The New Evidence That Demands A Verdict

817 Pages·1999·11.23 MB·English

by  Josh McDowell

The
NEW
EVIDENCE
THAT DEMANDS A VERDICT
Other Josh McDowell titles
AVAILABLE FROM THOMAS NELSON:
Evidence That Demands a Verdict, Vol. I
Evidence That Demands a Verdict, Vol. II
Handbook of Today’s Religions
with Don Stewart
A Ready Defense

Copyright © 1999 by Josh D. McDowell
A substantial portion of this material was originally published by
Here’s Life Publishers, Inc. © 1972,1975,1979,1981 Campus Crusade for Christ, Inc.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without written permission from the
publisher except in the case of brief quotations in critical articles and reviews.
Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from the New King James Version of the Bible, © 1979, 1980,
1982, 1990, Thomas Nelson, Inc., Publishers.
Scripture quotations identified by nasb are from the New American Standard Bible, © 1960,1962,1963,1968,1971,
1973,1975 by the Lockman Foundation, and used by permission.
Book design and composition by Mark McGarry; Texas Type & Book Works, Dallas, Texas
Set in Minion and Franklin Gothic
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
McDowell, Josh.
The new evidence that demands a verdict / by Josh McDowell.—Rev., updated, and expanded,
p. cm.
“Evidence that demands a verdict, volumes 1 & 2, now together in one volume.”
Includes bibliographical references and indexes.
ISBN 0-7852-4219-8
1. Bible—Evidences, authority, etc. 2. Apologetics. I. McDowell, Josh. Evidence that demands
220.6'01 —dc21 99-047181
a verdict. II. Title.
BS480 .M384 1999
Printed in the United States of America
9 10 11 12 13 14 - 04 03 02
To Dottie:
My sweetheart, my best friend, and my wife.
Without her patience, love, encouragement,
and constructive criticism this project could
never have been completed.

Contents
Foreword xi book that has the historical qualifi¬
cations of the Bible. Unique qualifi¬
Preface xiii cations that set the Scriptures apart
from every other book ever written.
User’s Guide xvii
2 How We Got the Bible 17
Explanation of
Materials used. Bible divisions. Why
General Format xix
just thirty-nine Old Testament
books and twenty-seven New Testa¬
Acknowledgments xxi
ment books? What about the Apoc¬
rypha? Why not other books?
xxiii
He Changed My Life
How a relationship with Jesus Christ
^ Is the New Testament
transformed the author's life. ^ Historically Reliable? 33
The tests applied to all ancient liter¬
Introduction xxix
ature to determine reliability. How
Faith built on facts. An intelligent
does the New Testament compare?
faith. Misconceptions about Chris¬
Archaeological finds confirming the
tianity. Worldviews behind the mis¬ New Testament.
conceptions.
* Is the Old Testament
^ Historically Reliable? 69
PART ONE: THE CASE FOR THE BIBLE
Bibliographical test. Internal evi¬
The Uniqueness of the Bible 3
dence test. Archaeological evidence
An intelligent person seeking truth demonstrating the trustworthiness
would certainly read and consider a of the Old Testament.
The New Evidence That Demands a Verdict
PART TWO: THE CASE FOR JESUS and non-Christians about the per¬
son, character, life, and death of
Jesus, A Man of History 119
Jesus of Nazareth, and His impact on
Documented sources of extrabibli­ the world for two thousand years.
cal historical references to Jesus of
Nazareth.
PART THREE: THE CASE FOR AND
If Jesus Wasn’t God, He AGAINST CHRISTIANITY
Deserves an Oscar 137
The character of Christ and His Section I, Introduction 331
claims to deity, with emphasis on
secular and Jewish sources.
This section deals with inspiration
Significance of Deity: The of the Bible, anti-supernaturalism,
Torilrem Lma—uLnorda, Ltiair,c? 155 and archaeology. All three topics
relate to the documentary
If the New Testament records about hypothesis and form criticism.
Therefore they are treated at the
Jesus are historically accurate, there
beginning rather than under each
remain only three logical choices
of the following two sections.
concerning His identity.
Is the Bible from God? 333
Support of Deity: Old Testament
JPreopsheuciess F uClfilhledr inist 164 Part 1 presents the case that the
Bible is historically accurate. Here
Illustrations of the probabilities that the case is made that the Bible is
all prophecies could be fulfilled in trustworthy in that it is inspired by
one man, in response to the critic a perfect God.
who says, “It is all just a coinci¬
The Presupposition of
dence.” Emphasis on Jewish sources
Anti-supernaturalism 350
to answer the accusation, “Thats the
way you Christians look at them, A presentation of the presupposi¬
tions of both documentarians and
but what about the Jews?”
form critics. Often the alleged
Support of Deity: The objective historical conclusions are
oResru rrHectioins—tHooaxry? 203
molded by a subjective worldview.
^ Criticism 369
This heavily documented section of Archaeology and Biblical
evidence for Christ s resurrection
refutes theories set forth to disclaim A discussion of the contributions and
this miracle. influence of archaeology to criticism.
SPuprpoort pof oDesityi: tTiheo Gnrea t285 SHectiyonp II.o Dotchumeenstariys 389
The “if... then” argument applied The discipline of literary criticism
to Christ: “//God became man, then applied to the Pentateuch is exam¬
what would He be like?” Quotations ined along with evidence for Mosaic
and observations of great Christians authorship.