Compelling
Evidence for God and the Bible
by Douglas A. Jacoby, Harvest
House Publishers, 2010, 260 pages,
$13.99, (paperback) ISBN-13: 978-0-7369-2708-6
Many years ago while lecturing in London, England, I
became a good friend of Douglas Jacoby. I was impressed with him, and
encouraged him to use his enormous talent to be a power for God in
apologetics. I am thrilled he has done that, and has far exceeded my
feeble abilities in this area. In my opinion he is the strongest person
in the church today in apologetics. Douglas has degrees in history from
Duke University, theology from Harvard Divinity School, and ministry
from Drew University. For several years he has lectured at universities
in over 100 countries and debated people like Michael Shirmer, one of
the educational community’s best known atheists.
This book is divided into four parts. The first part deals with atheism
and the fundamental evidence for the existence of God. Jacoby does a
wonderful job of`showing the intellectual impossibility of atheism. His
discussion of the evidence for God’s existence is very well done, but
somewhat superficial since his strength is not in science and his
discussion is mostly philosophical and theological. Part two deals with
the Bible and its credibility and canonicity. The third part looks at
Jesus Christ and the evidence that He was who He said He was — the Son
of God and the one path to God. Part four deals with world religions
and personal decisions about God and how to handle doubt. There are
three appendices on how to study the Bible, the Trinity, and apparent
contradictions in the Bible. Douglas and I use many of the same
tools — the cosmological flow sheet, “Flatland” and many quotes from
atheists. The weakness of the book is that it tackles such a huge range
of issues that some subjects may need more discussion. For example,
Jacoby states that there is no direct scientific evidence for the
existence of God (page 18), but that statement depends upon the meaning
of the word “direct evidence.” He explains how we DO make evidence
count however, and does it well.
The strength of this book is that the author is very well read and uses
solid philosophical arguments in his defense of God’s existence. The
book is not strong on science, but it is excellent in its intellectual
handling of the objections of atheists to belief in God. It will be a
great book to give to any student going to college, or to a college
graduate who has lost faith while in college. We highly recommend this
book.
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Does God Exist?, NovDec10.