The Case for Christ, Part 1: An Introduction.

Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Who was he? The Son of God? A prophet? A carpenter? A Jew? A fraud?

People’s opinions differ on the most famous man in history.

In order to know the truth, one must carefully dig up the past and ask relevant questions, to weigh the facts according to the context from which they originated.

Cover photo of the book.

I have recently read a brilliant book called “The Case for Christ” on the subject. What stands out about this book is its honest methodology. Many Christians, when trying to prove who Jesus was, only appeal to the Bible.Who could blame their bias? Why is Jesus the Son of God? Because the Bible says so. Why is the Bible true? Because Jesus is the Son of God. While the conclusion could be true, it doesn’t directly stem from the premises, as we would have to first prove why the Bible would be true and why Jesus is the Son of God if we wish to escape the trap of the circular reasoning fallacy. Who could then help us objectively better understand the relevance of the claims of Christianity than former atheist and skeptic Lee Strobel?

About the book and author.

The author.

Lee Strobel, with a degree in Law, has worked for years as an investigative journalist and legal editor for the Chicago Tribune, breaking out crime stories of the city. One day, his wife announced her conversion to Christianity. He wanted to disprove her faith by ruthlessly analyzing the main tenants of the Christian faith scrupulously. Originally published in 1998, The Case for Christ relates Strobel’s 2-year journey from doubter to a believer, after interviewing 13 leading Bible scholars on famous objections to Christianity.

The author investigates the claims of Christianity as if it was a lawyer’s case where each argument would be ruthlessly audited before a court of objective judges. The author doesn’t shy away from asking uncomfortable questions until the scholars can truly and justly defend their point.

Why write about this?

In all honesty, it is my favorite Christian apologetics book that I have read so far. If you don’t know what the field of apologetics is, it can simply be defined as the defense of religious faith with rational arguments. This book made me examine my convictions critically, and made me learn that the best way to get closer to truth is to analyze the base of all beliefs and to discard anything that doesn’t stand the test of scrutiny.

As this book had a great impact on strengthening my faith, I would like to internalize the arguments being presented, and I think there is no better way than to write about it.

What to expect?

The Case for Christ is very concise and requires a lot of context and analysis to understand that you may not have if I would only give you a summary. But rest assured, yours truly is there to provide important details and make you reflect on what is being discussed.

I believe the information in this book is so pertinent that I’ve decided to dedicate a blog post for each of the 15 chapters in the book!

Over the course of the year, you can expect the following posts relating to each of the chapters:

Part 2: The eyewitness evidence: can the biographies of Jesus be trusted?

Part 3: Testing the eyewitness evidence: do the biographies of Jesus stand up to scrutiny?

Part 4: The documentary evidence: were Jesus’ biographies reliably preserved for us?

Part 5: The corroborating evidence: is there credible evidence for Jesus outside his biographies?

Part 6: The scientific evidence: does archeology confirm or contradict Jesus’ biographies?

Part 7: The rebuttal evidence: is the Jesus of History the same as the Jesus of Faith?

Part 8: The identity evidence: was Jesus really convinced that he was the Son of God?

Part 9: The psychological evidence: was Jesus crazy when he claimed to be the Son of God?

Part 10: The profile evidence: did Jesus fulfill the attributes of God?

Part 11: The fingerprint evidence: did Jesus — and Jesus alone — match the identity of the Messiah?

Part 12: The medical evidence: was Jesus’ death a sham and his resurrection a hoax?

Part 13: The evidence of the missing body: was Jesus’ body really absent from his tomb?

Part 14: The evidence of appearances: was Jesus seen alive after his death on the cross?

Part 15: The circumstantial evidence: are there any supporting facts that point to the Resurrection?

Part 16: Conclusion- The verdict of History: What does the evidence establish — and what does it mean today?

Closing thoughts.

I don’t know how much time this could take me, but I am excited to effectively undertake this lengthy project. I hope to write at least one part every 2 weeks. I might take a break and write about something else in between, but I am confident of finishing this. Theology is something I am passionate about and that I love writing about.

Stay tuned!