{"id":63697,"date":"2022-01-11T00:35:07","date_gmt":"2022-01-11T06:35:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites-stage.josh.org\/main\/?p=63697"},"modified":"2025-08-06T13:02:43","modified_gmt":"2025-08-06T18:02:43","slug":"jesus-christ-offers-meaning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites-stage.josh.org\/main\/jesus-christ-offers-meaning\/","title":{"rendered":"Jesus Christ Offers Meaning?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Last week, when we started this new More Than a Carpenter<\/em> series,\u00a0 we shared with you that when Josh got to college, he began to earnestly search for happiness and meaning. But he grew increasingly frustrated by the answers offered up by both his church and his college professors. Not even partying or taking on prestigious student leadership roles quenched Josh’s “thirst” for meaning or happiness.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Like many of us, Josh pretended<\/em> to have it all together. He acted<\/em> like life was great. But in reality he was miserable and exhausted from faking it. So when Josh noticed a group of students who seemed to be genuinely, consistently happy, he<\/strong> asked them what made them different<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Whatever it was, he wanted it! That is until the prettiest girl in the group confidently answered, “Jesus Christ.” \u201cJesus Christ?\u201d <\/i>Josh hadn’t expected to hear those two words included in an intelligent discussion on campus. \u201cDon\u2019t give me that garbage,” he snapped. “I\u2019m fed up with religion. I’m fed up with the church. I’m fed up with the Bible.”<\/p>\n

\"meaning\"
More Than a Carpenter blog #whoisJesus<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Jesus Christ = Meaning?<\/h2>\n

“I didn’t say religion,” the girl shot back. “I said Jesus Christ<\/a><\/strong>!\u201d <\/span>Josh apologized for his rudeness, but admitted that he wanted nothing<\/em> to do with religious people. Faith was for dimwits, not smart people who demanded evidence!<\/span><\/p>\n

The students didn’t get offended. But they did challenge Josh to make a rigorous, intellectual examination of the claims of Jesus: to determine, for himself, who Jesus is — and what His resurrection accomplished. If Josh was going to assert that only dummies could follow Jesus, why not prove it?<\/em><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

At first Josh thought they were kidding. But then he realized that they were handing him the opportunity to debunk Christianity — and knock the props right out from under them. A pre-law student, Josh knew how to conduct thorough research. He actually got excited about their challenge. But where to start? Josh decided to collect evidence that disproved the historical reliability of the Bible<\/a><\/strong>. Poke enough holes in “God’s Word” — and their faith would fall apart! Piece of cake…right? Join us for next week’s post to find out!<\/p>\n

\n

Questions to Ponder<\/strong><\/h2>\n

1. Do you think Christianity is a religion for “dimwits”? If so, why?<\/b><\/p>\n

2. Have you read the Bible? Or researched why many scholars believe it to be historically reliable?<\/b><\/p>\n

3<\/strong>. Do you find it easier to believe what atheists or scientists say over what Christians say? If so, why?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Links: FREE Josh Library Videos > Is the Bible Reliable?<\/a><\/em>
\nLinks: Matthew Tingblad’s Videos > The reliability of the Gospels.<\/a><\/em><\/b><\/b><\/h3>\n

Jesus: He’s More Than a Carpenter!<\/em><\/h2>\n

> FREE<\/a><\/strong> download: Read the first chapter of Josh’s bestseller, <\/span>More Than a Carpenter<\/a><\/strong>.<\/em> You can buy the book <\/span>here<\/a><\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n

> Watch<\/a><\/strong> how More Than a Carpenter<\/em> changed one reader\u2019s life AND set off a chain reaction that introduced many others to Jesus. That’s how the truth of God’s love is shared: person to person!<\/p>\n

> Want to learn more about starting YOUR personal relationship with Jesus? Click here<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"meaning\"<\/a>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \"meaning\"<\/a>\"meaning\"<\/a><\/p>\n

You can buy the book in English<\/a> or Spanish<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last week, when we started this new More Than a Carpenter series,\u00a0 we shared with you that when Josh got to college, he began to earnestly search for happiness and meaning. But he grew increasingly frustrated by the answers offered up by both his church and his college professors. Not even partying or taking on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23327,"featured_media":63876,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"In college, Josh was miserable. He wanted meaning and purpose. When some students said Jesus offers both, Josh set out to prove them wrong!","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[93],"tags":[95,96,97,98,99,100,101],"translator":[],"blog-author":[78],"class_list":["post-63697","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-more-than-a-carpenter","tag-christianity","tag-is-christianity-real","tag-is-christianity-true","tag-is-god-real","tag-is-jesus-real","tag-is-the-bible-true","tag-more-than-a-carpenter","blog-author-josh-mcdowell-ministry-team"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/sites-stage.josh.org\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/607\/2021\/12\/meaning.jpg","meta_box":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites-stage.josh.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63697","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites-stage.josh.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites-stage.josh.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites-stage.josh.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23327"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites-stage.josh.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63697"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sites-stage.josh.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63697\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":92901,"href":"https:\/\/sites-stage.josh.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63697\/revisions\/92901"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites-stage.josh.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63876"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites-stage.josh.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites-stage.josh.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites-stage.josh.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63697"},{"taxonomy":"translator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites-stage.josh.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/translator?post=63697"},{"taxonomy":"blog-author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites-stage.josh.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/blog-author?post=63697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}