Nicky Gumbel - Questions of Life

Questions of Life

1993, 1996, 2003, 2010, 2016 by Nicky Gumbel

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Illustrations by Charlie Mackesy

p. 54: Image of William Holman Hunts The Light of the World is Dean and Chapter of St. Pauls Cathedral.

ISBN 978-1-938-3-2878-7

ISBN 978-0-310-0-8970-4 (eBook)

First Printing 2007

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When Questions of Life was first published over twenty years ago, there were only a handful of Alphas running. As I write this, over 29 million people have completed Alpha in 169 countries around the world.

Much of this is due to the extraordinary dedication, adaptability, and hard work of Nicky Gumbel. But he would be the first to point out that there is another crucial factor: the Spirit of God seems to have adopted Alpha and has blown it along.

And this book Questions of Life has been central to the whole phenomenon. As Alpha in book form, it has become an international bestseller through which countless thousands have been introduced to Jesus Christ for the first time.

In it, Nicky provides some answers to the hunger and growing hope in every human heart that somewhere, somehow, there may be found a contemporary answer to the timeless question, What is truth and how and where can we discover it?

Questions of Life remains a sympathetic, fascinating, and immensely readable introduction to Jesus Christstill the most attractive and captivating person it is possible to know. Nicky Gumbels intelligent, well-researched and informed approach ensures that the search for Truth fully engages our minds as well as our hearts.

I have no hesitation in continuing to recommend this readable and important book.

Sandy Millar

There is today a new interest in the Christian faith, and more specifically in the Person of Jesus. It has been over 2,000 years since His birth, yet He has more than 2.2 billion followers. Christians will always be fascinated by the founder of their faith and the Lord of their lives. But now, there is a resurgence of interest among non-churchgoers.

Many are asking questions about Jesus. Was he merely a man or is He the Son of God? If He is the latter, what are the implications for our everyday lives?

This book attempts to answer some of the key questions at the heart of the Christian faith. It is based on Alpha, which is designed for non-churchgoers, those seeking to find out more about Christianity, and those who have recently come to faith in Jesus Christ. We have watched in astonishment as the number of Alphas around the world has increased to over 66,000. Millions of men and women of all ages have come to Alpha full of questions about Christianity, and have found God as their Father, Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord, and the Holy Spirit as the one who comes to live within them.

I would like to thank all the people who have read and offered constructive criticisms on the manuscripts, and Cressida Inglis-Jones who typed the original manuscript and almost all the revisions with great speed, efficiency, and patience.

Nicky Gumbel

For many years I had three objections to the Christian faith. First, I thought it was boring. I went to chapel at school and found it very dull. I had sympathy with the novelist Robert Louis Stevenson who once entered in his diary, as if recording an extraordinary phenomenon, I have been to church today, and am not depressed. My impression of the Christian faith was that it was dreary and uninspiring.

Second, it seemed to me to be untrue. I had intellectual objections to the Christian faith and described myself as an atheist. In fact, I rather pretentiously called myself a logical determinist. When I was fourteen I wrote an essay for Religious Studies in which I tried to destroy the whole of Christianity and disprove the existence of God. Rather surprisingly, it was put forward for a prize! I had knock-down arguments against the Christian faith and rather enjoyed arguing with Christians, on each occasion thinking I had won some great victory.

Third, I thought that Christianity was irrelevant to my life. I could not see how something that happened 2,000 years ago and 2,000 miles away in the Middle East could have any relevance to my life today. At school we often used to sing that much-loved hymn Jerusalem, which asks, And did those feet in ancient time walk upon Englands mountains green? We all knew that the answer was, No, they did not. Jesus never came anywhere near England!

With hindsight, I realize that it was partly my fault as I never really listened and so did not know very much about the Christian faith. There are many people today who dont know much about Jesus Christ, or what He did, or anything else about Christianity.

One hospital chaplain listed some of the replies he was given to the question, Would you like Holy Communion? These are some of the answers:

No thanks, Im Church of England.

No thanks, I asked for cornflakes.

No thanks, Ive never been circumcised.

Not only was I ignorant about the Christian faith but also, looking back, my experience was that something was missing.