{"id":10026,"date":"2024-02-16T02:42:08","date_gmt":"2024-02-15T21:12:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/2024\/02\/16\/chris-distefano-urges-bill-maher-to-read-the-case-for-christ\/"},"modified":"2024-02-16T02:42:08","modified_gmt":"2024-02-15T21:12:08","slug":"chris-distefano-urges-bill-maher-to-read-the-case-for-christ","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/2024\/02\/16\/chris-distefano-urges-bill-maher-to-read-the-case-for-christ\/","title":{"rendered":"Chris Distefano urges Bill Maher to read \u2018The Case For Christ\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"article_content\">\n<header>\n<div class=\"article-byline\"> By <a class=\"reporter\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianpost.com\/by\/nicole-vandyke\"> Nicole VanDyke<\/a><span class=\"quiet\">, CP Reporter <time datetime=\"Thursday, February 15, 2024\" itemprop=\"datePublished dateModified\">Thursday, February 15, 2024<\/time><\/span><\/div>\n<\/header>\n<figure data-index=\"0\" class=\"img-box align-center center\" itemscope=\"\" itemtype=\"https:\/\/schema.org\/ImageObject\"><picture width=\"700\" height=\"390\"><source type=\"image\/webp\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.christianpost.com\/images\/cache\/image\/15\/19\/151955_w_700_390.webp\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.christianpost.com\/images\/cache\/image\/15\/19\/151955_w_700_390.png\" class=\"type:primaryImage\" alt=\"Comedian Chris Distefano urges Bill Maher to read Lee Strobel\u2019s book \u201cThe Case For Christ' during an episode of the 'Club Random Podcast' released on January 21, 2024.\" width=\"700\" height=\"390\"\/><\/source><\/picture><figcaption class=\"caption\"><span class=\"photo-des\">Comedian Chris Distefano urges Bill Maher to read Lee Strobel\u2019s book \u201cThe Case For Christ&#8221; during an episode of the &#8220;Club Random Podcast&#8221; released on January 21, 2024.<\/span> | <span class=\"credit\">Screengrab: YouTube\/Club Random Podcast <\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Comedian Chris Distefano recently urged Bill Maher to reconsider his position on faith, particularly Jesus and Christianity, by reading apologist <a href=\"https:\/\/www.christianpost.com\/news\/lee-strobel-recalls-sharing-case-for-christianity-with-hefner.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Lee Strobel<\/a>&#8216;s popular book, <em>The Case for Christ.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p>In the Jan. 21 episode of Maher\u2019s &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/episode\/1L9crXRuvHX9477rAS1zp1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Club Random Podcast,<\/a>&#8221; Distefano discussed his Catholic upbringing and shared how Strobel&#8217;s bestselling book led him to have a deeper faith in Jesus as an adult.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Distefano hailed the work that Strobel, a former atheist and investigative journalist-turned-Christian apologist, put into researching the life of Jesus on Earth and His claim of being the Messiah.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI believe in Jesus,\u201d Distefano told Maher, a longtime religious skeptic whose 2008 movie &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.filmsforaction.org\/watch\/religulous-by-bill-maher-full-movie\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Religulous<\/a>&#8221; shows his own exploration into world religions.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>During the back-and-forth about Christianity, Distefano said there was a time when he lacked faith.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI went to Catholic school my whole life. But after reading this book <em>The Case for Christ<\/em>\u00a0by Lee Strobel, the factual evidence that He existed, it&#8217;s kind of overwhelming,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Maher countered, saying that the \u201cfactual evidence that Jesus existed has always been underwhelming.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Following Distefano\u2019s encouragement that he read <em>The Case for Christ,<\/em>\u00a0Maher accepted the challenge but asked, \u201cThis is based on what, archaeological finds?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cArchaeological finds, theological finds,\u201d Distefano replied.<\/p>\n<p>Following the 2016 release of <em>The Case for Christ, <\/em>a movie of the same name was made about Strobel&#8217;s investigation into the life of Jesus after his wife&#8217;s conversion to Christianity and his efforts to prove her wrong. His in-depth research transformed his life, and instead of finding evidence to disprove the existence of Jesus, he became a believer.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Distefano said one part of the book details how historians have more evidence for Jesus\u2019 life than they do for Alexander the Great.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf I told you factual evidence about Alexander the Great, you would believe me,\u201d he told Maher.<\/p>\n<p>Maher responded that whether or not Jesus lived isn&#8217;t what he&#8217;s focused on. Instead, \u201cit\u2019s whether He died and was then reborn [resurrected].\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMaybe He existed. I agree. It\u2019s absolutely possible He existed,\u201d Maher conceded.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut according to <em>The Case for Christ<\/em>, independent sources who didn&#8217;t know each other, who wrote about Him within 20 years of His death, talked about these miracles happening as in real time,\u201d Distefano continued, highlighting the writings of first century Roman-Jewish historian Flavius Josephus.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Maher then countered by raising concerns about the dates when the Gospels were written after Jesus&#8217; death.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The two men subsequently agreed to move on to other topics after Maher encouraged Distefano to believe in whatever he wants to believe in.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDon&#8217;t come to me when you die and St. Peter says I&#8217;m not getting you in,\u201d Distefano said jokingly, referring to the entrance to Heaven.<\/p>\n<div class=\"article_credit\">\n<p><em>Nicole Alcindor is a reporter for The Christian Post.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"eoa_freedom_post\">\n<h2><span>Free<\/span> Religious Freedom Updates<\/h2>\n<p>Join thousands of others to get the <strong>FREEDOM POST<\/strong> newsletter for free, sent twice a week from The Christian Post.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.christianpost.com\/news\/chris-distefano-urges-bill-maher-to-read-the-case-for-christ.html\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Nicole VanDyke, CP Reporter Thursday, February 15, 2024 Comedian Chris Distefano urges Bill Maher to read Lee Strobel\u2019s book \u201cThe Case For Christ&#8221; during an episode of the &#8220;Club Random Podcast&#8221; released on January 21, 2024. | Screengrab: YouTube\/Club Random Podcast Comedian Chris Distefano recently urged Bill Maher to reconsider his position on faith, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10027,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[]},"categories":[46],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10026"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10026"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10026\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10027"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10026"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10026"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10026"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}