An Unexpected Conversion: An Atheist Comes to Christ

"Unexpected Conversion: An Atheist’s Journey to Christ"

One of the world’s great intellectuals becomes a Christian



Some time ago I posted a video entitled, “Atheists for Jesus,” which is linked below.  It featured several prominent unbelievers who called on Christians and the Christian church to stand their ground, stand up for what they believed, take their religion seriously, and spread it as widely as they could. Their reasoning was simple: Only Christianity could save Western civilization. Marxists, and Muslims, and other enemies of our culture would destroy it if given the chance. But Christianity had the power to resist and they were, in their own manner, praying for Christianity’s success.

One of the three is one of the most prominent academic historians in the world, Niall Ferguson. He hails from the U.K., and has a PhD in history from Oxford. He has taught at Harvard and other universities and is currently a fellow with Stanford’s Hoover Institution and an equivalent position at Harvard. He has written many books and is generally considered one of the most influential historians in the world. I remember professors at CCU using his books as regular texts in their classes.

Ferguson has been a well-known atheist. He is married to Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who announced a little more than a year ago that she had become a Christian. In September, Ferguson, Ali, and their two boys were baptized into the Christian faith. When I read this a few days ago I was astonished. This is like C.S. Lewis’ conversion. It comes straight out of left field—or heaven as it were—and took me completely by surprise.

Recently Ferguson was interviewed about his conversion by an Australian journalist. He called himself a “lapsed atheist.” He made it clear that his was not primarily a political conversion. It was a deeply personal and deliberate turn to faith.

He said, "I have embraced Christianity…We were all baptised, Ayaan and our two sons, together in September ... It was the culmination of a quite protracted process… I grew up in a household of science-minded religious sceptics. I didn't go to church and felt quite sure of the wisdom of that when I was young. However, in two phases, I lost my faith in atheism."

In the first phase Ferguson was persuaded by an argument I made in a recent video. I asked, “Where are the atheist civilizations?” Ferguson asked the same thing. "The first phase was that as a historian I realised no society had been successfully organised on the basis of atheism. All attempts to do that have been catastrophic.”

But then came the second stage. Ferguson came to realize, “no individual can in fact be fully formed or ethically secure without religious faith. That insight has come more recently and has been born of our experience as a family."

For a long time he felt that being a citizen of England meant one should go to church even if you don’t believe anything. But he said, “Now it’s different: Now I attend church in a spirit of faith. Also I'm a learner. I learn about Christianity every week…

When I read the Bible… My attitude is that this extraordinary document is describing the life of a unique individual whose power to transform the world has never been equaled.”

Does he believe the Bible? “It’s hard to feel bound by the teachings if they’re lies… One can't reason one's way to God, at least I don't think one can. The nature of faith is that one accepts that these apparently farfetched claims are true."

Does Ferguson pray? "Yeah, I pray… prayer is meaningful, on the basis of faith in Christ. I don't think of it that I'm on the phone to God but I am trying to convey to that which is beyond reason.

I've spent 60 years on this planet and I'm convinced that we can't be spiritually naked, we can't be spiritually void, it's too miserable."

Ferguson then turns to a topic he has engaged in for a long time: the impact of Christianity on culture.

“I agree with Tom Holland (author of Dominion) that a lot of Christianity is still there in the operating system but people are in denial about it. They don't even recognise the Christian roots of much that they believe.”

What are some of the specific ways the abandonment of Christian belief has impacted the culture of the West?

"We've given up on religious observance. This is a mistake – the empty churches on Sundays, people not saying grace at dinner. We've lost observance and in doing that we've lost something very powerful and very healing…we've just stopped being Christians.”

What are some ways Ferguson’s newfound faith have affected him?

"What strikes me, as a regular churchgoer now, not having been one before, is how much one learns every Sunday morning. Every hymn contains some new clue as to the relationship between us and God. I think the educational benefit of going to church almost equals the moral benefit.”

And finally Ferguson gives his analysis of what is going on in our wider culture, an analysis with which I strongly agree:

"[Christian faith] matters hugely and as a society we've turned away from it. That explains, much more than the rise of social media, the mental health problems that characterise our societies today. We're all sort of running this experiment, without God and without religious observance. And it's not going well. But we blame it on the smartphone or on Twitter. I think the real explanation for the mental health epidemic is that we've thrown away those wonderful support mechanisms that evolved over centuries to get us through.”

I have felt that for a long time the secular analysis of current problems—blaming technology--is completely blind to the real problem. We have forsaken God. And what has happened was predicted perfectly by the Apostle Paul in Romans 1, beginning with v. 18.

Thinking ourselves wise we have become fools instead.

Niall Ferguson has figured it out. Not just for the culture at large but for him personally. For his marriage and his children. He needs Jesus Christ. And so does everyone else.

His is an example of how our God can intervene at any time. When you are predicting the future of Christianity in the West and everywhere else the most important factor is unknown: What is God going to do?

I rejoice for Dr. Ferguson and his family. I rejoice for all of you who have embraced Jesus Christ and know Him as your personal Savior. May He bless you this day in a mighty way.

More: “Atheists for Jesus”; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oX5Mi-pVgGY

The testimony of Niall Ferguson’s wife: “Why I am no longer an atheist;” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=039-0HjWzso

Where are the atheist civilizations? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MyRjazjrAJ0

Ferguson’s testimony in his own words:

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1870391930317639956.html