Historically Speaking

        

         Why Jesus? Let us see where this takes us. Every day people deny Christ. They deny him in life and with their last breath. I want to look at Jesus through the eyes of history. If you are one that denies that a man named Jesus from Nazareth even lived well, frankly, this piece will not appeal to you, but I hope you read it. As you read keep this in thought, Christianity is not a blind faith. It is the only religion that can prove itself, and a main source of that proof is the Bible.

         
         Before we go on, we need to look at our sources of information concerning Jesus. Opponents of Christ deny that He is God and, deny The Bible as God’s holy word, saying that is is an ancient book full of myths written by men. Okay then. Before looking at Christ, we need to look at evidence that supports The Bible as more than an old book, but as the holy, inspired word. By the way, Roman historians also document that the one known as Jesus lived.

Both the Old and New Testaments are strongly supported by manuscript evidence (the evidence of early hand written copies). The famous Dead Sea Scrolls are one example of the Old Testament evidence. These documents came from the “library” of a settlement founded at Qumran before 150 B.C. and abandoned about 68 A.D. Some of the manuscript copies were made during that period, and some were written earlier (third century BC) and brought to the settlement. Ignoring spelling-oriented (orthographic) changes and similar small differences, the Dead Sea Scrolls match the Hebrew text behind today’s Old Testament, in spite of the passage of over 2,000 years.

Over 20,000 known manuscripts document the New Testament text. This makes the New Testament the most reliable document of antiquity (a document written before the printing press).  Special proof exists for the New Testament, since Christians were strongly persecuted by both the Jews and the Roman government. If the New Testament writings were false, these two groups would have produced a great deal of evidence to stop the growth of this “sect.” None exists. Further, the New Testament writings (before they were assembled into the “book” we call the New Testament) circulated during the lifetimes of thousands of people who had actually seen Jesus’ miracles and other historic events. No one ever refuted the New Testament writings as “fairy tales.” The Bible contains prophecies about the coming Messiah. Hundreds of years after they were written, Jesus fulfilled them.

            Many critics have challenged the historical accuracy of the Bible, and have been proven wrong. Let me provide one example. Historians questioned the accuracy of the accounts surrounded Pontius Pilate's crucifixion of Jesus. Pilate found nothing wrong with him and was reluctant to crucify an innocent man. The Jews put pressure on Pilate saying that if you refuse this "you are no friend of Caesar" (John 19:12). At which point Pilate gave in to the Jews. This did not fit any historical records we had of Pilate who was a cruel and dominating man, not likely to give in to a group of Jews whom he hated. Many believed that this account was historically inaccurate because of the way in which it portrayed Pilate.

Later it was discovered that Pilate had been appointed by a man named Sejanus who was plotting to overthrow Caesar. Sejanus was executed along with many of his appointees (Delashmutt, Sejanus, p. 55, 56). What this demonstrated was that Pilate was in no position to get in trouble with Rome. The Jews had him in a tight place. If word returned to Rome that Jerusalem was in rebellion, Pilate would be the first to go. The gospel account was confirmed as accurate.

Many facts recorded in the Bible have been challenged with the same result, later archeology confirms the reliability of the biblical records down to the smallest detail. A respected Jewish archaeologist has claimed that, "It may be stated categorically that no archaeological discovery has ever controverted a biblical reference" (Shelly, p. 103). This is a strong statement for any archaeologist to make because if it were not true, he would quickly be condemned in his own field.

One of the key points missed by the agnostic and liberal critics of the literal Gospel record is that the Jews of the first century of the Christian era possessed a unique ability to remember and record the statements of Jesus of Nazareth that would be deemed almost impossible by modern readers. The ancient Jews of Israel had developed sophisticated memory techniques to remember every word of a discourse by their rabbi. Their ability to recount verbatim long speeches or teaching would astonish modern teachers and critics of the Gospel record. Over the centuries the religious leaders of Israel had developed advanced memory techniques to enable their students to remember in remarkable detail every single statement of their religious teachers. An example of this oral memory technique can be found in the specially trained Maori tribesmen of New Zealand can remember and recount for several days during annual festivals a verbal rendition of their 4,000 year old tribal history.

The conclusion that one draws from this material is that the Bible is a reliable historical document. Its accuracy has been proved numerous times. Its historical inaccuracy has never been demonstrated. So that when we approach the Bible, we do so with confidence that what it records actually happened. If this is true, then we need to come to terms about what the Bible claims. We cannot dismiss it out of hand because we were not there, regardless of the difficulty of what is said (Lang). This brings us to Jesus.

The popular historian Will Durant, himself not a Christian, wrote concerning Christ's historical validity, "The denial of that existence seems never to have occurred even to the bitterest gentile or Jewish opponents of nascent Christianity" (Durant, The Story of Civilization, vol. 3, p. 555). And again, "That a few simple men should in one generation have invented so powerful and appealing a personality, so lofty an ethic and so inspiring a vision of human brotherhood, would be a miracle far more incredible than any recorded in the Gospels" (Ibid., p. 557). In other words, even those who hated Christianity to begin with in the early days could not deny its cornerstone, Jesus Christ’s existence.

You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come up with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.

I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: 'I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept His claim to be God'. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of thing Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic  on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse.
C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity.

President Abraham Lincoln was an agnostic until he reached the age of forty. Then he read Dr. James Smith's brilliant examination called The Christian's Defence, that established the historical reality of the events in Christ's life. The evidence from this book convinced Lincoln of the truth about Jesus, and he became a genuine Christian. "My doubts scattered to the winds and my reason became convinced by the arguments in support of the inspired and infallible authority of the Old and New Testaments."

Follow the domino effect. If The Bible is a historically accurate document that contains nada, zero errors, and Jesus claims to be God, the same Jesus that fulfilled the Messianic prophecies listed in said historically accurate document, all should see what the conclusion is. Earlier I said Christianity is the only religion that can prove itself. That is true. Christianity is also the only religion where the cornerstone is God. All others follow people claiming insight on the ways of the world. Jesus Christ is the only “religious” figure that claimed to be God and actually backed it up. If you are denying Christ as God, you in essence are denying historical records that align with scientific and archaeological facts. Instead of what I say, let us look at what Jesus said in regards to Himself.     

In Luke 22:70 and John 8:58, Jesus answers questions put to him by the Pharisees that declare Himself to be on “God’s level.” Notice how Jesus answered their questions by saying “I am.” (Ego eimi in Greek.) Ego eimi is not a translation of YHWH, but it is similar to our translating YHWH into “I AM” in English. This choice of words was not lost on the Jewish audience He was talking to! They immediately wanted to kill Jesus for blasphemy. That is, the Jews believed that by comparing Himself to God in that way, that Jesus deserved death. They clearly understood the implication Jesus was making—that He was the same as God. Please look at these other statements:

John 4:25,26 - Jesus acknowledged to the Samaritan woman that He was the Messiah (Christ).

John 9:35-37 - He told a blind man He had healed that He was the Son of God.
Matthew 26:63-66 - During His trial in the presence of His enemies, Jesus acknowledged that He was the Christ, the Son of God.
In addition, He allowed various other disciples to make such claims for Him (John 11:27; Matt. 14:33; John 1:29,34,49).
John 15:27 - He told His apostles that they would bear witness of Him, because they had been with Him from the beginning.
Mark 2:3-12; Luke 7:48,49 - Jesus claimed to have power to directly forgive sins. This is a work only God can do.
Matthew 20:28 - He came to give His life a ransom for many.
John 3:13-15 - Jesus claimed He came down from heaven so that whoever believes in Him can have eternal life.
John 14:6 - I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father except through me.

John 10:27-30- My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.”

            The decision to follow Christ is not a matter of the intellect, but of the heart. It is you taking a leap of faith in The Bible as God’s holy word, and in Jesus Christ as THE SAVIOR. Regardless of the proofs presented here, it comes down to you and your realization that you are a sinner like all of us in need of forgiveness by the very blood of Christ. I pray that you at least think about what is written here by me and what God, Jesus Christ in the flesh did for you over 2000 years ago.