Lee Strobel - The Case for Faith Study Guide: Investigating the Toughest Objections to Christianity

Resources by Lee Strobel

The Case for Christ

The Case for Christ audio

The Case for Christ Student Edition (with Jane Vogel)

The Case for Christ curriculum (with Garry Poole)

The Case for Christmas

The Case for Christmas audio

The Case for a Creator

The Case for a Creator audio

The Case for Creator Student Edition (with Jane Vogel)

The Case for a Creator curriculum (with Garry Poole)

The Case for Easter

The Case for Faith

The Case for Faith audio

The Case for Faith Student Edition (with Jane Vogel)

The Case for Faith curriculum (with Garry Poole)

The Case for the Real Jesus

The Case for the Real Jesus audio

Faith Under Fire curriculum

Gods Outrageous Claims

Inside the Mind of Unchurched Harry and Mary

Off My Case for Kids

Surviving a Spiritual Mismatch in Marriage (with Leslie Strobel)

Surviving a Spiritual Mismatch in Marriage audio

What Jesus Would Say

Other Resources by Garry Poole

The Complete Book of Questions

Seeker Small Groups

In the Tough Questions Series:

Dont All Religions Lead to God?

How Could God Allow Suffering and Evil?

How Does Anyone Know God Exists?

Why Become a Christian?

Tough Questions Leaders Guide (with Judson Poling)

ZONDERVAN

The Case for Faith Study Guide Revised Edition

Copyright 2008, 2013 by Lee Strobel and Garry Poole

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ePub Edition January 2014: ISBN 978-0-310-69883-8

Requests for information should be addressed to:

Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49530

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise noted, are taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version. NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked NASB are taken from the New American Standard Bible. Copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.

Scripture quotations marked NLT are taken from the Holy Bible:New Living Translation, copyright 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois. All rights reserved.

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All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher.

Cover design: Faceout Studio

Cover photography: Shutterstock

Interior design: Beth Shagene

Special thanks to Laura Allen and Jim Poole for their outstanding writing and editing contributions. Their creative insights and suggestions took this guide to the next level.

Contents

Ebook Instructions

In this ebook edition, please use your devices note-taking function to record your thoughts wherever you see the bracketed instructions [Your Notes] or [Your Response]. Use your devices highlighting function to record your response whenever you are asked to checkmark, circle, underline, or otherwise indicate your answer(s).

For me, having lived much of my life as an atheist, the last thing I want is a naive faith built on a paper-thin foundation of wishful thinking or make-believe. I need a faith thats consistent with reason, not contradictory to it; I want beliefs that are grounded in reality, not detached from it. I need to find out once and for all whether the Christian faith can stand up to scrutiny. It was time for me to talk face to face with Charles Templeton.

Lee Strobel, The Case for Faith

Read This!

If possible, read the introduction (The Challenge of Faith) and On the Road to Answers in The Case for Faith book in preparation for your group meeting. Otherwise, read it as follow-up.

Watch This!

Video Teaching Segment

Space is provided to take notes on anything that stands out to you.

[Your Notes]

Discuss This!

1. What are your greatest doubts in life? What spiritual doubts do you carry around with you?

[Your Response]

Reason and faith are opposites, two mutually exclusive terms: there is no reconciliation or common ground. Faith is belief without, or in spite of, reason.
Atheist George H. Smith

THINK ABOUT THIS!

All of us want somebody to love us. Well, I want to tell you that God loves you. He loves you so much that he gave us his Son to die on the cross for our sins. And he loves you so much that he will come into your life and change the direction of your life and make you a new person, whoever you are.

Billy Graham

What is faith? There would have been no need to define it for these people listening to Billy Graham preach on that sultry June night. Faith was almost palpable to them. They reached out to God almost as if they were expecting to physically embrace him. Faith drained them of the guilt that had oppressed them. Faith replaced despondency with hope. Faith infused them with new direction and purpose. Faith unlocked heaven. Faith was like cool water soaking their parched soul.

Lee Strobel

But faith isnt always that easy, even for people who desperately want it. Some people hunger for spiritual certainty, yet something hinders them from experiencing it. They wish they could taste that kind of freedom, but obstacles block their paths. Objections pester them. Doubts mock them. Their hearts want to soar to God; their intellects keep them securely tied down.

Lee Strobel

I had preached to hundreds of thousands of people the antithetical message, and then I found to my dismay that I could no longer believe it. To believe it would be to deny the brain I had been given. It became quite clear that I had been wrong.

Charles Templeton

2. How do you define doubt? Where do doubts come from? What effect do they have on people when they hit? What are the pros and cons of a healthy dose of doubt?

[Your Response]

Faith is a rational response to the evidence of Gods self-revelation in nature, human history, the Scriptures and his resurrected Son.

Christian educator W. Bingham Hunter

3. Briefly describe your faith journey. When have you been closest to God on your journey in life and at what points have you felt furthest away from him? Explain.