The oldest argument: a changed life
Evidence for Christianity: changed lives
Long before the modern apologetics shelf, the faith made its case through the lives it changed — and most tellingly through the skeptics and opponents who set out against it and were won. These are first-person accounts of exactly that: reason, resistance, and transformation, free to read in the public domain and offered here as clean editions.
- 1
1715 · Covenanter Scotland · Answered the deists
Memoirs of the Life of Thomas Halyburton
Thomas Halyburton · 1714
Thomas Halyburton wrestled his way through deism and doubt before returning to faith — an early, rigorous answer to the Enlightenment’s objections, from the inside.
- 2
397 · Roman North Africa · Through the philosophies
Confessions
Augustine · 397
Augustine moved through Manichaeism, skepticism, and Neoplatonism before Christ — the classic account of a searching intellect satisfied at last.
- 3
1885 · Punjab, North India · A Muslim opponent won
A Muslim Brought to Christ
Imad-ud-din Lahiz · 1884
Published as A Mohammedan Brought to Christ (1884)
A Muslim scholar who debated against Christianity — and, studying it to refute it, was won. He wrote his account specifically to prove his conversion was sincere, not bought.
- 4
1922 · India & the Himalayas · Burned the Gospel
At the Master’s Feet
Sadhu Sundar Singh · 1922
Sundar Singh was so hostile he once burned a Bible — then a vision changed everything. A conversion against every incentive of family and culture.
- 5
1764 · The Atlantic slave trade · The hardened sailor
An Authentic Narrative
John Newton · 1764
A profane slave-ship captain, by his own testimony beyond reform — the ‘Amazing Grace’ story as evidence that no life is past changing.
- 6
1857 · New England · Freethought reasoned through
The Convert; or, Leaves from My Experience
Orestes Brownson · 1857
Orestes Brownson argued his way through Universalism, socialism, and freethought before entering the Catholic Church — an intellectual’s account of following the reasoning where it led.
- 7
1925
The Everlasting Man
G.K. Chesterton · 1925
Chesterton’s reply to H. G. Wells’s Outline of History, which had told the story of mankind with man as one animal among others and Christ as one teacher among many. His answer is that both are singular. It is the book C. S. Lewis credited with breaking down his atheism.
- 8
1747
Observations on the History and Evidences of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ
Gilbert West · 1747
A story later told of West has him setting out to disprove the resurrection and publishing the opposite. The eighteenth century’s most-cited treatment of the evidence, by a man who had himself entertained deist doubts.
- 9
1930
Who Moved the Stone?
Frank Morison · 1930
A journalist’s attempt to write the book that would put the resurrection to rest, which became the book that could not. Chesterton reviewed it warmly, having picked it up thinking it was a detective story.
- 10
1747
Observations on the Conversion of St. Paul
George Lyttelton · 1747
Lyttelton’s argument that Paul’s conversion alone, examined as evidence, is sufficient proof of Christianity. Published the same year as West’s Evidences, by his friend and fellow skeptic.
- 11
1776
A View of the Internal Evidence of the Christian Religion
Soame Jenyns · 1776
Jenyns argues from the internal character of the Gospels rather than from miracles or prophecy — that no human invention of that era would have produced this particular morality.
- 12
1883
The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah
Alfred Edersheim · 1883
Edersheim was a Viennese Jew who became a Christian minister, and read the Gospels back into the rabbinic and Talmudic world he had been raised in. Still cited for that reason.
- 13
1857
The Testimony of the Rocks
Hugh Miller · 1857
A self-taught stonemason turned geologist arguing that the rocks and Genesis can be read together — written at the moment that question became urgent, and by someone who knew the rocks first-hand.
- 14
1913 · Florence · Atheist provocateur
The Failure (Un uomo finito)
Giovanni Papini · 1913
Giovanni Papini’s self-portrait of the militant atheist he was — the ‘finished man’ who set out to demolish every faith and would later convert. A firsthand map of the unbelief he came to renounce.
Questions about the evidence of changed lives
- What is the argument from changed lives?
- It’s one of the oldest and most practical arguments for Christianity: the faith’s power is shown in the lives it transforms — especially the lives of skeptics, scholars, and outright opponents who set out against it and were won. A changed life is evidence you can read firsthand.
- Are these good books for studying apologetics?
- They’re a complement to the argument-based apologetics of writers like Lewis or Chesterton. Where those make the case, these show the result: primary-source accounts of real people reasoning, resisting, and being changed. Good for a class or group studying the evidence for the faith.
- Which is the best example of a skeptic converted?
- George Romanes is the sharpest case — Darwin’s own friend and correspondent, who published an anonymous case against theism as a young man and spent his last years working his way back. Thomas Halyburton answered the deists; Augustine came through the philosophies; and Imad-ud-din, a Muslim scholar, was won while trying to refute Christianity.
- Are the texts free to read?
- All are in the public domain, with a free source linked on each page. Our clean editions add readable typesetting for study.
More reading lists
T.S. Baker — the evidence in their own words, free sources linked.