Lee Strobel has been effectively defending and sharing his Christian faith for years. But before Lee became a Christian in 1981, he was an atheist with an agenda to prove his wife Leslie wrong about her newfound faith in Christ. He reflects on his investigative journey and discoveries about Jesus’ death, life, and resurrection.
“I did have an agenda. I wanted to rescue my wife from this ‘cult’ that she got involved in, this Christianity, and get back to our life as I knew it. But at the same time, being trained in journalism to look at both sides and be fair and balanced in what I did, I did try to keep an open mind.”
“My hope was I could disprove it. Unfortunately, from my perspective as an atheist that wasn’t possible. But I realized early on that the resurrection is the lynchpin of Christianity. Even the Apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15:17, ‘If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile.’ If you can kick the legs out from underneath the resurrection, then all of Christianity comes tumbling down.”
The resurrection of Jesus Christ and His divine claims were an important part of Lee’s investigation.
“Anybody can claim to be the Son of God. Jesus clearly did, implicitly and explicitly. At one point, He got up before a group and He said, ‘I and the Father are one.’ (John 10:30).”
“The word in Greek one is not masculine, it’s neuter, which means Jesus was not saying, ‘I and the Father are the same person,’ Rather, He was saying, ‘I am the father of the same thing; we are one in essence, we are one in nature.’”
“The audience understood what He was saying because they picked up stones to kill Him. They said, ‘You are a mere man and you’re claiming to be God.’ (John 10:33).”
The resurrection of Jesus is the crux of Christianity, and provides us with more than enough evidence to believe that He is the Son of God.
“I could make that claim, you could make that claim, anybody could make that claim. But if Jesus claimed to be the Son of God, died, and then three days later rose from the dead, that’s pretty good evidence He’s telling the truth.”
“Even though I did look at a lot of science issues of cosmology, physics, biochemistry, genetics and human consciousness, that pointed me only in the direction of a Creator who looked a lot like the God of the Bible. But then to get to the issue of Jesus; to the issue and the crux of Christianity, I really had to look at the resurrection.”
Lee eventually discovered the evidence that the resurrection was an actual, historical event. This ultimately led him to understanding the truth about Christianity, and putting his faith in Jesus Christ.
Atheist-turned-Christian Lee Strobel, a former award-winning legal editor at The Chicago Tribune, is a New York Times best-selling author of more than twenty books, including The Case for Christ: A Journalist’s Personal Investigation of the Evidence for Jesus.
The resurrection changes everything
