The Case for Christ: A Journalist's Personal Investigation of the Evidence for Jesus

by Lee Strobel

eight different tests

1. THE INTENTION TEST

This test seeks to determine whether it was the stated or implied intention of the writers to accurately preserve history.

the opening of Luke’s gospel.

Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us, just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word. Therefore, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, it seemed good also to me to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught.2

“The only other statement of purpose in the gospels comes in

John 20:31: ‘These are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.’ ”

Consider the way the gospels are written—in a sober and responsible fashion, with accurate incidental details, with obvious care and exactitude. You don’t find the outlandish flourishes and blatant mythologizing that you see in a lot of other ancient writings.

“It seems quite apparent that the goal of the gospel writers was to attempt to record what had actually occurred.”

“What was so different about Christianity?”

The truth is that the majority of Jesus’ teachings presuppose a significant span of time before the end of the world,”

even if some of Jesus’ followers did think he might come back fairly quickly, remember that Christianity was born out of Judaism.

“For eight centuries the Jews lived with the tension between the repeated pronouncements of prophets that the Day of the Lord was at hand and the continuing history of Israel. And still the followers of these prophets recorded, valued, and preserved the words of the prophets. Given that Jesus’ followers looked upon him as being even gr...

“There are occasions when early Christian prophecy is referred to, but it’s always distinguished from what the Lord has said.

in 1 Corinthians 7 Paul clearly distinguishes when he has a word from the Lord and when he is quoting the historical Jesus.

in 1 Corinthians 14, when Paul is discussing the criteria for true prophecy, he talks about the responsibility of the local church to test the prophets. Drawing on his Jewish background, we know that the criteria for true prophecy would have included whether the prediction comes true and whether these new statements cohere with previously revealed words of the Lord.

“But the strongest argument is what we never find in the gospels. After Jesus’ ascension there were a number of controversies that threatened the early church—

“These issues could have been conveniently resolved if the early Christians had simply read back into the gospels what Jesus had told them from the world beyond. But this never happened. The continuance of these controversies demonstrates that Christians were interested in distinguishing between what happened during Jesus’ lifetime and what was debated later in the churches.”

2. THE ABILITY TEST

Even if the writers intended to reliably record history, were they able to do so? How can we be sure that the material about Jesus’ life and teachings was well preserved for thirty years...

“We have to remember that we’re in a foreign land in a distant time and place and in a culture

scrolls of papyrus—were relatively rare. Therefore education, learning, worship, teaching in religious communities—all this was done by word of mouth.

“Rabbis became famous for having the entire Old Testament committed to memory. So it would have been well within the capability of Jesus’ disciples to have committed much more to memory than appears in all four gospels put together—and to have passed it along accurately.”

the definition of memorization was more flexible back then.

“One study suggested that in the ancient Middle East, anywhere from ten to forty percent of any given retelling of sacred tradition could vary from one occasion to the next.

“It’s an interesting”—he paused, searching his mind for the right word—“coincidence that ten to forty percent is pretty consistently the amount of variation among the synoptics on any given passage.”

“I’m saying that it’s likely that a lot of the similarities and differences among the synoptics can be explained by assuming that the disciples and other early Christians had committed to memory a lot of what Jesus said and did, but they felt free to recount this information in various forms, always preserving the significance of Jesus’ original teachings and deeds.”

When you’re carefully memorizing something and taking care not to pass it along until you’re sure you’ve got it right, you’re doing something very different from playing the game of telephone.

“If you really wanted to develop that analogy in light of the checks and balances of the first-century community, you’d have to say that every third person, out loud in a very clear voice, would have to ask the first person, ‘Do I still have it right?’ and change it if he didn’t. “The community would constantly be monitoring what was said and intervening to make corrections along the way. That would preserve the integrity of the message,” he said. “And the result would be very different from that of a childish game of telephone.”

3. THE CHARACTER TEST

This test looks at whether it was in the character of these writers to be truthful. Was there any evidence of dishonesty or immorality that might taint their ability ...

“We simply do not have any reasonable evidence to suggest they were anything but pe...

“We see them reporting the words and actions of a man who called them to as exacting a level of integrity as any religion has ever known. They were willing to live out their beliefs even to the point of ten of the eleven remaining disciples being put to grisly deaths, which shows great character. “In terms of honesty, in terms of truthfulness...

4. THE CONSISTE...

the gospels

aren’t they hopelessly contradictory with each other? Aren’t there irreconcilable discrepancies among the various gospel accounts? And if there are, how can anyone trust anything they say?

once you allow for the elements

of paraphrase, of abridgment, of explanatory additions, of selection, of omission—the gospels are extremely consistent with each other by ancient standards, which are the only standards by which it’s fair to judge them.”

“if the gospels had been identical to each other, word for word, this would have raised charges that the authors had conspired among themselves to coordinate their stories in advance, and that would have cast doubt on them.”

“If the gospels were too consistent, that in itself would invalidate them as independent witnesses. People would then say we really only have one testimony that everybody else is just parroting.”

Simon Greenleaf of Harvard Law School, one of history’s most important legal figures and the author of an influential treatise on evidence.

offered this evaluation: “There is enough of a discrepancy to show that there could have been no previous concert among them; and at the same time such substantial agreement as to show that they all were independent narrators of the same great transaction.”3

some apparent clear-cut contradictions that skeptics frequently seize upon as examples of why the gospels are unreliable.

5. THE BIAS TEST

This test analyzes whether the gospel writers had any biases that would have colored their work. Did they have any vested interest in skewing the material they were reporting on?

these disciples had nothing to gain except criticism, ostracism, and martyrdom. They certainly had nothing to win financially. If anything, this would have provided pressure to keep quiet, to deny Jesus, to downplay him, even to forget they ever met him—yet because of their integrity, they proclaimed what they saw, even when it meant suffering and death.”

6. THE COVER-UP TEST

When people testify about events they saw, they will often try to protect themselves or others by conveniently forgetting to mention details that are embarrassing or hard to explain. As a result, this raises u...

“Did the gospel writers include any material that migh...

“There’s actually quite a bit along those lines,”