The Case for Faith by Lee Strobel
Week 9: Objection 8 — I Just Can't Believe; God Seems Hidden and Silent
Read Objection 8 (Chapter 8) of The Case for Faith. Interview with Lynn Anderson and Alister McGrath. Key passages: Psalm 22:1–2; Matthew 27:46; Hebrews 11:6.
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The final objection is the most personal: not a philosophical argument but a cry of the heart — 'I want to believe, but I simply cannot find God.' This week, the guide turns from intellectual arguments to the question of how faith is actually formed and sustained.
Discussion Questions
7 questions1.Strobel profiles people who describe faith not as something they argued their way into, but as something that grew (or collapsed) through experience, community, and spiritual practice. How does that story sit alongside the more evidential, argumentative approach of the book's earlier chapters? Are they in tension?
2.Alister McGrath shares his own journey from atheism to Christian faith, noting that intellectual arguments were necessary but not sufficient — something else had to happen. What does he identify as the additional factors, and do you recognize any of them in your own story?
3.Psalm 22 opens with the cry, 'My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?' — a cry Jesus Himself repeated from the cross. What does it mean that the experience of divine absence is not just permitted but actually embedded in the Psalms and in Christ's own experience?
a.Have you ever experienced a 'dark night of the soul' — a season when God felt absent or silent? What did that feel like, and how did you navigate it?
b.How does the fact that Jesus cried out in God-forsakenness change what you believe about your own seasons of spiritual darkness?
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