Another Atheist Tried the 30-Day God Challenge—But This One Ended Differently

Cliff Buell

Download First Light and build a God-first routine by blocking apps until you read your Bible: https://firstlight.onelink.me/tenZ/qtzffd2h   After watching others take the “Faithless Christianity” challenge, Zac Arnold spent 30 days living as if God were real to see if it would change what he believed. In this video, I react to his journey from atheist to Day 30, where his conclusion looks very different from the others who took the challenge.  Are You Going To Heaven OR Hell?👇 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzmENeLZzb4&t=2s  All Important Links: https://linktr.ee/cliffbuell  Become A Channel Member: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3ap1CNrpXD-O0wWPANhQvw/join  Connect With Me: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CliffBuell Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cliffbuell/ Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@cliffbuell  #christian #jesus #god #bible #reaction #atheist #faith #church #religion #change  FAIR USE DISCLAIMER This video may contain copyrighted material that has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Such material is used for purposes of criticism, commentary, news reporting, teaching, research, or education, which constitute “fair use” under Section 107 of the Copyright Act. I do not claim ownership of any copyrighted material used in this video. All rights and credit go directly to their respective owners. This content is transformative in nature — adding new meaning, commentary, or context — and does not substitute for the original works. If any copyright owner has concerns or would like material removed, please contact me directly and I will resolve the matter promptly.

Transcript

00:00Most of you are probably familiar with faithless Christianity at this point, and if you're not,

00:04it is the idea of pretending God is real to see if it changes your life. Practicing Christianity,

00:10applying Jesus' teaching, being grateful, praying every day as someone who doesn't actually believe

00:15in God, and seeing the effects on your life. This was initially started by Brian here. I've

00:20done multiple videos on him, and he started day one of his journey kind of exploring Christianity

00:26already, then went into this faithless Christianity, then ended up coming out a true believer in Jesus

00:31Christ. I'll put Brian's video here if you haven't seen it. Then we had Sarah Davidson James, who I

00:35just made a video on as well. She was inspired by Brian to do the same thing, and she ended

00:39up coming

00:39out a believer on day 21, confessing Jesus Christ as her Lord and Savior. I'll put Sarah's video here

00:44if you haven't seen it yet. And now we have Zach, who I'd also mentioned briefly in one of the

00:48videos

00:48as someone who is starting this challenge. He has completed his 30 days, and I'm here to give an

00:52update. Now, in the last two, they both became believers, and it was like, man, we kind of

00:57expected this to happen. Zach's outcome is a little bit different, and I'm actually excited about this.

01:02It's kind of interesting where he's at, but let's watch some of his videos, see his journey a little

01:06bit, see where he ended up landing, and what's next for him. Before we get into it, though, my name

01:10is

01:11Cliff Buell. If you're new here, welcome. If you're not new here, welcome back. This channel exists to build

01:14a believer and reach the lost. If you like Christian content, make sure to hit that subscribe

01:17button. All right, let's take a look at Zach's day one. He started as an atheist, moved into an agnostic,

01:21and then decided to take on this journey to explore Christianity.

01:25Day one of pretending God is real. I've been seeing videos by Brian Guan. He's the inspiration

01:29for this challenge. 30 days of pretending God is real to see if it gives me faith, see if it

01:34changes

01:34my life, see if I become happier, more fulfilled. These are the four things I'm doing every day.

01:38I've been exploring Christianity a lot recently. I've been reading the Bible, but the piece I've

01:41struggled a lot with is the actual faith. You can't force it, right? So I figured, why not just go

01:46all

01:46in on faithless Christianity? If I can't find faith, maybe faith will find me.

01:51I have been starting from the beginning of the Old Testament, but today I switched over to the

01:54New Testament and read chapter 2 and 3 of Matthew. I believe these are Jesus's first words in the

01:59Bible. Suffer it to be so now, for thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness.

02:03Now, I've never prayed before, so I have no idea how to do this or if there's a right way

02:08or a wrong

02:08way to do it, but I'm just going to ask for internal things. It feels wrong to ask for material

02:13stuff.

02:13God, please give me the strength, humility, and patience to tolerate the uncertainty of life.

02:19And finally, to apply his teachings, I wanted to reach out to a buddy of mine that I've been

02:23friends with since kindergarten, and I haven't seen him in a long time. Just wanted to let him

02:27know I love him and appreciate him for being in my life. Love you all. See you tomorrow.

02:30So there you have it. If you're unfamiliar with the challenge, that's what it looks like.

02:33Most of you probably know already what the deal is, though. And so it's cool to see another person

02:38committing themselves to this challenge. And we already know that the Lord responds and answers those

02:43who are searching for him. Seek and you shall find. And so we already know what the outcome will be

02:47in these challenges. But again, this outcome in the 30 days is a little bit different.

02:51And I think I know why. But let's look at his day 30 and see what he has to say.

02:56While I have you here, I created an app that blocks your distracting apps until you read your Bible.

02:59It's called First Light Bible and Prayer. You start with your prayer, then you read the Bible. When

03:02you're finished reading, you check off which book and chapter that you read, and then it unlocks your

03:06apps. This has helped me for over four months now put God first every day instead of getting

03:10distracted by scrolling or other apps on my phone. If you think that it can help you to click the

03:14link in the

03:14comment below or scan the QR code. I'm done pretending God is real. It's been 30 days.

03:19And what has changed after that 30 days? I'm closing the door on atheism. I do believe in

03:23something. I think the one thing that's solidified for me over this challenge is that I do believe

03:29in a higher power now. The open loop and the open question is, what is the nature of that relationship?

03:33What is the nature of that higher power? And that's what I'm still exploring. I don't know if

03:37that's in Christianity. I don't know if that's in a different religion. I don't know if that's in some

03:40sort of personal spiritual relationship that is not within the confines of religion. But I can't

03:46not believe anymore. If you want to say I found faith, sort of, I will be keeping you updated.

03:51And I am continuing my search and exploration into Christianity because something in it is still

03:57grabbing my curiosity. So I'm done pretending, but I still wouldn't call myself a Christian.

04:02Spiritual and seeking, perhaps, if you want to give it a label. But honestly, I think trying to

04:07simplify the complexity of something such as faith is, frankly, ridiculous.

04:12Man, you heard it there. It's honestly encouraging where he's at, right? So he hasn't fully surrendered

04:16his life to Jesus yet, but he went from not believing God exists at all to believing that

04:22God does exist now. It's just, who is God? And learning more about who God is. And the more he

04:27reads the Bible, the more he spends time in prayer, the more he keeps asking these questions,

04:30inevitably you get led to the truth and the Lord will fully reveal himself to him.

04:35Quite frankly, you can tell he is an intellectual. And Brian and Sarah were both very intellectual

04:40in the way that they were approaching things and studying things and looking at things in

04:43the history of Christianity and all these different things, right? But not in the same

04:45way that Zach is. I can tell that Zach analyzes things on a different level. And I have been

04:51around and met other Christians and non-believers who think just like the way he does. And it is

04:55always much harder for them to step into the faith and the spiritual side of Christianity

05:00because you're always analyzing all the other aspects, the physical, what we can measure and

05:05see, what logically makes sense, what morally adds up, what is historically present and accurate.

05:10And if any of those things are slightly off, they cause doubt, they cause confusion. You have to

05:14search all those things instead of being able to just fully surrender and trust with a blind faith.

05:18I believe God designed people like this. I believe there is such an importance behind intellectually

05:21understanding your faith. When you can understand the theology behind your faith,

05:25there's so much to benefit from that. But we also know that we can experience God. He is a real

05:30tangible God that we can feel his presence, that he communes with us, that we can fellowship with,

05:36that we can talk to, and he hears us. So there is more than just understanding the theology of

05:41Christianity and the doctrines and the history and the different manuscripts that make up the Bible

05:46and understanding the different textual references and all of these things. They're all so cool and so

05:51great. But at the end of the day, a relationship with God is exactly that. It's relational. It's

05:56real. It's like having a relationship with another person. And sometimes it's really hard

06:00for people to grasp that and have that because they're caught up on these other areas. This is

06:05the last video, his most recent release of what he is doing next and his experience of actually going

06:11to church. So let's take a listen.

06:13Today, one of exploring Christianity as a non-Christian believer, this isn't going to be a daily series,

06:17but it's just going to be an occasional check-in every once in a while, significant things that have

06:21been going on in my exploration into faith, any sort of realizations I've come to or anything

06:25like that. And today, we're going to church.

06:28Come on.

06:28Just got back from church. Got a little goodie bag. I enjoyed it. It was great to meet a lot

06:33of new people. Everyone's so friendly, of course. No big revelations. Worship music doesn't do a lot

06:38for me. Maybe it's because I've been involved with music for such a long time, and I listen to such

06:42a wide variety of music that it just doesn't connect to me on the same level as something like jazz

06:48or

06:49some really intricate progressive metal. But I did still enjoy it, and I'll probably be going next

06:53week. As far as I can tell, it's non-denominational, or at least loosely denominational. Not new age,

07:00but definitely still Christian. And to answer all the questions, yes, I will probably try Catholic

07:04Mass at some point.

07:05Man, I honestly, I like this. You know, he went to church. He's analyzing it, of course,

07:09and how it feels. And I grew up as a Christian, and I could not stand worship. I just kind

07:13of sung along

07:14because that's what everyone was doing. Actually, half the time, I didn't even sing. And I never was

07:17big on worship. I wouldn't lift my hands. I wasn't moved by it ever. Now in my life, because I

07:23have

07:23a real personal relationship with Jesus, then it was just kind of going to church. And I was learning

07:28a lot, but wasn't spending time with the Lord. Man, worship is different. It is different. Once you get

07:32that relationship with Jesus Christ, it becomes very, very different. And you want to worship him. You want

07:38to give him praises and sing about him and lift his name on high. So I believe that will happen

07:42to him,

07:43but it completely makes sense that right now it's like, yeah, you know, like he's analyzing it from

07:46a music perspective. Like this other music makes me feel good, but that music didn't really do it

07:51for me. So definitely makes sense. And I completely get that. It'll be interesting to see his thoughts

07:55on Catholic Mass. I personally think that he'll probably appreciate it. He just seems like the

08:01type of person who likes sitting through a Catholic Mass and enjoy the structure and the way that they

08:05conduct themselves. While I'm not a Catholic and I very much disagree with much of the Catholic

08:08doctrine, at the end of the day, I just believe that having a relationship with Jesus Christ is the

08:12most important thing. Whether you're a Catholic, Protestant, any denomination or Orthodox, it

08:17doesn't matter if you have that true relationship with Christ. So that's what I hope for Zach. And

08:21we should all pray for Zach. Pray that he encounters Jesus Christ soon, that he continues his journey,

08:26as he said he will, of exploring Christianity and getting to know the real Jesus, that he would

08:31encounter him and encounter him in a supernatural and spiritual way, a way that actually breaks his

08:36intellectual, logical way of analyzing things, that he experiences the God outside of that realm

08:42so he can fully surrender in a very real way. If you watched The End of Your Legend, remember to

08:46hit

08:46that subscribe button if you like Christian content. Let me know your thoughts about Zach's journey and

08:50about people exploring faithless Christianity. Don't forget to share this video with somebody else

08:54would appreciate it, like it if you enjoyed it. Until next time, love you and God bless.

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