Further reading for Reasons to Believe Series

Reasons to Believe will be a four-week sermon series that seeks answers to some of the toughest questions facing the Christian faith today:

Is God Real? (July 11)

Is Jesus the Only Way? (July 18)

Can We Trust the Bible? (July 25)

Is the Church Still Relevant? (August 1)


I've had an incredibly enriching experience researching these messages. I hope that these messages will lead many of you to do some research of your own. There are two books that I can highly recommend, and I thought I'd give you a brief review of each here. Either one would be great for personal reading, for a Bible study series in Sunday School, at work or home. These would also be great tools to use in sharing faith with a seeking friend ("Hey, let's read this book a chapter a week and meet for lunch on Fridays to discuss it"). So here are my two recommendations:

The Reason for God, by Tim Keller. Keller is pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City, and one of my favorite preacher/authors in the world today. He is also a philosopher, and in this book we see the best of his philosophical mind as well as his pastor's heart. The first half of the book deals with intellectual objections to the Christian faith. His thesis is that people who are skeptical of Christianity need to apply the same skepticism to their doubts. If they do so, they will see that none of these objections is adequate to justify rejecting Christ. The second half of the book builds evidence for the existence of God and the truthfulness of the Gospel. Keller has been called a modern-day CS Lewis, and I could see the similarities between this book and Lewis' classic Mere Christianity. Keller's book is, in my opinion, easier to read, and is especially useful for deep thinkers.

The Case for Faith, by Lee Strobel. Strobel was a writer for the Chicago Tribune until he came to faith in Christ. Today, he is a teaching pastor at Willow Creek Community Church in suburban Chicago. This book is part of a series, including The Case for Christ and The Case for a Creator. Strobel writes like the journalist he is, interviewing experts in archaeology, science, philosophy, biblical criticism and theology to answer the tough questions about the Christian faith. This book is a little easier to read than Keller's, and very persuasive.