The ultimate fundamentalist failsafe.
“We know the Bible makes zero sense, unless you truly believe”
Don’t you think I’ve tried since I was like was 6? Do you have any idea how bad I used to feel for not feeling anything, for thinking that it was ridiculous? That something was wrong me? I’ve prayed and prayed but nothing happens and I got tired of talking myself. I won’t waste my precious love on something that doesn’t reciprocate.
Eventually I decided I won’t be a slave to a god that doesn’t exist.
From the end of “The Case for Christ” by Lee Strobel...
“...Now to you. At the outset I encouraged you to approach the evidence in this book as a fair and impartial juror as much as possible, drawing your conclusions based on the weight of the evidence. In the end the verdict is yours and yours alone. Nobody else can cast the ballot for you. Perhaps after reading expert after expert, listening to argument after argument, seeing the answers to question after question, and testing the evidence with your logic and common sense, you’ve found, as I have, that the case for Christ is conclusive. The believe part of John 1: 12 is firmly in place; all that’s left is to receive Jesus’ grace, and then you’ll become his son or daughter, engaged in a spiritual adventure that can flourish for the rest of your life and into eternity. For you, the time for the experiential step has arrived, and I can’t encourage you more strongly to take that step with enthusiasm.
On the other hand, maybe questions still linger for you. Perhaps I didn’t address the objection that’s uppermost in your mind. Fair enough. No single book can deal with every nuance. However, I trust that the amount of information reported in these pages will at least have convinced you that it’s reasonable—in fact, imperative—to continue your investigation.
Pinpoint where you think the evidence needs to be bolstered and then seek out additional answers from well-respected experts. If you believe you’ve come up with a scenario that better accounts for the facts, be willing to subject it to tough-minded scrutiny. Use the suggested resources in this book to delve deeper.
Study the Bible yourself (one suggestion: The Journey, a special edition of the Bible that’s designed for people who don’t yet believe it’s the word of God). Resolve that you’ll reach a verdict when you’ve gathered a sufficient amount of information, knowing that you’ll never have full resolution of every single issue. You may even want to whisper a prayer to the God who you’re not sure exists, asking him to guide you to the truth about him. And through it all, you’ll have my sincere encouragement as you continue in your spiritual quest. At the same time, I do feel a strong obligation to urge you to make this a front-burner issue in your life.
Don’t approach it casually or flippantly, because there’s a lot riding on your conclusion. As Michael Murphy aptly put it, “We ourselves—and not merely the truth claims—are at stake in the investigation.” In other words, if my conclusion in the case for Christ is correct, your future and eternity hinge on how you respond to Christ.
As Jesus declared, “If you do not believe that I am the one I claim to be, you will indeed die in your sins” (John 8: 24). Those are sober words, offered out of authentic and loving concern. I cite them to underline the magnitude of this matter and in the hope that they will spur you to actively and thoroughly examine the case for Christ.
In the end, however, remember that some options just aren’t viable. The accumulated evidence has already closed them off. Observed C. S. Lewis, the brilliant and once skeptical Cambridge University professor who was eventually won over by evidence for Jesus,
“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: “I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept His claim to be God.” That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic… or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”
