The Case For Christ

In his Introduction, Strobel makes The Case for Christ’s central theme clear: he intends to embark on a “quest for truth” (17)and uncover the facts about Christianity. By applying “categories of proof” (17)like psychological evidence, scientific evidence, and circumstantial evidence to the Bible, Strobel wants to determine whether Christianity is what it claims, or if it is just a set of mythological beliefs with no real basis in truth.

But what does Strobel mean by “truth”? According to Merriam Webster, “truth” has two separate definitions. On the one hand, “truth” means to be in accord with fact or reality. This means that truth is something objectively verifiable, since a fact is something that is has actual existence. This is a complicated way of saying that the first definition of truth hinges on it being observably and verifiably factual. Strobel tries to link Christianity to this definition of truth as much as possible in order to form a convincing argument. For instance, the evidence Strobel presents through his interview with Dr. Edwin Yamauchi fits this category. When Strobel asks Yamauchi for historical, secular evidence that substantiates aspects of the Bible, Yamauchi is able to produce literal, physical texts that can be touched, seen, and read. For instance, he produces a document written by Tacitus in “A.D. 115, [where] he explicitly states that Nero persecuted the Christians as scapegoats to divert suspicion away from himself” (107). Because this text exists as a literal item that anyone—regardless of faith—can read, it serves as an objective piece of evidence that shows that Christians existed as a significant populace within a century of Jesus’s death. This gives believers and skeptics alike a piece of evidence that resists criticism, regardless of one’s perspective on Christianity.

The second definition of “truth” is much trickier, especially in terms of Strobel’s purpose. Merriam Webster also defines “truth” as a judgement, proposition, or idea that is true or accepted as true. In other words, the “truth” can also be a concept that people believe is authentic. Here is an example that might help clarify the difference. The idea that there is a sun in the center of our solar system is an objective fact. Everyone can see the sun during the day, and scientists have proven beyond the shadow of a doubt that the earth orbits the sun in 365-day increments. Some scientists believe there to be as many as 1 billion trillion stars in the observable universe, which is a number that is accepted as true. No one can count that many stars, so people rely on a mathematical formula to come up with as accurate a number as possible, even though it is not the exactly true number.

Strobel leans on this definition of truth as his argument progresses from observable fact to inferred facts about objectively unknowable elements of Christianity. A good example of this comes in Chapter 12, where Dr. William Craig addresses whether Jesus’s body really disappeared from his tomb. Without pictures, forensic records, or substantial secular historical sources, the argument for Jesus’s resurrection hinges mostly on logical inference. That is to say, historians and theologians have to look closely at the evidence presented in the Bible and match it with historical records they do have, like lists of people who served in the Roman government or as part of the Jewish Sanhedrin. But Craig lacks the tangible, observable evidence that Yamauchi provides in Chapter 4. Instead, Craig has to rely on a certain amount of conjecture, such as when he addresses the debate surrounding whether Roman guards were at Jesus’s tomb. Craig explains that the topic is “disputed by contemporary scholarship” (284), meaning the majority of theologians do not agree on whether Romans guarded Jesus’s tomb. Because there is no objective evidence, Craig has to come to a reasonable conclusion based on the small amount of evidence in the Bible, rather than rely on a larger, more credible body of proof.

And this is where the line between truth and belief blurs. “Belief” is defined as the acceptance that a something is true or exists. But belief can—and often does—exist without tangible or circumstantial evidence. And in later chapters, Strobel asks readers for a certain amount of belief—in him, in his project, and in the honesty of his expert witnesses. There is no way for him to provide tangible proof of Jesus’s life nor his resurrection, but he works diligently to present readers with an argument that they can accept as true. In other words, Strobel tries to present readers with enough truth that they can take the next step to belief that Jesus is the “Son of God who died” as a “substitute to pay the penalty” (362) for mankind’s sin. Ultimately, The Case for Christ argues that while a person will “never have full resolution of every single issue” surrounding Christianity, the body of truth is enough to justify a person’s belief that Jesus exists.