Lee Strobel - The Case for Christ. A Journalists Personal Investigation of the Evidence for Jesus

Resources by Lee Strobel

The Case for Christ
The Case for Christ audio
The Case for ChristStudent Edition (with Jane Vogel)
The Case for Christmas
The Case for Christmas audio
The Case for a Creator
The Case for a Creator audio
The Case for a CreatorStudent Edition (with Jane Vogel)
The Case for Easter
The Case for Faith
The Case for Faith audio
The Case for FaithStudent Edition (with Jane Vogel)
The Case for the Real Jesus
The Case for the Real JesusStudent Edition (with Jane Vogel)
Discussing the Da Vinci Code curriculum (with Gary Poole)
Discussing the Da Vinci Code discussion guide (with Gary Poole)
Experiencing the Passion of Jesus (with Garry Poole)
Exploring the Da Vinci Code (with Gary Poole)
Faith Under Fire curriculum series
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

INVERT YOUTH SPECIALTIES

The CASE for CHRISTSTUDENT EDITION
Copyright 2001 by Lee Strobel

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of Zondervan.

ePub Edition July 2009 ISBN: 978-0-310-83530-1

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Strobel, Lee, 1952
Case for Christ : a journalists personal investigation of the evidence for
Jesus / Lee Strobel with Jane Vogel.[New] student ed.
p. cm.
ISBN 978-0-310-23484-5
1. Jesus ChristPerson and offices. 2. Apologetics. I. Vogel, Jane. II.
Title.
BT203.S77 2001
232.9'08dc21

2001017677

Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible:New International Version. NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.

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

Cover design by Tobias Design / Outerwear for Books

08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 49 48 47 46 45 44 43 42 41 40 39 38

CONTENTS

Part Two: How Reliable Is the
Information About Christ?

Part Three: Can a Dead Man
Come Back to Life?

Introduction

My friends and I were celebrating at an Italian restaurant across the street from the University of Missouri. I was set to graduate in a few days, and I had just accepted a job offer: a three-month internship at the Chicago Tribune, with a promise that if I performed well, Id get a permanent job as a reporter.

At one point during the meal, somewhere between the bread sticks and the Neapolitan ice cream, my best friend, Ersin, made an offhand remark about how my internship was certainly a great gift from God.

His comment startled me. During the four years Id known Ersin, I dont think wed ever talked about religion.

Wait a minute, let me get this straight, I said.Are you telling me that someone as intelligent as youvaledictorian, science whiz, and all that that you actually believe that God exists? I always figured you were beyond that!

It was clear that Ersin was equally surprised. What are you trying to tell me? he said. Are you saying there isnt a God? Are you telling me that someone as intelligent as you doesnt believe in God? Youve got to be kidding!

We were both genuinely astonished. I couldnt believe that a sharp person like Ersin had actually bought into a fairy tale like the existence of an all-powerful, all-knowing Creator of the universe. Hadnt he learned anything at college?

If you could freeze-frame my attitude toward God, that would be it: Intelligent people didnt believe in him. All it took was a quick look at the evidence to know that Christianity was nothing but superstition and wishful thinking.

But to be honest, thats all I had ever really given the evidence: a quick look. And I was happy to keep it that way for yearsuntil one day, my life took a strange turn, pushing me into an all-out investigation into the facts surrounding the case for Christianity.

Thats what this book is about. Ill take you along as I retrace the events that led to a nearly 2-year exploration of the evidence for and against believing in Christ.

After weighing the evidence, I made my decision. But I cant make yours. Thats your choice. I hope you take it seriously, because there may be more at stake than just idle curiosity. If Jesus is to be believedand I realize that may be a big if for you at this pointthen nothing is more important than how you respond to him.

Check out the evidence for yourself.

I could take you back to the very place where I lost my faith in God. I was 14 years old.

At Prospect High School in Mount Prospect, Illinois, the biology classroom was on the third floor in the northwest corner of the building. I was sitting in the second row from the windows, third chair from the front, when I first learned about Darwins theory of evolution.

REVOLUTIONIZED BY
EVOLUTION

This was revolutionary to me! Our teacher explained that life originated millions of years ago when chemicals randomly reacted with each other in a warm ocean on the primordial earth. Then, through a process of survival of the fittest and natural selection, life forms gained in complexity.

Eventually, human beings emerged from the same family tree as apes.

Although the teacher didnt address this aspect of evolution, its biggest implication was obvious to me: If evolution explains the origin and development of life, then God was out of a job! What did we need God for? Life was just the natural result of the random interaction of chemicals.

To my mind, this was great news! Finally, here was a rational basis for atheism. If evolution explains life, then the first chapters of the Bible must be mythology or wishful thinking. And if that were true of the first chapters, why not the rest? Jesus could not have been God. Miracles arent possible; theyre just the attempts by pre-scientific people to make sense out of what they couldnt understand but which now science can explain.

For the first time, I had a rational reason to abandon Christianity.

BORED BY RELIGION

Not that Id ever really been a Christian.

My parents believed in God and had done their best to try to spark spiritual interest in me. When I was a kid, they brought me to a Protestant church, where I would struggle to stay awake during the 20-minute sermons. I didnt understand the rituals, I couldnt relate to the organ music, and I quickly concluded that religion was a waste of an otherwise perfectly good Sunday.