A BIBLE-BASED WEB SITE FOR CHRISTIANS (AND OTHERS) WHO ARE SEARCHING FOR TRUTH
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Who am I? I am a 50-something happily married husband of 27 years, and father of two. I make my living as an attorney. I have been a Christian for more than 30 years. During that time, studying the Bible and Judeo-Christian history has become my hobby, and at times my obsession. I am not a Bible scholar or a historian, but I have read the writings of many Bible scholars and historians. I enjoy learning about God and His ways, and I started this web site to pass along some of what I have learned, in the hope that at least a few might benefit from it.
My Faith Journey. I have long believed that there is only one legitimate reason for anyone to be a Christian: because it is true. Christianity may be a wonderfully moral religion in which to bring up your kids, and it certainly advocates many useful values, such as peace, kindness, cooperation, and non-violence. But if Christianity were not true, I would have no use for it. For the first twenty years of my life, I had no use for it.
I grew up as an agnostic. At about age 15, I briefly embraced Christianity, but my newborn faith quickly fizzled when my father assailed it with tough questions for which I had no answers. For example, if it’s true that “whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3:16), why doesn’t God show Himself so that everyone would believe—and thus be saved? (See "For God So Loved . . . Well, Wait a Minute" on this web site.) Or, why would a loving Father condemn His children to eternal torture in Hell just because they didn’t believe the right things? (See "What is Hell Really Like?" on this web site.) And, of course, the traditional favorite: If God is both omnipotent and loving, why is there so much evil and suffering in the world? (See "Why Do Bad Things Happen?" on this web site.)
Unfortunately, when I talked to Christian friends and acquaintances, I found that they had no satisfactory answers, either—only the lame response, “you just have to believe.” But I could not “just believe” in a religion that seemed so foolish and nonsensical. On the other hand, I had no satisfactory alternative. The other world religions seemed to suffer from the same flaws as Christianity—or worse. Deism offered only a non-communicative God who was apparently indifferent to His creation; Christianity, as foolish as it appeared, made more sense than that. Where was hope to be found?
I needed to find hope somewhere. I can remember being intensely disturbed by the thought of eternity. The incredible vastness of time, and the endless expanse of space, diminished my own existence to a desperate triviality. I craved immortality, but saw no way to attain it. Thoughts of suicide invaded my mind—if I must die anyway, what difference would it make when or how that occurred? In a hundred years, no one would care anyway. Suicide would at least end the struggle, the pain, and the feelings of hopelessness. But I lacked the courage to attempt it.
Convinced that Christianity was a lie, I evangelized on behalf of my hope-crushing dogma. During my early college years, I aggressively confronted matriculating Christians with the absurdity of their religion. I asked them tough questions, and repeatedly found that even these intelligent and educated believers could not defend their faith. I didn’t know it at the time, but I was attacking a caricature of Christianity. Yet the Christians I encountered never challenged this flawed image of their religion—until I met B.P.
B.P. was a Christian who had thought a lot about these same questions—and he had answers. He made me see that I was shooting at a mirage. The religion for which I had such contempt was only to be found in church traditions, dusty books, and bad sermons—not in the New Testament. B.P. convinced me that Christianity made sense, and therefore that it might be true. He opened my mind. God would do the rest.
Still, I was not yet a Christian. I could not—or would not—acknowledge that Christianity was true, and without that conviction I could not honestly surrender my life to Christ. Perhaps in exasperation at my stubborn refusal to see the Light, B.P. challenged me to pray, and to ask God to show me the Truth. Like Gideon (Judges 6:36-40), I set out a fleece in the form of a prayer that I asked God to answer. The nature of that prayer I will keep to myself for now. For our purposes, I need only say that God not only answered the prayer, but He answered it in a way that left me little room to doubt the answer or to plead coincidence. In an instant God broke my resistance and my will. I surrendered my life to Christ that same day: January 3, 1976, in St. Louis, Missouri.
My studies and experiences since then have only reinforced what I discovered to be true that day. I have now read the New Testament many times, yet am still awed by the incredible wisdom and honesty it contains. I have studied the historical evidence for Christ’s resurrection, and can only conclude that if the story is a fabrication, Jesus’ disciples were the most brilliant and audacious liars in history. I have seen God perform a miracle to suddenly restore the health of my newborn baby boy in response to many prayers. How can I doubt such a magnificent God?
My hope and my prayer for you is that you will be blessed by this web site, and that it will lead you a little closer to God’s Truth than you were before. May God bless you, and may you be a blessing to others. (See Genesis 12:2-3.)
Don Davidson
Last updated: October 2009
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