Seeing Christ and Believing His Word: Slavery, Salvation, Service.
An Interview with an Atheist turned Christian Apologist.
Introduce yourself. Who are you? What do you do?
My name is James Hunt, I come from England and since 2013 I have been the Head of General Subjects and Academic Development of a university in Indonesia. My main responsibility though is teaching English language to all faculties, largely academic English and soft skills such as presenting and effective communication.
How did you come to faith? How did God save you from your sins?
That’s a very interesting question with a very interesting answer. Let me give a bit of background first. I was raised in a loving Christian home by two born again, God loving parents. However, when I hit the teenage years there was no separate youth group as the church was quite small so all older kids and teens had to join the adult service, which I didn’t enjoy as the services were well over 2 hours in length and we had to attend both morning and evening! I also had questions about the faith, but sadly nobody can satisfyingly answer any of them. Anyway, at around 15, I told my parents I wasn’t attending church any longer and by age 17, I was a self-professed atheist who had no desire for anything religious.
Fast forward to August 2015, I was sitting in my office and a question lodged into my head: Are you sure there is no God? I would usually bat this question away with disdain, but since I work in the university system and require all my students to provide reasons, evidence and examples for their views, I realized I couldn’t provide clear and concise reasons with evidence why it was irrational to believe in God. So, I decided to embark upon intensive research to disprove God and the bible. But by December 2015, after an intensive 5-month research period, I was faced with evidence for God and the bible that far outweighed evidence against Christianity. Reluctantly, I knelt at the end of my bed and said, “Alright Jesus, you win.”
James Hunt’s testimony can be heard here.
Tell us something about the country you are residing in.
I have been here for 20 years and this is my home now. The people are super friendly and genuine, there is an amazing array of mouth-watering dishes and the weather is perfect for growing vegetables and chilies all your round pretty much! Although the country I stay in is the a very populous country, there is religious freedom in most parts of Indonesia. The country has an underpinning philosophy called Pancasila (derived from Sanskrit), which means five principles. The five principles are: belief in the one and only God; a just and civilized humanity; the unity of Indonesia; democracy guided by the inner wisdom in the unanimity arising out of deliberations amongst representatives; and social justice for the people at large in Indonesia. All in all, it’s an intriguing place to live, although it took some time to adjust.
Why does apologetics matter?
Apologetics is dear to me because God used my desire to conduct research and investigate His existence to draw me to Him. I know why I am a Christian, which helps me hold up the shield of faith against the fiery darts from the devil (Ephesians 6:15). In addition, apologetics is a mandate for all believers as we should always be prepared to give an answer for the hope we have (1 Peter 3:15). I also love what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 10:5: “We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”
You can peruse James Hunt’s Youtube Channel here.
Can mankind be good without God?
That all depends on whose definition of good we take. From a human perspective, I would say that humans in general are capable of good deeds and charitable acts. I know several atheists who are very kind and generous and wish nobody harm. However, humanity seems to be plagued with an inherent desire to be selfish and hurt others.
From God’s perspective, the default position is that humans cannot be good because only God is good. Compared to God, humans are like filthy rags and the foolishness of God is wiser than the wisdom of mankind.
What are you thankful to God for?
Honestly, I am thankful for everything I have, for who He is and what Jesus has done for me. I don’t deserve eternal life, yet I gladly accept the free gift of salvation.
Tell us about: Undoubting God. What was the motivation behind its inception?
I self-published the book Undoubting God: A Thinker’s Journey from Skepticism to Belief in May 2023, which was a result of 7 years of research, study and apologetics/bible teaching. It is my passion to show that Faith is not fairy tales and that believing in God is not only rational, but highly plausible in light of the evidence. As a former atheist, I never really investigated a lot of the claims I copied from other people to see if they were true or not. A lot of people have big misconceptions about the nature of God, what Jesus did and why He came, and how science and faith are actually complementary. In fact, recent scientific discoveries scream out for a designer, most notably DNA since it contains information, instructions and storage.
Below are apologetics teaching sessions taught by James Hunt, courtesy of The Collective, Jakarta.
Session 3 to 5: The Problem of Pain, Evil and Suffering, Contrasting Other Worldviews, and the Reliability of the Bible can be viewed here.
Tell us, what is the Gospel? According to the Bible.
I could talk about this for hours, but I think the gospel is the good news that we can all be reconciled to God through the selfless act of Jesus giving up his life in order to rescue us from sin and death. Jesus is the only way to receive the free gift eternal life with God. As Jesus repeatedly said, we must repent and believe the good news. Nothing we can do can earn God’s favour — Jesus lived a sinless life as the perfect example of humanity. God draws us to Him, but we can either allow ourselves to be pulled in, or we can choose to pull away.
Seek the Lord while He may be found;
Call upon Him while He is near.
Let the wicked forsake his way
And the unrighteous man his thoughts;
And let him return to the Lord,
And He will have compassion on him,
And to our God,
For He will abundantly pardon.
“For My thoughts are not your thoughts,
Nor are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord.
“For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
So are My ways higher than your ways
And My thoughts than your thoughts.
— Isaiah 55:6–9
The Second London Baptist Confession of Faith 1689, Chapter 1, Paragraph 1 states:
The Holy Scripture is the only sufficient, certain, and infallible rule of all saving knowledge, faith, and obedience,1 although the light of nature, and the works of creation and providence do so far manifest the goodness, wisdom, and power of God, as to leave men inexcusable; yet they are not sufficient to give that knowledge of God and His will which is necessary unto salvation.2 Therefore it pleased the Lord at sundry times and in diversified manners to reveal Himself, and to declare (that) His will unto His church;3 and afterward for the better preserving and propagating of the truth, and for the more sure establishment and comfort of the church against the corruption of the flesh, and the malice of Satan, and of the world, to commit the same wholly unto writing; which makes the Holy Scriptures to be most necessary, those former ways of God’s revealing His will unto His people being now completed.4
1 2 Tim. 3:15–17; Is. 8:20; Luke 16:29,31; Eph. 2:20
2 Rom. 1:19–21, 2:14–15; Psalm 19:1–3
3 Heb. 1:1
4 Prov. 22:19–21; Rom. 15:4; 2 Pet. 1:19–20
