Approved for 12+

Undaunted: The Early Life of Josh McDowell

Josh McDowell was born to be a pillar of the faith, but the harsh realities of a cruel world lead him astray from God’s intended path. His father’s violent alcoholism coupled with his own childhood molestation filled McDowell with shame. Over the years, that shame drove him further and further from Christ, until it finally turned to rage. Eager to rail against the existence of a Savior, McDowell sought out conflict with the Christians he encountered in college. He mocked their beliefs and scorned their faith until they issued him a challenge: prove God doesn’t exist. Obsessively, McDowell travelled the world scouring sacred historical texts for evidence contradicting Christianity. What he found instead was truth — and a faith that led to grace and redeemed a broken man.

Undaunted is the true story of how Josh McDowell set out to prove Jesus Christ never existed — but ended up on a journey that brought him face to face with God. His ministry with the Campus Crusade for Christ has allowed him to spread the gospel to over ten million young people, and he’s published over 70 books in the field of Christian Apologetics, including More Than a Carpenter and Evidence That Demands a Verdict. He is a true fisher of men.
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Dove Review

This DVD shines as a story of redemption! Josh McDowell graduated from Wheaton Bible College with honors. He has been in the ministry for over fifty years. He has written over 125 books including “More than a Carpenter”. Yet his beginnings would shock a lot of people.

In this DVD we see the biography of his life, that of a son of an alcoholic father and a mother so over-weight that when she went to his football games she had to sit outside in the car because she was too large for the wooden bleachers to hold her. He was molested as a boy by someone who lived in the house. He had to keep his father from killing his mother. Yet his father was a different man when not drinking. Josh could not wait to leave his home in Union City, Michigan, but soon was confronted by Christians in college. He was bitter but he took on their challenge to prove the resurrection didn’t happen. Instead the evidence he had was overwhelming but it was by reading about God’s love that his life was dramatically changed forever. He decided he needed to reconnect with his father, and by making a simple statement to his dad, “I love you”, his father’s life would change more dramatically in some ways than his very own.

We are pleased to award this movie our Dove “Family-Approved” Seal. Parents should consult the content listing below as it does contain a few sophisticated moments in it which are not appropriate for young children. The redemptive theme in this movie makes this one a sure-fire keeper!

Dove Rating Details

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Faith

None

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Integrity

A son knocks his father down; a man takes a whip to his wife and she is seen with blood on her face; woman seen with a black eye from abuse; man says as a boy he tied up his dad with rope and left him in the barn all night when he was drunk; man says he would put drunken dad's head in the toilet and flush the toilet; a growing young man tells man who molested him he will kill him if he touches him again and he shoves him up against a fence; a wrench falls down from a scaffolding and hits man in head; a young man makes fun of Christians and the Bible and says the story of Jonah and the Whale is a whopper but he becomes a Christian; a young man is struck by a truck driven by a drunk driver.

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Sex

A man in the house reaches for Josh's shirt buttons and Josh plainly says the man molested him.

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Language

H-1; Josh, as a boy, says he "d*mned" God and his father with his words and he hated them both but he is saved and changes dramatically in the story.

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Violence

A son knocks his father down; a man takes a whip to his wife and she is seen with blood on her face; woman seen with a black eye from abuse; man says as a boy he tied up his dad with rope and left him in the barn all night when he was drunk; man says he would put drunken dad's head in the toilet and flush the toilet; a growing young man tells man who molested him he will kill him if he touches him again and he shoves him up against a fence; a wrench falls down from a scaffolding and hits man in head; a young man makes fun of Christians and the Bible and says the story of Jonah and the Whale is a whopper but he becomes a Christian; a young man is struck by a truck driven by a drunk driver.

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Drugs

A character drinks a lot in the story and is often drunk, mean and abusive; smoking.

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Nudity

None

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Other

A father and son fight over the ownership of their home; man says he would urinate in his dad's bottles and mistreat him; a man's mother dies; prayer is offered up.

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