STROBEL SEEKS EVIDENCE FOR THE CRUCIFIXION and outside the New Testament, that confirm and corroborate the disciples’ conviction that they encountered the risen Christ. To me, this constitutes an avalanche of evidence that the resurrection is an actual event of history. Maintaining my atheism would mean I would have to ignore these historical facts, but that was something I couldn’ t do. As a journalist educated in law, I was trained to respond to evidence. The most logical thing for me to do was to take a step of faith in the same direction that the evidence was pointing and put my trust in Jesus as my forgiver and leader.
Q: Why should the Gospels be considered reliable sources on which to build the case for Christ?
EXPLAINING THE GOOD NEWS OF CHRIST
INVESTIGATING THE CASE FOR CHRIST
putable; that we have a report of his resurrection-- including named eyewitnesses and groups of eyewitnesses-- that dates back to within months of Jesus’ death, too early to be a legend; even Jesus’ enemies implicitly conceded that his tomb was empty; and we have nine ancient sources, inside
14 Solutions
Strobel: Actually, our earliest report of the resurrection came even before the Gospels. We have a creed of the earliest Christians that confirms Jesus died, was buried, and was resurrected, and then it includes the names of eyewitnesses and groups of eyewitnesses to whom he appeared. The eminent historian James D. G. Dunn has dated this creed to within months of the death of Jesus. This is a veritable news flash of ancient history! It comes so quickly after Jesus’ death that we can’ t blithely write it off as a legend.
As for the Gospels themselves, I spent years analyzing their historical reliability. Ultimately, I had to agree with what I was told by the great scholar Craig A. Evans, who has written, edited, or contributed to 50 books and has lectured at major universities around the world. As he told me:“ There’ s every reason to conclude that the Gospels have fairly
Strobel Seeks Evidence For The Crucifixtion
Explaining The Good News Of Christ
Investigating The Case For Christ