I have a dear friend who moved away several years ago and has steadily drifted from Christianity, to the point that he no longer considers himself Christian. He's been reading, almost exclusively, skeptical/liberal authors, which I'm sure doesn't help. He seems also to be trying to push his wife away with long discussions involving the following points (taken from an email from her to my wife):
Coming from an anonymous source, I'd write these off as typical skeptical rubbish, but when it's my friend...What he said wrote:He now believes that anything that is true must be based on evidence of facts. There are no facts for the resurrection so he no longer believes that Jesus was resurrected and that there is no reality of salvation.
He believes that the Bible has good teachings but not all of it is true since there are not facts for many of the stories.
He does not believe that there is a personal God, since there is no explanation/logic for suffering of innocent children in the presence of a good and loving, interested and involved Lord.
I exchange emails with him on a fairly regular basis, and we see them once or twice a year (they're in Idaho), so I'm unlikely to have a long sit down with him anytime soon. To this point, I've taken the approach of bearing with his points of view and loving him. I've challenged him here and there, even reading some of the material he's read ("Who Wrote the Bible?" -> gak).
Not sure what I'm asking for...I'm not sure he's open to reading a Christian author at this point. But I'll still take suggestions about good books that address these matters, as long as they're not Strobel (I read them and sorta liked them, but no WAY will he read them). In particular, if anybody knows of non-Christian authors who might help, that'd be great. This is for me, too, since I'd like to equip myself so I can be used if possible.
Additionally, prayer for him would be much appreciated. I'll keep him anonymous, but he shares a name with the brother of a certain guy who wrote five important books at the very beginning of the Bible (unless you trust R.E. Friedman).
Thanks, friends.
-Seth