Description

"Christians today face growing challenges to show that their faith is both relevant and credible. Josh McDowell's New Evidence That Demands a Verdict combines the two original best-selling volumes into one, maintaining their classic defense of the faith, yet answering new questions posed by today's culture." (From back cover.)

Table of Contents

Forward
Preface
User's Guide
Explanation of General Format
Acknowledgments
He Changed My Life
Introduction

An intelligent person seeking truth would certainly read and consider a book that has the historical qualifications of the Bible. Unique qualifications that set the Scriptures apart from every other book ever written.

Materials used. Bible divisions. Why just thirty-nine Old Testament books and twenty-seven New Testament books? What about the Apocrypha? Why not other books?

The tests applied to all ancient literature to determine reliability. How does the New Testament compare? Archaeological finds confirming the New Testament.

Bibliographical test. Internal evidence test. Archaeological evidence demonstrating the trustworthiness of the Old Testament.

Documented sources of extrabiblical historical references to Jesus of Nazareth.

The character of Christ and His claims to deity, with emphasis on secular and Jewish sources.

If the New Testament records about Jesus are historically accurate, there remain only three logical choices concerning His identity.

Illustrations of the probabilities that all prophecies could be fulfilled in one man, in response to the critic who says, "It is all just a coincidence." Emphasis on Jewish sources to answer the accusation, "That's the way you Christians look at them, but what about the Jews?"

This heavily documented section of evidence for Christ's resurrection refutes theories set forth to disclaim this miracle.

The "if…then" argument applied to Christ: "If God became man, then what would He be like?" Quotations and observations of great Christians and non-Christians about the person, character, life, and death of Jesus of Nazareth, and His impact on the world for two thousand years.

Part 1 presents the case that the Bible is historically accurate. Here the case is made that the Bible is trustworthy in that it is inspired by a perfect God.

A presentation of the presuppositions of both documentarians and form critics. Often the alleged objective historical conclusions are molded by a subjective worldview.

The discipline of literary criticism applied to the Pentateuch is examined along with evidence for Mosaic authorship.

What is the documentary hypothesis? What are the JEDP documents?

Biblical criticism defined and the different critical schools explained.

The purpose and importance of the first five biblical books.

A description of the various documentary theories and their modern revisions.

The ancient oriental environment provides various principles to apply to the Old Testament.

An investigation of the four basic documentary assumptions: (1) The priority of source analysis over archaeology; (2) a natural view of Israel's religion and history; (3) the theory that there was no writing in Israel at Moses' time; and (4) the legendary view of the patriarchal narratives.

A discussion of the results of Israel's history being viewed as unhistorical, fraudulent, and naturalistic.

The internal and external testimony for Moses' authorship of the Pentateuch.

The various uses of the divine names (Elohim, Yahweh, and others) are put in perspective.

Certain stories in the Pentateuch are said to be repeated, and others to have contradictory details.

The writing in the third person and the record of Moses' death are factors said to be incongruous with Mosaic authorship.

A discussion of the assumed difference of subject matter, style and diction.

Basic tenets of form criticism examined. Practical answers to basic assumptions and conclusions. The modern quest for the historical Jesus.

Form criticism is defined and its purpose and proponents discussed.

The reliability of the record of the historical Jesus is examined.

An examination of the historical quests for Jesus and their culmination in the Jesus Seminar.

A look at the contribution and limitations of the form critical approach.

by C. S. Lewis

You can know God personally and experience the abundant Christian life.