Every now and then I come across a book that I just have to tell others about. Is the Bible True . . . Really?: A Dialogue on Skepticism, Evidence, and Truth (The Coffee House Chronicles) is one of those books.
After reading this book myself I have given it several others, mostly college freshmen, who have told me that it helped opened their eyes to all the evidence supporting the reliability of the Bible.
Last summer I gave a copy of this book to a man in his sixties who intended to give it to his grandson. He contacted me several months later to tell me that he was planning to get additional copies to give away because his grandson had found it so helpful. While written as a fictional story, this book is well-researched and includes many citations with pages of endnotes referencing research and the evidence referenced within the story.
In Is the Bible True . . . Really?: McDowell and Dave Sterrett merge much of McDowell’s earlier writings and research from books (like the excellent but massive The New Evidence That Demands A Verdict) with a very realistic story about a college student whose faith is challenged and then begins to erode while studying at a university.
This short, fictional (but realistic) story describes a college student’s journey from doubt to skepticism and then to faith as he discovers evidences for the trustworthiness of the Bible, with the help of a wise graduate student who befriends him. You can easily read through this book in a couple hours. It is interesting, well-researched and very readable.
I have found it a particularly great tool for helping students involved in the campus ministry that I lead, but it would be easily readable by any high school student or young adult more generally speaking. It’s short enough that students will actually read it, interesting enough that they will keep reading it, and they are genuinely helped when finished reading it.
If you have questions about the Bible yourself, and are looking for somewhere to start, or are looking for a non-threatening way to help someone else asking these kind of questions, this book would be a great place to start.