Actor Mike Vogel and director Lee Strobel sat down with uInterview to discuss their new film The Case for Christ.

MIKE VOGEL & LEE STROBEL VIDEO ON THE CASE FOR CHRIST

Strobel, previously an atheist, wrote the book of the same name in 1998 after an attempt to disprove the resurrection of Jesus Christ. In the end, he came to the conclusion that Christ really was what the Bible says.

“Well, it was my wife’s conversion initially that brought a lot of conflict and turmoil to our marriage, because we were both skeptics,” Strobel explains of his motivation to convert to Christianity from atheism. “I reacted with a lot of hostility toward that because I didn’t know what was gonna happen…and so I wanted to get her out of this “cult” that she got involved in. So I decided if I could disprove the resurrection, the whole thing would come tumbling down.”

And so Strobel started a journey that ultimately led to his own conversion and belief in Christ. After two years and a lot of research, Strobel says, “I came to the same conclusion that she had come to, which was that the data are strong in supporting the claims of Jesus, that he is the son of God, having proved it by returning from the dead.”

Vogel, who portrays Strobel in the film, says he studied the director to memorize his mannerisms and ways of speech for the role. “So often I think a lot of faith-based films set up these arguments in the films, they’re really thinly crafted arguments with the intent to just chop them down,” he says. “And I think what we wanted to do was show, ‘hey listen, there’s intelligent people out there on every side of this argument, from every side of faith.’ Whether you fall on the side of atheism, whether you fall on the side of Christianity, or wherever it is in between, you depart form the facts at some point and it takes that leap of faith.”

When asked why atheists should go out and see this film, Strobel replies, “On one level, they’ll just be entertained. They’ll relate to my character, who was a vociferous atheist and skeptic, and I think they’ll just find it to be a great love story, detective story, a story about a father-son relationship that was troubled and so forth, but also I think they’ll be challenged intellectually, t maybe question what is the basis of their skepticism.”

Vogel adds that he is frustrated with the current culture’s inability to maintain a healthy discourse between people and groups with differing beliefs. “We’re all searching for truth, we all have something written in tho the DNA of who we are as humans to search for the eternal and something beyond ourselves, and I don’t think that it has to be this contentious relationship, I don’t think it has to be an us vs them type of thing,” he said. “Let’s talk. And I think that that’s what the film does, it just starts a conversation that I hope continues once people step out of the movie theater.”

The Case for Christ opens in theaters April 7.

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