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Gary Habermas (born 1950) is Professor of Apologetics and Philosophy and chairman of the department of philosophy and theology at Liberty University, and is a foremost evangelical apologist who has written/cowritten many books such as The Historical Jesus: Ancient Evidence for the Life of Christ,Resurrected?: An Atheist and Theist Dialogue,Did Jesus Rise from the Dead?: The Resurrection Debate,Verdict on the Shroud,The Shroud and the Controversy, etc.

He wrote in the Introduction to this 1980 book, "the Holy Spirit used various techniques in communicating the gospel to men. It is my contention that various methods need to be used even today to explain and defend Christian truth... This apologetic system is not to be considered ... as an exclusive means of presenting the gospel. Oftentimes a straightforward testimony ... is exactly what is needed. The system contained herein would be most useful when a more evidential approach is needed." (Pg. 16)

He rejects the "hallucination" theory of explaining the resurrection appearances, commenting, "how do we explain the conversions of two non-believers, Paul and James? It is extremely doubtful that they would have desired to see Jesus enough to hallucinate." (Pg. 27)

He points out that "the early church never used 'Son of man' to describe the earthly ministry of Jesus, as far as we know. It is not used in Paul's writings or in the other New Testament epistles. Rather, in the gospels, the Son of man is always a designate of Jesus when referring to Himself. Therefore, this concept of the suffering Son of man is so unique that it must have originated with Jesus, especially when we find that the church does not use it of Him." (Pg. 66)

He summarizes in an Appendix, "Throughout this book, the historicity of the resurrection has been the pivotal point of discussion. We have shown both that this event occurred and that it provides the center for Christian theology in general and for apologetics in particular... Accordingly, since the resurrection actually occurred and Christian theism is therefore correct... certain theological and historical beliefs are thus valid and other such beliefs are not... we may conclude that theological and philosophical world views ... must align their beliefs with this position... such world views must bring their own systems into accordance with the facticity of the resurrection and subsequent Christian theism in order to be factual themselves." (Pg. 124-125)

He argues, "As asserted by former Princeton scholar Benjamin B. Warfield, as long as the evidence for inspiration is unrefuted, so-called errors in Scripture can only be counted as difficulties to which we must adjust our views... as long as our basis remains validated (in this case it is our evidence from Jesus' resurrection and His testimony concerning inspiration), so-called discrepancies cannot be counted as errors, but must be dealt with otherwise." (Pg. 147)

Habermas has since tightened up his arguments, but he remains perhaps the preeminent philosophical apologist focusing on Jesus and the resurrection.

This was published in 1980. I read it back then and again more recently. Habermas' Chapter 1: "Jesus' Resurrection as History" has some really cool stuff in it. Ever since then, I've always appreciated Habermas' idea of addressing the resurrection by working from 10 facts of history, accepted by all serious historians, regardless of their religious beliefs. These facts don't involve any miracles, they are just facts, like that Jesus died, that he was buried, that Paul was converted, that the disciples BELIEVED Jesus rose from the dead, etc. Then, he says we need to create an explanation that accounts for these facts. The resurrection accounts for these historical facts, but all other alternatives that have been put forth do not.

That one chapter is the strength of the book. But these arguments are included in his more recent books, so to spend a ton of money on one of these "rare" copies would not be worth it. As I write these, Amazon claims that sellers are listing used copies of this book from $36 to well over $100. It is not worth it when you can get a better presentation cheaply in one of Habermas' more recent volumes, such as "The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus" (2004).

The rest of this book, after Chapter 1, is not as impressive. I don't agree with using the resurrection as an argument for the existence of God. That's the tail wagging the dog to me. It makes more sense to establish the existence of God (see "The God of the Astronomers" and "Creator and the Cosmos") and then one cannot categorically argue that miracles cannot happen (i.e., if there is a creator/designer of the Universe, we are not in a position to deny that he could work a miracle like the resurrection, so we need to determine if there is sufficient evidence for such an event via historical investigation).

Anyway, I love his approach of starting with a few facts and pressing for a way of explaining those facts, but again that's primarily the first chapter. I spent $5.95 for my copy in 1981. My advice is that if you can pick up a used copy for a couple of bucks, do so. But don't spend the big bucks on this book because it is now rare.