What Made You Start Believing
in Miracles?

By Lee Strobel & Mark Mittelberg

You were once a skeptical journalist. What made you start believing in miracles?

That’s true—and a good question! A former colleague from the Chicago Tribune recently expressed surprise that I had turned from atheism to following Christ. He said, “You were one of the most skeptical people I knew. If I told you the deli down the block had a good sandwich, you wouldn’t believe me until I produced a dozen restaurant reviews plus a certified chemical analysis of the ingredients from the Food and Drug Administration.”

While that was overstated (a bit), my background in journalism and law did tend to amplify my naturally doubting personality. The newsroom, with its prevailing attitude of scoffing skepticism, was an ideal environment for me.

And yet, ironically, it was my skepticism that ultimately drove me to faith in Jesus.

As you may have read in The Case for Christ or seen in the movie by the same name, it was my wife Leslie’s newfound belief in Christ that provoked me to investigate the historical underpinnings of Christianity. I was confident that my objections would end up undermining the entire religion and rescuing her from this Jesus “cult.”

To my dismay, the data of science (from cosmology and physics to biochemistry and human consciousness) convinced me there was a supernatural Creator, while the evidence from history satisfied me that Jesus of Nazareth was resurrected from the dead, confirming his identity as the unique Son of God.

The inexorable conclusion that Christianity is true prompted me to put my trust in Christ and later leave my newspaper career to spend my life telling others the story of his atoning death on their behalf.

However, my skeptical nature didn’t disappear.

Did I believe in miracles? Yes, of course, I was convinced that the resurrection and other miracles occurred as the Gospels reported. But that left open the question of whether God is still supernaturally intervening in people’s lives in the twenty-first century.

I agreed with pastor and author Timothy Keller, who said, “There is nothing illogical about miracles if a Creator God exists. If a God exists who is big enough to create the universe in all its complexity and vastness, why should a mere miracle be such a mental stretch?”

But that wasn’t enough. I had to check it out for myself—and when I did, I became completely convinced that God is still in the miracle business today.

Lee Strobel is founding director of The Lee Strobel Center for Evangelism and Applied Apologetics at Colorado Christian University. He is the New York Times best-selling author of The Case for Christ and three dozen other books.

Mark Mittelberg is a bestselling author, speaker and apologist. He is the Executive Director of the Lee Strobel Center at Colorado Christian University.

This is an excerpt from The Miracles Answer Book by Lee Strobel & Mark Mittelberg. Used with permission.