Josh McDowell Quotes

I've never had anyone define purity. You probably can't define purity. Purity is to live according to original design.

You can laugh at Christianity; you can mock and ridicule it. But it works. It changes lives. If you trust Christ, start watching your attitudes and actions, because Jesus Christ is in the business of changing lives.

Tolerance is the worst roar of all, including tolerance for homosexuals, feminists, and religions that don't follow Christ.

I would say 90 percent of Christians do not have a worldview, in other words a view of the world, based on the Scripture and a relationship with God.

Christianity is not a religion. Religion is humans trying to work their way to God through good works. Christianity is God coming to men and women through Jesus Christ.

Here's the simplest answer: Within weeks, the disciples proclaimed the resurrection of Jesus Christ, that He had been bodily raised from the dead and appeared to them.

I once had a lot of hatred, mainly toward my father, an alcoholic.

Why don't the names of Buddha, Mohammed, Confucius offend people? The reason is that these others didn't claim to be God, but Jesus did.

After more than 700 hours of studying this subject, and thoroughly investigating its foundation, I have come to the conclusion that the resurrection of Jesus Christ is one of the most wicked, vicious, heartless hoaxes ever foisted upon the minds of men, or it is the most fantastic fact of history

If there were more than one path to salvation then it would totally negate Jesus' sacrifice on the cross, his life, his teachings.

Many people entertain the idea that Christianity,like almost any other religion,is basically a system of beliefs-you know, a set of doctrines or a code of behavior, a philosophy, an ideology.
But that's a myth.
Christianity is not at all like Buddhism or Islam or Confucianism. The founders of those religions said (in effect), 'Here is what I teach. Believe my teachings. Follow my philosophy.' Jesus said, 'Follow me'(Matthew 9:9).
Leaders of the world's religions said, 'What do you think about what I teach?' Jesus said, 'Who do you say I am?'(Luke 9:20)

No matter how devastating our struggles, disappointments, and troubles are, they are only temporary. No matter what happens to you, no matter the depth of tragedy or pain you face, no matter how death stalks you and your loved ones, the Resurrection promises you a future of immeasurable good.

Well how can a holy, just, righteous God allow sin into His presence?

We do not develop habits of genuine love automatically. We learn by watching effective role models - most specifically by observing how our parents express love for each other day in and day out.

What you are as a single person, you will be as a married person, only to a greater degree. Any negative character trait will be intensified in a marriage relationship, because you will feel free to let your guard down
that person has committed himself to you and you no longer have to worry about scaring him off.

Forgiveness is the oil of relationships.

Love can wait to give; it is lust that can't wait to get.

Yet each of us also carries another portrait with us, a picture far more important than any in our wallet. Psychologists have a name for it. They call that mental picture of ourselves, our self-image ... there's always the person whose self-image is bent all out of shape, like a photo carried too long in a wallet.The good news of the tremendous worth we have in God's eyes can light up our inner self-portrait.

You better arm yourselves to answer your children's and grandchildren's questions ... no matter what the question is ... without being judgmental.

We no longer live in a post-Christian society, we live in an anti-Christian society, one in which the Christian faith is dismissed or ridiculed and Christians are considered suspect and their motives and behavior berated.

Christ can be trusted to keep His Word that He will exchange our drab existence for joyous living, abundant life! And while true love, total acceptance, and complete security are rare in our frantic world, the biblical evidence that our desires in these areas will be fulfilled in Christ is abundant.

As a reward for their efforts, however, those early Christians were beaten, stoned to death, thrown to the lions, tortured and crucified. Every conceivable method was used to stop them from talking.

The first thing that stuck in the minds of the disciples was not the empty tomb, but rather the empty grave clothes - undisturbed in form and position.

Prayer is talking with God. God knows your heart and is not so concerned with your words as He is with the attitude of your heart.

Knowing that God is faithful, it really helps me to not be captivated by worry. But knowing that He will do what He has said, He will cause it to happen, whatever He has promised, and then it causes me to be less involved in worrying about a situation.

Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have,

True love is spelled G-I-V-E. It is not based on what you can get, but rooted in what you can give to the other person ...

Where I once believed people were there to be used, I started thinking of other people first.

When it comes to my salvation, all I need is Jesus; after my salvation, everything is Jesus plus the church ... When people preach that all you need is Jesus, they cut you and I off from one of the greatest sources of healing, which is the body of Christ. Don't go it alone - you won't make it.

My greatest asset now is my focus.

Now, whenever you read any historical document, you always evaluate it in light of the historical context.

For centuries many of the world's distinguished philosophers have assaulted Christianity as being irrational, superstitious and absurd.

I thought Christians were walking idiots.

The Christian faith is faith in Christ. Its value or worth is not in the one believing but in the One believed - not in the one trusting, but in the One trusted.

Where I once constantly lost my temper, I found myself arriving at a crisis and experiencing peace.

Rules without relationship leads to rebellion.

One who claimed what Jesus claimed about himself couldn't be a good moral man or a prophet. That option isn't open to us, and Jesus never intended it to be.

Both Jewish and Roman sources and traditions admit an empty tomb.

I always tried to be open-minded, but not so open-minded that my brains would fall out. As G. K. Chesterton says, "The purpose of opening the mind, as of opening the mouth, is to close it again on something solid." I opened my mind, and I finally closed it on the most solid reality I had ever experienced. On December 19, 1959, at 8:30PM, during my second year at the university, I became a Christian.

After I set out to refute Christianity intellectually and couldn't, I came to the conclusion the Bible was true and Jesus Christ was God's Son.

Parents are heroes already - all they have to do is start acting like it.

Whenever you do judge, the only basis of judgment is not your own perspective or anything else, it's the very character and nature of God and that's why we are to allow Him to exercise His justice, where I personally want to take it upon myself.

Christ appeared alive on several occasions after the cataclysmic events of that first Easter.

Belief is knowing what you believe. Conviction is knowing why you believe it.

We've had a major shift in what truth is and where it comes from. We've gone from being God-centered to self-centered, from being objective to being subjective, and from being internal to external.

I would say much of religious heresy is the result of a misunderstanding of the basic nature of God. And once we have a proper understanding of God, then usually most of the areas of our life coincide with who God is and what He desires for each one of us.

Having convictions can be defined as being so thoroughly convinced that Christ and His Word are both objectively true and relationally meaningful that you act on your beliefs regardless of the consequences.

There was a time when only specialized Christian missionaries needed to be able to defend the gospel of Jesus Christ against the attacks of Islam. Today every Christian has an opportunity and obligation to present the gospel effectively and in Christian love to the Muslims who have permeated our Western society. When your neighbor, your mechanic, your favorite basketball player, your employer or employee, or even your children's friends could very well be Muslims, the need for proper understanding and an effective Christian witness is abundantly clear.

If one discards the Bible as being unreliable, then he must discard almost all literature of antiquity.