Good little book

I think that More Than a Carpender is a great little apologetic. It isn't some thick, comprehensive volume on Christian apologetics but it is a nice little handbook to get started on. The reviewer below me obviously didn't understand the book at all. When Josh wrote this book he wasn't attempting to conclusively prove without a doubt that Jesus Was the son of God and that absolutely nobody could refute any argument he made. He simply composed a small handbook that contained some (not even close to all, in fact just a very small portion) of the evidence about Jesus that needs to be explained away by skeptics. Skeptics always put christians on the defense (that's why there are christian apologetics) by citing evidence that Christianity is false, so Josh made a book that is suppose to put the skeptic on the defensive. He poses this evidence for the historocity of the resurrection and asks the doubter to account for it. Of course, all you get are people attacking his credentials and claiming his book is wrong, but you don't see them actually attacking the content of the book. One reviewer attacked the 3L (liar, lunatic, lord)theory and added legend to it. Unfortunately we have massive amounts of evidence in history to prove the Jesus was not a legend. We have multiple non-christian, even anti-christian sources from Jesus' time that claim that he was a real man even though they didn't believe him. I suggest you read a book like Craig Blombergs "The Historical Realiablity of the New Testament" or "The Historical Jesus" by Gary Habermas. There are a ton of books you could read on the historocity of Jesus. Very, very few educated people deny that Jesus did, and the ones that do get slammed in debates because their theories are so ridiculous. It's kind of sad to see how mad skeptics get whenever they review a christian apologetics book. It's like they just hate any type of evidence Christians have and therefore attack the author and the book any make ridiculous remarks and statements that only insult the author or christians and have no evidence to back up their claims. Most people call that being closed-minded. If you are going to read a book with a subject that defends something you disagree with then read it with an open-mind. What is the point of reading something if you only read it so that you can attack it?

Fails to attain its objective...

I realise that I am a minority in reading this book, because most of the reviewers reading this book were Christian or at least had Christian sympathies. I, on the other hand, am a somewhat-believer turned sceptic, so, assumably, this book was written with me in mind. A well-meaning uncle bought this book for me in an attempt to "save" me from the annals of my heathendom, and being the loving nephew that I am, I agreed at least to read it and provide my critique of it. Having also been forced to read an article from McDowell lately, I noticed a common thread in his arguments. Please read my critique before criticising or flaming.
McDowell sets forth the belief that there is NO MIDDLE GROUND in the belief in Jesus. Either you believe who he said he was, or you don't. His "trilemma" - lunatic, liar, or Lord. This, on the surface, sounds somewhat convincing. No one wants to think that a moral teacher like Jesus was a lunatic or a liar, right? So therefore he must be Lord. This is, however, a profound logical fallacy, known as the FALSE DILEMMA. A false dilemma is where you present a finite number of options, where all but one are unappealing, or you attempt to prove the other ones as absurd. Therefore, the most appealing one, or the one upon which no refutation is attempted must be true. However, I would like to add a fourth "L" to McDowell's Jesus problem that most sceptics would agree on--LEGEND. There may or may not have been an historical Jesus. "He" was more than likely an amalgamation of myths, legends, and several prominent figures. Morally, Jesus added nothing much new to the ethics of the world (except the promising idea of Hell)...some of the things he says are good, some are not. Like any legendary figure, some things apply, some do not. It is unreasonable, then, for McDowell's trilemma to be applied in an attempt to present a logically cogent argument, as I am assuming he is trying to do.
This brings me to the next logical fallacy that McDowell commits. He also makes extensive use of begging the question, or circular reasoning. This is a little more subtle. Basically, he already is running under the assumption that his conclusion is true, and uses the premises to support this. His conclusion is that Jesus is Lord. His premises are that Jesus was not a Liar; Jesus was not a Lunatic; and, most importantly; The Bible is true. His first two premises he quickly dismisses, as stated earlier. The third premis is the real argument. The Bible says that Jesus is Lord. Therefore, Jesus is Lord because the Bible says so. If you do not accept the Bible as an historical account of anything that happened, then McDowell's ENTIRE argument falls away, leaving nothing behind but ad hominem attacks and excessive appeals to pathos. Ultimately, I rated McDowell's book one star because it failed to do what it set out to do: provide irrefutable evidence that Jesus was who he said he was, and convert a sceptic to a believer. This book would work on people who are unsure of what they believe and have sympathies towards Christianity, as I suspect were McDowell's feelings during his conversion. This book will also incite deep feelings of passion for those who already believe in the Christ. However, this book will not work for any halfway decent critical thinker who is sceptical of the Christian worldview because they feel it is absurd, not because they simply feel it inconvenient.

So Very Much More

More than a Carpenter is a very good introductory book on apologetics and an excellent evangelistic tool. It takes a look at the claims of Christ and of His followers from various perspectives,attempting to address those who are skeptical re the claims of Christ. If Josh McDowells definition of history(A knowledge of the past based on testimony), is a good one, then the historic validity for the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ is overwhelming. Twelve men of excellent moral character testified to its validity and eleven of them gave their lives firmly standing by that testimony. This is a brief example of the kind of help that is given to answer those who have doubts about some of the fundamental beliefs of Christians. Another example that could be given is in Chapter 9 on P.106 "The precise lineage; the place, time and manner of birth;peoples reactions,the betrayal;the manner of death.These are just a fragment of hundreds of details that made up the 'address' to identify God's son,the Messiah,the Saviour of the world." To any unbiased mind these fulfilled prophecies would be extraordinary evidence and yet there are many other prophecies that clearly point to Jesus as the promised Messiah. Though a person cannot be convinced or reasoned into the Kingdom of God(they must be born into it,spiritually,through the new birth),the Christian should be prepared to answer those who have questions regarding the Christian Faith, and there is much help in providing answers to the skeptics.