Four Atheists set out to disprove Christianity & the Bible
Is Christianity true? Have you ever asked that question? I’m sure many people have asked that question. I want to introduce to you four men who believed that Christianity was just a hoax or myth; or they were just fed up with church and religion. One of these skeptics said Christianity is a joke. The atheist would say religion along with Christianity was invented by human beings to escape their fear of death. Each of these men I highlight here set out to finally disprove the mythical claims of Christianity and the physical resurrection of Jesus Christ to a gullible public.
Simon Greenleaf: (December 5, 1783 – October 6, 1853) He was born in Newburyport, Massachusetts in the United States. Simon Greenleaf became a very successful lawyer. Harvard Law School was founded in 1817 through a large gift from Isaac Royall, a wealthy plantation owner. As many of you know Harvard is the oldest continuing operating law school in the United States. Simon Greenleaf was one of the active principal founders of Harvard Law School. In the year 1833 Greenleaf acceded to the Royall Professorship at Harvard University, named after Isaac Royall. The following year, he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Law Degree at Harvard. He was known to contribute extensively to Harvard. He took the responsibility of expanding the Law library at the college. In 1846, he succeeded Judge Joseph Story as Dane Professor at Harvard University. The Dane Professorship was set up by Nathan Dane, an alumnus of Harvard.
When it came to the law of evidence, Simon Greenleaf was an expert. He wrote, A Treatise of the Law of Evidence which was published in 1842. Now you can buy this famous legal work in three volumes. His views of the Christian religion were shared with his students. He claimed the resurrection of Jesus Christ was a hoax or myth. One day some Christian students wanted to give Professor Greenleaf a challenge. These Christian students asked him to use the laws of legal evidence which he wrote and published in A Treatise of the Law of Evidence to investigate the evidence of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. After some coaxing, he finally agreed to their challenge. So, he decided that he would study the evidence offered in the gospels of various witnesses to finally disprove Christianity and the physical resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Greenleaf set out to prove that Christianity was a hoax. He began to apply his rules of evidence set forth in his book, A Treatise of the Law of Evidence. He studied the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John applying everything he knew about the rules of evidence. He looked for consistency and anything that could be contradictory. He compared the Gospels with first and second century writers who wrote about Jesus outside of the Bible. Some of the writings he studied were Tacitus, Josephus, and Seutonius.
To his surprise, Simon Greenleaf concluded that the evidence supplied in the Gospels was sufficient to prove in any court of law that the physical resurrection of Jesus Christ was fact and not fiction. Jesus lived on this earth, died, and rose from the dead. Greenleaf further stated, why would twelve disciples give up everything they had or could possibly ever have on this earth to face an executioner’s death? He said, no man would die for a lie. Considering the results of his investigation, Simon Greenleaf became a born-again Christian and wrote the book, The Testimony of Evangelists: The Gospels Examined by the Rules of Evidence. Simon Greenleaf died in Cambridge, Massachusetts in the United States.
Frank Morison: (January 1, 1881 – September 14, 1950) He was born in Kings Norton, Birmingham, England. Frank Morison is a pseudonym pen name for Albert Henry Ross. He is widely known by his pen name, Frank Morison, so I will use it here. He worked for an advertising agency and freelanced as a writer. He enjoyed science. He was an amateur astronomer. One of his heroes was Thomas Henry Huxley a biologist also known as “Darwin’s Bulldog.” Huxley was an atheist who believed miracles like those in the Bible do not happen. Also, a big influence in Morison’s life was the contemporary German critics who researched the Gospels and claimed many of the stories found in the Bible about Jesus were unreliable. However, Morison had a deep reverent respect for Jesus, but Jesus seemed like a legendary figure to Morison.
Morison states just for his peace of mind he wanted to discover the true Jesus. He would write a short monograph of the life of what he felt was the true Jesus illustrating the last seven days of His life. Morison would use his scientific mind to strip the Christian Gospel of its primitive beliefs and dogmatic suppositions. The title of his work would be Jesus, the Last Phase.
He wanted to be as accurate as possible. He studied the Gospels and other writings like Josephus. But the more he studied, the more he was confused and convinced that the Gospels were true, and Jesus really did rise physically from the dead. Frank Morison became a born-again Christian. Morison could no longer write the book he started out to write. He knew he had to write a different book. The physical resurrection of Jesus Christ was true. Now the book he did write about his research was titled, Who Moved the Stone? It was published in 1930. You can still buy this classic book today. I have one in my library. Frank Morison whose birth name was Albert Henry Ross died in Headley Down, England.
Josh McDowell: (born August 17, 1939) He was born in Union City, Michigan in the United States. As a teenager Josh had a lot of questions about life. He turned to education as the answer. His goal was law school. He found a small group at the college he attended who seemed very cheerful and at peace. Josh wanted that. He made friends with some. But that group was a Christian group and he felt out of place sometimes. He asked a young lady in the group, “What changed your life?” She told Josh it was Jesus Christ. Josh told her he was fed up with church, the Bible, and religion. Finally, this small group of Christians decided to give Josh who was a law student a challenge. “Why don't you examine intellectually the claim that Jesus Christ is the Son of God?” Josh thought how could something as flimsy as Christianity stand up to an intellectual examination. Eventually, he decided to take their challenge. He decided he was going to write a book to show how much of a joke Christianity was.
For his research, he traveled all over the United States and Europe to gather evidence that would prove Christianity is a sham. He was diligent. However, he was finding evidence that reflected truth in Christianity. Josh would keep finding more evidence for Christianity. He said he started to ignore it. He became very restless and could not sleep at night. He claims he was being pulled in two different directions. His intellectual mind told him the claims of Christ were true, but his will was being pulled in the opposite direction. Josh didn’t want to accept what he was discovering. He claimed that he couldn’t become a Christian. It would ruin my life he thought. No more good times. Josh said he finally gave up and surrendered his life to Christ and gave Christ complete control over his life. A self-centered Josh McDowell was no longer; he was now a new creation in Christ. He noticed changes in his life almost immediately. Josh recalls that he often struggled with a bad temper. He was now a new man.
His career path changed. Instead of majoring in law, he enrolled in Talbot Theological Seminary in La Mirada, California. He graduated Magna Cum Laude with a master’s in Divinity Degree. In 1961, he joined Campus Crusade for Christ International. Oh yes, about that book he was going to write. While ministering at Campus Crusade he published a book in 1972 called, Evidence that Demands a Verdict. I have that book in my library along with several by Josh McDowell. This book gave complete historical evidence of the Christian faith. Josh McDowell is known as a Christian Apologist and has devoted his life to that ministry. In total, Josh McDowell has written or co-authored over 150 books. Josh has appeared in numerous films, videos, and television series. I have a total of nine books in my library from Josh McDowell. You can check out his website at https://www.josh.org.
Lee Strobel: (born January 25, 1952) He was born in Arlington, Illinois in the United States. Lee Strobel’s lifelong dream ever since a child was journalism. He liked everything about writing, research, and publishing. When he was as young as 12 years old, he started a weekly neighborhood newspaper. He had a small printing press in the basement of his house where he printed the newspaper himself. He had as many as 200 subscribers. So, it would be natural that he would pursue a career in journalism. Lee Strobel married his high school sweetheart, Leslie on August 12, 1972.
Lee attended the University of Missouri and received his Bachelor of Journalism degree in 1974. Just before he graduated from the University of Missouri, the Chicago Tribune asked him if he would be interested in an internship. To be more useful as a journalist, Lee attended Yale University Law School and received a Master of Studies in Law degree. He had worked as a newspaper journalist for the Chicago Tribune and other papers for 14 years. He worked for the Chicago Tribune as a Legal Editor and had won awards from the United Press International (API).
Lee lived much of his life as an atheist. He lived an angry, narcistic, immoral, drunken, profane life that was very destructive. His goal was to have maximum pleasure in life. He would often come home from work angry and drunk. He remembers one evening he was so angry he kicked a hole in the wall of his living room right in front of his young daughter and his wife, Leslie. When he would come home from work many times his young daughter would pick up her toys and run into her room and shut the door.
Leslie made friends with a woman who was a Christian who invited her to church. Soon Leslie wanted a personal relationship with Jesus like her friend had; she became a Christian. In the autumn of 1979 Leslie told Lee about her newfound faith he really became angry. But he had observed how different his wife seemed to behave, she was a better person and he liked that. One day she invited Lee to church. Lee decided he would go; he wanted to investigate this religious cult she was in. Listening to the sermon, which was titled, Basic Christianity, he wanted to investigate further the claims the pastor made. He vowed that he was going to use his journalism and legal training to investigate if there was any credibility to Christianity. This led Lee into a two-year quest to search for the truth whether Christianity was fact or fiction.
Lee interviewed thirteen leading biblical scholars all over the country of the United States. All through this quest he was frustrated. Leslie said some days it seemed like he was getting it, but some days he seemed skeptical. Leslie said she would lay open highlighted Bibles out and other books, but it didn’t seem to help. After two years of laborious investigation, he concluded it would take more faith to believe in his atheism than to believe in Christianity. On November 8, 1981, Lee Strobel became a born-again Christian. Out of his two-year research came the book, The Case for Christ. I recommend everyone read this book. Not long after his little daughter, Alison told her Sunday school teacher that she wanted to know Jesus, because it had changed her daddy’s life. Her daddy was happy now and not angry.
Currently Lee Strobel is the founding director of Lee Strobel Center for Evangelism and Applied Apologetics at the Colorado Christian University. I have seven of his books including the new one, The Case for Heaven. His daughter Alison is now a successful novelist. Lee’s son, Kyle Strobel Ph.D. is a Systematic Theologian who teaches at Talbot School of Theology.
Four Atheists Page: End Notes
Simon Greenleaf:
1. https://www.creationstudies.org/Education/simon_greenleaf.html
2. https://exhibits.law.harvard.edu/jj-roberts-simon-greenleaf
3. https://200.hls.harvard.edu/events/history-of-hls/
Frank Morison:
2. Frank Morison. Who Moved the Stone? Lamplighter Books; Grand Rapids, MI (1958); pp 10–11.
Josh McDowell:
2. https://www.cru.org/us/en/how-toknow-god/my-story-a-life-changed/my-story-josh-mcdowell.html
Lee Strobel:
https://www.gegrapha.com/lee-strobel-makes-the-case-for-christ/
1. Lee Strobel. The Case for Christ, The Film; DVD; La Mirada Films; Lionsgate; Santa Monica, CA 90404 (2007).
2. Lee Strobel. The Case for Christ; Zondervan; Grand Rapids, MI 49530 (1998); pp 13–14.