Title: The Case for Christmas: A Journalist Investigates the Identity of the Child in the Manger
Author: Lee Strobel
Publisher: Zondervan, 2005; 96 pp. $9.99 (print), $1.99 (e-book)
Recommendation (4-star scale): 
Lee Strobel was a journalist who rejected Christ. His hatred was such that he decided to prove once-and-for-all that Christ was not who He said He was. He set out do disprove both Christ and Christmas:
As a journalist, I was far more interested in facts, evidence, data, and concrete reality. Virgins don’t get pregnant, there is no God who became a baby, and Christmas is little more than an annual orgy of consumption driven by the greed of corporate America. Or so I thought.…
The Case for Christmas seeks to get to the bottom of this matter by retracing and expanding upon my original investigation into the roots of this cherished holiday. Can we really trust the biographies of Jesus to tell us the true story of his birth, life, teachings, miracles, death, and ultimate resurrection from the dead? Did the Christmas child actually grow up to fulfill the attributes of God? And did the baby in Bethlehem miraculously match the prophetic “fingerprint” of the long-awaited Messiah?
To address these topics, Strobel interviewed a number of leading experts in the fields of biblical history, criticism, and archaeology — men like Bruce Metzger, Edwin Yamauchi, John McRay, Craig Blomberg, D. A. Carson, Ben Witherington III, William Lane Craig, and J. P. Moreland. The chapters are short and concise, which is helpful in simplifying what can sometimes be complex arguments. Strobel summarizes well the essential points of the discussion — both the complaints against Christ and the biblical and historical evidence that affirms His personhood and deity.
And He comes to an interesting, though not unexpected conclusion about the Advent of Christ:
As I was getting ready to complete my investigation of the child in the manger, I kept returning to the fact that Christmas doesn’t mean very much without Easter. That’s because Christians believe that Jesus wasn’t born into this world merely to identify with us, console us, or even lead us. His assignment from the outset, they claim, was to die for us—to actually lay down his life as a spiritual payment for the wrongdoing we’ve done, so that we can be released from the penalty we owe. It’s his-life-for-ours, with the result being, as the old Christmas carol “Hark! The Herald Angels” says, “God and sinners, reconciled.”…
So, ironically, it’s the evidence for Easter that provided the decisive confirmation for me that the Christmas story is true: that the freshly born baby in the manger was the unique Son of God, sent on a mission to be the savior of the world.
Strobel’s quest ultimately led to his conversion and his service of Christ as a pastor for many years. And this book recounting the issues that defined his journey to Christ serve as an able road map for other skeptics who have a sincere interest in discovering the unique realities about Christ.
Read this book to have your own faith bolstered in the Advent of the God-Man, Jesus Christ. And give this book to a skeptic who is genuinely wondering about and considering the claims of Christ.
Words of Grace 