Lee Strobel. The Case for Heaven. Zondervan, 2021.

          Heaven is a fairy story for people afraid of the dark.
                              — Stephen Hawking (23)
          …atheism is a fairy story for people afraid of the light.
                              — John Lennox (24)

Readers may be familiar with Lee Strobel’s approach to various issues. Most of his books follow a similar pattern. Strobel was a journalist with a law degree who specialized in reporting on legal cases. His books follow a legal investigator’s technique. He conducts interviews with a series of experts and from them draws conclusions from the evidence he accumulates. Readers can follow along and draw conclusions for themselves.

This topic is perhaps a bit more tricky. It is a challenge to find eyewitnesses. As Hamlet said, death is “the undiscovered country from whose bourn no traveler returns.” Still at this point with medical advances in the world, many of us have heard of accounts of so-called near death experiences (NDEs), so we may have some kind of secular starting point.

Strobel begins by noting that this is not merely a scholastic exercise.

People often talk about an “epidemic of suicide”…but the real problem is the increasing rejection of a robust belief in an afterlife. That’s what is miring more and more people in hopelessness. (12)

Life is hard for most of us. If there is nothing to look forward to, it can be depressing. Even the Bible in the Book of Ecclesiastes notes that in life “under the sun” everything is in vain (translations usually say “vanity” or “useless”). The purpose is found in life “under heaven” (see Ecclesiastes 3:1 NKJV)—if there is a heaven.

Strobel follows a logical progression as he interviews various experts. He begins with a philosopher analyzing whether or not a soul exists outside the body. This is a crucial question in the materialistic first and second worlds of today. He then takes a look at NDEs.

This may be the most lively and attention-getting part of the book. We have reviewed a few books by people who have experienced NDEs. Some have proven to be falsified. They are not all the same, but certain patterns emerge. Strobel mentions, for example, Eben Alexander, whose book we reviewed in some detail because of the two people who recommended it to us. Strobel notes an article that attempts to discredit Alexander as well as a piece Alexander wrote in response. (I read them both. The article in Esquire can best be described a hit piece by someone the Lennox quotation above describes. On the other hand, the Alexander’s article in Time is rather tepid.)

Still, such experiences get us thinking that there might well be some kind of afterlife. Strobel then develops what he calls a “pyramid to heaven.” This begins with the concept of truth and builds from that. Sadly in our culture today, especially in the academic realm, truth no longer exists, just power. Still, Strobel makes a case that truth does exist and notes a number of principles based on truth with the help of an interview with a professor of philosophy.

He then discusses evidence for the existence of God and the reliability of the Bible. (Other books he has written go into more detail on the specifics of these subjects: The Case for a Creator and The Case for Faith). He does this through interviews and discussions of different views of the afterlife.

Of course, a believing Christian and others who have studied history know that Jesus rose from the dead. If someone can come back whole from being dead for three days, he must know something about the afterlife. Here Strobel quotes the late Dr. Nabeel Qureshi, author of a book we reviewed on these pages.

In our post-enlightenment world, especially in university settings, it’s a popular belief that there is no such thing as the supernatural. What the resurrection means, then, is that this is wrong. There’s something more to this world—something that can bring people back from the dead. And if that is true, then that means if it comes to a point in your life where it seems there is no hope—where it seems like even death is inevitable and there’s no way to escape it—well, death is not the end. There’s more. There’s hope—no matter what. (223-224, author’s italics)

Strobel notes that even among believing Christians, not everyone has the same idea of what heaven is like. The Bible really has very little to say other than it will be far better than this world, e.g. I Corinthians 2:9. He also notes various alternate hypotheses of the afterlife such as reincarnation, purgatory, annihilationism, and universalism.

One quotation really stood out. It was from the late Richard Wurmbrand, a pastor in Romania who was repeatedly tortured by Communist authorities there in the fifties and sixties. Probably the worst torture was watching his twelve-year-old son being tortured before his eyes. Wurmbrand did not recant his faith, but he does reflect on what atheism can lead to:

The cruelty of atheism is hard to believe. When a man has no faith in the reward of good or the punishment of evil, there is no reason to be human. There is no restraint from the depths of evil that is in man. The Communist torturers often said, “There is no God, no hereafter, no punishment for evil. We can do what we wish.” (146)

And they did—and still do.

So, yes, there is also a discussion of hell. Again, there is little in the Bible specifically telling us what it is like other than saying it is “torment,” but the Bible gives many warnings. It also discusses in some detail the question that has become popular in the last two centuries: If God is good, why is there a hell?

In reflecting on this, Strobel cites theologian Alan Gomes:

“There is…every reason to expect the wicked in hell to suffer great bodily pains there. It will not arise from God burning sinners in a cauldron or turning them over on a rotisserie spit,” he wrote.

“Rather,” he continued, “they will suffer the natural consequences of rejecting God and his goodness toward them, in which they will experience the pain of complete abandonment, remorse unmingled with comfort, and the relentless torment of their own consciences, which will burn forever but never finally consume. This cup they will drink to the full, experiencing unmitigated pain in both body and spirit.” (156, author’s ellipsis)

Ultimately, Strobel develops the case made by Francis Chan and Preston Sprinkle:

When it comes to hell, we can’t afford to be wrong. This is not one of those doctrines where you can toss in your two cents, shrug your shoulders, and move on. Too much is at stake. Too many people are at stake. And the Bible has too much to say. (159)

Strobel does leave open the possibility that someone who dies without ever hearing about the salvation of Jesus or unable to understand it may get a chance after death because God is just. This is not a doctrine that all Christians subscribe to, but Strobel does cite a few authorities, notably Martin Luther, for the possibility of what he calls postmortem salvation. He notes that it “can be inferred,” but not directly stated. The strongest argument may be from the parable of the workers in the vineyard in Matthew 20:1-16.

While Strobel does make his case, he does not come across as dogmatic or self-righteous. This book gives us a lot of food for thought, research—and prayer.