If Jesus Christ doesn’t rise from the dead, Christianity is a house of cards. A co-worker at the newspaper that Lee Strobel worked at said these words which sent him on a quest to save his marriage with a deep believer in Christ. Strobel was intent on saving his marriage by proving Christianity false – An endeavor that later proved to backfire and Strobel became a born again Christian and continues to write about Jesus to this day. His landmark book, The Case for Christ: A Journalist’s Personal Investigation of the Evidence for Jesus (1998) inspired millions and led countless lost souls to Christ.
One of the first experts Strobel spoke to about the resurrection was Dr. Gary Habermas, an American New Testament scholar, philosopher of religion, and Christian apologist who serves as the Distinguished Research Professor of Apologetics and Philosophy and chairman of the Department of Philosophy at Liberty University. Habermas is the world’s leading expert in the singular field of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. So how exactly was Dr. Habermas able to be so convincing with a very skeptical investigative journalist for The Chicago Tribune?
Dr. Habermas convinced Lee Strobel by using a strict historical method known as the “minimal facts approach,” focusing on data that is strongly attested to and accepted by the vast majority of critical, secular, and liberal New Testament scholars. Rather than assuming the Bible is inerrant or inspired, Habermas built his case entirely on historical bedrock that skeptical scholars already grant.
The core arguments Habermas used to convince Strobel include:
The Sincerity of the Disciples:
The transformation of the disciples—who went from discouraged, cowering fugitives to bold witnesses willing to face execution for their claims—solidified the argument that they genuinely believed they had encountered the risen Christ.
The Early Creeds:
Habermas pointed to ancient creedal material (such as the passage in 1 Corinthians 15:3–7) that dates back within months or a few years of Jesus’ death. Because this material is so early, it predates any legendary development and provides eyewitness-based historical testimony.
The Empty Tomb:
He argued that the empty tomb is historically probable, noting that even Jesus’ opponents implicitly conceded it was empty by claiming the disciples stole the body rather than denying the tomb was vacant. Furthermore, the discovery of the tomb being first reported by women adds to its credibility, as a fabricated story in that culture would not have used women as primary witnesses due to their low social status.
The Eyewitnesses and Group Apparitions:
Habermas presented the historical data showing that multiple individuals and groups—including skeptics like James and enemies like Paul—believed they saw the resurrected Jesus. Addressing alternative explanations like the “hallucination hypothesis,” Habermas famously noted that psychological hallucinations happen to individuals internally like dreams and cannot be shared simultaneously by 500 people, famously joking to Strobel that 500 people having the exact same hallucination at the same time would be a bigger miracle than the resurrection itself.
Dr Habermas recently completed and released to his publisher, B&H Academic, his work on nearly 50 years of research On the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. The included books are a comprehensive four-volume magnum opus by Habermas serving as a definitive defense of the historical authenticity of Jesus’ resurrection. Built on a bibliography of over 4,500 sources, the work aims to provide an exhaustive scholarly analysis of the topic.
The set is structured as follows:
- Volume 1: Evidences
(Published January 2024): Presents historical evidence for the resurrection, including extra-biblical sources and a detailed evaluation of the “minimal facts” argument alongside biblical data. - Volume 2: Refutations
(Published 2024): Addresses centuries of objections and criticisms, examining challenges from figures like Hume, Bultmann, and Barth, as well as myths about dying-and-rising gods. - Volume 3: Scholarly Perspectives
(Published May 2025): Summarizes hundreds of scholarly treatments from both believers and skeptics, covering over 140 categories of questions regarding Jesus’s final days. - Volume 4: Theology and Practice
(Scheduled for August 15, 2026): Explores the theological implications (theism, Christ’s deity, miracles) and practical applications (evangelism, suffering, fear of death) of the resurrection.
