Journalist and communicator Lee Strobel insists God invites the “spiritually curious” to investigate the claims of Christ.
“I point to John the Baptist who, despairing in prison, sent disciples to ask Jesus if He was the one they were waiting for,” Strobel told a March 2 audience at the O’Neal Library in Mountain Brook during an event sponsored by Mountain Brook Presbyterian Church. “Jesus didn’t criticize him but said there was no one on earth greater than John.
“I tell people to keep asking questions because there are answers.”
Asking the questions
Strobel wrote his best-known book, “The Case for Christ,” after he renounced atheism and became a Christian in 1981. Since then he’s studied and presented “apologetics” — the reasons Christians believe the Bible is true and faith is a good decision.
Strobel related that a man named Robert called him when he was, likewise, considering coming to Christ.
“Robert lived a reprobate life and treated the name of Jesus as a swear word,” Strobel recounted. “He said God spoke to him in his heart one day and reminded him of how many chances he’d had to turn to God. Robert called a friend for guidance, sportscaster Frank Gifford, who recommended my book, and Robert called me.”
Strobel said Robert became a dynamic Christian who shared his testimony and many came to faith, but he died a year later of pulmonary disease. Under his name on his tombstone are the words, “Believe in Jesus Christ.”
“Robert was the ultimate risk-taker, and the world knows him by his ‘stage name’: ‘Evil Knievel,’ Strobel said. “He and I became great friends after he risked his life on faith in Jesus.”
Strobel told the audience he asks earnest seekers to do four things. First, move their search to the “front burner” in life.
“Then I tell them to evaluate the evidence,” Strobel said. “We have mountains of good data affirming the validity of Scripture and faith. Then I ask them to resolve the evidence they find and act on it.”
Finally, Strobel suggests what he calls the “skeptic’s prayer.”
“I think people can pray, ‘Lord, I don’t know if You’re real, but if so, I want to meet You.’”
“The prophet Jeremiah and the New Testament writer to the Hebrews both promised that those who sincerely seek God will find Him,” Strobel insisted.
Three questions
In a forum following his presentation, Strobel responded to three questions, the first relating to the Old Testament witness of Christ.
“Jesus insisted in Luke 24:44 that the entire Old Testament was a witness to Him,” Strobel responded.
“Look at Isaiah 53. It’s been called the ‘fifth gospel.’ And the entire Old Testament sacrificial system foreshadows the death of Christ.”
A second question concerned the authenticity of the canon, or the collection of Scripture.
“The late Bruce Metzger of Princeton was the foremost authority on canonicity,” Strobel said. “He taught about how the early church evaluated New Testament Scripture. They considered connection to an apostle and also whether they heard the voice of Jesus in the writings.
“The false gospels, like the Gospel of Thomas or the Gospel of Mary, have only the faint echo of Jesus, and some strange stories. But the New Testament gospels speak the clear and indisputable words of Jesus.”
‘Only way’
The third question dealt with what Strobel called perhaps the greatest argument against faith — Jesus as the only way to heaven.
“Jesus, the unique Son of God, claimed to be the only way to the Father,” Strobel said.
“The rest of the world’s religions deal with what I call the ‘do plan’ — they teach what one must do to be right with God — but Jesus taught about the ‘done’ plan. He said, ‘It is finished’ on the cross, and our salvation depends on Him alone. So both of these belief systems can’t be right. I stake my life on the claims of Christ.”
Strobel spoke last year at the Alabama Baptist Evangelism Conference at First Baptist Church Pelham. He leads the Lee Strobel Center of Evangelism and Applied Apologetics at Colorado Christian University and makes his home in Houston.
His newest book is titled, “Is God Real? Exploring the Ultimate Question of Life.” His website is LeeStrobel.com.
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