E
edward_george
Guest
This is actually a fairly simple matter which involves a bit of historical honesty and textual analysis.
If we say that Jesus was not a real person, then we are doing bad scholarship from a historical standpoint. A number of sources attest to his very existence, as well as some particulars about his life. I should add that we have non-Christian writers and historians attesting to Jesus’ existence (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus_and_history)). Thus, the fact that Jesus even existed is historically verified.
Next, we look to what is said of him. The Gospels themselves, written in the first century, attest to his life and miracles, his dying and resurrection, and his teachings.
Now comes the real deal-maker. Either Jesus was who he said he was, which, we gather from the text–was God the Son (see catholic.com/library/Divinity_of_Christ.asp and associated articles), or he was a very bad man–no merely good man could have done the things he did or said the things he did (the good things) while falsely claiming to be God, or he was a flat-out nutcase–however, he is too clear, too sane, too consistent in his way of doing things to be a nutcase.
The one possible objection to all of this is that what if those writing the accounts of the life of Christ, of his miracles, of his life, what if they were lying? The answer to this is that if they were lying, what did they have to gain? They got nothing but persecution, torture, death at the hands of lions and executors. If the Apostles and Disciples in the early Church were lying, then they were committing the greatest folly ever in doing so because of the price that they paid. Furthermore, the staying power of this so-called lie also attests to its truth. A merely human invention, a merely human lie, an evil opposed to truth, would not have spread throughout the world as it did, would not still be a force in the world, would not have ended up reaching to the ends of the earth. Someone somewhere would have noticed that it was inconsistent, someone somewhere would have out it, and the whole deal would be blown.
So you see, it works too well. Jesus has to be God, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be. World without end.
-ACEGC
If we say that Jesus was not a real person, then we are doing bad scholarship from a historical standpoint. A number of sources attest to his very existence, as well as some particulars about his life. I should add that we have non-Christian writers and historians attesting to Jesus’ existence (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus_and_history)). Thus, the fact that Jesus even existed is historically verified.
Next, we look to what is said of him. The Gospels themselves, written in the first century, attest to his life and miracles, his dying and resurrection, and his teachings.
Now comes the real deal-maker. Either Jesus was who he said he was, which, we gather from the text–was God the Son (see catholic.com/library/Divinity_of_Christ.asp and associated articles), or he was a very bad man–no merely good man could have done the things he did or said the things he did (the good things) while falsely claiming to be God, or he was a flat-out nutcase–however, he is too clear, too sane, too consistent in his way of doing things to be a nutcase.
The one possible objection to all of this is that what if those writing the accounts of the life of Christ, of his miracles, of his life, what if they were lying? The answer to this is that if they were lying, what did they have to gain? They got nothing but persecution, torture, death at the hands of lions and executors. If the Apostles and Disciples in the early Church were lying, then they were committing the greatest folly ever in doing so because of the price that they paid. Furthermore, the staying power of this so-called lie also attests to its truth. A merely human invention, a merely human lie, an evil opposed to truth, would not have spread throughout the world as it did, would not still be a force in the world, would not have ended up reaching to the ends of the earth. Someone somewhere would have noticed that it was inconsistent, someone somewhere would have out it, and the whole deal would be blown.
So you see, it works too well. Jesus has to be God, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be. World without end.
-ACEGC
