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By Movieguide® Staff
Author Lee Strobel tackled some of the biggest misconceptions about the Christmas story in his book, The Case For Christmas.
“We’ve embellished it a bit, but if you go back to the actual text and look at that, it doesn’t reflect some of the elements that we typically associate with the Christmas story,” Strobel said of the Nativity story during an episode of TAKEAWAYS WITH KIRK CAMERON.
For example, Strobel pointed out that we are never told how long Mary and Joseph were in Bethlehem before she went into labor.
“Could have been there five minutes, could have been there five weeks,” he said. “There’s no necessary urgency…that’s reflected in scripture.”
Related: Hobby Lobby Giving Away 500,000 Lee Strobel Christmas Books
Strobel also explained that it would have been “unthinkable for anybody to turn away a pregnant Jewish woman. They would have been ostracized from the community…so that part is kind of a dramatic addition.”
“There are some embellishments that kind of give drama to the story,” he said.
Strobel explores more of these misconceptions in The Case For Christmas: A Journalist Investigates the Identity of the Child in the Manger.
“Consulting experts on the Bible, archaeology, and messianic prophecy, Lee Strobel searches out the true identity of the child in the manger,” a description of the book reads. “The Case for Christmas invites you to consider why Christmas matters in the first place. Somewhere beyond the traditions of the holiday lies the truth. It may be more compelling than you’ve realized. Weigh the facts…and decide for yourself.”
In an interview with CBN, Strobel spoke about the writing process, saying, “I expected to discover that Christmas is built on flimsy legends that developed in the many decades or even centuries after Jesus lived.”
“I thought the virgin birth would be exposed as a fanciful idea plagiarized from earlier mythology,” he continued. “I didn’t anticipate that the opposite would happen, that a thorough investigation of ancient history would validate the Christmas narrative, based on reliable sources that are too immediate to be written off as mere legend and make-believe.”
Strobel then addressed readers: “After reading The Case for Christmas,’I hope you feel fresh joy in celebrating Christmas this year. We can be confident that we are commemorating the birth of the unique Son of God, who came on a mission to seek and save those who are spiritually lost.”
In The Case for Christmas, Strobel tackles one of the greatest stories ever told, separating the fact from the fiction.
Read Next: Lee Strobel Offers Definitive Proof Miracles Still Happen
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