Case for Christ [Import]

Lee Strobel has done the Christian community-and indeed, the world, a service with this DVD. I was extremely impressed with both the content and the production values. The video is a great introduction to Christian apologetics both for the ordinary "man or woman in the pew" and the "ordinary skeptic."

To claims that the film is biased, of course it is. It's an apologetic documentary after all. But it is nevertheless a fairly balanced overview, or summary, of the evidence for the truth claims of the NT. This documentary isn't any more biased than the TV documentaries that usually air on the cable channels (A&E, THC, DSV, TLC, etc.) at Christmas and Easter which are typically aimed at a popular audience and biased against the truth claims of the NT and which usually cater to the sensational and bizarre. Strobel's DVD should serve as a nice counterpoint to all the popular sensationalist documentaries out there. True, the film doesn't get too technical, however perhaps it really doesn't need to? Anyone interested in delving deeper can check out the books listed in the bibliography, many of them written by the very scholars interviewed in the film.

Also interesting are the special features video interviews with many of the scholars interviewed in the film giving personal testimonials about how their work as scholars has increased their faith.

I think every church would benefit by screening this DVD for its members.

Lee Strobel is a well-educated legal journalist who sets out to prove that Christianity is false. He admittedly feels threatened when his wife becomes a Christian and says that he is afraid of losing her. Strobel constructs a method of investigating the case for Christ just as he would in a court of law. He gathers evidence from Christian scholars and puts hard questions to them as to the validity of the Bible and Jesus' claims of being the Messiah. The viewer is taken on the step-by-step journey which Lee Strobel made which converted him from atheism to Christianity. This kind of presentation is very appealing to those of a logical and systematic nature. It is made even more powerful by the fact that Lee Strobel's wife relates what she went through while her husband was on his quest for truth. The one important point which he failed to make is that no one can absolutely prove that Jesus is who is said he was. That would negate the need for faith which is an essential element for a believer, and which is what Jesus called us to.

This DVD is technically better than most Christian multimedia products trying to prove that Christ is the Son of God. It does not suffer from the quality of most subculture Christian DVDs; however, this DVD is more about Lee's conversion story than it is an in-depth examination of the evidence. While I understand the need to provide a quick "reasons to believe" for the general public, it would have been nice if this DVD had a real strong 2-3 hour featurette examining the evidence piece by piece.

As a conversion story, this DVD works well enough. Both Lee and his wife are featured and many different scholars appear for quick explanations on certain topics that deal with the resurrection and reliability of the Gospels, etc. There are philosophers William Lane Craig and J.P. Moreland as well as recognized N.T scholars Craig Blomberg and world famous N.T. Wright who make appearances arguing or providing evidence on certain subjects. All in all, this is a good DVD for quick information about certain topics regarding Christianity, but by not delving deeper into the material, it could have the rather opposite intent by insulting either Christians who are looking for a resource to help them "provide an answer" or to those seeking for answers.