I recently finished this book and was utterly blown away by its conclusions. For those who don't know, Lee Strobel was an atheist who became a devout Christian after his pursuit of the historical evidence for Christ. He got a degree in Journalism from the University of Missouri and a Master of Studies in Law degree from Yale Law School. He used to work for the
Chicago Tribune. Once his wife became a Christian (which he was absolutely devastated to hear), he started noticing dramatic changes in her character and decided to go to her church to see what was going on. At that point, he decided to use his journalism techniques and set out to find the answers to the toughest questions he could muster as a rigid atheist. He interviewed the top leading scholars (whose reputation were respected in a wide variety of circles) and set out to believe whatever the evidence led him to believe, regardless of how much he wouldn't like it. Sure enough, his book "The Case for Christ" came out revealing his adherence to the Faith.
In his new book, he felt troubled by all the news media headlines, "Jesus had a lover", "Jesus' tomb is found", "Scholars prove a radically new Jesus over against the gospels", "Jesus and Judas plotted together", "The Secret Gospel of Mark reveals that Jesus had secret initiations with young men at night", "The Gospels prove unreliable as a historical document" and the list went on. He knew these could not remain unanswered if he was to proclaim that the Christian faith was true and a thinking one on top of that. He needed the truth and, once again, he would ask all the toughest questions, going wherever the evidence led him.
Below are the six prominent questions that he sought to be answered (ones he has researched to be the dominant ones):
Challenge #1
"Scholars are uncovering a radically different Jesus in ancient documents just as credible as the four gospels"
Challenge #2
"The Bible's portrait of Jesus can't be trusted because the Church tampered with the text"
Challenge #3
"New explanations have refuted Jesus' resurrection"
Challenge #4
"Christianity's beliefs about Jesus were copied from pagan religions"
Challenge #5
"Jesus was an imposter who failed to fulfill the Messianic prophecies"
Challenge #6
"People should be free to pick and choose what to believe about Jesus"
All I can say is it was a wonderfully fascinating read and has propelled me to dive into this subject more rigorously. Discovering the truth can be both fun and scary and this topic, I believe, delivers! I do recommend to all who are reading this blog to pick up this book sometime. Whether you are a Christian or not give it a try, especially if these challenges are ones you cling too. We all want to know truth, right? This book is a good primer for finding honest answers to these challenges.
post script: I LOVE MY WIFE!!!
Tomorrow is my first day of another semester of grad school. As usual, I am excited. I enjoy theology and I can't wait to consume all the new books and materials for this semester. I must admit that I won't be looking forward to some of my Greek tests, but the Lord is faithful.
