The Case For the Real Jesus, a review

I believe every Christian should be prepared to give a defense of the Gospel, in one way or another. To what extent or how "intellectual" depends upon our personality, our level of education, the path God leads us down, our circle of influence, etc.

My personal favorite authors of such writing are Francis Schaeffer, Nancy Pearcey (it doesn't get any better than Total Truth), Ravi Zacharias, Josh McDowell, C. S. Lewis, and R. C. Sproul. Well, you can add Lee Strobel to that list.

My son has The Case for Christ by Lee Strobel on his bookshelf, purchased at a book sale on my recommendation. I had heard it was an excellent book but I hadn't read it. My recommendation at the time was because Christopher was in Debate and had planned to concentrate on apologetics this year (as it turned out, his Community College classes made it impossible to take part in the homeschool co-op).

So... I came to this book familiar with the author but having never read any of his materials. I picked it up thinking it would be rather dry. I mean, he was a journalist but he also has a law degree and except for John Grisham, lawyers can make me... yawn. I was pleasantly surprised to find Strobel the Grisham of the nonfiction world!

Now, it is harder to read than the last two books I reviewed. Zacharias writes about deep material using stories so it goes down with a spoon full of sugar. Max Lucado is pure poetry. Strobel is a journalist and he writes as one, interviewing experts in the field. However, it is very interesting and I found myself not able to put it down.

As he explains in the beginning, he came to write this book because of the new interest in such things as the Gnostic Gospels, the writings of the Jesus Seminar, other recent books casting doubt about the true identity and mission of Christ, not to mention the movie and book called The Da Vinci Code. In The Case For the Real Jesus, Strobel delves into Church history in a way that is every bit as fascinating as a Grisham novel to find Truth. He doesn't whitewash anything, where questions exist he talks about them with the experts. I found myself on the edge of my seat, wondering if the outcome of the various interviews will be "for" or "against" the Truth on which I base my very life.

Here are some of the statements he questions from a journalist's standpoint:

New Explanations Have Refuted Jesus' Resurrection...
Christianity's Beliefs about Jesus Were Copied from Pagan Religions...
Jesus Was an Impostor Who Failed to Fulfill the Messianic Prophecies...
The Bible's Portrait of Jesus Can't Be Trusted...
Scholars Are Uncovering a Radically Different Jesus in Ancient Documents...

Good stuff... this book should be on your bookshelf (after you have read it, of course). Take notes, underline paragraphs, write in the margins! This is not the usual "refute the Da Vinci Code" material. This is deeply researched but easy enough to read so that you will enjoy the journey.

Read it, give it to someone who is searching after seeing the movie or watching one of those TV shows on the Discovery Channel, or just a sojourner passing through this world in search of Truth. I liked it very much.

The only time I became bored was when he was going through great detail (and more detail) but it is exactly what one needs when trying to prove or disprove a legal argument. I found very few of those pages and I forced my brain to wake up and read. :)