The New Evidence That Demands a Verdict

Josh McDowell began compiling Evidence That Demands a Verdict in 1972 while a staff member with Campus Crusade for Christ, drawing on lecture notes he had gathered while touring university campuses to answer students' toughest objections to the Christian faith. A second volume followed in 1975. The New Evidence That Demands a Verdict (1999) is the fully revised edition that combines both volumes into one reference, reorganizing decades of argument on the reliability of the biblical manuscripts, the historicity of the resurrection, messianic prophecy, and the person and claims of Jesus Christ.

The book is written as a reference rather than a straight read: chapters are organized by topic and objection, with case-by-case evidence, quotations from scholars on multiple sides, and extensive footnotes — which is part of why it has remained a staple on seminary and Bible-college reading lists, and in the libraries of pastors, apologists, and campus ministries, since the original 1972 edition. A further-revised edition, co-authored with Sean McDowell, was published in 2017 under the shorter title Evidence That Demands a Verdict.