Belief to Unbelief to Belief Again

Jim Thring became a Christian as a young adult. He then lost his organized religion and spent nearly ten years as a committed atheist. He explains what brought him back

I was brought up in a very loving household in east London, and became a Christian at university, aged 19, almost accidentally. I met some Christians and one of them kept talking almost this place called Menzieshill. Information technology was a sunny afternoon and she said: "Would you lot like to come? Nosotros're all off there." And I agreed, considering it was a really nice day to go for a walk.

I found myself sitting in the back of her car with my friend Ian and I asked him what this loma was similar. He looked at me incredulously and said: "Menzieshill is the name of a church." I thought:How on earth have I allowed myself to become to church? This is ridiculous!

Withal, I was interested and I started to ask questions about life's purpose. Information technology was similar existence a kid again; I had a take a chance to do life a second time effectually. When I later lost my faith, people questioned whether I really was a Christian in the first place. But the respond is yes, I absolutely was a Christian. This wasn't a nominal Christianity. It wasn't something I inherited from my parents. It was a decision that I made. And at that fourth dimension, I assumed I would live information technology for the rest of my life.

The Christian Union at university was very strong and I carried on with my faith for a number of years. Just over fourth dimension, the simplicity of the gospel that I received when I first became a Christian and the uniqueness of Christ simply started to become lost. My religion became a scrap more pedestrian and began to stagnate.

If God stops meaning something to you in your solar day-to-24-hour interval life, the next logical question is: then why comport on believing? And that was what happened.

When I left my faith, I went the whole hog. I was quite difficult-line. I really did ride the rhetoric of people like Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins. I used that to keep justifying to myself that I'd made a sound intellectual determination. In one of Jimmy Carr'south sketches he said that as a child he believed in an invisible friend who granted all his wishes, but then he stopped going to church! I laughed at that, very knowingly, thinking:That'southward where I am as well.

IF GOD STOPS MEANING SOMETHING TO Yous IN YOUR DAY-TO-DAY LIFE…WHY CARRY ON BELIEVING?

The biggest challenge was my wedlock. Understandably, the question on my Christian wife's mind was: "Does this mean that you don't want to stay married?" I was very neat that our union survive and that we were able to find a style to continue doing family. My wife had a very skilful mix of being gentle but, at the same time, she was very articulate she even so believed. She was also very clear that she still wanted to take our kids to church. And I didn't resist that. I think, rather arrogantly, I thought:I'll go them some fashion. Yous tin can have them to church, only I'll notice a way to go my views beyond more than surreptitiously.

A lot of people joined my wife in praying for me. When I left faith, I was probably a little fleck resentful of that, but I thought:Well, you tin go ahead and pray; any you desire to practise, I've made my decision. I'k doing life my mode. I took this view that: I know the inner workings of evangelical Christianity, so y'all can't pull the wool over my eyes. You can't fool me with your 'bring and buy sale' or your Sunday dejeuner, I know you lot're probably trying to pull me back through the church door that I've only walked out of.

Simply and so I establish myself starting to question the narrative I was listening to from atheists online. Some of the content tended to put Christians downwards as people who weren't thinkers, who weren't rational at all. I remembered Christians I knew from years ago who were a lot smarter than me and still stood by their faith. And I started to feel a scrap softer and think:Maybe it's not quite that straightforward.

I met with Christians a fleck more. No one was too pushy with me, and I recall that softening laid the background for me to recall:Maybe I could await at some of these arguments for Christianity and see if there is a defense. Surreptitiously, without my wife knowing, I used my Kindle to look up somebody who could help me through some of the questions. I came across John Lennox'south volumeGunning For God: Why the New Atheists are Missing the Target (King of beasts Books). He started to address some of those things that I idea were really knockdown arguments against the Christian faith. That led me to a period where I realised that reason, logic and rational thinking are not tools that are just available to the atheist.

I realised that my disbelief had as much of a powerful conventionalities behind it. The maxim that there is a materialist explanation for everything is besides a belief. I started to try to be honest near where my disbelief lay, and reconsidered it again.

Having come up through this experience, today my faith is stronger than it was before. I feel that it's defensible. I think Christian apologetics is very good at helping people to unblock those artificial barriers to religion. But I remember it'south also actually good at helping Christians to exist encouraged in their faith.

You're never going to know the answer to every question, yous're never going to amass all the cognition. But there's enough at that place that you tin take a stride back and encounter the large picture. It'southward a little fleck like those magic heart pictures: if you lot stare at the pattern for long enough, don't wait too much at all the details, but relax and focus on the whole, somewhen you lot see the image. And that'southward what Christianity is like for me.

Jim Thring was speaking to Premier's Ruth Jackson. Lookout man the total interview at youtube.com/unbelievableshow

Ruth Jackson is a producer and youth specialist for Premier Christian Radio'due south Unbelievable? programme & podcast and a cracking musical theatre fan

mccoybetimesely.blogspot.com

Source: https://www.premierchristianity.com/stories/from-faith-to-unbeliefand-back-again/4434.article

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