Emily Graves spoke with Bill Medley about the spiritual journey he took writing his book

Emily: How long did it take you to research the five faiths before forming your opinion on what the truth is?

Bill: Well, at the time I was working a comedy gig that was making me a living, out of just working on a Saturday night doing 15 minutes of work; it was great. I spent my whole week during the week reading. It was solid reading for about six months. I would say during that year it was six months, but that was some pretty solid reading time.

Bill Medley

Emily: When you were doing all your research, what revelation did you get that was most surprising to you?

Bill: The fact that Jesus was the one that stood out by his claims about himself. The Buddha didn't claim to be god who's come down to tell us. He said I don't even know if there's a god; he's reaching up. Mohamed says he's a prophet, but doesn't claim that he's god or knows god personally. The Hindu sages all had great spiritual experiences, but none of them claim to be the eternal creator and the only way we can ever know the answers to the big questions is if god comes and tells us.

What are we dating our years from? We're 2013 years since what? Since this person comes into the world and claims that he's the actual God of the universe; the one who created the universe; the eternal Son. It all comes down to whether he is telling the truth or not. Can you prove it? Is there evidence for that?

The reason it became an appointed quest for me was because I felt I had to test out this Jesus. Is he who he says he is? I can agree or disagree with some of the things that the Buddhists says and it's neither here nor there because he's not claiming to be an eternal source; of god, all knowing with perfect knowledge. Whereas with Jesus he's saying he is the one who's come into the world and is the only one who's ever claimed to be able to take away the sin of man. All the other religions are trying to say, hey we'll try and help you stop making the problem worse; you do this and you do that; you be a good person; but hey what about the times I haven't been a good person? Jesus is the only one with the cross, who's saying he can actually take away our sin and that we can find forgiveness. That's not cheap forgiveness, but forgiveness where he actually takes away the judgement of our sin.

The other thing that struck me is that he's the one who gives us the idea of heaven. You hear a lot of people say, oh how can we know which religion; they are all saying they are going to get us to heaven, but in actual fact they're not all saying that. The eastern religions don't have the concept of heaven, of a place of personal ongoing existence. It's rather the void of self. Jesus is the one who actually gave us the idea. Mohamed claims that he's drawing on the Bible as a prophet that comes after the Bible. Well, where did he get his idea about heaven? It comes from Jesus. A lot of this stuff all points back to him. It's all whether Jesus told the truth or not.

Emily: Do you think that there are a lot of people who hold back from exploring faith and beliefs because you don't necessarily know where to start?

Bill: For sure, but I think there's something else that also holds people back. The hardest thing people find in exploring; the thing that they might be afraid of is what if I find out its true?

This is the subject of my book; by exploring can you really prove it? Can you really have evidence to show it's true? That's not the hard part. Proving it is the easy bit. The hard part is what if it is true? What if Jesus is the Lord and that he actually calls on me to repent of my sin, to turn and trust in him and follow him as Lord and Saviour and I'm no longer the king and lord of my life?

If you ask a sceptic, (and I was one of them), if I prove to you that Christianity is true would you fall on your knees before Jesus? Will you repent and become one of those Bible-believing Christians? Will you be in church next Sunday? I think they wouldn't know about that; whether they really want it to be true. Deep down there's a question there.

I think that when it's examined on a basis of who is Jesus; if you can find out that Jesus told the truth, then everything, even the Bible falls into place from there. Recall the questions how can you know the Bible is really the word of God? Well, if Jesus is who he said he was, then he's the one who said the Bible is the word of God; then I've got a source from outside of myself and it's not the church telling me, but God who has come down to tell us that it is his word.

I think there are people who find it confusing, but the best way to investigate it is not so much to go and talk to this person's opinion or even listen to my opinion, but check out the evidence. I've tried to lay out some of that in my book, but at the end of the day it's a good thing to just check the teachings of Jesus in the New Testament and read them for yourself.

Emily: Who would you say this book is for?