Luke: was he a Christian?

[Holy Hoosier]

While Luke contributed the most written material in the NT, it could be argued that it remains unclear as to his faith; given the lack of any "personal testimony" in either Luke or Acts. Both books are written seemingly objectively, and while both Luke 1 and Acts 1 begin with a brief introduction (in the first person) to Theophilus, Luke still only specifically states that he "carefully investigated" the things that had been both passed down and claimed to have happened -- regarding Jesus. Nowhere - that I have found - do we see anything that resembles a profession of faith in Luke.

It seems highly unlikely that the Lord would use a non-theist, and given the belief in the plenary inspiration of the authors, we would have to assume the Spirit was with Luke in his efforts...at least at some point along-the-way; no? This has been something nagging at me since my Acts of the Apostles class, but as is customary with many of my courses, not many of my cohorts wanted to venture down the road of 'questioning' a biblical author.

Just a thought -- I would love to hear some feedback and how any of you would answer/refute a claim like this?

[iSong6:3]

Imo, it's far less of a stretch to assume he was one of God's own than that God picked an unsaved man to write His inspired Word and that Paul would refer to Luke as "beloved physician" (term he used for the brethren, would he use it for pagans?) who traveled with Paul on a few missionary journeys, etc.

[pixelpusher]

Perhaps this is a case of missing the forest for the trees? I'd venture the entire book is his testimony -- he said at the beginning of it that his purpose was to investigate and put down an orderly account so Theophilus may know the certainty of what he'd been taught.

[Buzzardhut]

While Luke contributed the most written material in the NT, it could be argued that it remains unclear as to his faith; given the lack of any "personal testimony" in either Luke or Acts. Both books are written seemingly objectively, and while both Luke 1 and Acts 1 begin with a brief introduction (in the first person) to Theophilus, Luke still only specifically states that he "carefully investigated" the things that had been both passed down and claimed to have happened -- regarding Jesus. Nowhere - that I have found - do we see anything that resembles a profession of faith in Luke.

It seems highly unlikely that the Lord would use a non-theist, and given the belief in the plenary inspiration of the authors, we would have to assume the Spirit was with Luke in his efforts...at least at some point along-the-way; no? This has been something nagging at me since my Acts of the Apostles class, but as is customary with many of my courses, not many of my cohorts wanted to venture down the road of 'questioning' a biblical author.

Just a thought -- I would love to hear some feedback and how any of you would answer/refute a claim like this?

Too much listening to Bohi?