BBC presenter finds Jesus after daughter’s mental health crisis

Tv character David Harper thought-about himself agnostic when he began investigating Christianity after his daughter grew to become a Christian and overcame debilitating despair.

Raised in a non-religious family, Harper was born right into a household he describes as having “excessive 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 Harper falling to his knees one day and fully accepting Jesus. 

Best known for his work as an antiques presenter for the British Broadcasting Corporation, Harper became a Christian last year, and his new book, The God Conundrum, 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,” Harper stated. “But then, about three or four months into my private research project, I realized I was writing a book.” 

‘There’s nothing we can do for you’

Harper’s 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.

For years, Harper said his daughter struggled with mental health and self-harm. And although she tried taking antidepressants and attending therapy sessions, she continued to sink into despair. 

“Nothing worked for her,” Harper recalled. “And she was effectively told, not in so many words, ‘There’s nothing we can do for you.’ And it was advised that she look for something spiritual.” 

The father felt uncertain about how to help his daughter, but he was encouraged when Hetti told him she was going to church and was considering becoming a Christian.

While Harper 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. 

“And I watched and monitored her for 15 months, and the changes in that girl were mind-boggling,” the author said. “I heard her laugh and giggle, and I remember thinking, ‘I didn’t think I’d ever hear that again in my life.’”

‘Leaning towards Jesus’

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,” the author said. “I think He was knocking. Things were happening.” 

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. 

Harper said 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 said. “This journey began then and continued without stopping, seven days a week, for 11 months.”

For months, Harper studied arguments for the existence of God, scrutinized evolutionary idea and examined historic claims surrounding the resurrection of Jesus. 

Writing the part of the e book about Jesus and the resurrection took him six weeks, the writer recalled. In engaged on this a part of the e book, Harper got here to what he described as an “educational” and “intellectual” determination to just accept the existence of a creator and the reality 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.” 

Even after he accepted the mental arguments for Christianity and acknowledged the resurrection of Jesus as a historic reality, Harper sensed that one thing was nonetheless lacking.

Regularly changing into a Christian

“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 mentioned. “I didn’t feel it in my body, in my soul, in my heart.” 

As he began experiencing intense feelings — generally feeling waves of pleasure or anguish that he couldn’t clarify — Harper realized that he was steadily changing into a Christian. The concept prompted him to undergo panic assaults, as he feared ridicule from his colleagues or members of the family. 

Regardless of his doubts, the writer discovered that he couldn’t erase Jesus from his thoughts. A turning level got here when he recalled a video of Christian apologist John Lennox discussing a previously depressed scholar whose life was modified by Christ. The story about Lennox’s scholar reminded Harper of his daughter and the way in which Christianity had impacted her life.

“The memory of that video hit me like a steam train,” the born-again Christian mentioned. “Because I realized, 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 realized that the reply had been “staring him in the face” for months, years even, however he had simply neglected it. 

“It was at that moment that I realized: It was Jesus Christ who had literally saved my daughter’s life,” the Christian writer acknowledged. “I just fell to my knees and realized, at that moment, it was Him — it was Jesus.” 

Harper mentioned his spouse, who had at all times recognized as a Christian however wasn’t tremendous religious, has grown nearer to God since her husband’s conversion. However not all reactions to the writer’s conversion have been heat. 

A few of his colleagues will refuse to interact with him on the subject, whereas others have accused him of “Bible-bashing” when he’s tried to debate the proof for a creator. Harper mentioned that his newfound religion doesn’t seem to have resulted in any main skilled penalties, however twice, he has had administrators advise him to “calm down” references to Christianity throughout tv appearances.

Nonetheless, he insists he would fairly endure pushback than return to the individual he was earlier than, who didn’t actually 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 TV antiques presenter defined. 

Religion, he says, has smoothed his life. He now seems to be at nature and sees an intentional design fairly than an accident. He additionally not fears dying, as he believes within the promise of an afterlife. 

“It’s not that I want to die. I want to live as long as I can,” Harper mentioned. “So I feel I’ve been given a job. I actually really feel that my job now’s to inform folks concerning the fact that’s there, and it’s quite simple to know, however I’m not afraid of the day that we’ll all face.”

“Because I really believe that day is something which is wonderful,” he added. “And so that fills you with joy.”

As for the book’s target audience, Harper hopes that fellow believers will find it useful and learn things they didn’t know about the life of Jesus and other topics. 

“But I suppose initially, when I realized I was writing a book, it was for people like me — confused, distressed about life generally, not knowing what the purpose and the meaning of life was, always searching for answers,” Harper said.