Atheist turned Christian apologist Lee Strobel is one man who is not easily swayed without evidence.
When he was the legal editor of The Chicago Tribune, Strobel says, “I would have smirked at the fact Easter (in 2018) fell on April Fool’s Day because back then I thought anyone would have to be a fool to think that Jesus literally rose from the dead.”
But after discovering what he can only describe as an “avalanche of historical data” in his quest to disprove the Resurrection, the famed Case for Christ author can no longer refute that Jesus Christ IS who he said he is — the resurrected Son of God.
In the video below, Strobel outlined four major reasons that prove Jesus died AND rose from the dead.
Firstly, there’s no dispute among scholars that Jesus was dead after being crucified. Even renowned atheist and medical journals agree it’s “historically indisputable” that he was, in fact, dead. Strobel also points to the fact that very early reports of Jesus’ resurrection and an empty tomb (that even Jesus’ enemies attested to) prove the accounts can’t be written off as legend. Lastly, the ex-atheist explains that numerous ancient sources both inside and outside the New Testament confirm and corroborate the conviction of the disciples that they encountered the resurrected Christ.
Strobel says upon his conversion, he did not have a rush of emotion as many do, but rather the “rush of reason” after seeing Jesus’ claims were backed by historical evidence that could not be denied:
“I had the rush of reason because the Resurrection of Jesus is not some April Fool’s Day joke, it is a historical reality based not on mythology or make-believe or wishful thinking, but a solid foundation of historical truth.”
When I was an atheist and legal editor of the Chicago Tribune, I would have smirked at the fact that Easter this year falls on April Fool’s Day. Because back then I thought that anyone would have to be a fool to think that Jesus literally rose from the dead. One day my wife gave me the news that she’d become a Christian and so I decided to take my journalism training and legal training and debunk the resurrection of Jesus. So I spent two years of my life analyzing the historical data. And what I found really shocked me. I recounted in my book The Case for Miracles.
