{"id":722,"date":"2015-08-27T10:58:05","date_gmt":"2015-08-27T10:58:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.risen.org.uk\/?p=722"},"modified":"2015-08-27T10:58:05","modified_gmt":"2015-08-27T10:58:05","slug":"blog-august-27th-was-jesus-really-raised-from-the-dead-part-eight-changed-lives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/?p=722","title":{"rendered":"Blog August 27th – Was Jesus really raised from the dead? Part Eight – Changed lives."},"content":{"rendered":"

\"It<\/p>\n

Last week I promised to share some personal experiences that have convinced me that Jesus really was raised from the dead, however I trust you will forgive me if I put that on hold for one more week as there is another point relating to this topic that I wish to first highlight.<\/p>\n

If you read my early blogs you would know that I had a fear of death and that since becoming a Christian I no longer need to have that fear as I have been promised eternal life – John 3:16 \u201cFor God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.\u201d\u00a0 As a Christian I have a faith that there is a God and atheists, have a faith that there is not. \u00a0<\/strong>Since becoming a follower of Jesus I have wanted to share my faith with others because I have wanted others to experience life and life to the full *(John 10:10) however until reading some atheist material from my atheist friend, Alan I had no idea that some atheists also wish to share their faith.<\/p>\n

As Christian I have no fear of hell because I have the promise of Heaven, but an atheist would, no doubt, \u00a0say that he\/she is \u00a0free from the fear of hell simply because he\/she \u00a0does not believe that such a place exists.\u00a0 An atheist would probably go on to say that he\/she has freedom from the rules and regulations which he\/she \u00a0perceives Christianity imposes. One of the websites to which Alan directed me is ironically titled \u201cThe Church of Truth\u201d with a strap line \u201cFree persons of all faiths from the tyranny of their religion.\u201d In response I would say that I spent most of my life being a non- believer (I would not go as far as to say I was an atheist) and for the last eighteen years I have been a Christian- so I have experience of both \u201cfaiths\u201d and have no doubt which one has given me the more freedom<\/p>\n

There are countless testimonies of lives being dramatically changed when converting to Christianity for example www.independent.co.uk \u203a News \u203a UK but can the same be said of those who convert from Christianity to atheism? Notwithstanding the point made in the previous paragraph about atheists feeling free from the fear of hell and religious rules and regulations how many testimonies are there of lives that have been changed by conversion to atheism? I am reminded of a story recounted in the book \u201cIt Makes Sense.\u201d Apparently Charles Bradlaugh, an outstanding intellectual of his day challenged a local preacher to a debate on Christianity and atheism.\u00a0 The Minister, Hugh Price Hughes agreed on the condition that Bradlaugh brought with him 100 people whose lives had been changed by a commitment to atheism and if he did Hughes would bring 100 whose lives had been changed by knowing God. Hughes then reduced the number Bradlaugh needed to bring to fifty then twenty, then ten and finally one. Bradlaugh had to withdraw from the debate when he could not even manage one.<\/p>\n

So next week some of my own personal experiences unless something even more important turns up !<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Living it Up” featuring the Mustard Seed Soul Band from the album “Heart and Soul” recorded and produced by Ross Gill Last week I promised to share some personal experiences that have convinced me that Jesus really was raised from the dead, however I trust you will forgive me if I put that on hold […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-722","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ken-shearsmiths-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/722","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=722"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/722\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":725,"href":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/722\/revisions\/725"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}