After Strobel graduates from law school at Yale, he moves to Chicago to start working for the Chicago Tribune, one of the most prestigious newspapers in the nation. He serves as a legal editor for the paper, and over the next 14 years, Strobel would earn awards for his excellence in reporting. Perhaps more importantly, his news beat exposed him to the realities of the Chicago legal system, and it showed him how evidence functions within the court of law. That knowledge serves as the structural backbone for The Case for Christ, and Strobel uses his legal knowledge to formulate a convincing argument for Christianity.

In order to help readers better understand elements of his argument, the Chicago Tribune becomes a motif in his book. He repeatedly returns to his time and experiences at the paper to contextualize the logical ideas he leverages throughout his argument. For instance, Strobel tells readers about his award-winning investigation into Ford’s cover up of a deadly flaw in the Ford Pinto that caused it to “explode when struck from behind at about twenty miles an hour” (71). He uses this example to show readers how important it is to verify the accuracy of sources, including the Bible.