Notable Christians: Lee Strobel

What you should know about the man and his mission:

Most Christians would be aware of the invaluable ministry of Christian apologist Lee Strobel. He was an atheist, and his earlier career was as a journalist and an award-winning legal editor of the Chicago Tribune. But in 1979 he was stunned to learn that his wife had become a Christian.

While at first not happy with her decision, he did notice a real change in her life, and so he decided – as a good investigative journalist – that he had better carefully and properly look into the case for Christianity, and see if there was any evidence for it.

And that he did, using the training he received at Yale Law School to help him vigorously and tirelessly make a thorough examination of this matter. After some two years of hardcore searching and studying, looking at the historical and logical evidence, Strobel became a Christian on November 8, 1981 at age 29.

A 2017 film was made of this journey. Called The Case for Christ, it looks at his long-standing scepticism and cynicism, and the lengthy struggle he had as he finally started to seriously consider the evidence for Christ and Christianity. See a moving two-minute trailer of the film here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhe8KhSxWGo

And my review of the movie is found here: https://billmuehlenberg.com/2017/05/09/the-case-for-christ/

He has written some 20 books, including his many popular apologetics titles:

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
God’s Outrageous Claims – 2005
The Case for the Real Jesus – 2007
The Case for Grace – 2015
In Defense of Jesus – 2016
The Case for Miracles – 2018
The Case for Heaven – 2021
The Case for Hope – 2022
Is God Real? – 2023
Seeing the Supernatural – 2025

In most of these books Strobel very helpfully assembles a team of experts to deal with various issues. Each chapter features one of these experts as Strobel interviews them. They include top-notch philosophers, theologians, biblical scholars, archaeologists, historians, scientists, and apologists.

Over the years I have reviewed some of these books:
https://billmuehlenberg.com/2005/01/17/a-review-of-the-case-for-a-creator-by-lee-strobel/
https://billmuehlenberg.com/2008/02/21/798/

And I wrote up his 4-part DVD series as well: https://billmuehlenberg.com/2007/07/13/a-review-of-faith-under-fire-hosted-by-lee-strobel/

One way to give you a feel for his ministry is to simply quote from a few of his well-received volumes. Let me feature his very first book, and two of his most recent volumes:

The Case for Christ (Zondervan, 1998)

In this bestseller’s Conclusion, Strobel discusses his two-year spiritual journey as he sought to digest and weigh up all the evidence he had been going through. He lists the investigations he had undertaken, which I simply present here in outline form:

-Can the biographies of Jesus be trusted?
-Do the biographies of Jesus stand up to scrutiny?
-Were Jesus’ biographies reliably preserved for us?
-Is there credible evidence for Jesus outside his biographies?
-Does archaeology confirm or contradict Jesus’ biographies?
-Is the Jesus of history the same as the Jesus of faith?
-Was Jesus really convinced that he was the Son of God?
-Was Jesus crazy when he claimed to be the Son of God?
-Did Jesus fulfil the attributes of God?
-Did Jesus – and Jesus alone – match the identity of the Messiah?
-Was Jesus’ death a sham and his resurrection a hoax?
-Was Jesus’ body really absent from his tomb?
-Was Jesus seen alive after his death on the cross?
-Are there any supporting facts that point to the resurrection?

He goes on to say:

On November 8, 1981, I realised that my biggest objection to Jesus also had been quieted by the evidence of history. I found myself chuckling at how the tables had been turned.

 

In light of the convincing facts I had learned during my investigation, in the face of this overwhelming avalanche of evidence in the case for Christ, the great irony was this: it would require much more faith for me to maintain my atheism than to trust in Jesus of Nazareth!

Is God Real? (Zondervan, 2023)

In the book’s Introduction Strobel says this:

More than two hundred times a second, around the clock, someone is asking an online search engine about God—often with the simple inquiry, “Is God real?” If you type that question into Google, you’ll get 3.7 billion results in two-thirds of a second—a digital tidal wave that generates more confusion than enlightenment.

 

As for those who seek wisdom from the disembodied voice of Siri, there’s only disappointment. Asked if God is real, she replies with a seeming shrug: “It’s all a mystery to me.” Even Artificial Intelligence comes up short. When ChatGPT is asked whether God exists, it offers a shallow overview of competing perspectives before concluding, “I cannot give a personal opinion on this matter.”

 

Indeed, the question of whether God is real is the most consequential issue of all because so much hangs on the answer. What exactly is at stake? As evolutionary biologist and atheist William Provine said, if there is no creator, then these are the inescapable implications:

 

-There’s no evidence for God.
-There’s no life after death.
-There’s no absolute foundation for right and wrong.
-There’s no absolute meaning for life.
-People don’t really have free will.

He continues:

One way or the other, our beliefs have very real consequences. How we live our lives and what we value the most inevitably flows from our convictions. The paramount question becomes whether our beliefs are based on fact or fantasy.

 

My motive has been to discover truth, regardless of what the implications might be. Maybe that’s fueled by my investigative reporting at the Chicago Tribune, where I relentlessly followed the facts to make sure I was exposing the news as accurately as I could. Or maybe it’s rooted in my law training, where I came to admire the beauty of a legal system designed to ferret out the truth. Regardless, I became obsessed with getting to the bottom of whether or not there’s a God and then living with the consequences, one way or the other.

 

If he was real, I wanted to know him personally. And if he wasn’t, then I wasn’t interested in playing any religious games. Because truth matters.

Seeing the Supernatural (Zondervan, 2025)

In Chapter 3 on “Life-Changing Spiritual Encounters. Strobel interviews Christian philosopher Douglas Groothuis. Part of that interview goes as follows:

Because religious experiences typically happen at an unpredictable time to one individual, this means they aren’t repeatable, can’t be measured, and can’t be scientifically tested. “Doesn’t that present a significant challenge in determining their validity?” I asked.

 

“Well, first, it’s understandable that God would be difficult to quantify or measure. After all, he’s an invisible personal being who chooses when and where he wants to reveal himself. We should expect that God wouldn’t be verifiable the way that a physical object can be.”

 

Groothuis offered an analogy. “Suppose you’re looking through binoculars while hiking and you see a goat. You quickly hand the binoculars to your friend, but by the time he looks through them, he doesn’t see the goat. Now, what’s the more reasonable response—that you lied, or that the goat moved out of view?”

 

“That the goat moved.”

 

“Right, and that’s analogous to experiences of God. God manifests himself as God wills. We can’t force him to repeat an experience for someone else. We can’t put him under a microscope or in a test tube, and we can’t measure him by empirical means.”

 

I asked, “What are some steps we can take to examine religious experiences for their authenticity?”

 

“First, we can compare the experience to the long tradition of religious experiences within Christianity, going all the way back to the Bible. Is the experience at least consistent with this basic tradition, even though there might be differences? Second, we can investigate to see if there are any surrounding factors that would challenge the credibility of an experience.”

 

“Such as—what?”

 

“Was the person under the influence of drugs? Do they have a history of deceiving people or having mental illness? Are peripheral details—like when and where the person had the experience—shown to be inaccurate? Does the individual have something to gain from sharing the experience? Obviously, these would cast doubt on their report.”

 

Groothuis paused to give me time to scribble notes. “And then, third,” he said, “we have to keep in mind that religious experiences are only one avenue of evidence for a religious worldview. We also have to pursue other lines of argumentation and evidence.”

They go on to say this:

“What about evaluating the validity of Eastern mystical experiences?”

 

“The enlightenment experiences of both nirvana in Buddhism and moksha in Hinduism require the negation of individuality, personality, and language. There’s no personal encounter with another being of immense holiness and power. If a mystical experience is devoid of any intellectual content, it can’t possibly serve as logical evidence for any worldview.”

 

“And Christianity?”

 

“If you ask me why I believe Christianity is true, religious experiences are not the first evidence I’d mention. Initially, I’d talk about the kind of evidence that Christian philosophers typically offer—evidence about the origin and fine-tuning of the universe, the existence of objective morality, the resurrection, and so forth.”

 

“That makes religious experiences—what?”

 

“Corroborative,” he replied. “By themselves, they don’t offer conclusive proof. They’re part of the case, but they’re not the case. Still, they’re one more persuasive category of evidence which affirms that Christianity is true.”

If you are not yet familiar with the work of Strobel, it is hoped that these brief quotes will spur you on to read some of his many helpful volumes. And if you are still wondering about the Christian faith, its truth claims, and its validity, almost any one of these volumes will be a good place to begin your own investigation.

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