I will give you a new heart
(Originally published at What's Wrong With the World. Link to original post at 'permalink' below.)
Watch this video. I won't say, "Drop whatever you are doing and watch this video." One reason not to drop everything is that a warning is in order: Though this is entirely narrated rather than dramatized, there is some very disturbing content which should not be watched with young children present. But watch it.
Simply an incredible story. If you ever wondered what Christianity has to offer to a sociopath, now you know. If you ever wondered if it really is possible for Christianity to speak to a person with a severe, innate problem that predisposes him to horrible sin, now you know. If you ever wondered if Christ offers hope for despair, hope to everyone, hope even to the worst of sinners, now you know.
(One sometimes uses, "What if you were born inclined to be an ax murderer? Would that make it okay to be an ax murderer?" as a reductio of the homosexual argument. Now I feel like I've listened to someone who actually may have been born inclined to be an ax murderer.)
One of the most interesting things about this testimony is the combination of the role of hard, solid evidence and reasoning in Wood's conversion with his eventual sense of existential need. Indeed, it was by the arguments that he was brought to realize his own insufficiency, to realize the appalling absurdity of his own claims to be an ubermensch, and his need of help from God.
Moreover, Wood's conversion itself has some evidential value. I will not say that it would be impossible for someone's life to be turned around like this by commitment to a false religion, but I will say that it seems unlikely. When a person like that finally is forced to his knees and prays to God, specifically to the Christian God, for help, and afterwards, for the first time, doesn't feel like he wants to hurt anyone anymore...that has evidential value.
It seems like gilding the lilies to note the production values of this short film in the face of the powerful content, but I can't help mentioning some points along those lines: It looks (to my unpracticed eye) as thought it may all have been done in one take. The timing is delightfully precise, especially the moment when Wood arrives at the track at the same time as a train and the door opens just as he gets to the right second in his talk. Other background bits include the "Emergency Exit" door and the brick wall passing by as he is discussing the design argument he made in his prison cell while thinking about a brick wall. Someone did some excellent planning here, though it is all done simply and without a big budget.
If you are a regular W4 reader or contributor reaching around in your mind wondering why the name "David Wood" sounds familiar, this is why. David was one of the missionaries to the Muslims arrested in Dearborn several years ago, in a story covered extensively here at W4. David's blog is Answering Muslims and his ministry is Acts 17 Apologetics.
There are many hymns that are appropriate to David Wood's story, so many that it is hard to decide which to mention. Here is just one:
Just as I am
Poor, wretched, blind,
Sight, riches, healing of the mind
Yea, all I need in Thee to find,
O Lamb of God, I come. I come.
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