Journalist who investigated the faith to disprove it
Strobel was legal affairs editor of the Chicago Tribune and an atheist. When his wife became a Christian in 1979 he set out on what he expected to be a short project to demolish the evidence and get her back. It took nearly two years of interviewing scholars, and it ended with his conversion in 1981.
The Case for Christ is that investigation written up as journalism: each chapter is an interview with a named specialist, with the objections put directly and the answers reported as given. That format is its strength — a sceptical reader can see the questions being asked rather than being told the conclusion.
He is a populariser rather than an original scholar, and he says so. His value is as an on-ramp: he shows a reader who to read next.
Roman historians, Jewish records and archaeology that corroborate the Gospel accounts — the evidence for Jesus of Nazareth that does not come from Christians.
The internet says Jesus was copied from Horus, Mithras, Dionysus and Krishna. Here is what the ancient sources actually say, why the dates do not work, and how to answer kindly when a friend forwards the video.
The historical case for the resurrection using only facts sceptical scholars concede — the minimal facts method, the alternative explanations, and why each of them fails.
William Ramsay's change of mind, Colin Hemer's catalogue, politarchs, Gallio and the Delphi inscription, Sergius Paulus, Erastus, the Asiarchs, the "we" passages and the shipwreck — and the real problems of Quirinius and Theudas, stated honestly.
Why your story is the one thing nobody can argue with, how to structure it in three minutes, and the common mistakes that make testimonies fall flat.