One: IS JESUS GOD?
Two: HOW CAN I KNOW HIM PERSONALLY?
I have chosen these questions because we do not have time to start at the very beginning to ask, "Is there a God?" and "How can I know God exists?" Even if we did, if I presented a rational basis for the existence of a personal, infinite God, eventually we would have to ask, "Who is Jesus Christ?"
If we gathered religious experts from all over the world from different faiths and different backgrounds and we asked them, "Who is God?" we would have many different definitions. Some would say God is personal. Some would say that God is impersonal. But if we believe that truth is not relative, we would have to conclude that God cannot be both personal and impersonal at the same time. When we examine the questions about God, "Who is He?" and "How can I know him?" we encounter the limitations of a finite mind as it attempts to understand an infinite being, person, or God. Because of our limited and finite minds, mankind has developed many different opinions.
Even when a person says there is no God, that person violates a basic philosophical principle. He is a person with a finite understanding making an absolute statement about the nature of infinity. It would be like asking how much total knowledge mankind possesses. Albert Einstein, the Nobel Prize Winner in physics, has said that mankind grasps less than one percent of total knowledge. If we have only one percent of total knowledge, would it not be possible for God to exist in the other ninety-nine percent?
GODS KNOWLEDGE
MANS 1%
You can see that it is impossible for a person with a finite mind to make an absolute statement that there is no God because to do so one would need to possess total knowledge; therefore, it is very difficult for people to think about what God is really like and be confident that their opinions are correct.
The following conversation was held between a professor at a university and a man who said he was an atheist, that helps to illustrate this point:
PROFESSOR: How can you say you are an atheist (absolutely there is no God), when you agree that you have less than one percent of total knowledge?"
MAN: I guess I need to say I am an agnostic. I don't know if there is a God.
PROFESSOR: Are you a hard agnostic or a soft agnostic?
MAN: What do you mean?
PROFESSOR: A hard agnostic says, "You can't know if there is a God," and a soft agnostic says, "I don't think there is a God."
MAN: I guess you would say I am a hard agnostic.
PROFESSOR: Can you ever be sure that you can be sure that there is no God? Or do you know for sure that you can't know anything for sure?
MAN: No, I can't say for sure that I can be sure there is no God.
PROFESSOR: So you are really a soft agnostic?
MAN: Yes, I guess that is true'I don't know if there is a God.
PROFESSOR: You sound to me like a man who is saying, I have never seen any evidence that there is a God, so I don't know if there is.
MAN: That's right, I have never been exposed to any evidence about God, life, life after death or ultimate meaning in life.
And that is where we must start, with the question, Is there sufficient evidence for me to conclude that there is a God, and that I can have a personal relationship with Him?
Now back to our panel of religious experts. Suppose someone on this religious panel of experts that we have gathered stood up and said, "I am God Almighty'I am the Creator of the heavens and the earth. I made you and if you are ever to experience true meaning in your life you must know me in a personal way and have a relationship with me." If this happened, we would at least have a place to start. We could look at the evidence of his life to determine the truthfulness or falseness of that statement. And that is exactly what we have in the person of Jesus Christ.
During His earthly ministry two thousand years ago, Jesus said, "I am God." He said that He was the Maker of the heavens and the earth and that only through Him could mankind experience true peace and be given eternal life. He not only issued this dramatic declaration, He had the credentials to back up those claims. The very uniqueness of Jesus is His claim to deity. Let me stop right here to say that Jesus is unique among worldwide religious figures in His claim to be God.
Buddha never claimed to be God.
Moses never claimed to be Jehovah.
Mohammed never claimed to be Allah.
Yet Jesus Christ claimed to be the TRUE and LIVING God!
The record shows that Jesus was not crucified because He raised the dead or because He made the blind to see and the lame to walk. Jesus was crucified because He claimed to be God. That makes the question of His deity of utmost importance.
Buddha simply said, "I am a teacher in search of the truth."
Jesus said, "I am the Truth."
Confucius said, "I never claimed to be holy."
Jesus said, "Who convicts me of sin?"
Mohammed said, "Unless God throws his cloak of mercy over me, I have no hope."
Jesus said, "Unless you believe in me, you will die in your sins."
Jesus' statements force the listener or reader to a choice. What you choose to do with Jesus Christ today is the most important decision you will ever make.
Your decision about Jesus Christ is more important than your ideology. It is more important than your career. And it is more important than the mate you choose. If Jesus is God, then you must decide what to do with that information. If he is not God then we should have nothing to do with him.
C. S. Lewis, formerly a professor at Oxford University, was an atheist who later became a Christian. In his writings Lewis emphasized that one cannot be neutral with Jesus Christ. Lewis wrote:
I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: "I am 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 is merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher, He would either be a lunatic, on the level with a 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. 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 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 hope that when you have finished reading this, you will not continue to say that Jesus was just a good man. If you wish to be honest in the interest of intellectual integrity you cannot assume neutral ground. Jesus is either God or He is a liar. You may conclude that Jesus is not God and choose to dismiss Him, but as Professor Lewis said, please do not say He was just a good moral leader.
JESUS' TWO QUESTIONS--Link.
One day Jesus asked some of His followers two questions: "Who does the world say that I am?" and "Who do you say that I am?"
Those two questions are our starting point. First, who does the world say that Jesus Christ is? If you have already investigated Jesus Christ, you probably agree with most thinking people that Jesus is the most unique personality the world has ever known. Jesus is not simply a great man among men; He's the greatest man who has ever lived. The more you study His life, the more you are impressed. Even atheists and skeptics acknowledge the uniqueness of Jesus. Listen to what the skeptics of the world have said about Jesus and His unparalleled contribution in human history.
Renan, the French thinker and atheist, has said, "Whatever surprises the future may bring, one thing is certain, Jesus will never be surpassed."
Rousseau, another French thinker, compared Jesus with Socrates, saying, "If the life and death of Socrates were those of a sage-the life and death of Jesus were those of a God."
Napoleon said, "I know men, and Jesus Christ was no mere man.
Lord Byron, the English poet, who certainly did not embrace Christian principles, and died at the age of twenty-six because he lived his life only for his selfish pleasure, said this of Jesus: "If ever a man were God, or God were a man, Jesus was both."
More recently one writer described His influence in this way: "I am far within the mark when I say that all the armies that ever marched and all the navies that were built, and all of the parliaments that ever have sat, and all the kings that ever reigned put together have not affected the life of man upon this earth as powerfully as has that one solitary life, Jesus of Nazareth."
So Jesus Christ, according to the skeptics and people who knew His life, is considered the most unique person who ever lived.
Remember our question: "Who does the world say that Jesus Christ is?" Some people say that Jesus was a legend or a myth, that He never really existed.
Historian Phillip Schaff says, "The certainty of Jesus Christ is as certain as my own identity."
Dr. F. F. Bruce has said, "Some people play with the myth, legend, ideal of Christ; those who do so, do not do so on the basis of historical investigation!" Even secular historical sources such as Cornelius Tacitus, the Roman historian of the first century, speak in detail of the person of Christ.
Flavius Josephus, the well-known first-century Jewish historian, speaks of the life and death of Jesus and how He went about claiming to be the Messiah and performing great works.
Skeptic H G. Wells, in The Outline of History, devotes over twenty pages to Jesus Christ, substantiating His life and death from a historical perspective.
Of course, in the Bible we have four different detailed accounts of the life of Christ. I realize that many people question the Bible's historical authenticity, but once again we must take care with remarks that are not based upon thorough investigation. As a matter of fact, there is more secular evidence for the historical reliability of the four Gospels than for any other piece of classical literature.
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Two: HOW CAN I KNOW HIM PERSONALLY?
I have chosen these questions because we do not have time to start at the very beginning to ask, "Is there a God?" and "How can I know God exists?" Even if we did, if I presented a rational basis for the existence of a personal, infinite God, eventually we would have to ask, "Who is Jesus Christ?"
If we gathered religious experts from all over the world from different faiths and different backgrounds and we asked them, "Who is God?" we would have many different definitions. Some would say God is personal. Some would say that God is impersonal. But if we believe that truth is not relative, we would have to conclude that God cannot be both personal and impersonal at the same time. When we examine the questions about God, "Who is He?" and "How can I know him?" we encounter the limitations of a finite mind as it attempts to understand an infinite being, person, or God. Because of our limited and finite minds, mankind has developed many different opinions.
Even when a person says there is no God, that person violates a basic philosophical principle. He is a person with a finite understanding making an absolute statement about the nature of infinity. It would be like asking how much total knowledge mankind possesses. Albert Einstein, the Nobel Prize Winner in physics, has said that mankind grasps less than one percent of total knowledge. If we have only one percent of total knowledge, would it not be possible for God to exist in the other ninety-nine percent?
GODS KNOWLEDGE
MANS 1%
You can see that it is impossible for a person with a finite mind to make an absolute statement that there is no God because to do so one would need to possess total knowledge; therefore, it is very difficult for people to think about what God is really like and be confident that their opinions are correct.
The following conversation was held between a professor at a university and a man who said he was an atheist, that helps to illustrate this point:
PROFESSOR: How can you say you are an atheist (absolutely there is no God), when you agree that you have less than one percent of total knowledge?"
MAN: I guess I need to say I am an agnostic. I don't know if there is a God.
PROFESSOR: Are you a hard agnostic or a soft agnostic?
MAN: What do you mean?
PROFESSOR: A hard agnostic says, "You can't know if there is a God," and a soft agnostic says, "I don't think there is a God."
MAN: I guess you would say I am a hard agnostic.
PROFESSOR: Can you ever be sure that you can be sure that there is no God? Or do you know for sure that you can't know anything for sure?
MAN: No, I can't say for sure that I can be sure there is no God.
PROFESSOR: So you are really a soft agnostic?
MAN: Yes, I guess that is true'I don't know if there is a God.
PROFESSOR: You sound to me like a man who is saying, I have never seen any evidence that there is a God, so I don't know if there is.
MAN: That's right, I have never been exposed to any evidence about God, life, life after death or ultimate meaning in life.
And that is where we must start, with the question, Is there sufficient evidence for me to conclude that there is a God, and that I can have a personal relationship with Him?
Now back to our panel of religious experts. Suppose someone on this religious panel of experts that we have gathered stood up and said, "I am God Almighty'I am the Creator of the heavens and the earth. I made you and if you are ever to experience true meaning in your life you must know me in a personal way and have a relationship with me." If this happened, we would at least have a place to start. We could look at the evidence of his life to determine the truthfulness or falseness of that statement. And that is exactly what we have in the person of Jesus Christ.
During His earthly ministry two thousand years ago, Jesus said, "I am God." He said that He was the Maker of the heavens and the earth and that only through Him could mankind experience true peace and be given eternal life. He not only issued this dramatic declaration, He had the credentials to back up those claims. The very uniqueness of Jesus is His claim to deity. Let me stop right here to say that Jesus is unique among worldwide religious figures in His claim to be God.
Buddha never claimed to be God.
Moses never claimed to be Jehovah.
Mohammed never claimed to be Allah.
Yet Jesus Christ claimed to be the TRUE and LIVING God!
The record shows that Jesus was not crucified because He raised the dead or because He made the blind to see and the lame to walk. Jesus was crucified because He claimed to be God. That makes the question of His deity of utmost importance.
Buddha simply said, "I am a teacher in search of the truth."
Jesus said, "I am the Truth."
Confucius said, "I never claimed to be holy."
Jesus said, "Who convicts me of sin?"
Mohammed said, "Unless God throws his cloak of mercy over me, I have no hope."
Jesus said, "Unless you believe in me, you will die in your sins."
Jesus' statements force the listener or reader to a choice. What you choose to do with Jesus Christ today is the most important decision you will ever make.
Your decision about Jesus Christ is more important than your ideology. It is more important than your career. And it is more important than the mate you choose. If Jesus is God, then you must decide what to do with that information. If he is not God then we should have nothing to do with him.
C. S. Lewis, formerly a professor at Oxford University, was an atheist who later became a Christian. In his writings Lewis emphasized that one cannot be neutral with Jesus Christ. Lewis wrote:
I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: "I am 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 is merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher, He would either be a lunatic, on the level with a 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. 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 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 hope that when you have finished reading this, you will not continue to say that Jesus was just a good man. If you wish to be honest in the interest of intellectual integrity you cannot assume neutral ground. Jesus is either God or He is a liar. You may conclude that Jesus is not God and choose to dismiss Him, but as Professor Lewis said, please do not say He was just a good moral leader.
JESUS' TWO QUESTIONS--Link.
One day Jesus asked some of His followers two questions: "Who does the world say that I am?" and "Who do you say that I am?"
Those two questions are our starting point. First, who does the world say that Jesus Christ is? If you have already investigated Jesus Christ, you probably agree with most thinking people that Jesus is the most unique personality the world has ever known. Jesus is not simply a great man among men; He's the greatest man who has ever lived. The more you study His life, the more you are impressed. Even atheists and skeptics acknowledge the uniqueness of Jesus. Listen to what the skeptics of the world have said about Jesus and His unparalleled contribution in human history.
Renan, the French thinker and atheist, has said, "Whatever surprises the future may bring, one thing is certain, Jesus will never be surpassed."
Rousseau, another French thinker, compared Jesus with Socrates, saying, "If the life and death of Socrates were those of a sage-the life and death of Jesus were those of a God."
Napoleon said, "I know men, and Jesus Christ was no mere man.
Lord Byron, the English poet, who certainly did not embrace Christian principles, and died at the age of twenty-six because he lived his life only for his selfish pleasure, said this of Jesus: "If ever a man were God, or God were a man, Jesus was both."
More recently one writer described His influence in this way: "I am far within the mark when I say that all the armies that ever marched and all the navies that were built, and all of the parliaments that ever have sat, and all the kings that ever reigned put together have not affected the life of man upon this earth as powerfully as has that one solitary life, Jesus of Nazareth."
So Jesus Christ, according to the skeptics and people who knew His life, is considered the most unique person who ever lived.
Remember our question: "Who does the world say that Jesus Christ is?" Some people say that Jesus was a legend or a myth, that He never really existed.
Historian Phillip Schaff says, "The certainty of Jesus Christ is as certain as my own identity."
Dr. F. F. Bruce has said, "Some people play with the myth, legend, ideal of Christ; those who do so, do not do so on the basis of historical investigation!" Even secular historical sources such as Cornelius Tacitus, the Roman historian of the first century, speak in detail of the person of Christ.
Flavius Josephus, the well-known first-century Jewish historian, speaks of the life and death of Jesus and how He went about claiming to be the Messiah and performing great works.
Skeptic H G. Wells, in The Outline of History, devotes over twenty pages to Jesus Christ, substantiating His life and death from a historical perspective.
Of course, in the Bible we have four different detailed accounts of the life of Christ. I realize that many people question the Bible's historical authenticity, but once again we must take care with remarks that are not based upon thorough investigation. As a matter of fact, there is more secular evidence for the historical reliability of the four Gospels than for any other piece of classical literature.
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