Some of the greatest Evangelists of the 20th and 21st Centuries have been people who denied the existence of Jesus Christ for the first part of their lives. Many come to mind and to name a few D James Kennedy, Josh McDowell, CS Lewis, and Lee Strobel.
Lee Strobel lays out why you should consider a variety of subjects in Christianity. His books are entitled, “The Case For ____,” (fill in the blank with facets of Christianity):
- The Case for Christ (1998)
- The Case for Faith (2000)
- The Case for a Creator (2004)
- The Case for Easter (2004)
- The Case for Christmas (2005)
- The Case for the Real Jesus (2007)
- The Case for Christianity Answer Book (2014)
- The Case for Hope (2015)
- The Case for Grace (2015)
- In Defense of Jesus Christ: Investigating the attacks on the Identity of Christ (2016)
- The Case for Miracles (2018)
He also has an easier to digest series for Kids
- Case for Faith for Kids (2006)
- Case for Christ for Kids (2006)
- Case for a Creator for Kids (2006)
- Off My Case for Kids:12 Stories to Help You Defend Your Faith (2006)
You will start to notice a theme in all of these books they sound like titles to court cases, which is on purpose as in another life Lee Strobel was a lawyer and an award winning legal journalist. These two professions seem to be under fire these days for their lack of honesty and truth.
Lee Strobel is one of many Christian Apologists. An apologist is not someone who apologizes but rather they argue in defense of a doctrine, policy, or institution. What better person to defend the faith than a lawyer and to promote it like a journalist.
Conversion Story: The Case for Christ
Prior to 1981 Lee Strobel had earned his journalism degree from the University of Missouri and his Master of Studies in Law at Yale University. He was a investigative journalist for number of newspapers and wrote for the Chicago Tribune for 14 years and was the legal editor. In 1980 he won an award for his work on the case of the infamous Ford Pinto, while investigating one of the more important cases which was the basis for the book, The Case for Christ which was a story he would write decades later as his conversion story.
It’s been some time since I, Publius Jr, read it so there’s a feature film that came out last year of the same name as the book, but I stumbled across a documentary that’s free to watch…so I watched it for this unique conversion story The Case for Christ Documentary.
It is a simple story of two people who got married who didn’t have a church life. His wife, Leslie, was an agnostic, and Lee was an atheist the kind who is negative to people who are born-again Christians. So when his wife started to go to church he reacted as it was a possible deal breaker. Over time Lee saw positive traits of his wife in her continued attendance at church. She compelled him, more like dragged him to church. He brought his legal notebook with him and took notes in his attempt at debunking Christianity.
After a few trips to church with his wife he wasn’t “converted,” but still compelled to get to the root of this cult as he was convinced it was, so he kept attending.
Being an award winning legal journalist and legal editor for one of the most respected newspapers in America, he made this into an investigative quest. He found experts on the subject and asked them questions and with every answer there was a question that didn’t occur to him when he heard them. (From my one class in high school in journalism they instruct reporters to set aside large spaces between questions in order to write down those unseen questions–Publius Jr). All his books are written in this fashion. A listing of experts in their field, and a Q & A of the evidence.
Slowly it dawned on Lee that the Gospels and the New Testament books were written by either eye witnesses or by scholars who queried the thousands of people who had met Jesus Christ. Science by the way starts with observations by regular people. In legal issues, observations and eye witnesses accounts are the first steps of legal issues. So his two professions were pointing him to a truth, is Jesus Christ who he claimed to be and did he rise from the dead after being crucified by an antagonistic occupational force called the Romans?
The answer overwhelmingly is yes, Jesus did die and rise up again in bodily form.
The Case For More Books with Answers
I, Publius Jr, have to admit I haven’t read all his books but it was about the time he wrote the Case for the Real Jesus where I entered a new season of my life. I had forgiven someone who really wronged me from my days in the Army. I didn’t do it face to face, but I told it to God and it was God’s turn to deal with it. My eyes were opened and Lee Strobel’s books were there at the library. I read the Cases for Christ, Faith, Creator, and the Real Jesus. I enjoyed them all and I can’t say I’m able to be a celebrity apologist like him or maybe Sean McDowell, but I have more ammunition to work with. I’m an aerospace engineer by degree, and throughout my time in college I met a lot of scientists and engineering students who were atheists and it is hard to be among people who don’t believe as you do. Lee Strobel has found it takes more faith to believe in evolution and how life came from nothing than to believe a loving Creator who would send his Son to die for all the things we do that drive us into misery. All that is forgotten when you believe in Jesus. As a trained Rocket Scientist I can’t explain some of the things I’ve experienced as a believer in Jesus. I find I have more questions after I hear and discover the answers.
In the end of the documentary Lee Strobel asks 3 things of believers, skeptics, and non-believers who are looking into the subject of Jesus Christ:
- Make it a Front burner issue in your life.
- Keep an Open Mind and go where the evidence takes you even if it takes you to the uncomfortable conclusion that Jesus Christ is who he said he was.
- Reach a verdict from the evidence in the Case for Christ
Conversion stories are some of the most compelling testimonies I’ve heard and they give new perspectives on Christianity. I had to write this article because sometime ago I asked Lee Strobel on his twitter account about a good perspective on Islam and how to offer Christianity to Muslims. He suggested reading the book by Nabeel Qureshi, “Seeking Allah Finding Jesus,” a conversion story of his. So that’s the next article for Christians in American History Month. This website is not associated with Lee Strobel nor do we earn any money from directing you via links to purchase his books, the links go to Amazon but you can find them at other bookstores too. ~~ Publius Jr