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    The Case for Easter: A Journalist Investigates Evidence for the Resurrection
    The Case for Easter: A Journalist Investigates Evidence for the Resurrection
    The Case for Easter: A Journalist Investigates Evidence for the Resurrection
    Ebook91 pages1 hour

    The Case for Easter: A Journalist Investigates Evidence for the Resurrection

    By Lee Strobel

    4.5/5

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    Did Jesus of Nazareth really rise from the dead?

    Of the many world religions, only one claims that its founder returned from the grave. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the very cornerstone of Christianity.

    But a dead man coming back to life? In our sophisticated age, when myth has given way to science, who can take such a claim seriously? Some argue that Jesus never died on the cross. Conflicting accounts make the empty tomb seem suspect.

    How credible is the evidence for--and against--the resurrection? Focusing his award-winning skills as a legal journalist on history's most compelling enigma, Lee Strobel retraces the startling findings that led him from atheism to belief. He examines:

    • The Medical Evidence: Was Jesus's death a sham and his resurrection a hoax?
    • The Evidence of the Missing Body: Was Jesus's body really absent from his tomb?
    • The Evidence of Appearances: Was Jesus seen alive after his death on the cross?

    Written in a hard-hitting, journalistic style, The Case for Easter probes the core issues of the resurrection. Jesus Christ, risen from the dead: superstitious myth or life-changing reality? The evidence is in. The verdict is up to you.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherZondervan
    Release dateDec 15, 2009
    ISBN9780310865858
    Author

    Lee Strobel

    Lee Strobel, former award-winning legal editor of the Chicago Tribune, is a New York Times bestselling author whose books have sold millions of copies worldwide. Lee earned a journalism degree at the University of Missouri and was awarded a Ford Foundation fellowship to study at Yale Law School, where he received a Master of Studies in Law degree. He was a journalist for fourteen years at the Chicago Tribune and other newspapers, winning Illinois’ top honors for investigative reporting (which he shared with a team he led) and public service journalism from United Press International. Lee also taught First Amendment Law at Roosevelt University. A former atheist, he served as a teaching pastor at three of America’s largest churches. Lee and his wife, Leslie, have been married for more than fifty years and live in Texas. Their daughter, Alison, and son, Kyle, are also authors. Website: www.leestrobel.com

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    Reviews for The Case for Easter

    4.5/5

    8 ratings3 reviews

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    • 4/5
      This book - a distillation from the author's longer The Case for Christ - looks at Jesus's execution, entombment and resurrection, assessing the evidence of modern medical science and the New Testament, combined with logic, reason and historical methodology. The evidence of the Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles, while contradictory in some respects, is near contemporary and provides more thorough evidence than exists for many other ancient historical events, the essential truth of which are undisputed. Whatever one's views on religion, it is clear that the apostles and many other contemporaries deeply involved in the events of the time sincerely believed that Jesus had died, that he had been resurrected, that they themselves had seen him resurrected, and were therefore prepared to devote their lives to establishing the Christian church. The author and his interviewees find this a convincing line of reasoning and, to be sure, there is much to be said for it, though they are sometimes selective in which sources they choose to emphasise in making a particular point. Ultimately, though, they concede that one faces a choice between accepting this powerful line of argument or accepting the sceptics' notion that it is a fantasy to believe that a man could really rise from the dead. Anyway, interesting food for thought.
    • 4/5
      Strobel is an intriguing writer who blends his own journey to faith with good apologetics. The end result is thorough and accessible.
    • 5/5
      This is an exerpt from 'The case for Christ'. It is a short book and is therefore ideal to pass onto nonbelievers as it provides compelling evidence for the resurrection.

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    The Case for Easter - Lee Strobel

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    Resources by Lee Strobel

    The Case for Christ

    The Case for Christ (audio)

    The Case for Christ — Student Edition (with Jane Vogel)

    The Case for Christ for Kids (with Rob Suggs)

    The Case for Christ for Kids 90-Day Devotional (with Jess Florea)

    The Case for Christmas

    The Case for Christmas (audio)

    The Case for a Creator

    The Case for a Creator (audio)

    The Case for a Creator — Student Edition (with Jane Vogel)

    The Case for a Creator for Kids (with Rob Suggs)

    The Case for Easter

    The Case for Faith

    The Case for Faith (audio)

    The Case for Faith — Student Edition (with Jane Vogel)

    The Case for Faith for Kids (with Rob Suggs)

    The Case for the Real Jesus

    The Case for the Real Jesus Student Edition (with Jane Vogel)

    Discussing the Da Vinci Code (curriculum; with Garry Poole)

    Discussing the Da Vinci Code (discussion guide; with Garry Poole)

    Exploring the Da Vinci Code (with Garry Poole)

    Experiencing the Passion of Jesus (with Garry Poole)

    Faith Under Fire (curriculum series)

    Finding the Real Jesus

    God’s Outrageous Claims

    Inside the Mind of Unchurched Harry and Mary

    Surviving a Spiritual Mismatch in Marriage (with Leslie Strobel)

    Surviving a Spiritual Mismatch in Marriage (audio)

    The Unexpected Adventure (with Mark Mittelberg)

    What Jesus Would Say

    ZONDERVAN

    The Case for Easter

    Copyright ©1998, 2003 by Lee Strobel

    This is an excerpt from The Case for Christ Copyright © 1998

    All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of Zondervan.

    ePub Edition August 2009 ISBN: 978-0-310-86585-8

    Requests for information should be addressed to:

    Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49530

    ISBN 0-310-25475-2

    All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible: New International Version®. NIV ®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.

    All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other— except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher.

    Interior design by Sherri L. Hoffman

    CONTENTS

    Title Page

    Copyright Page

    Introduction

    1. The Medical Evidence: Was Jesus’ Death a Sham and His Resurrection a Hoax?

    2. The Evidence of the Missing Body: Was Jesus’ Body Really Absent from His Tomb?

    3. The Evidence of Appearances: Was Jesus Seen Alive After His Death on the Cross?

    Conclusion

    For Further Evidence

    Notes

    About the Publisher

    INTRODUCTION

    I picked up my phone at the Chicago Tribune and was assaulted by the sobbing, frantic voice of a distraught father. His nineteen-year-old daughter was missing, he said. She was a good girl, never in any trouble, not much more than an innocent child—and now she was gone. The police weren’t helping. Could I alert the city to her disappearance?

    Moved by his anguish, I began to pursue the story. But when I interviewed his daughter’s friends and the police, a much different story emerged. Tragically, it turned out she had been a drug addict, a petty criminal, the girlfriend of a gang member, and a part-time prostitute. When police found her body a few days later, they determined she had been the victim of a heroin overdose.

    I didn’t have the heart to tell her father all the details I had learned about her lifestyle. He sincerely believed she was an innocent child, but he had been wrong. His love for his daughter had blinded him. He had seen what he wanted to see, overlooking obvious clues that pointed in another direction. As a parent myself, I could hardly blame him for his wishful thinking.

    To me—an atheist at the time—this was an apt analogy for the mindset of Christians. From my perspective, their faith blinded them to the real facts about Jesus, and they only saw what they wanted to see in him. Certainly he was only a legend or a mere mortal at best. In their wide-eyed gullibility, Christians sincerely believed he rose from the dead and thus proved he was the Son of God. But there was no doubt in my mind that they were sincerely wrong.

    They had to be! As a reporter, I had seen lots of dead people—and none of them had ever come back to life. Christians could spin fanciful tales of an empty tomb, but they could never change the grim, absolute finality of death.

    Then the unthinkable happened—my wife became a Christian. I anticipated the worst, and yet in the ensuing months I began to see winsome changes in her character and values. When she attributed this transformation to God, I knew it was time to use my journalism and legal training to thoroughly investigate Christianity. Maybe I could liberate her from this cult!

    The starting point seemed obvious to me: clearly, the resurrection was the linchpin of the Christian faith. After all, anyone can claim to be the Son of God. But if someone could substantiate that assertion by returning to life after being certifiably dead and buried—well, that would be a compelling confirmation that he was telling the truth. Even for a skeptic like me.

    As I began my investigation, three questions loomed: Was Jesus really dead after his ordeal on the cross? Was his tomb actually empty on that first Easter Morning? And did credible people subsequently encounter him? I decided to pursue these issues in order, starting with the medical evidence about the supposed demise of Jesus.

    If these questions have ever intrigued you, then join me in the following pages as I retrace and expand upon the journey that unexpectedly ended up shaking my spiritual cynicism to its core.

    1

    THE MEDICAL EVIDENCE: WAS JESUS’ DEATH A SHAM AND HIS RESURRECTION A HOAX?

    I paused to read the plaque hanging in the waiting room of a doctor’s office: "Let conversation cease. Let laughter flee. This

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