Chapter 7 and 8 of More Than a Carpenter by Josh McDowell

In chapter 7, “Did You Hear What Happened to Saul?” of More than a Carpenter, Josh McDowell talks about the radical life-style conversion process that many Christians often under go when they convert to Christianity.  Josh talks about Saul of Tarsus’s life before his conversion to Christianity. How Saul was a devoted Jew and Pharisee because of this Saul was at this time a very fervent opponent of Christianity.  Saul persecuted the church until one day, he experienced a dramatic event in which he saw and heard Jesus Christ speaking to him out of heaven.  After this he went to Damascus, where he waited until Ananias came as the Lord had commanded him to do so. At first, Ananias was afraid of him until the Lord reassured him that Saul was the Lord’s chosen.  Now called by a new name, Paul went from a persecutor of Christianity to an evangelist for Christianity in which he proclaimed the Son of God. Also, he went from hating Gentiles to being a missionary to the Gentiles. Josh also talks about two professors whose intents were to undermine the basis of the Christian faith, but ended up converting to Christianity.

In chapter 8, “Can You Keep a Good Man Down?” Josh discusses the various theories for the resurrection.  Josh talks about Jesus’ burial and the empty tomb, after which he mentions the resurrection theories.  One theory thinks the women went to the wrong tomb, but this theory does not make sense when looks at the historical situation and the mental state of the apostles. Another theory called the Swoon theory assumes that Jesus was not dead, but had only fainted, but this was handed the death blow by a skeptic himself, who stated that it was impossible for such a person in that health state would have been able to convince his disciples that he was a conqueror over death.  A third theory assumes that the Jews or the Romans moved the body, but why would they do that, if they had a Roman guard on the tomb? Other skeptics have tried to prove the resurrection false, but in the end they convinced themselves that it was true. In one case, a Chief Justice of England stated that if the evidence of the resurrection was given to an intelligent jury, the jury would be bound to return with a verdict that the resurrection did indeed happen.

McDowell, Josh.
More Than A Carpenter . United States of America: Tyndale House: Publishers, 1973