"Evidence that Demands a Verdict"

Here are portions of another text message I sent to a friend:

“…I mean this respectfully:  You are setting yourself up to fail with the beliefs you hold because if people have a worldview filled with questions and “holes” that lack the proper perspective and are more so hearsay than based on solid evidence (after one has truly studied the facts), than their worldview will fall to the ground along with them (if you get what I mean). This is because if people “grasp at straws” in their thinking pertaining to the big questions of life without consulting the solid rock of the unshakeable truth of God’s word, they will be lacking answers to their questions which could easily be removed by simply acknowledging that as humans, we WON’T have all the answers and it is actually better to place our lives and fears in the hands of Almighty God and rest in the truth of the Bible which proclaims God’s sovereignty, faithfulness, goodness, and wisdom in all situations than to choose the way of shaking our fist toward heaven and completely dismissing the claims of the Bible simply because “I don’t understand why this happened…”.  There are people with double doctorates and triple doctorates who actually believe the Bible is the reliable, inspired, and infallible word of God and they could be making a lot of money doing something else as a career but they choose to teach the word of God...so if they are smarter than me and have spent years in school studying the original languages, culture, and time era...it would only be wise and logical for me to study resources by teachers who have actually "been to school" than me taking the Bible at face value and then mocking by my thoughts, words, and actions my view of the Bible which I gained by reading it at face value.  Good scholars are not the average Joe, as they are trained professionals in their particular field of work.  And by scholars I don't mean random junk available on the internet, I mean credible authors who have doctorates and have studied for years.  This is not to say that I am taking what scholars say at face value and simply believing it because they are smarter than me and have been to school!  What I am trying to convey is the fact that these scholars have even taken the time to study the evidence which is how they came to the conclusion the Bible is historically plausible and true, so obviously, there IS evidence available to study which will then present the reader with a choice to accept the well-tested claims of Christianity or to deny them altogether without further probing.”

Josh McDowell is a Christian speaker and author who wrote a book entitled, “Evidence that Demands a Verdict” which offers evidence/proof from both secular and Christian sources to show the validity of Jesus Christ’s existence, claims, death, and resurrection as actual events in history.  This book also lists the uniqueness of the Bible, how we got the Bible, shows how the New and Old Testaments are historically reliable, shows Jesus as a man of history, supports the Deity of Christ as shown through prophecies fulfilled by Him in the Old Testament, addresses "The Repetition of Accounts and Alleged Contradictions", "Answering PostModernism", "Skepticism", "Agnosticism", and "Mysticism".  If what the Bible says about Jesus Christ being the only way to Heaven is true, it would be wise for an individual to look into the facts before they make their final judgment on whether Jesus Christ is worth living for completely!