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Jim Daly
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Lee Strobel
I think of those TV shows that I wasn't allowed to watch as a kid, Ghosts and witches that I see like in pop culture and on tv, I immediately think of the Lord and.
John Fuller
I think out of this world, some really bad science fiction movie.
Lee Strobel
It's either God doing something or Satan doing something.
John Fuller
Well, we live in a spiritual world and that can mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people. You might think of ghosts or scientists, but as believers in Christ, we know that God's supernatural presence is evident everywhere in our lives. Today on this best of 2025 episode of Focus on the Family with Jim Daly, we're going to hear from Lee Strobel. He'll explore what supernatural really looks like in the Bible. And thanks for joining us. I'm John Fuller.
Jim Daly
You know, John, I always enjoy having Lee Strobel here. I think partly because my heart is for evangelism. I mean, I think at my core I'm an evangelist.
John Fuller
You are.
Jim Daly
And not a prophet or a teacher. And I just get excited when Lee's here because we connect and it comes across and I think a lot of people are wired that way. You know, we want to reach people for Christ and introduce people to Christ because of what he has done for us. And that's the excitement. People I encounter, they're like, oh, you Christians, all you want to do is convert us. That's not out of some kind of number thing. It's because we're enjoying a joyful life and we want you to participate. We want you to have that. And so here at Focus, that's one of the things we try to concentrate on. Dr. Dobson always used to say we can help a family, help a marriage, but if we don't introduce them to the author of family, we've kind of failed in that mission. So that's why we love to have guests like Lee Strobel come in and talk about discipleship, evangelism, those things that really buttress everything else. And we're going to explore those things today with a new book that Lee has, Seeing the Supernatural.
John Fuller
Yeah, it's really going to be an interesting conversation as we look for God's hand in all of life. And Lee describes himself as an atheist turned Christian. He's a best selling author, he's been on this show a number of times, and he's founding director of the Lee Strobel center for Evangelism and Applied Apologetics at Colorado Christian University. Now today, Jim, as you noted, we're talking about Lee's book Seeing the Investigating Angels, Demons, Mystical Dreams, Near Death Encounters and Other Mysteries of the Unseen World. And you can learn more about this terrific resource and our guest when you click the link in the show notes.
Jim Daly
Lee, welcome back. Always good to see you.
Lee Strobel
Oh, great to be here. I love you guys and your ministry here and how you touch so many lives and share Jesus with so many folks.
Jim Daly
I've never said this before, but given your book title, Seeing the Supernatural, I wish I was William Shatner. That sounds like a show. That sounds like a show he would be hosting.
Lee Strobel
Right.
Jim Daly
But it is an interesting area and so many people express that interest. I mean, that's why you do have television shows. That's right. That talk about the supernatural and what's going on. And you know, one of the things, Lee, that is so important for us to understand is why people are drawn to that. What is it that piques our interest? What do you think it is?
Lee Strobel
Well, you're right. About 8 out of 10 people believe that there is something beyond what we can see and touch. And yet we live in a scientific age, a technological age, where a lot of the elite among us, a lot of the ones who form popular culture and so forth, try to tell us that no, no, no, we can only believe in that which we can see and touch or put in a test tube. It's called scientific materialism. There's nothing beyond what we can actually encounter personally in our world. Well, I was a skeptic for much of my life and believed that the Bible, of course, talks about a whole dimension beyond the realm in which we find ourselves. But are there really bits of evidence that point Toward the truth that there really is this other realm. And I think people are curious because popular culture likes to delve into things like UFOs and ancient aliens and ghosts and things like that. The occult.
Jim Daly
Sure.
Lee Strobel
Very popular. You know, when I was watching the super bowl this year, I'm seeing images of people in the stands with voodoo dolls and it's like New Orleans. Yeah, it was New Orleans.
Jim Daly
A little. With that whole thing. Let me. I can't believe somebody doesn't know Lee Strobel. But again, I think your background will bring credibility to this whole discussion. But you were an atheist. You were this reporter with the Chicago Tribune. You were the why guy.
Lee Strobel
Yeah, that's right.
Jim Daly
Why does it work that way? Why do you say that? I don't believe that. And you were an investigative reporter. It's in your makeup to doubt.
Lee Strobel
I want corroboration, you know, I want facts. Give me evidence. That's just how I am.
Jim Daly
I want corroboration.
Lee Strobel
That's right. That's right. You say you love me. Well, how do I know? What's the corroboration, you know, before we get married, you know, but. So. Yeah, you're right. And you know, what amazes me is the level of corroboration there is for a supernatural realm. It is absolutely stunning when you look at things like deathbed visions of people before they die, how common those are.
Jim Daly
Well, we're going to talk about all that. I want to start with a couple of stories that you start with in the book on supernatural experiences. Why don't we talk about. I think it was a Secret Service agent.
Lee Strobel
Yes.
Jim Daly
This is a guy I hope you could trust.
Lee Strobel
Yeah, that's right. This is a guy. He's trying to get to sleep. It's 3am and all of a sudden he feels gripped as if his mother was hugging him. He never had this sensation before, just in the middle of the night, 3am this gripping. And it scared him. He literally jumped out of bed and got his gun and went hunting in the house. It was that real? It was like, this is so unusual. It's gotta be. Is there somebody in the house or what is going on? Finally, he goes back to bed. And when he went back to bed, he felt a sense of peace. And then he gets a phone call two hours later that at 3am when this happened, his mother died.
Jim Daly
So right at the same time.
Lee Strobel
Right at the same time that he had this experience of feeling hugged at that moment. And he said, you know, if I didn't believe in God before that I do.
Jim Daly
Now let me ask you though, I mean, people, again, I think within the Christian community, many are skeptics as well. And we say, well, you know, we kind of like that idea of science and naturalism. You know, we need to see it, taste it, touch it, even within the church. How do you explain that happening with him but not with somebody else?
Lee Strobel
Yeah, exactly. And I raise a question when I tell that story in the book. I say, could there be a natural explanation for this? Was it a coincidence, maybe? Could have been. Or was it something supernatural? Was it an encounter with God?
Jim Daly
And why do Christians tend to want to not believe it could be something that God allowed to happen for whatever purpose?
Lee Strobel
Yeah, I find a lot of Christians really shy away from delving into the supernatural realm. You know, when you deal with things like near death experiences or deathbed visions or even God intervening directly in people's lives in a dramatic way, we should believe it. We should believe it because, my goodness, we see evidence of that kind of thing happening in the Bible.
Jim Daly
I guess that good skepticism is, you can go too far and everything becomes something that's right and it becomes a.
Lee Strobel
Superstition kind of a thing and what do you really believe? And so forth. So some of these things that I talk about in the book, it could have multiple possibilities in terms of could it be a natural explanation. But often the evidence is much stronger that it's some sort of supernatural encounter.
Jim Daly
And it's good to keep our spiritual eyes wide open for those things as believers so that we can identify what we believe to be true and what possibly is false.
Lee Strobel
I was interviewing a famous theologian and kind of a staid theologian, you know how they are. And he grew up in a Pentecostal home where he said there was an expectation of the supernatural. And then he told me a story. He said, in my church when I was growing up, there was a family driving in their car, this is the day before seat belts, and their 10 year old child opened the back door and fell out of the car at 70 miles an hour. Well, they thought, my gosh, he's going to be dead. So they stopped, they turned around, they went back and they find their son standing there in the street perfectly fine. And they said, what happened? And he said, oh, you didn't see the man that caught me. Wow. And this theologian pulled out his handkerchief and started to dab his eyes. He says, I miss that. I miss being in that culture where there was an expectation of the supernatural. I believe an angel caught him and.
Jim Daly
Yeah, that'll shape your Faith real quick.
Lee Strobel
Exactly.
Jim Daly
Wonder what happened to that boy.
Lee Strobel
Yeah, good question. His life.
Jim Daly
You mentioned another story. And then we'll get into some of the things you talked about. But Pastor John Boston, What a great name.
Lee Strobel
Yeah, I know.
Jim Daly
John Boston. What happened to John?
Lee Strobel
John was in a car accident. His car hit a utility pole. A electric wire fell down and electrified the car. The door of the car was jammed shut. And then there's a scruffy man appears from nowhere and comes up and opens the car door. Has no ill effect. Opens the car door, takes out this pastor, takes about 50ft away, and then the car kind of blows up. And that was it. And then he walked away and disappeared. And this guy, this pastor, said it must have been an angel. I believe it was an angel that rescued me. Of course, the Bible says there are times when we provide hospitality unknowingly to angels. Right. And so we do have, according to the Bible, these interactions sometimes with angels. And he's convinced that that's what took place. And, you know, we interview some of the emergency medical people who came. They have no explanation for how this could have taken place and how somebody could easily have opened that car door in the midst of that terrible accident and so forth.
Jim Daly
Yeah. Sometimes the best explanation is the one right in front of you. And especially, again, as believers, the Word says that. Do we strike that from Scripture? We say, well, we believe all of it. But that line. Yeah, no, the Lord told us exactly, exactly that. Let's go to the soul. I mean, we have worldviews that compete on this idea that the human soul exists. Describe for people that haven't maybe thought about this, what is the soul?
Lee Strobel
Yeah, the soul or our consciousness. Our spirit is the locus of our introspection. It's our first person perspective and so forth. It's the center of our emotions and our thoughts and so forth. Now, there are scientists today, many of them, who will say, no, no, no, we're just a brain. We really don't have consciousness. That's an illusion. You are just the product of your neurons firing in your brain and your environment. You don't free will. Most of them will say, you don't even have free will. You think you do, but you don't. And yet I think the Bible presumes that there's a soul, that there's a consciousness, that there's a spirit. It never comes out and says, by the way, this is what the soul is. It just presumes it. As virtually every civilization in history has presumed, we have a soul. When I Interviewed a neuroscientist from Cambridge University in this book, Seeing the Supernatural. And she talks about how as a scientist, she can map things that happen in the brain, areas of the brain that light up when certain thoughts take place or whatever. She said, those aren't the thoughts, those are correlated to the thoughts. She said there's been no discovery of modern neuroscience that disproves the existence of God. And she said, in contrary, if there is a God, this would explain why we have a mind, not just a brain, but a mind, because we're made in his image. We're made in his image. God is a disembodied mind. And so it makes sense that we would have a mind as well. So, yeah, I think it's important because the Bible says to be absent from the body, to be present with the Lord. Jesus told the other person being crucified on the cross next to him, he said, today you'll be with me in paradise. Well, you know, Christian teaching is that at the moment of death, our spirit, our soul, separates from our physical body and goes either to be with the Lord or away from the Lord until the consummation of history, when Jesus returns, when our body is reunited with our soul and where we have final judgment. And then we spend eternity either in the presence of God or absent his presence in hell. So it's consistent with scripture that we would have a soul that survives the death of the physical body. And we see this in near death experiences as well.
Jim Daly
In fact, Lee, I think this scientist you're quoting also compared the soul to coffee. Now we're getting somewhere.
Lee Strobel
Now we're getting somewhere. Actually, she was saying that how do you, how do you describe the smell of coffee? And she asked me that as a writer, and I'm saying, how would I describe the aroma of coffee? And she said, you know, we could talk about the physical makeup of caffeine, the chemical makeup of caffeine. That doesn't get you very far. We could talk to what happens in your body when you consume coffee, but that doesn't get us to the smell of coffee. She said the smell of coffee is an example of what they call qualia, which are things that we can't really capture except in a first person experience. You have to experience it. And that's what the first person perspective and first person experience is. What the soul, the consciousness, the spirit provides to us. What we see and touch can only take us so far.
John Fuller
This is Focus on the Family with Jim Daly. And our guest today is Lee Strobel. We so appreciate Lee and this perspective on things that maybe don't make sense, but do make sense. Lee's book is called Seeing the Supernatural. The full subtitle is Investigating Angels, Demons, Mystical Dreams, Near Death Encounters and Other Mysteries of the Unseen World. Get a copy of this book from us here at the ministry. The link is in the show, notes Lee.
Jim Daly
When we read the Bible, there's many accounts of miracles in there, but literally denominations have sprung up with those that believe those miracles no longer exist or those that believe that's really the only thing that exists and everything in between. But even the idea that so many denominations or churches have risen up based on this theological difference. What should we as healthy believers look at when we read these scriptures and the deaf can hear and the blind can see and the lame can walk and you know, the routine and we don't see it as often today, at least in Western culture. I hear more of this in Africa and parts of Asia. What's going on?
Lee Strobel
Well, we do see miracles in clusters around the planet, as you mentioned, where the Gospel is just breaking in in Mozambique and Brazil and China. It's been estimated that 90% of the growth of the church in China is a result of people either themselves have had a miracle in their life or they know somebody who has.
Jim Daly
Interesting.
Lee Strobel
So, but nevertheless there are modern miracles. And again, I'm a skeptic, so I want documentation, I want corroboration, I want investigation. And so what it does for me is it does two things. Number one, it gives me more evidence that God ex and number two, it gives me more confidence in the Gospels and in the Bible, because if Jesus did miracles in the first century, a lot of people find that an impediment to believing the Gospels as being true. But if we're still seeing miracles today, then they certainly could have taken place in the first century. So it's a way almost of corroborating what the Gospels are telling us. So I look at cases that are particularly either published in peer reviewed medical journals that are done as scientific studies and there are cases, I'm telling you, that there is no explanation other than a supernatural event has taken place. I'll give you an example. It's a woman who was blind for 12 years from an incurable medical condition. She went to a school for the blind, she learned to read Braille, she walked with a white cane and she married a Baptist pastor. So one night they're getting ready for bed and she's in bed and he comes up and he starts to cry. And he puts his hand on her shoulder and he begins to pray. And he says, lord, I know you can heal my wife. I know you can restore her sight. And I pray you will do it right. And she opened her eyes with perfect eyesight. And she said, I was blind. When my husband started praying, I opened my eyes. I've got perfect eyesight. It's a miracle. I can't believe it. My life has changed. And for 47 years since then, she's had good eyesight.
John Fuller
Yeah.
Lee Strobel
This is again published in a peer reviewed medical journal as a case study. How do you account for that?
Jim Daly
Where did she live?
Lee Strobel
I'm not sure what town she was in, but in the us in the United States.
Jim Daly
Wow. You know, part of me is going, really? I need to see that.
Lee Strobel
Yes.
Jim Daly
Exact same as you.
Lee Strobel
You know, there. I did a study. I hired George Barnes Organization do a study, and I asked a cross section of American adults, have you ever had at least one experience in your life that you can only explain as a miracle of God? 38% of American adults said yes. Now let's just throw out 99% of them. Let's say, yeah, they think it was a miracle, it was just a big coincidence. Let's throw out 90. That still leaves a million miracles just in the United States. So God is still in the miracle business. And we see scientific tests that have been done that point toward miraculous things taking place. A woman from Indiana University, a professor with a PhD from Harvard, went to Mozambique to investigate a cluster of miracles. Now, here's the thing. This is a valid scientific study that was published in a secular, scientific, peer reviewed medical journal, the Southern Medical Journal, a reputable medical journal. And I went, and in my book, Seeing the Supernatural, I interviewed the scholar that did this research and I said, what's your conclusion? And she said, well, being a professor at a secular university, she can only go so far. So she said, well, something is going on. Interesting. Something is going on.
Jim Daly
You know, Lee, now that you're saying this, you know, I go to Mayo for a checkup every year there is more talk about the importance of prayer.
Lee Strobel
Yes.
Jim Daly
The importance of God, even in those medical discussions, because they're seeing those that do that have quicker recovery, better outcomes. And so even the medical profession is noticing something in this area of spirit.
Lee Strobel
Yeah, that's right. That's very true.
Jim Daly
And it's just really kind of come out over the last few years.
Lee Strobel
There've been a number of studies like that. One of the problems with those studies is though, they'll divide People like they're recovering from a heart attack, let's say. And these people are going to pray for and these people are not going to pray for.
Jim Daly
Yeah, that's tough.
Lee Strobel
Yeah. Because, you know, the people not being prayed for, somebody's praying for them. Right. They have family members. So it's hard to kind of. But you're right. There've been a series of scientific studies published in publications through the years that have established that something is going on.
Jim Daly
So this is going to be. It's going to feel like a left field question here. But in the book, you talk about Evel Knievel. I can remember being a teenager going, this guy's crazy.
Lee Strobel
Right. But I tell the story in the book. This is an example of God supernaturally intervening in a life. Evel Knievel lived a evil life in many ways. He was a gambler, he was a womanizer, he was a drunk. Very successful financially. But he's standing on the beach in Florida toward the end of his life, and he told me, he said, God spoke to me. He said, I didn't hear him through my ear. I heard him in my chest, in my body. And God said to me, robert. Which is his real name. Robert, I've saved you more times than you'll ever know. Now you need to come to me through my son, Jesus. And he freaked out. He didn't know what to do. I don't even know who Jesus is. So the only Christian he knew was Frank Gifford. Remember the sports dancer Frank Gifford? And so he calls Frank, says, frank, I just had this experience. I don't know who's Jesus. And Frank said, get that book, the Case for Christ by Lee Strobel. That'll explain it. So he gets my. Anyway, Evel Knievel had a radical born again experience. 180 degree turn in his life. Just remarkable. When he was baptized, he shared his testimony. The pastor ripped up his sermon and said, you all have heard the gospel. This is a church that never had an altar call. He said, anybody wants to come up right now? Receive Christ and be baptized. 700 people came forward in two services. Christianity today did an article about it. It was like Pentecost, I mean. And we became friends. I remember the first time he called me. I answered the phone, I said, hi, this is Lee. And he said, is this Lee Strobel? I said, yes. He said, this is evil. And I thought, satan has got my phone number. Is this even possible? He said, no, no evil can evil. Oh, okay.
Jim Daly
I was gonna say, if you went to dinner, you didn't let him drive, did you?
John Fuller
No.
Lee Strobel
You know what? You know he died.
Jim Daly
No, I'll drive.
Lee Strobel
He actually died about a year and a half after he came to faith. And on his tombstone, it says, believe in Jesus. Wow.
Jim Daly
Tom Doyle is a mutual friend. He used to pastor here in Colorado Springs, and he. He. We've had him on the broadcast here, and he kind of parlayed his ministry, being a pastor into reaching out to those in the Middle east and having ministry to the Muslims.
Lee Strobel
That's right.
Jim Daly
And he has got some incredible stories that, again, we don't see or experience a lot of here in the US that's right. Describe some of Tom's.
Lee Strobel
Yeah, I interview him in my book. Tom, who, by the way, just recovered from cancer, thank God. And we've been praying for Tom. He's doing great now. But I interviewed him about this phenomenon in the Middle east where Muslims are going to sleep and having dreams about Jesus. These have corroboration. Here's what I mean. I'll give you an example. There's a woman named Noor, and Noor lived in Cairo. She had eight children, and she's a Muslim. She goes to sleep. She has a Jesus dream, and Jesus appears to her. She feels this is like no other dream she's ever had. Jesus. She felt the grace and the love. It overwhelmed her. And she's walking in her dream with Jesus along the lakeshore. And she says, jesus, tell me more about you. And Jesus said, my friend will tell you. And she said, well, who's your friend? And he points to a guy she hadn't even noticed who was walking with them. And he said, my friend will tell you. She wakes up the next day. She goes to the crowded marketplace in Cairo, and she's walking through the crowd, and she sees the man from her dream.
Jim Daly
Oh, my.
Lee Strobel
And she walks up to. You're the man. He's like, whoa, whoa. What are you talking about? You're the man. I saw you in the same glasses, same face, same. And he said, wait a minute. Did you have a dream about Jesus? And she said, yes. And he turned out he was a missionary, and he came over and he opened the Bible and shared the Gospel. And this is the phenomenon that we see. People don't go to sleep as a Muslim, have a Jesus dream, and wake up as a Christian. The dreams point them towards something else and something that's corroborative and that's a good example of that. This is so common in the Middle East. There's ads sometimes in the Cairo Newspaper that says, call this number and we'll tell you about the man in white you encountered in your dream last night.
Jim Daly
Right. You know, both of us have another mutual friend in John Burke, who wrote the God of Heaven. Imagine the God of Heaven. Great. And he's a researcher of near death experiences. But Gene and I, we got ahold of the audio version of the book the God of Heaven. And so in there was a story about a Muslim who came to Christ and through a near death experience. And I'm having this discussion with the Lord, you can't do that with every Muslim. Is that fair? Now this is dangerous territory. But I said, lord, is that fair that some will have a vision, have a dream, have a near death experience, others won't. And what I heard in my spirit the middle of the night. So I didn't concoct this. It was, oh, do you set the boundaries of my grace? And then the immediate follow up was, I love everyone of my creation, Everyone. And it was such a feeling of that. It was deeper than just an intellectual. It was like the immeasurable love God has for every person, believer or non believer.
Lee Strobel
And you know, the Bible says in the Old Testament, Jeremiah, the New Testament Hebrew, that those who sincerely seek God will find him. And we had an example in our own church in Texas, where I was a teaching pastor down there. We had a woman who was Muslim from the Middle East. When she was about 22 years old, she had a dream in which Jesus appeared to her. Because she had been in a quest. She was in a crisis in her life and she called out, God, if you're there, I want to meet you, I want to know you, I want to encounter you. She has this dream about Jesus. It kind of opened her eyes to the possibilities there. They moved to Texas because her husband was in the oil industry. She has another dream. And in this dream, there's a man with her standing in a pool of water up to her waist. And he's reading a book and he's weeping and she has no idea what this means. And she meets a woman from our church. And the woman invites her to come to our Easter services at our church. So she comes and she's waiting in the auditorium for the service to begin. And she sees the man from her dream, the one with the book, the one who was. He was a man in my dream. He was a pastor of baptism at our church. She had dreamed about baptism even though she didn't even know what it was. She ended up coming to Faith. And sure enough, that Guy ended up in our pond at the church, up to their waist in water with the Bible, weeping as he then baptized her as a new believer in Christ.
John Fuller
What a great story and what great insights from Lee Strobel today on Focus on the Family with Jim Daly. Lee has such wonderful observations about how God shows up in the most unusual circumstances.
Jim Daly
Yeah. And to our listener, I hope you've experienced in one of those miraculous, unexplainable ways. I love how the Lord uses his people to extend his touch to our everyday world. In fact, that's why Focus on the Family exists. We want to be the hands and feet of Jesus for your family.
John Fuller
And we hear so many wonderful, heartwarming stories. One listener, Elena, wrote to tell us, thank you, Focus on the Family for the powerful impact you've had on my life and marriage. I began listening during a difficult first year of marriage and your programs changed my heart, teaching me how to love God and my husband more deeply. Nine years later, with two wonderful children, I'm so grateful for how your ministry continues to guide and bless our family.
Jim Daly
What a beautiful testimony. And you know what? Just that emphasis of our ministry together, those that support the ministry, that's the bounty. This is what we're trying to do, is to help people move closer and closer to God and man. Thank you for helping us do that, but we can't do it without you. This Christmas season, you have a wonderful opportunity to deliver hope and joy to families in crisis through your support of Focus on the Family. Just like Elana's testimony there, your gift can bring real help to couples on the brink of divorce, parents who feel overwhelmed, and others who need encouragement right now. So donate and join us in ministry when you give a gift of any amount to Focus on the Family. Today we'll send you a copy of Lee Strobel's outstanding book Seeing the Supernatural as our way of saying thank you for stepping up and supporting families.
John Fuller
And right now, through a special match opportunity, your year end gift will be doubled dollar for dollar. And God will use your gift to bring healing and redemption and hope to twice the families. Donate today and get your copy of the book Seeing the supernatural when you call 800, the letter A and the word family, 800-232-6459 or online and the link is in the show Notes. While you're at our website, sign up for our free audio collection of this year's most popular Focus on the Family with Jim Daly episodes. You're going to get encouragement for strengthening your marriage, improving your parenting, growing in your faith and even overcoming trauma, all from a trusted biblical perspective. And the 20 featured programs include insights from folks like J. John and Lee Strobe and Gary chapman, the late Dr. Gregory Jantz and Sheila Walsh, and many more. Again, that's a free audio collection of our best of shows. You'll find the link in the show notes and thanks for listening to Focus on the Family with Jim Daly. I'm John Fuller inviting you back as we continue the conversation with Lee Strobel and once again help you and your family thrive in Christ.
Jim Daly
Jesus Christ is the ultimate source of truth. As we celebrate his birth this Christmas, I hope you'll be inspired to share God's truth with grace and love. Become better equipped by listening to my podcast Refocus with Jim Daly from Focus on the Family. Every episode I talk to fascinating about important cultural issues and how we can reach people for Christ and share his Joy. Listen at refocuswithjimdaily.com or wherever you get your podcasts.
Focus on the Family with Jim Daly
Episode: Best of 2025: What Does the Bible Say About the Supernatural? (Part 1 of 2)
Date: December 18, 2025
Guest: Lee Strobel
Main Resource: Lee Strobel’s book Seeing the Supernatural
This episode delves into the biblical and contemporary realities of the supernatural – angels, miracles, near-death experiences, dreams, encounters with God, and the unseen world. Host Jim Daly, co-host John Fuller, and guest Lee Strobel (atheist-turned-Christian journalist and best-selling apologist) explore why humans are fascinated by the supernatural, how Christianity understands these phenomena, and how believers should approach evidence of miracles and mystical encounters.
Testimony of a Secret Service agent who felt an overwhelming hug from his mother at the exact moment of her death (06:34)—a story even skeptics and scientists struggle to explain with purely natural causes.
Strobel stresses open-minded skepticism: not every claim is miraculous, but some have strong evidence or impact.
Quote: “Often the evidence is much stronger that it’s some sort of supernatural encounter.” – Lee Strobel (08:23)
Pentecostal Expectation:
Miraculous Rescue:
The soul is described as the seat of consciousness, will, and introspection (11:21).
Some modern neuroscientists and scientific materialists argue that people are “just a brain,” but Strobel and some experts point out that science cannot disprove the soul’s existence.
Strobel cites biblical evidence for the soul’s persistence after death (e.g., Jesus’ words to the thief on the cross).
Coffee Analogy: Neuroscientist compares the mystery of soul/consciousness to describing the aroma of coffee—science can’t fully capture subjective experience (13:34).
Quote: “We could talk about the physical makeup of caffeine...that doesn’t get us to the smell of coffee...that’s what the soul, the consciousness, the spirit provides to us.” – Lee Strobel (13:43)
Tom Doyle recounts Muslims in the Middle East having dreams of Jesus, which lead them to Christians who share the Gospel (22:11).
Example: Noor, a Muslim woman, dreams of Jesus and is later approached by a stranger she saw in her dream, who happens to be a missionary (23:08).
Such dreams are common enough that local newspapers invite readers to call if they’ve seen “the man in white.”
Jim Daly shares a story about God’s individualized grace, revealed through dreams and near-death experiences, particularly with Muslims (24:52).
Quote: “Oh, do you set the boundaries of my grace?...I love every one of my creation, Everyone.” – Jim Daly, recounting his spiritual impression (24:52)
Strobel shares about a Muslim woman in Texas who dreams of a man baptizing her. She later meets him at church, leading to remarkable confirmation and her conversion (25:26).
The speakers are candid, earnest, and conversational, mixing investigative rigor with personal faith and humility. Strobel and Daly balance skepticism with wonder, inviting listeners to be discerning yet open to the evidence for the supernatural.
This episode weaves powerful stories, personal reflections, biblical theology, and scientific inquiry to examine how the supernatural remains active and relevant for Christians today. Lee Strobel’s investigative lens brings credibility to miraculous claims, and the stories shared offer encouragement for faith and evangelism. The hosts urge listeners to remain alert for God’s work, both in dramatic miracles and personal encounters.
For further exploration:
Check out Lee Strobel’s book Seeing the Supernatural for more stories and in-depth investigation, or listen to Part 2 of the episode for the continuation of these insights.