Jesus Christ Jesus Christ. - Evidence for the resurrection

JOSH McDOWELL

What It Means for Your Relationship with God

SEAN McDOWELL

Published by Regal
From Gospel Light
Ventura, California, U.S.A.
www.regalbooks.com
Printed in the U.S.A.

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

Other versions used are

NASBScripture taken from the New American Standard Bible, 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.

NIVScripture taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved.

NKJVScripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright 1979, 1980, 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

2009 Josh McDowell Ministry and Sean McDowell.
All rights reserved.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
McDowell, Josh.
Evidence for the resurrection / Josh McDowell, Sean McDowell.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 978-0-8307-4785-6 (hard cover)
1. Jesus ChristResurrection. 2. Apologetics. I. McDowell, Sean. II. Title.

BT482.M33 2009
232.97dc22
2008041580

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 / 15 14 13 12 11 10 09

Rights for publishing this book outside the U.S.A. or in non-English languages are administered by Josh McDowell Ministry, a division of Campus Crusade for Christ International. For additional information, please visit , or write to Josh McDowell Ministry, 660 International Parkway Suite 100, Richardson, TX 75081.

To my son, Scottie.
I love you and am so proud of you!

Sean McDowell

Imagine that an intelligent alien comes from somewhere in space to visit our planet and spend a few years touring the globe. The purpose of his visit is to learn about us, to research our history and to make observations about the state of life on the earth. But also imagine that the aliens human guides deliberately withhold from him all contact with Christians, all information about Christianity and all data on Christian history. What would this alien observe, and what would he conclude from his observations?

He would tour America and Western Europe and see cultures in decline and fragmented societies in which people pursue their own self-interests. He would witness people saturating themselves in pleasure and entertainment while ignoring the human needs and growing poverty around them, failing to maintain good relationships and sinking deeper and deeper into immorality. He would see grand mansions in gated communities with inhabitants overlooking massive slums dominated by hopelessness, poverty and squalor. He would see a rising crime rate and growing dishonesty in all strata of society. He would see rampant drug use and homicides in every city.

Traveling to Africa, the alien would tour countries where masses of starving people, including children, die every day while their national leaders get rich on corruption and greed. He would find whole nations in which young people are being wiped out by disease epidemics, particularly AIDS. In the Middle East, he would see murderous repression of religions, oppression and torture of women, and infighting among tribal leaders in cultures saturated with incredible oil wealth. In the Far East, he would find more government tyranny, repression and mass genocide. In India, he would find abject poverty and hopelessness imposed by a cruel caste system preventing upward movement.

In studying the past history of our planet, our alien visitor would quickly detect a repeating cycle in world history: nations being born; growing with idealistic hope; developing great laws, art and wellbeing for their citizens; and then deteriorating as wealth led to selfish fragmentation, corruption and decline, until the society finally collapses into ruin. He would see this pattern repeated over and over in all the great civilizations of the past and presentEgypt, Sumeria, Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Greece, Rome, the Byzantines, England and America. He would see continual wars, great and small, costing the lives of uncountable people and devastating societies for generations to come. He would see repeated epidemics of disease spreading across continents and wiping out huge percentages of the population. He would see hate and mass genocide repeated over and over in tyrants such as Stalin, Hitler and African tribal leaders.

No doubt our visiting alien would see no hope for this planet. He would perceive a corrupting flaw in the human heart that would cause these dismal patterns to repeat over and over until humans either destroyed themselves or the sun grew cold. He would board his craft and return to his own planet, shaking his head at the fatal hopelessness of our world.

Actually, we did not have to invite an alien here to demonstrate the hopelessness of our planet without Christianity. We did it solely for the dramatic effect. We could as easily have looked at the world through the eyes of the many unbelievers who also see the hurt, destruction and tragedies of life on earth as a dead-end cycle of meaningless existence. For example, consider this comment posted by an unbelieving girl on an Internet atheist website:

Im confused... I always believed science would be the cure-all for my problems, but I dont know if I can keep living without eternal life. I guess Ill just have to find a way myself to make it through this meaningless existence. I just wish I knew of someone who could show me the path to eternal life. If science cant provide the answers, though, then who or what can!? *sigh* Doesnt it seem like there is a higher power that gives our lives purpose? Well, science says there isnt, so there isnt.

There you have the whole problem in a nutshell. If life as one sees it now on this misery-riddled planet is all there is, then existence is indeed meaningless and one must, as this girl says it, find a way myself. She realizes there is one thing that would make everything meaningful: eternal life. She once expected science to find a way for humans to live forever, but she has come to realize that it cannot. She wishes there was some kind of higher power that would assure her of eternal life, for only blissful life without end would make this present troubled existence meaningful.

Many have found solace in this troubled world by dreaming of ideal societies where peace and goodwill reign, where life is filled with meaning, pain and death do not exist and the future extends forever. We all know their namesAtlantis, Arcadia, Utopia, El Dorado and even Camelot, where for one brief shining moment everything is exactly as it should be. But in the minds of the hopeless many, all such dreams are mere wishful thinking. No such perfect society exists. Even the story of Camelot, which may have been true, shows the futility of such dreams.

In the story of Camelot, King Arthur and his counselor Merlin begin a new kingdom based on honoring one another, helping the poor, rescuing the imprisoned, lifting up the downtrodden, administering justice and mercy, and existing in peace and harmony. But soon after the kingdom is established, the fatal flaws emerge: lust, the one weakness in the noble Lancelot; and spite and envy, the cancer in the heart of the outcast Mordred. Thus Camelot falls, eaten from the center by these fatal flaws, giving us a cameo picture of every civilization that has ever existed or ever will exist on this present earth.