Read A Good, Free Book Lately? One That Could Change Your Life Forever?

(754 Words) — More than 500 HillFaith readers in recent months have taken advantage of the standing offer of a free copy of Josh McDowell’s classic of Christian apologetics, “More Than A Carpenter.” (MTAC)

And it’s not infrequently that when one of those folks has finished reading MTAC that they sit down and compose a simple thank you to Hillfaith for introducing them to the life-changing experience made possible by MTAC’s 168 pages on why Jesus Christ is indeed exactly what He claimed to be at John 14:6 – “The Way, the Truth and the Life. No  man comes to the Father but through me.”

One of those recent thank you’s came from reader Tom Olson who offered the following thoughts:

“I finished reading the book (I’ve got a stack I’m working through and this was mixed into it). An easy, quick read.  Reiterated a lot of things I already knew, but did touch on some interesting things I didn’t know.

“Specifically, the comparison of how much information there is that’s essentially verified about Christ, versus other information about other topics that’s far less verified but taken as accurate.

“One thought that popped into my mind as I finished the book was to wonder why he didn’t include the quote from Christ himself when he said (see the screen shot I paste in below):

“Also, a very powerful story he had of his own life at the end.  Glad his father kicked his ‘habit’ for sure.”

Two points stand out in Tom’s analysis. First, MTAC reminded Tom of a lot of the facts and related considerations he previously knew but which he had not had occasion recently to recall or put to use in conversation with somebody who doesn’t know the Lord.

Whether or not you are a follower of Jesus, if you grew up in these United States as part of the Boomer, Gen X, Millennial, Gen Z or Gen Alpha generations, odds are good you “know” a lot about Jesus. Some of that is solid and true, other parts of it not so much, and some of it just plain wrong.

Example of the latter – Nowhere does Jesus or the Bible say “God helps those who help themselves.” Sounds good and is one of those commonly used maxims that people simply take for granted. But it’s not accurate if it’s attributed to Jesus or the Bible.

One of the great values of MTAC for any generation is how it reminds us of what are the demonstrably true and trustworthy facts about Jesus and why those facts are the most important reality for every man, woman and child who ever lived.

Second, Tom notes his surprise at the depth and quality of the verified information about Jesus that is available compared to other historical authority figures such as Buddha, Mohammed and Aristotle.

McDowell has been one of the most influential figures in life precisely because I, too, was amazed when I first read MTAC way back in the early 1970s while an undergraduate at Oklahoma State University at just how vast, for example, is the information that points to the most reasonable conclusion that Jesus was literally resurrected from the grave.

As C.S. Lewis famously remarked, any man who claims to be God is on a par with the man who claims to be a poached egg. He’s either a liar, a lunatic or Lord of the Universe! As the Gospel of John puts it in its opening three verses:

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.” (ESV)

So, thank you, Tom for sharing your thoughts and I hope that those of you who read this far who have not yet read “More Than A Carpenter” will take advantage of this unique offer from HillFaith:

Send us your name, your snail mail address, your cell phone number and your email, and we will promptly get your free copy of MTAC headed your way. And I look forward to reading you reactions — positive and negative — after you finish the book.

By the way,  more than 15 million copies of MTAC have been printed and sold and some years ago, Josh was joined by his son, Sean, as a co-author. Sean is a Professor of Apologetics at Biola University.

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