case when I attended a Philosophy 103 course at
Miami University. The professor openly questioned my Christian faith in front of the class. At that point,
I had no good answers for why Christianity was a reliable belief system, or why anything in the Bible was
actually true. This event really stirred up my emotions and caused me to take a deeper look into what I
had previously considered reliable.
Another encounter (this time with a fellow Christian) dealing with the reliability of the New
Testament gospels left me puzzled and unable to be confident in my faith. Had I been led astray by
those I trusted the most? Were my core beliefs about the same Jesus I prayed to at night just an ancient
copy from others, or were they based upon historical truth?
This was really a make-or-break moment for me. If I could not trust the ancient writings about
the historical Jesus, why accept any Christian doctrine or teaching? It was time for study and
investigation. God led me down a path of inquiry that helped restore my faith, but it was not without aid
from knowledgeable and godly men. A little-known truth is that there have always been and continue to
be godly Christian scholars and scientists. Beliefs about Jesus of Nazareth are not constrained to the old,
weathered pew of a rural county church. Most, if not all, of the men of the scientific revolution were
Christians who held firm convictions about their faith.
Through personal study, as well as talking with wise and knowledgeable mentors, I began to
realize that there was a wealth of evidence showing the Christian faith to be true: Historical evidence for
Jesus in multiple and independent sources, scientific data that pointed to a theistic creator, personal
experiences that defied natural explanation, and more. I finally decided to submit to the God that made
Himself known to me. Above all else, His love and mercy for humanity is proven through the life, death,
and resurrection of His only Son – Jesus Christ. God became a man to show us how we should live and
take the punishment that we all deserve. He did not have to do that, but God chose to do that because
of his unrelenting love for humanity. All we have to do is accept that forgiveness and submit to the
loving God who gave us hope when there was none.
- C.J.C