A BROAD PRESENTATION OF SCIENTIFIC, HISTORICAL, AND BIBLICAL EVIDENCES
The authors wrote in the Foreword to this 2002 book, "So, if you're not sure what to believe and you want some evidence that Christianity isn't just a nice uplifting myth, we can relate. In this book, we offer twenty evidences supporting belief in God. We think these evidences are compelling. But whatever you do, don't take our word for it. Consider the arguments, investigate the evidence, check out our facts, seek out alternate opinions---do whatever you need to do to settle the issue in your own mind...
"All of the twenty evidences we discuss in this book pertain to showing that the God of the Bible---the God who created us and who has demonstrated His love for us in Jesus Christ---really exists.... They are more like signs that God himself has posted to show people where to find Him and that many people, we ourselves included, have found to be personally compelling pointers to God." (Pg. 8-9)
Later, they add, "Our purpose in this book is not merely to persuade you that God exists, as important as that truth is. We want you to know that the God who created the universe has lovingly reached down to us in a very concrete and tangible way. As astonishing as it seems, we are convinced that He has made himself known in the man called Jesus of Nazareth." (Pg. 189)
They ask, "Why is there something---a something that includes us---rather than nothing? The theist's answer is that Someone who has always existed, whose existence is in no sense dependent upon anyone or anything else, brought everything else into existence. This Someone is commonly called God." (Pg. 48)
They point out, "The most basic requirement for a decent planet to support life is its location. Presumably, as one or more planets formed around a star, such planets could form at virtually any distance from that star (between the extremes of so close that it is pulled into the star or so far that it escapes the star's gravity). Yet the region around the star within which a planet must consistently orbit in order to sustain life, at least above the level of a microbe, is a very narrow band...
"Many other such factors have been discovered. The size and surface gravity of the planet... must be just right. Too big and heavy, and the atmosphere will be rich with noxious elements like ammonia and methane; too small and light, and the atmosphere won't retain water. The planet must turn on its axis and be tilted just enough to prevent extremes of temperature and weather. The planet must be composed of various heavy elements to make complex molecules and compounds (such as water) possible. It must have a crust that's thick enough to keep volcanoes from dominating the surface and thin enough to allow the atmosphere to retain oxygen...
"These are merely a few of the parameters that must be just right for a planet to sustain biological life of any kind. A fair, even generous estimate is that among all the planets that may exist in acceptable solar systems, probably no more than one in ten billion will be hospitable to life..." (Pg. 72-73)
On the interpretation of Daniel 9, they states, "the seventy weeks did not necessarily start on the very day or even the very year of Artaxerxes' decree... [his] decree fell somewhere during the first of these seven-year periods... Artaxerxes' decree, dated 445 or 444 B.C., will have occurred during the first sabbatical cycle even if the dates are as much as two or three years off. The analysis is therefore not dependent upon having exact dates for these events. The sixty-ninth cycle covers the period from A.D. 28 to 35.
"So, what was supposed to happen then? Daniel's prophecy states that 'after the sixty-two weeks, the Messiah ... will be cut off'... In Hebrew usage, to be 'cut off' meant to be killed... It was during this period that Jesus conducted his public ministry of preaching and healing, and it was during this period... in either A.D. 30 or 33, that Jesus was put to death. (Biblical scholars are divided on whether it was A.D. 30 or 33; note that for our purposes, it doesn't matter.)...
"So... Jesus was executed for claiming to be the Messiah during the very seven-year period in which Daniel prophesied that this would occur. Again, the latest possible date for the Book of Daniel according to the most skeptical scholars is fully two centuries before Jesus' execution. This may be the most astonishing fulfilled prophecy in the Bible." (Pg. 167-169)
They admit, "Skeptical scholars sometimes try to discredit the empty tomb on the grounds that the later Gospels supposedly embellish the story of Jesus' burial. Such a criticism is illogical, since later embellishments by other authors cannot undermine the credibility of the original account." (Pg. 236)
This is an excellent, broad series of apologetic arguments, that will be of keen interest to anyone studying Christian apologetics.