After I set out to refute Christianity intellectually and couldn’t, I came to the conclusion the Bible was true and Jesus Christ was God’s Son.

The statement frames McDowell’s conversion as the result of an attempted intellectual “refutation” that instead led him to affirm core Christian claims. It emphasizes a rational-apologetic pathway to faith: investigation, testing of evidence, and a conclusion presented as compelled by the data rather than by upbringing or emotion. The quote also functions rhetorically as a testimonial credential for his later role as an apologist—suggesting he once shared skeptics’ doubts and therefore can address them. Its focus on the Bible’s truth and Jesus’ divine sonship highlights the move from general theism to specifically Christian belief.