The Resurrection Factor - Part 1

Every Christian apologist makes a case for the resurrection, and each of the leading apologists has a somewhat different case to make. Gary Habermas, William Craig, and Richard Swinburne are the leading defenders of the resurrection of Jesus, but many others have published books and articles defending this basic Christian belief.

As with the Trilemma, I'm going to start my commentary on this topic by critically examining the case that Josh McDowell makes. I will focus on his book The Resurrection Factor (San Bernardino, CA: Here's Life Publishers, Inc, 1981, hereafter: TRF). McDowell also covers this topic in Chapter 10 of Evidence that Demands a Verdict (revised edition, 1979, hereafter: EDV), and in Chapter 9 of The New Evidence that Demands a Verdict (1999, hereafter: TNE). But in both the EDV and TNE, there is very little comment by McDowell, mostly just quotations of theologians, scholars, and other apologists. TRF appears to have more of McDowell's own thinking and logic, so that an actual argument is put forward explicitly.

I plan to walk through TRF one chapter at a time, starting at the beginning, and working my way to the end:

Chapter One: The Struggle
Chapter Two: Obvious Observations
Chapter Three: Security Precautions
Chapter Four: Facts to be Reckoned with
Chapter Five: Several Attempted Explanations
Chapter Six: One Theory is as Good as Another
Chapter Seven: The Circumstantial Evidence
Chapter Eight: He Changed My Life