Evangelist Shares Gospel Encounter With DOCTOR WHO’s Christopher Eccleston
By Movieguide® Contributor
“Celebrity Evangelist” Dylan Novak recently shared the conversation he had with DOCTOR WHO star, agnostic Christopher Eccleston.
Novak wrote, “In 2005, Christopher told The Heaven and Earth Show, ‘I’m an atheist. My mother is very religious, a churchgoer. She would often encourage me to go to church as well, but never forced it upon me, which I thought was quite decent of her. There was no defining moment in which I decided there was no god for me. It was more of a growing process. I do feel that whatever religious beliefs I had as a child were foisted upon me. It’s like when you ask where Grandma went when she died, and you’d be told that she went to heaven. I wouldn’t necessarily view that as a bad thing, but it was stuff like that which I think hindered my intellectual development. Now that I’ve grown, I prefer a different interpretation.’”
In 2016, Eccleston was asked by NPR if he was atheist or agnostic, to which he replied, “I’m no longer sure now. I’d certainly made great play a number of years ago about my atheism. And things have changed in my life. I guess I’d have to say I’m agnostic now.”
So, what changed for Eccleston?
“I had children,” the actor explained. “Two – I have two very beautiful and center-of-my-life children, Albert and Esme. I lost my father. I watched him suffer through his dementia. I had my own crisis earlier in the year. I don’t – life has happened to me, I would say, life.”
He reiterated this change of heart in an interview with Awards Daily, saying, “[Growing up], I would definitely have said I was an atheist, but in the intervening years things have happened, good and bad, and I have had more difficulty with absolute Atheism.”
Novak met Eccleston at a fan convention and wrote about their interaction.
“When I walked up to Mr. Eccleston, he immediately read my shirt out loud (Love Like Jesus),” he wrote. “It started us out on a great conversation about who Jesus truly was from a historical perspective, and how everything Jesus said adds up.”
Novak gave Eccleston some tracts, as well as a copy of Lee Strobel’s “The Case for Faith.”
“I showed Christopher how Lee tackles some of the greatest objections to Christianity from a historical perspective,” he said. “He then told me that this was absolutely perfect, because on his flight to Arizona, he was delayed, and had read all of his reading material he brought, and had nothing for that evening as he flew back to London.”
Novak closed his post by asking his followers to pray for Eccleston.
Movieguide® previously reported on Novak’s ministry:
The Celebrity Evangelist, whose real name is Dylan Novak, recently shared the gospel with model, actress and singer-songwriter Paris Jackson, the daughter of the pop-icon Michael Jackson.
According to Novak, Paris and her brothers were raised by their grandparents after the death of their father in 2009, and introduced to the false religion of Jehovah’s Witness.
But Novak said that in a recent conversation with Paris, he steered her towards the Gospel—which is about a relationship with Jesus, not religion.
“I had a very nice conversation with her about how truth and peace is found in a relationship with Jesus, not religion,” he said. “She was very appreciative and receptive of ‘Jesus > Religion’ by Jefferson Berthke, ‘GASP! by Tony Nolan, tracts, and letter. Please be praying for her…”
