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Apologists Every Christian Should Know PART 6
Must-Reads
H I G H E R T H I N G S __ 12
These first four books consist of interviews with top scholars on major objections to Christianity, seasoned with relevant examples from Strobel’s career as an investigative journalist. ————————— The Case for Christ: The result of his initial examination of the Gospels. ————————— The Case for the Real Jesus: Deals with more recent and specific protests against the Gospels. ————————— The Case for Faith: Addresses persistent emotional objections to belief. ————————— The Case for a Creator: Considers whether science opposes or supports faith. ————————— The Case for Christianity Answer Book: Sort of a greatest hits, with 60 topics addressed in brief fashion. ————————— Taking a similar approach to Strobel, homicide detective J. Warner Wallace uses his expertise to scrutinize the Gospels in Cold-Case Christianity. ————————— In what he calls a “blook” (a cross between a blog and a book), Mark Roberts provides a concise rendition of the historical argument.
The Studious Sleuthing of Lee
Why the Gospels Did it really happen? Did Jesus actually do and say what the Gospels claim? If not, we Christians believe in a fairytale and it’s time to grow up. If so, the greatest story ever told about this dying and rising God-in-theflesh is more than just myth or legend, it’s historically and factually true—true in the same sense that it’s true Lincoln was shot by John Wilkes Booth, or that Julius Caesar was stabbed by senators. Nobody seriously doubts that these events occurred. With Jesus, however, skepticism and unbelief run rampant. He is dismissed daily as a fraud and a fabrication in college classrooms, in countless books and videos, and on the internet.
Perhaps the primary cause for all this doubt is the assumption that the Gospels paint a false picture. Modern scholarship, we are told, has shown that Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are the products of people who never knew Jesus, and who greatly distorted his teachings and life. But is this the case? When the historical record is examined, does it support or refute the Gospel accounts? These are crucial questions that demand a weighing of the evidence. As with any case, however, the weighing of the evidence can be tainted by one’s preconceived notions. This is why it’s helpful to consider the findings of an atheist-turned-apologist named Lee Strobel. Becoming Skeptical of Skepticism Strobel was an unbeliever who was unwilling to affirm much about Jesus beyond His reputation as a rebellious rabbi and His brutal death on the cross. Starting with the assumptions that miracles don’t happen and that the Bible is full of myths and contradictions, he easily rejected the notion that Jesus is God’s
Son who rose from the dead. Strobel, an investigative journalist with a master’s degree in law studies, was convinced that faith in anything must be founded on facts, not on opinions or emotions or wishful thinking. It was precisely this training, however, that helped Strobel change his tune. Upset that his wife became a Christian, Strobel set out to examine the evidence for Jesus, using his legal skills and journalism experience. He had investigated numerous criminal cases—studying crime scenes, interviewing eyewitnesses, analyzing the physical evidence—and he was used to seeing careful research overturn the assumptions of experts. But when he turned his critical eye toward the Gospels for the first time, he began to see how sloppy and prejudiced he had been when it came to Jesus. Strobel had selectively accepted views that confirmed his skepticism, written off Scripture before giving it a fair hearing, and mistaken his anti-Christian bias for neutral objectivity. In short, Strobel quickly realized his views were based on nothing more than blind faith.
