Josh McDowell's hatred of Christianity was his undoing!

Date:   4/4/2005 10:45:34 AM ( 19 y ago)

A brief testimony:

"I was a skeptic until I took a good hard look at the claims of Jesus Christ. In college I met several students who challenged me to take a closer look, to study and examine the Christian faith. I took the challenge, feeling certain I could prove Christianity to be false, a religion built on nice stories that couldn't stand up to the test of truth.

But as I dug deeper and deeper into the claims of Christianity, I was shocked. I found facts, not fiction. I found so much evidence that I could only come to one conclusion: Jesus Christ is the Son of God. He was crucified, He died, and He was resurrected on the third day.

Soon after this discovery, I accepted Jesus as my Savior and Lord. That was 39 years ago. My life has been completely changed because I have a personal relationship with Christ.

As a skeptic, you've probably heard this before, but don't just shrug it off: I challenge you, as those students challenged me, to examine the claims of Jesus Christ for yourself. If there's even the slightest chance that He truly is the Son of God, shouldn't you be willing to find out?

I thought most Christians were walking idiots. But these people challenged me over and over. Finally, I accepted their challenge, but I did it out of pride, to refute them. But my mind came to the conclusion that Jesus Christ must have been who He claimed to be. In fact, the background of my first two books was my setting out to refute Christianity. When I couldn't, I ended up becoming a Christian.

At that time, though, I had quite a problem. My mind told me all this was true but my will was pulling me in another direction. I discovered that becoming a Christian was rather ego-shattering. Every time I was around those enthusiastic Christians, the conflict would begin. But since I was open-minded, on December 19, 1959, at 8:30 p.m. during my second year at the university, I became a Christian.

After I prayed, nothing happened. I mean nothing. In fact, I felt worse. I literally felt I was going to vomit. But in six months to a year and a half I found out that I hadn't gone off the deep end. My life was changed. [I had hated my violent and alcoholic father], but I was able to look my father squarely in the eyes and say, "Dad, I love you." Forty five minutes later one of the greatest thrills of my life occurred. Right there my father prayed with me and trusted Christ.

You can laugh at Christianity, you can mock and ridicule it. But it works."

Josh is the author of many books, the most famous of which is Evidence That Demands A Verdict. Another excellent book is More Than A Carpenter.

 

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