FROM THE CHRISTIAN POST
British television personality David Harper considered himself agnostic when he started investigating Christianity after his daughter became a Christian and overcame debilitating depression.
Raised in a non-religious household, the flamboyant antiques expert was born into a family he describes as having “high morals” rooted in secularism and shaped by a culture that often portrayed faith as intellectually weak.
“God never played a part,” Harper told The Christian Post about his early life.
What started as a research project examining the evidence for God culminated in David Harper falling to his knees one day and fully accepting Jesus.
TV PERSONALITY TELLS HIS STORY IN A BOOK ‘THE GOD CONUNDRUM’
He’s written a book titled The God Conundrum in which he chronicles his 11-month investigation into the historical and scientific evidence for God’s existence.
“In the beginning, I wasn’t intending to write a book at all, but three or four months into my private research project, I realised I was writing a book.”
His spiritual journey began after his daughter, Hetti, embraced Christianity and underwent a dramatic spiritual transformation.
Hetti, who is now 30, became “exceptionally depressed,” particularly after she left home around the age of 20 and moved to London.
She became a rock singer and media sensation for having her private school motto tattooed on her chest, but that hid her demons.
HIS DAUGHTER’S BATTLE WITH DEPRESSION
David Harper said his daughter struggled with mental health and self-harm for years.
And although she tried taking anti-depressants and attending therapy sessions, she continued to sink into despair.
“Nothing worked for her,” her father recalled. “And she was effectively told, not in so many words: There’s nothing we can do for you.’”
She was advised to look for a spiritual solution.
HETTI STARTS GOING TO CHURCH WITH “MIND-BOGGLING” POSITIVE CHANGES
So Hetti started attending a church and told her father she was considering becoming a Christian.
While David did not consider himself a believer at the time, he was glad to see his daughter pursue a path that seemed to make her happy.
“I watched and monitored her for 15 months, and the changes in that girl were mind-boggling,” he rejoiced.
“I heard her laugh and giggle, and I remember thinking ‘I didn’t think I’d ever hear that again in my life.’”
A JOY BURNS BRIGHTLY IN THE EYES OF DAVID’S DAUGHTER
After she accepted Christ, the father said he noticed a joy burning brightly in her eyes that hadn’t been there before.
Her physical health improved, and her chronic pain gradually subsided.
“And for the 15 months that I was watching her, I now know I was leaning towards Jesus myself,” her father confessed.
“I think He was knocking. Things were happening.”
DAVID STARTS INVESTIGATING CHRISTIANITY
During the 2024 Christmas season, the observant father decided to investigate his questions about Christianity after a visit with his daughter, in which they attended church and discussed Jesus.
Something had sparked a change within his daughter, the father reasoned, and he wanted to learn more.
He sat down one afternoon intending to spend a few hours researching what he initially thought was a simple query: “What is it about Christianity that transforms people?”
“I thought I’d find the answer in a few hours before tea time. Then I was just engrossed,” he revealed.
This journey began then and continued without stopping, seven days a week, for 11 months.”
DAVID HARPER STUDIES THE CASE FOR GOD
During those months, David studied arguments for the existence of God, scrutinised evolutionary theory and examined historical claims surrounding the resurrection of Jesus.
Writing the section of the book about Jesus and the resurrection took him six weeks, the author recalled.
In working on this part of the book, he came to what he described as an “academic” and “intellectual” decision to accept the existence of a creator and the truth of the resurrection.
“If the resurrection was true, then everything is true. And I thought, if the resurrection is true, then Jesus is God,” he reasoned.
“And so, I looked at all of the investigations and 2,000 years’ worth of the best claims against it, and nobody has been able to debunk it.”
DAVID SENSES SOMETHING IS STILL MISSING
David still sensed that something was still missing.
“I didn’t have what I would later describe as the 18-inch drop — the thought process in your brain that something is right, that something is true,” he said.
“I didn’t feel it in my body, in my soul, in my heart.”
As he started experiencing intense emotions — sometimes feeling waves of joy or anguish that he couldn’t explain — Dvid Harper realised that he was gradually becoming a Christian.
AUTHOR SUFFERS PANIC ATTACKS, FEARING RIDICULE FOR BECOMING A CHRISTIAN
The idea caused him to suffer panic attacks, as he feared ridicule from his colleagues or family members.
Despite his doubts, the author found that he couldn’t erase Jesus from his mind.
A turning point came when he recalled a video of Christian apologist John Lennox discussing a formerly depressed student whose life was changed by Christ.
The story about Lennox’s student reminded Harper of his daughter and the way Christianity had impacted her life.
DAVID RECOGNISES THAT JESUS SAVED HIS DAUGHTER’S LIFE
“The memory of that video hit me like a steam train,” the born-again Christian said.
“I suddenly realised, even though I had amassed all of this evidence, the real evidence that Christianity is true, is the transformation in the soul of a person.”
He realised that the answer had been “staring him in the face” for months, years even, but he had just overlooked it.
“It was at that moment that I realised: It was Jesus Christ who had literally saved my daughter’s life,” the Christian author stated.
“I just fell to my knees and realised, at that moment, it was Him — it was Jesus.”
REACTION TO HIS NEW FOUND FAITH
David said his wife, who had always identified as a Christian but wasn’t super devout, has grown closer to God since his conversion.
Some of his colleagues refuse to engage with him on the topic, while others accuse him of “Bible-bashing” when he’s attempted to discuss the evidence for a creator.
He added that his new found faith doesn’t appear to have resulted in any major professional consequences.
But he has been cautioned to “calm down” references to Christianity during his television appearances.
DAVID WOULD RATHER ENDURE PUSHBACK THAN RETURN TO WHO HE WAS
David insists he would rather endure pushback than return to the person he was before, who did not truly know God.
“I had to pretend to be confident most of the time with my TV work when, under the surface, I was not feeling so confident and not feeling very happy,” the BBC presenter explained.
He says faith has smoothed his life.
He now looks at nature and sees an intentional design rather than an accident.
David also no longer fears death, as he believes in the promise of an afterlife.
He hopes his book will help others who are like he was — “confused, distressed about life generally, not knowing what the purpose and the meaning of life was, always searching for answers.”
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