Introduction: The Inevitable Leap of Faith

All worldviews—even those rooted in atheism and post-modernism—require a leap of faith. Instead of assuming that truth cannot be found, as many people do, it is possible to evaluate the truth of worldviews using the same techniques that scientists and historians employ to determine the truth about the natural world and events in the past. The aim of this book is to use these scientific and historiographical techniques to demonstrate that faith in Jesus is indeed the shortest leap. Though only the Holy Spirit can enable anyone to believe in Jesus, God can hopefully use this evidence to draw you into an eternal relationship with him.

Part I: The Scientific Evidence

Chapter 1: Evidence for God from Astronomy and Physics

Chapter 1 covers the evidence from the Big Bang and the fine-tuning of the universe. It responds to alternative theories such as the bouncing universe and the multiverse. It also responds to questions such as, "If God designed the universe, why did he do such a bad job?" and "Aren't there other everyday phenomena that happen despite an extremely low probability?"

Chapter 2: Evidence for God from Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

Chapter 2 first discusses the findings of molecular biology, notably the irreducible complexity of the molecular machinery in even the simplest single-celled organisms. The latter part of the chapter discusses the coded nature, or specified complexity, of DNA. This specified complexity demonstrates that DNA—like books, computer programs, and statues—couldn't have been the product of blind chance alone, but must have had a designer.

Chapter 3: Evidence for God from Paleontology and Anthropology

Chapter 3 first discusses the paucity of fossil evidence for a gradual transition between species. That is, species appear in the fossil record fully formed and don't change significantly during their tenure on Earth. The latter part of the chapter discusses "Anthropology's Big Bang": the sudden appearance in the anthropological record of complex tools, jewelry, musical instruments, and burial rituals. Moreover, instead of displaying the gradual change that evolutionists would expect, the extremely complex, modern human brain appeared suddenly in the fossil record.

Chapter 4: The Consistency of the Biblical God with Science

Chapter 4 first asks the question: Which worldviews are inconsistent with the scientific evidence discussed in the last three chapters? After demonstrating that atheism, pantheism, polytheism, and naturalism are inconsistent with this scientific evidence, the chapter then expounds on the ways that the God of the Bible is consistent with the evidence.

Chapter 5: The Consistency of the Bible with Science

Chapter 5 expands upon the discussion in Chapter 4 by presenting additional ways that the Biblical worldview is consistent with science. It discusses the personal nature of God, the view that humans were created in the image of God, the six days of Genesis in light of Einstein's law of relativity, and additional scientific facts found in the Bible hundreds and even thousands of years before their eventual discovery by scientists.

Part II: The Historical Evidence

Chapter 6: The Eyewitness Claims

The historical analysis of Christianity commences in Chapter 6 with the internal evidence test of historicity. The chapter discusses the numerous claims by authors of the New Testament that they were eyewitnesses of the events they describe, or that they interviewed eyewitnesses in order to accurately present the truth about Jesus.

Chapter 7: The Corroborating Internal Evidence

Chapter 7 expands on Chapter 6 by providing additional internal evidence (that is, evidence from within the New Testament documents themselves), thereby further demonstrating the reliability of the Gospel stories about Jesus. The chapter discusses five main lines of internal evidence: the Gospel writers' use of unnecessary details, the inclusion of embarrassing information about the earliest Christians, the presence of counterproductive statements, the unembellished nature of Jesus' miracles, and the variations in secondary details among the Gospel accounts.

Chapter 8: The Outside Secular Sources

Chapter 8 introduces the external evidence test of historicity with an overview of the outside, non-Christian—even anti-Christian—historical sources that describe Jesus and his earliest followers. Based on the extra-Biblical sources, twelve facts about Jesus and the earliest Christians can be gleaned, all of which support the truth of the Gospel accounts.

Chapter 9: The Corroborating External Evidence

Chapter 9 continues the external evidence test by first providing an overview of the myths of Osiris, Dionysus, Adonis, Attis and Mithras, the myths that are most commonly cited as having influence Christianity. The chapter then discusses how unlikely it is that these myths influenced the Gospel stories of Jesus. The chapter concludes with an overview of how archeological evidence confirms the truthfulness of the Gospel stories.

Chapter 10: The Composition Dates and Additional Eyewitness Evidence

Chapter 10 first presents the scholarly consensus on the composition dates of the four canonical Gospels, demonstrating that in all likelihood they were written within the lifetime of possible eyewitnesses. This chapter also summarizes the extensive evidence, especially from Richard Bauckham's book, Jesus and the Eyewitnesses, that the Gospels were based on eyewitness testimony and were unlikely fabrications.

Chapter 11: The Documentary Evidence

Chapter 11 puts the New Testament through the bibliographical test of historicity. Not only is there a huge quantity of extant manuscripts of the New Testament documents, but the span of time between the originals and the earliest extant manuscripts is very brief, even compared to other historical documents that historians consider trustworthy. This chapter also explains why we can have confidence that the New Testament we read today is virtually identical to the original documents, especially with regard to the main doctrines of Christianity.

Chapter 12: The Gnostic Gospels

Chapter 12 provides a summary of the debate over whether the Gnostic gospels, such as the Gospel of Thomas, should be included in the historical assessment of what Jesus originally taught. Because the Gospel of Thomas is the only noncanonical "gospel" that has the potential of going back to the first century, the chapter focuses on this document, presenting the extensive evidence that it was composed in the late second century. Due to its late composition date, Thomas is not as reliable a source as the canonical Gospels in the historical reconstruction of the "real Jesus."

Chapter 13: The Gnostics versus The Traditional Christians

Chapter 13 provides an overview of the main differences between Gnosticism and traditional Christianity. Because they were composed in the mid second-century at the earliest, and because they have such different beliefs about God, creation, the nature of salvation, and the role of Jesus, the Gnostic gospels most likely represent a totally different religion rather than the original teachings of Jesus.

Chapter 14: The Response to the Jesus Seminar

Chapter 14 presents the primary reasons that many New Testament scholars reject the conclusions of the Jesus Seminar, a group that has sought to find the "historical Jesus" using a voting system and very debatable assumptions.

Chapter 15: The Development of the Canon

Chapter 15 addresses the skeptical claim, such as that of the fictional historian Sir Leigh Teabing in The Da Vinci Code, that important documents about the historical Jesus were excluded from the New Testament canon because they didn't suit the purposes of the early orthodox church. This chapter describes the process by which the early Christians decided which documents were "Scripture," and it demonstrates that the New Testament canon was determined to a very significant extent by the mid-second century, before the Gnostic documents had even been written.

Chapter 16: The Historical Evidence for the Resurrection

Chapter 16 first summarizes the internal evidence for the truth of the resurrection, as presented by N. T. Wright in The Resurrection of the Son of God. The latter part of the chapter summarizes the five "minimal facts" that are presented by Gary Habermas and Michael Licona in their book, The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus. The chapter explains that there is a general consensus among New Testament historical scholars with respect to the historicity of the following five minimal facts: Jesus died by crucifixion, his disciples claimed to have seen the risen Jesus and truly believed that he had risen from the dead, the conversion of Paul, the conversion of James, and the empty tomb.

Chapter 17: The Failure of the Alternative Explanations

Chapter 17 continues the analysis of the historical explanation for the five minimal facts, looking at eight alternative theories to explain them. The chapter demonstrates that no other theory accounts for these five facts better than the explanation that Jesus really did rise from the dead.

Part III: The Biblical Evidence

Chapter 18: The Claims of Jesus

Chapter 18 is devoted to Jesus' many statements concerning his identity as the unique Son of God. It addresses skeptics (such as the Jehovah's Witnesses) who believe Jesus was merely a created being, as well as skeptics who believe Jesus never actually claimed to be God, but was just another moral teacher.

Chapter 19: The Prophecies and Symbolism Fulfilled in Jesus

The focus of Chapter 19 is on the symbolism of the Old Testament that foreshadowed Jesus, as well as the many Old Testament prophecies that describe Jesus hundreds to thousands of years before his life on earth. By providing these symbols and prophecies in the Old Testament, God prepared us for—and taught us the meaning of—Jesus' work of salvation on the cross.

Chapter 20: The Power of Grace-Based Salvation

The final chapter focuses on the unique aspects of the Christian faith, emphasizing especially the doctrine of salvation by faith alone, as opposed to the salvation by works of all other religions. Drawing heavily on the teaching of Dr. Timothy Keller, the chapter provides Biblical support for this doctrine and expounds on the implications of grace-based salvation.

Epilogue: The Free Gift

The purpose of the brief epilogue is to describe the immense value of the free gift of salvation through Jesus' sacrifice. The epilogue also explains the means by which one receives the free gift, as well as what one can expect after accepting it. The primary goal is to help the reader answer the questions: "Have I accepted God's free gift of salvation? If not, how can I?"