A Verdict That Demands Evidence

by Don Truex
by Sentry Magazine, Vol. 21 No. 2, June 1995

Josh McDowell did students of the Bible a great service several years ago when he published his excellent work, Evidence That Demands a Verdict. As the title suggests, his thesis is that the evidence to support our faith in God, His Son, and the Word is incontrovertible.

While we gladly shoulder the responsibility to defend our faith - “to give an answer to every man that asks you a reason for the hope that is in you” (I Peter 3:15) - perhaps it is time the skeptics do some answering as well. The world has asserted a variety of verdicts and arrogantly expects us to accept them without evidence!

“There is no God!” is the cry of the atheist. But where is the evidence to support the verdict? The atheist believes there is no God, just as I believe that there is. My faith rests on mounds of insuperable evidence—not mere assertion. Whose faith is more reasonable?

“A fetus is not a life,” asserts the abortion advocate. “Merely disposable tissue.” “Excess baggage.” Really? Where is the evidence to support this verdict? On the contrary, this “fetal tissue” has a nervous system in place as early as eight weeks after conception, and pain is felt by it as early as the 14th week. And the systematic dismembering of this “excess baggage” is absolute agony for the mutilated child. Every physical indication is that we are dealing with a life. Now, whose verdict is more reasonable?

“Christian faith is blind faith, really just glorified superstition,” the world argues. Really? Again, where is the evidence for such a verdict? We all “walk by faith” in virtually every realm of life; that action is not peculiar to Christians. My faith in God, His Son, His Word, and His promises, is not “blind” at all. It is based on the investigation of God’s fingerprints in this world, the evidence He has left of Himself, and the righteousness of His cause. Because of that, “I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him until that day” (II Timothy 1:12).

It’s high time the world, the skeptic, the scoffer, does some explaining.