Glad you asked -
You can't believe Jesus was God?
The consistent Christian
claim is that Jesus is God – fully, truly and uniquely God. What evidence is there is back this claim up?
8 reasons we can we be confident that
Jesus is God?
1. The Bible can be trusted
The claims that Jesus is God come from the Bible. It can be trusted for two reasons. It is a historically accurate
document, passing all the 'tests' academic historians apply to determine a documents historical reliability. But secondly, reading it is a personally transformative
experience. Reading the Bible and doing what it says changes your life for the better.
2. Jesus himself claims to be
God
Jesus repeatedly makes claims to be God or equal to God. One example is in John 5 where three times Jesus claims full equality with God. (e.g: John 5:19,23,26)
3. Jesus’ works/ miracles validate
this claim
Jesus is able to do things that only God can do - these 'works' validate his claim to be God. (e.g: John 5:36)
4. People then understood Jesus
was claiming to be God
Those listening to Jesus then understood he was claiming to be God. His friends wrote about it in the Bible, but even his enemies acknowledged this. (e.g: John 5:18)
5. Jesus’ character was perfect
– his claim to be God was neither a liar’s nor a lunatic’s
Jesus' enemies (John 18:38)
and friends (1Peter 2:22) perceive him as stable, sane, and sensible. He wasn't telling deliberate lies not was he out of his mind.
6. The Old Testament predicated
Jesus as God
Over 300 predicted in the Old Testament come true in Jesus, many around his birth (e.g Micah 5:2) and
death (e.g Isaiah 53:9) - the moments in life we are least able to ochestrate.
7. Jesus’ resurrection is the
ultimate validation
See: http://lionheartedandlamblike.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/jesus-resurrection-why-we-can-be.html
8. Our experience cannot be
denied – billions of people personally, subjectively know Jesus is God
In summary we can be sure Jesus was God.
We are currently running Alpha at our church. Believing that Jesus is really the Son of God is still a difficulty for a number of people on the course.
ReplyDeleteYour point 1, 'the bible can be trusted,' is the main sticking point for people. If the gospels genuinely reflect what the historical person of Jesus actually did and said then 'Jesus Son of God' is a bit of a no brainer, but people doubt that they do. Many suspect that there was some exaggeration and heresay.
My take on it is that the early church would not have suffered and died as they did to maintain their own lies or exaggerations. There is also the strength of oral tradition in near eastern culture (today as much as 2000 years ago) in which accurate story telling is carefully guarded. And the length of time we are actually talking about between Jesus' life and the dating of the gospels (leaving aside John) is not very long. So it does stand up pretty tall, contrary to the conclusions of the Jesus seminar which were over sceptical from the start having made up their mind in advance that something like the resurrection could never actually have happened.
Point 8, 'experience of Christians,' is probably the one that swings it for people, subjective though it is. If it's made an undeniable difference in someone's life this is pretty hard to argue against. You can debate the reliability of the gospels until you're blue in the face, but give me a rehabilitated drug addict who kicked crack after giving his life to Jesus, and there's not much you can say to that.
Thanks for posting this article.
Thank you for your great comment. The trustworthiness of the Bible is a huge sticking point in my experience too. We actually have available at our Alpha courses/ at church, etc a brief leaflet outlining the five main reasons we can be confident to trust the Bible. You list a number of them. I've found giving someone this leaflet is a great way of addressing the question without it becoming the dominant discussion point. It allows the conversation to focus on Jesus while treating the question seriously. I ask people to read it and come the following week with further questions. Usually means they come with more thoughtful objections which leads to a more purposeful discussion...and encourages them to come back the following week!
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