by Dean Davis
in ePub, .mobi & .pdf formats
This eBook has been posted with the gracious permission of the author.
This book is a ' “theory of everything,” as well as the best effort of the author at opening up the glories–and reasonableness–of the biblical worldview to spiritually famished postmodern man.
Are you wondering if there's a God, or struggling to find purpose in your life? Are you a Christian, glad to be one but distressingly uncertain about what you really believe and why you believe it? If so, this book is for you. Yes, it's big, incorporating equal parts of Philosophy, Apologetics, and Systematic Theology. But it's also warm and readable, full of charts, diagrams, story, adventure, and the joy of discovery. Over a decade in the writing, "The Test" is a heartfelt invitation to seekers everywhere (especially the young), that they should embark--with a sympathetic companion at their side--upon the ultimate journey to the ultimate destination: the meaning of life.
About the Author
Dean Davis (1947- ) was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area. In 1969, he graduated from U.C. Santa Cruz with a degree in Philosophy. A true child of the 60's, he plunged headlong into the counterculture, practicing a wide variety of Eastern religions, especially Zen Buddhism. Then, in 1974, in the midst of a deep personal crisis, the God of the Bible graciously stepped in, turning a seeker into a finder, and an orphan into a beloved son, all through a life-changing revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ. Since then, Dean has followed the Lord down many roads, serving as a pastor, teaching elder, Sunday School director (with his wife, Linda), Christian bookstore manager, pro-life leader, and substitute school teacher. In recent years, he has greatly enjoyed working as the Director of Come Let Us Reason, a Bible teaching ministry specializing in Worlvdiew Studies and Apologetics. He and Linda currently reside in Santa Rosa, California. Believing with Luther Burbank that it is indeed "the chosen spot of the earth as far as nature is concerned," they hope to grow old there together, even as they keep careful tabs on their five far-flung kids: Mark, Beth, Jonathan, Rebekah, and Sara.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Table of Charts and Diagrams
Acknowledgments
Prologue
Part 1: Life: A Mess or a Test?
1. Life: A Mess or a Test?
2. Hints of a Heavenly Hope: Nature
3. Hints of a Heavenly Hope: Conscience
One Man’s Journey: A Seeker is Born
Part 2: In Search of the Teacher
4. In Search of the Teacher
5. Window on a World of Signs
6. First Look
7. The Great Debate
8. Second Look
One Man’s Journey: Good News From a Distant Land
Part 3: The Teacher on the Questions of Life
9. What is the Ultimate Reality?
10. What is the Origin of the Universe, Life, and Man?
11. What, If Anything, Went Wrong?
12. What, If Anything, Can Be Done?
13. What is the Meaning of Life?
14. How Should We Live?
15. What Happens When We Die?
16 Where is History Heading?
17. How Can We Find Trustworthy Answers to the Questions of Life?
One Man’s Journey: A Furnace For Gold
Part 4: The Teacher on the Test
18. Is Life a Test?
19. If So, How Can We Pass?
One Man’s Journey: The Thrill of Them All
APPENDICES
1. Traditional Evidences for the Divine Inspiration of the Bible
2. The Unity of the Bible
3. Ten Signs of a Teacher Come From God
4. The Biblical Worldview
5. The Naturalistic Worldview
6. The Pantheistic Worldview: Eastern Religion
7. The Pantheistic Worldview: The New Age
8. The Islamic Worldview
Endnotes
Select Bibliography