Becoming A Christian “Case Maker”
 Is There Any Other Kind?When asked what it means to be a Christian, few of us would respond that being a Christian means becoming a ‘defender of the faith’. Most of us shy away from challengers and those who hold opposing beliefs; many of us are uncomfortable with the potential confrontation. But being a Christian demands that we become proficient “case makers”. Think about it for a minute. We would all agree that our salvation does not depend on our ability to defend what we believe. After all, we are saved when we trust Jesus for our salvation and recognize that we are fallen, sinful creatures in need of a Savior. When we recognize that Jesus is God incarnate and paid the penalty that we deserve, we begin to embrace the promise of God to rescue us from ourselves! This trust in Christ as Lord and Savior is what saves us.
But we need to recognize that our Christian life is more than one of trust. It is also a life of knowledge and expression. God has called us to think about what we believe and defend it to those who might challenge us or simply ask questions (more on that HERE). Christian “case makers” who have accepted this challenge are often called “apologists”. The word “apologist” comes from the Greek word “apologia” which simply means “speaking a defense”. The term does have some liability, however, for a couple of reasons. First, the related term, “apology” leaves many with the impression that Christians think they have something to apologize for when they engage in “apologetics”. Nothing, of course, could be further from the truth. Secondly, our present culture has a tendency to view apologists as professional speakers of one kind or another. Even Christians tend to think of apologetics as something to be done by professionals, rather than an important responsibility to be embraced by each and every Christian. It’s time to recognize the fact that all Christians are called to be a Christian “case makers”; the situation couldn’t be more urgent.
There Certainly Is a Need!
Christianity is increasingly under attack in our culture. Young people are walking away from Christianity in record numbers. Like it or not, the numbers don't lie. In survey after survey, most college aged Christians appear to be abandoning their faith before they become seniors in college and only about a third of them ever return to the faith:
88% leave the faith according to the 2002 SBC Family Life Council Study
70% leave the faith according to the 2007 LifeWay Research Study
66% leave the faith according to a recent Assembly of God Study
61% leave the faith according to the 2006 Barna Group Study
Part of the problem is simply that the Christian Worldview is under attack in universities all across America. According to a 2006 study conducted by Neil Gross and Solon Simmons:
25% of college professors are professing atheists or agnostics (compared to 5-7% in the general population).
Only 6% of college professors describe the Bible as the "actual word of God"
51% of college professors describe the Bible as "an ancient book of fables, legends, history and moral precepts"
75% of college professors believe that religion does not belong in public schools
Many students are walking away from Christianity because they no longer believe it is true. In a survey conducted by sociologists Christian Smith and Melinda Denton and recorded in their book, “Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers” (Oxford University Press, 2005), 32% of former believers said they left because of intellectual skepticism:
"It didn't make sense anymore"
"Some stuff is too far fetched for me to believe"
"I think scientifically and there is no real proof"
"Too many questions can't be answered"
But there’s another growing problem. Many of those who remain in the faith simply have no idea what the faith affirms or teaches! Smith and Denton made two important observations. First, they found that young Christians have little idea what it is that Christianity teaches and they were sadly unable to talk about their spiritual beliefs:
“In our in-depth interviews with U.S. teenagers, we also found the vast majority of them to be incredibly inarticulate about their faith, their religious beliefs and practices, and its meaning or place in their lives.”
To make matters worse, many of the young people who COULD articulate what they believe articulated a distortion of the Christian Worldview. Smith and Denton called this distortion “Moralistic Therapeutic Deism”. The young Christians who were surveyed said that they believed in the existence of a God who created and ordered the world and watches over human life here on earth. They also believe that this God wants people to be good, nice, and fair to each other, (as they claimed the Bible teaches, and as most other world religions also teach). They said that the central goal of life is to be happy and to feel good about oneself. They did not believe that God needed to be involved in one’s life except when He is required to solve a problem, and they said that good people go to heaven when they die. Not much of this version of “Christianity” resonates with the classic, orthodox truth of the Christian Worldview, does it?
The problem is two-fold: many young people are walking away from the truth, and those who remain are incredibly inarticulate and unable to defend the truth. Don’t think that adults are much better prepared; recent Barna Group surveys confirm that adults are equally inarticulate!
“Case Making” Christians
There’s a reason why God calls us to worship Him with our minds, understand the value of evidence, examine our beliefs until we are convinced, and then become Christian “case makers” (more on that HERE)! While it is our faith and trust in Christ that saves us, it is our ability to make the case for Christ that protects us and transforms our world. We need to become “case makers” just as Paul was a “tent maker”. “Case making” needs to be a part of our Christian identity, and all of us need to be apologists for the Christian Worldview. We cannot continue to delegate this responsibility to well known apologists and Christian authors. We don’t need one ‘million dollar apologist’; we need a million ‘one dollar apologists’. All of us can be equipped to defend our faith; it doesn’t require a master’s degree in apologetics; it doesn’t require a library full of books, or a radio show, or a podcast. It simply requires the personal commitment to learn the truth and defend it to others.
After over twenty years handling evidence and investigating the truth related to Cold Case Homicides, I’ve begun to learn a few things about how we can investigate the Christian Worldview and present it to those who have questions. There are a number of important parallels that can be drawn between criminal prosecutions and making a defense for our faith. Let’s take a look at the nature of criminal investigations and prosecutions and find a Christian parallel that can help us understand just what it means to be a Christian “Case Maker”:
Learning the Truth
No case has ever been presented to a jury that wasn’t first investigated, developed and understood. If a case is ‘under-investigated’, you can expect a problem at the jury trial. When I open a Cold Case Homicide, there are a number of steps that I have to take before I can even begin to think about making a presentation to a jury. The process looks something like this:
 Read the Book CompletelyI begin by pulling the original case book off the shelf. All our cold cases are bound in red notebooks and stored in a special vault. I start by selecting a case, opening the case book and reading through each and every word that is recorded in the notebook. The notebook contains the original crime reports the investigative summaries, the original eyewitness interview transcripts, the autopsy reports, the crime scene investigation reports and everything else that was documented and collected at the time of the first investigation. Before I can do anything with this case, I need to read and understand the case book as though I was part of the original investigation. This can sometimes be very interesting, but it can also be quite boring. I’ve got to be diligent here, and it helps to try to “place myself” in the original investigation. I need to understand everything that the original detectives were going through, what they were thinking and the nature of the culture at the time of the crime.
As a Christian…
I’ve got to do something very similar if I want to be a “Case Making” Christian. Before I can hope to ever make a case for the Christian Worldview, I had better open the “book” (the Bible) and become intimately familiar with what it teaches. I’m going to need to read the original eyewitness transcripts (the Gospels) until I know them thoroughly. I’ve got to do my best to “place myself” at the scene and understand what the writers are writing from their perspective. This might require me to study history or geography to better understand the culture and how the original eyewitnesses thought so I can better understand their statements.
A “Case Making” Tip:
Read through the Biblical text in large sections over a short period of time. There are a number of reading plans that take you through the Bible in a year, with selected readings from the Old Testament, New Testament and Psalms. If you read through the Bible in this way, you’ll never understand the flow and context of the eyewitness statements found in the scripture. Read sequentially through complete books of the Bible in as few sittings as possible. I take this same approach when reading the original case book. I may refer back and forth along the way, but I read the book ‘cover to cover’ to get the broad scope prior to dissecting it. Proper Biblical “Hermeneutics” are important, and I’ve written something that may help HERE. There are also many good books that can help you understand how to properly read the Bible.
 Take Notes and Summarize the Case ThoroughlyBefore I begin reading the original case book, I make a copy of it. I do this so that I can highlight the pages of the book and write copious notes in the margins. I generally use colored pens that correlate a particular set of issues to a specific color. This helps me to think through the case more clearly and it reminds me of those areas that need clarification or further investigation. It also provides me with a way to form my own summary of the important elements of the case. I usually then write ‘outlines’ of the important details in my own personal notes.
As a Christian…
I’ve got to do something very similar if I want to be a “Case Making” Christian. I’ve purchased a number of inexpensive “pew Bibles” over the years with the largest possible margins on each page. I treat these Bibles like case books; I highlight them and write extensive notes with colored pens. I’ll even write extensive summaries in the blank pages of the Bibles (usually the title pages or the pages at the front or rear of the text). These notes have been incredibly powerful for me. I often remember theological issues in my ‘mind’s eye’ by recalling which side of the page I originally scribbled a related note! These Bibles, with their notes and summaries, are organized on my shelf for future reference.
A “Case Making” Tip:
On your first review of the text, feel free to note EVERYTHING you are seeing. Include your rational and emotional impressions, reminders of things you want to research, and places where the text offers something that causes you to be skeptical. In this ‘first pass’, consider your notes to be a ‘mind dump’ that allows you the freedom to chronicle everything you are seeing and feeling. Also, try to take notes and write your summaries in the Bible you are reading, rather than on additional pads of paper. These notes will then be ‘married to the text’ and easier to find later.
 Gather the Evidence NeutrallyAs I am reading through the original case book of a Cold Case Homicide and taking thorough notes, I begin to organize, list and summarize the evidence that was available to the original investigators. At this point in the process, I refuse to come to any conclusions about what the evidence is telling me. Instead, I simply circle each place in the case where a piece of evidence is described and make a list of everything. Even though the first investigators may have begun to form a conclusion about the identity of the suspect, I do my best to keep an open mind at this point in the investigation. I want to make sure that I see things that the original detectives might have missed. I am simply collecting data at this early stage of the research.
As a Christian…
I’ve got to do something very similar if I want to be a “Case Making” Christian. The Bible gives us a number of clues and proofs to support its claims. As I study the text, I write out and list the evidences as they present themselves, trying to retain my skepticism in this process; like my examination of the original cold case book, I want to understand what the original writers believed while allowing for the possibility they were wrong. If we hope to present our case someday to a jury of our peers, we need to account for ALL the evidence, whether it supports the Christian claim clearly or otherwise.
A “Case Making” Tip:
You may want to purchase another inexpensive Bible for this stage of the investigation. You are now ready to create ‘evidence lists’ related to each claim of Christianity. Some evidences are important to making a case for the deity of Jesus, others are more important to making a case for the nature of God, others still are more important to making a case for the creation of the universe from nothing (“ex-nihilo”). Again, use the blank pages of the Bible to make these lists; color code them and use the same colors as you highlight the evidences in the text of the Bible. You are beginning to ‘focus’ in this stage of the investigation. Your ‘evidence notes’ should be limited to the specific claims you are investigating, and they must include all the evidence that is available, even if this evidence tends to make a case against a presupposition that you hold. Remember that you are trying to gather evidence without bias. You may want to have separate Bibles that contain separate kinds of evidence lists. There are also a number of “evidence” study Bibles appearing on the market (see HERE and HERE) that may help you form basic lists.
 Examine the Eyewitnesses CriticallyOur Cold Case Books are filled with transcripts of interviews with eyewitnesses from the time of the initial investigation. The eyewitness statements are incredibly important and they seldom agree with each other completely. The fact that there are variations between eyewitness accounts is not troubling in and of itself. No two eyewitnesses see the same event in precisely the same way. But as an investigator, I’ve got to make sure that the eyewitnesses are reliable. Are they motivated to lie for some reason? Did they have any pre-existing biases that influenced the way they saw the event? Where were they when the event occurred; were they really present at the time of the crime and did they have a clear view of what happened? As the detective in this case, I’m going to have to critically assess each eyewitness to make sure they are reliable before I begin to build a case on what they offer.
As a Christian…
I’ve got to do something very similar if I want to be a “Case Making” Christian. I’ve got to critically examine the eyewitnesses who observed Jesus’ life, death and resurrection. I need to recognize that there are three eyewitness accounts in the Bible (Matthew, Mark and John) and recognize the fact that their accounts differ. Do they contradict one another? Can the differences be reconciled and can they be explained on the basis of perspective or literary purpose?
A “Case Making” Tip:
Begin this process by isolating the Gospels of Mark, Matthew and John. Read through each account, flipping back and forth to compare the events as they are described by all three authors. Matthew and Mark often agree precisely on the details of events, John often adds something that was previously omitted. As you compare the accounts, highlight and note the differences. Now examine these differences carefully. Can they be harmonized? Are they truly contradictory? Can perspective or literary purpose explain the differences? I’ve written an article that can help you assess the eyewitness accounts of the Gospels HERE, and there are many good books that can help you better understand the harmony of the eyewitness accounts.
 Reconstruct the Crime Scene (and Events) Meticulously The Cold Case Book will also usually include a crime scene diagram and photographs of the scene. The crime scene alone can tell us a great deal about the victim and the killer. Cases that have few original photographs or lack a diagram are more difficult to work. In addition to this, every homicide is a chronology of events that lead up to a murder. It’s my job to try to retrace the last days of the victim to get a better idea of how the victim came into contact with the murderer, or to see what it was that precipitated the murder to take place at all. Something happened in the life of the victim over the course of time that brought the victim into danger; reconstructing the final days of the victim’s life will tell me a great deal about the victim and the circumstances that lead to the victim’s death.
As a Christian…
I’ve got to do something very similar if I want to be a “Case Making” Christian. The Bible is more than a book containing spiritual truth, it is a book of recorded History that includes real geographic locations, many of which still exist today or have been located by archeologists. We can now “reconstruct” the geography of ancient Palestine to help us understand the events recorded in the Scripture. In addition, I can recreate the timeline of events that lead up to the birth of Jesus and I can also reconstruct the timeline of his ministry leading up to the crucifixion. The chronological reconstruction can help us to see the role that successive prophecy played in predicting Jesus’ life and role as Savior, and the geographical reconstruction can help to confirm (or erode) the reliability of the eyewitness accounts of the Gospels.
A “Case Making” Tip:
Divide this portion of your study into two categories of inquiry. First, what is the prophetic timeline that runs through the Old Testament and precedes the appearance of Jesus? I’ve written about the prophecies that predicted Jesus’ birth, life, ministry, death and resurrection HERE. This prophetic chronology is strong evidence for both the divine inspiration of the Bible and the Deity of Jesus. Next, examine the “crime scene” by evaluating the archeological support for the Old and New Testament. In addition to the articles that I’ve written, there are a number of solid books that describe the archeological confrimation of the Bible.
 Look for New Evidence DiligentlyEvery Cold Case goes cold for a reason. Typically it’s because the evidence was insufficient at the time of the first investigation. While this evidence might have pointed to a particular conclusion or toward a particular suspect, the first investigators and prosecutors simply did not believe that the evidence was sufficient enough to convince a jury. The new cold case investigation must, therefore, begin looking for additional evidence to strengthen the case. The passage of time often helps us to identify and recover new evidence. Sometimes new technology allows us to examine old evidence in a new way. Sometimes hesitant eyewitnesses are now willing to discuss what they saw. Regardless of the nature of the new evidence, it’s important for me, as the detective who is now in charge of the case, to begin to diligently search for something new that strengthens the existing case. This new piece of evidence may come from inside the original case book, or it may come from a creative approach that was previously unconsidered by the first detectives.
As a Christian…
I’ve got to do something very similar if I want to be a “Case Making” Christian. I’ve got to step outside the Biblical pages and look for evidence outside the Scripture. While most Christians are familiar with the Biblical texts, few look at them evidentially (examining them from the perspective of fulfilled prophecy, confirmed archeology or scientific accuracy). Even fewer Christians are familiar with the writings of non-Christians and Jewish authors of the first century. Many of these authors provide corroborating texts that can be used to build the case for (or against) Christianity.
A “Case Making” Tip:
Begin collecting resources that describe the first century non-biblical sources who write about Jesus or the early Christians. Become familiar with the writing of Thallus, Pliny the Younger, Suetonius, Tacitus, Mara Bar-Serapion, Phlegon, Josephus and others. If you can’t afford to buy these resources and place them on your shelf, begin to bookmark the websites that contain information related to these writers. Many of these websites are printable. When I first started my research (before I was able to purchase source documents) I printed a number of the sites and bound the materials in notebooks on my shelf for future reference. I’ve written an article on some of these non-Biblical sources HERE, but there are also a number of good books that deal with the issue.
 Reason Toward An Answer RationallyThere comes a time in every Cold Case investigation, when the detectives have to move beyond the neutral collection of evidence. There comes a time when the investigators need to interpret and assess the evidence to determine what it all means. Does the evidence point to a particular suspect, and how do I determine WHICH suspect best accounts for the evidence I have? When evaluating the evidence on any homicide, I employ five reasoning principles in order to determine the identity of the suspect:
The truth must be “feasible”
(The true suspect has the most “explanatory viability”)
Before I even begin to think about who might have committed a crime, I need to make sure that a suspect in question was available to commit the crime in the first place. I investigate the “alibis” of potential suspects, eliminating those possible suspect explanations that are simply a physical impossibility based on confirmed alibis.
The truth will usually be “simple”
(The true suspect has the most “explanatory power”)
I next employ a version of “Occam’s Razor”. When considering a number of suspects or explanations in an effort to account for the evidence I have in a case, I look for the suspect (or explanation) that most simply accounts for every piece of evidence. If one person’s simple involvement can explain the evidence (rather than the complex coincidental involvement of three or four different potential suspects), this one person is most likely my killer.
The truth should be “exhaustive”
(The true suspect has the most “explanatory scope”)
I also consider the solution or explanation that most exhaustively explains the evidence that I have in a case. While a particular candidate may explain one, two or three pieces of evidence, the candidate that exhaustively accounts for all the evidence is typically my killer.
The truth must be “logical”
(The true suspect has the most “explanatory consistency”)
I also recognize the fact that truth is rational; for this reason the truth about the identity of my killer must also be rational. The scenario that involves the true suspect in a case must therefore be reasonable, logical, coherent and sound. Not every potential suspect ‘makes sense’ to a given case under investigation, but this cannot be the case with the true killer. The scenario involving my true suspect will be logically consistent.
The truth will be “superior”
(The true suspect has “explanatory superiority”)
Finally, I recognize that one of my suspect candidates is unique in the superior way that he or she accounts for the evidence. This particular suspect accounts for the evidence in a unique and particular way that no other suspect can match. In essence, this particular suspect is a far superior choice when compared to other possible candidates. When I see this quality of “explanatory superiority”, I know I have my killer.
Given these five criteria, I evaluate all the evidence and come to a conclusion regarding the identity of the killer. There comes a time when I have to focus in on one reasonable conclusion about the case, and these five explanatory criteria help me to determine the truth about the identity of the killer.
As a Christian…
I’ve got to do something very similar if I want to be a “Case Making” Christian. The three basic evidential principles of reasoning can be applied to the Biblical evidence. Most scholars, for example, will agree on several minimal facts related to the claim of the Resurrection (even if they don’t agree that Jesus was actually resurrected from the dead). Most scholars will agree that Jesus died on a cross, that a belief in the resurrection appeared very soon after the time of Jesus’ death, that the disciples claimed to see Jesus resurrected, that both Paul and James were transformed and said this was the result of seeing the resurrected Jesus, and that the apostles all died a martyr’s death rather than recant their claims related to the resurrection. How are we to explain or account for these commonly agreed upon pieces of evidence? It may be that a number of coincidental circumstances aligned to cause these facts to emerge. For example, Jesus may not have died, or he may have been stolen from the grave; someone may have pretended to be Jesus or the disciples may have conspired to create the story; the disciples may have hallucinated the resurrection or resuscitated the wounded Jesus to fake the resurrection. These possibilities would require an elaborate web of conspiracy, trickery and unreasonable self sacrifice to support the lie, but we would have to admit that one of these complex scenarios is at least “possible”. On the other hand, a simpler explanation could be offered: Jesus simply rose from the dead. If the simpler explanation is to be trusted, we must conclude that the resurrection of Christ is the most reasonable solution.
A “Case Making” Tip:
Many other gifted historians and scholars have utilized these simple principles of evidence to make a case for historic Christianity. One of the best examples of this approach is found in the work of Gary Habermas and Michael Licona. Their example of creating a list of commonly accepted evidences related to the resurrection and then reasoning toward the best explanation is instructive and powerful. Read through their example and apply similar strategies to other claims in the Bible.
 Write Up the Case CarefullyOnce I’ve narrowed my focus and come to a conclusion about the identity of my killer, it’s time to present what I know to others (particularly to the District Attorney who has to decide if there is enough evidence to make an arrest and prosecute the killer). Now’s the time to begin writing down what I know; time to make a case on paper by laying out all the evidence and demonstrating how this evidence points singularly to the suspect I want to arrest. This process of summarizing and organizing the case is extremely helpful. In addition to making it possible to present the case to others, it helps me understand and clarify my own thinking about the evidence and what it demonstrates.
As a Christian…
I’ve got to do something very similar if I want to be a “Case Making” Christian. It’s sometimes hard to grasp deep theological concepts and raw conclusions about where the evidence leads. It’s always helpful to write out or journal my observations, creating summaries and shorthand arguments that I can then use in the future when reviewing the issue again. The act of concisely summarizing my findings has great value in critically thinking through the evidence and forming rational conclusions that can then be expressed to others.
A “Case Making” Tip:
Take the time to create evidential ‘cases’ related to the issues that concern you the most. Write these cases out in some format that can then be saved and stored in a place where you can access them quickly later. For me, the best and most logical location for these ‘case notes’ was my Bible. That’s why I designed my case summaries as half-sheet Bible Inserts. These inserts can be found on virtually every article page at PleaseConvinceMe.com. | 
Place the Case in the Hands of the Jury Confidently