Skeptics Who Demanded a Verdict

The New Testament describes salvation – the way one is made right with God – as coming in a variety of ways:

·       "He who stands firm to the end will be saved" (Matthew 10:22, NIV).

·       "Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven" (Matthew 10:32, NIV).

·       "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me" (Mark 8:34, NIV).

·       "Sell everything you have and give to the poor....Then come, follow me" (Mark 10:21, NIV).

·       After Zacchaeus made restitution, Jesus said, "Today salvation has come to this house" (Luke 19:9, NIV).

·       "Whoever lives and believes in me [that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God] will never die" (John 11:26, 27, NIV).

·       "Repent and be baptized" (Acts 2:38, NIV).

·       "Believe...and...love one another" (1 John 3:23, NIV).

These descriptions do not represent disparate formulas for salvation; rather, they enumerate some of the barriers that keep individuals from faith.

Some people are stumped by the intellectual obstacles to accepting the fact that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. They must surmount that skepticism and come to a point of belief.

Some struggle with confessing their sin. They must repent. And the authenticity of repentance is sometimes well demonstrated by restitution.

Some are too shy or prideful to tell anyone. They must become bold enough to admit their faith to others. Public baptism is the primary, biblically prescribed way.

Some people worship other gods -- themselves, their backgrounds, their possessions. They must renounce all such idols. Denying themselves, leaving home, selling their possessions are the radical steps necessary to make Jesus Lord.

Most of us are such three-dimensional people that all these factors must be addressed to some degree as we come to faith. But usually there is one area that stands out as our primary hurdle. That is why Scripture records Jesus addressing individuals according to their personal barriers -- "repent," "believe," "forsake all," "confess," "be baptized," "love one another."

This book is about three people who were skeptics. For them, intellectual belief was the great blockade. They could not easily believe that Jesus was who He said He was. But they were also honest -- honest enough to demand a verdict Jesus promised: "Ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; and he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened" (Matthew 7:7).

God more than fulfilled that promise to these men. For instance, once C. S. Lewis, who counted himself an atheist, committed himself to a quest for the truth, he found that God would not leave him alone. New information kept coming to Lewis's attention so relentlessly that he felt as though he were in a great chess match in which his" Adversary" kept making "moves" that finally brought him to a point of "checkmate." The process recalls what the Apostle Paul said about the Thessalonians: "From the beginning God chose you to be saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and through belief in the truth" (2 Thessalonians 2:13).

If you are equally committed to following the truth to wherever it leads, you will enjoy the story of these three men who did the same.

Charles W. Colson served as special counsel to President Richard M. Nixon from 1969 to 1973. During the Watergate investigation Colson was indicted on a charge unrelated to Watergate. Oddly enough, the panic and breakdown of the Watergate cover-up provided him with compelling evidence for the validity of the resurrection of Jesus Christ and the truth of Christianity .

C. S. Lewis was the renowned author and professor of medieval and Renaissance literature at Magdalene College, Cambridge University, from 1954 to 1963. Following the death of his mother in his childhood, he became a committed atheist. It was not until he was "checkmated" by his "Adversary" that he became "surprised by joy," a joy he had longed for all his life.

Josh McDowell was an eager university student looking for meaning in life. He was skeptical about religion. But some friends challenged him to examine the claims that Jesus Christ is God's Son, that He took on human flesh, that He lived among real men and women and died on the cross for the sins of mankind, that He was buried and arose three days later, and that He could change a person's life in the twentieth century. McDowell didn't think there were facts to support those claims. But then he started to investigate....