One of the big upcoming Christian Apologist's the last few years is David Wood. I think he is roughly 10 years younger than myself, which would put him in his mid 40s. Wood has done a lot of great Apologetics against Islam due to the fact that his best friend Nabeel Qureshi who died 5 years ago, suffered a lot of persecution due to his conversion to Christianity in the early 2000s. I find David Wood's testimony very compelling, and worth watching videos where he details it out when he is a guest speaker at a church etc. but here is a short video.
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My Synopsis for folks that don't watch videos
David Wood in the 1990's is a teenager that is most likely a psychopath (born without a conscience). He is under different delusions the biggest one is he concludes that he is a superior evolved human being. David believed the fact that he did not experience some basic emotions like grief from the loss of the death of a pet, or a friend etc. as evidence of his being more highly evolved than other humans. He does however find himself bound by some of the moral restrictions he was taught as a young kid, so he decides to rebel against these so his evolution can be complete. One day he suddenly decided to murder his father with a hammer when his dad's back is turned, to help with his evolution. His father was severely injured by the surprise attack but not aware who committed it. Law enforcement officials concluded by the scene of the crime and by interviewing David that he did it even though he did not confess to the killing; because it was obvious based on the clues and David Wood was not able to hide the fact that he was mentally disturbed from the various forensic people that interviewed him. All of this led to get him being tried and convicted and sent to a mental hospital for violent felons.
While at the hospital, David continued in his delusions and continued to believe he was superior to all those around him. Eventually however Wood met Randy, Randy was unlike the other people he had met. When Wood would tease or harass him for being a Christian, that it was stupid or silly for believing the Faith/Bible because he was just following what other people told him, Randy pushed back and often won the argument showing how his argument was hypocritical or otherwise defective. This caused David to become a bit obsessed with Randy where he felt the need to compete with him. He began to study the Bible and Christianity just so he could argue better against Randy. He also began to out-due Randy in fasting, this however was his undoing because he actually fasted too long, enough to have problems passing out and going under a 48-hour psychiatric evaluation because the authorities did not understand his fasting (they believed in was some kind of suicidal hunger strike.). His time in isolation however caused him to reflect on his own behavior and beliefs in light of the Bible, eventually resulting in him doing a kind of "Sinner's prayer", and the rest is history as they say...
Randy's Story
Randy case is interesting. He was in the Navy as a young man in his early twenties and "got saved" / became a Christian in the service. His conversion however affected his conscience, in his younger years he had committed a number of misfeasors like vandalism, and a few felonies like property crimes and felt bad about them, and eventually confessed to them at the local police station that caused him to get arrested and serve some time in prison and later he was brought into the criminal mental hospital for some unknown reason where he met David. The nature of his circumstances that he was there by confession rather being caught caused David to initially look down upon him, but also sparked his interest because he was unlike all the other criminal patients at the hospital.
He however used the time productively he studied the faith, and realized it was a great time to practice certain spiritual disciplines like fasting because such activities would not interfere with normal everyday responsibilities like working a job or family.
Interesting enough, Randy's case background seems much less severe than David's, God basically did a miracle with David was as far as transforming him and getting him out of that situation while Randy stayed in a few decades longer. I think some of this is God's plan that he impacted other people's lives besides David's. Also, that God "had a plan for Randy's life". One of the things he studied in his incarceration is Graphic Design, and this is something that David Wood needs. So, it seems like a kind of poetic ending / story book ending that the person was most instrumental in David's Wood conversion can also be helped by him with testifying at his parole hearing and also offering a job and career leaving prison by working in his ministry!
Current Need
So, while the parole hearing from a few months ago went well there is still a need for prayer. (David told his testimony and detailed how Randy was important to his own reform and transformation and the parole board really studied it and took notes). Maybe Satan is trying to keep Randy in the Klink and stop him from helping David's ministry. Anyway, I thought it was a worthy cause for the board, and that some people might be inspired by the story.
Thanks!
