| Let’s ask some questions and find out. · Did Jesus really exist? Yes, there’s plenty of corroborating evidence outside the Bible not only that Jesus did exist, but that He performed miracles, and that He had a large following. Check the writings of Josephus, Tacitus, Pliny the Younger, and the Jewish Talmud. · Can we trust the word of His disciples about His death and resurrection? Yes, because of one simple fact. All but John were brutally executed for their faith. They all accepted death rather than deny what they claimed to be eyewitnesses to; and while people will readily die for what they believe to be true; nobody would die for what they knew to be a lie. Put yourself in their position for a minute and see if you could face the stoning, beheading, or crucifixion (upside down in Peter’s case); knowing that you’d been spreading lies. No way I could go through with it! · Was Jesus crazy? He left no room for doubt about how He viewed Himself. He claimed outright to be God! If I went around making that claim they’d throw me in the booby hatch. But Jesus never displayed symptoms of mental disorder. Quite the contrary, He had a wonderful grasp of the world around Him. He had stable relationships. He taught of grace, humility, sacrifice, and love and practiced what He preached. And He backed it up with miracles. Compare His actions with any lunatic leader (Jim Jones, David Koresh) and it’s obvious Jesus is quite sane. · Was Jesus playing a hoax on those people? I’m sure you’ve heard the saying “You can fool some of the people all of the time and all of the people some of the time, but you can’t fool all of the people all of the time”. Well that would mean Jesus fooled twelve men into following Him around for three years with no economic benefit to them; fooled them into testifying of all His miracles; fooled them into thinking He raised Lazarus from the dead; fooled them into thinking they’d just fed five thousand men from a young boy’s lunch bucket. He was so good at it that He fooled no less than five hundred people into seeing Him alive after He’d been crucified! He fooled Paul into becoming His follower after He was supposedly dead. He fooled all of them in to dying for Him. And He continues to fool millions into believing in Him including me. No, Jesus isn’t a liar; and He isn’t crazy. Which only leaves one choice: He is who He claims to be: The Son of God, The Savior of the World, The Christ, THE ONLY ONE WHO CAN SAVE YOUR SOUL!!!! |
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