"Alright fine, he was not a good human teacher. Why should I believe he was the Son of God and not a liar?"
The Bible contains many prophecies about the Messiah written hundreds of years before Jesus was born. These include when He would be born, where He would be born and how he would die.
Jesus fulfilled all of these propecies in his lifetime. Some he could contol, such as entering Jerusalem on a donkey, but many others such as being born in Bethlehem or being betrayed for 30 pieces of silver were completely beyond His control.
Beyond all the prophetic evidence, Jesus told his followers very plainly that he was the Messiah and the Son of God. Jesus knew that these were very difficult things to believe and so he performed many miracles to demonstrate the power and authority God had given to him.
These miracles alone do not prove he was the Son of God, for many prophets and even Jesus' own disciples were able to perform miracles.
However, one miracle in particular was more important than all the rest. Before he died, Jesus told his followers that he would rise again three days after His death. As He predicted, Jesus rose from the dead and emerged from the tomb on Sunday following His death.
This miracle is an important part of proving His identity, for it had been prophesied that the Messiah would not be taken by death. This miracle is unique, for no one else has ever been raised from the dead except those which Christ Himself and His disciples raised.
No other prophet has ever been able over come death the way that Jesus did. This special miracle tells us that Jesus was indeed who He said He was.
And so, all of Christianity rests on this miracle. If Christ rose from the grave and conquered death, then He is the Lord and Savior and Son of God. If not, then Christianity means nothing - it would be an empty lie. Even the apostle Paul recognized this when he wrote,
"And if Christ has not been raised, then all our preaching is useless, and your faith is useless. And we apostles would all be lying about God—for we have said that God raised Christ from the grave." 1 Cor 14,15a "
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The first evidence of the resurrection of Jesus has to do with eyewitnesses. There were certain persons, who actually saw the living Christ. They could serve as eloquent testimony in this courtroom of law. One person has said, “When an event takes place in history and there are enough people alive who were eyewitnesses or who had participated in the event, and when the information is published, one is able to verify the validity of a historical event.”
After Jesus rose from the dead, He appeared on at least ten separate occasions before a vast number of eyewitnesses. He showed Himself alive to: Mary Magdalene (Mark 16:9); other women (Matthew 28:8-10); Peter (Luke 24:34); James (1 Corinthians 15:7); the two disciples on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24:13-35); seven disciples in Galilee (John 21:1-23); ten disciples (John 20:19-23); eleven disciples (John 20:26-29); disciples on the Mount of Olives (Acts 1:3-11); and more than 500 brethren (1 Corinthians 15:6). Great masses of people don’t have the same hallucination or vision at the same moment. It just doesn’t happen. Yet these huge crowds saw the resurrected Jesus, and most, at the time of writing the New Testament, were still alive to give testimony to that fact. If we could parade all of these witnesses before you as a jury, they would all sound like a broken record after a while. How can we really know that Jesus rose from the dead? There were eyewitnesses who actually saw the risen Jesus, and not just a handful of biased followers, but more than five hundred of them!
A second proof of the resurrection of Jesus Christ is that His tomb was empty. What do Confucius, Joseph Smith, and Mary Bakker Eddy all have in common? If grave sites had signs which marked occupancy, then theirs would read “occupied”. Only Jesus’ grave reads “vacant”. The empty tomb of Jesus testifies to and substantiates His resurrection. J.N.D. Anderson, a lawyer and professor of oriental law at the University of London said: “In Jerusalem, the place where Jesus was executed and buried, it was proclaimed that Jesus had been raised from the dead. The resurrection claim could not have lasted in Jerusalem for a single day or even for a single hour if the emptiness of the tomb was not an established fact.” If Jesus didn’t rise from the dead, then all His enemies would have to do is go to His grave and produce Jesus’ body. But they couldn’t because it was gone (see Matthew 28:1-6).
For further study, consider how the resurrection of Jesus is verified by the martyrdom of many early followers of Christ (Acts 7:59-8:1); Bible prophecy (Psalm 16:10); the inexplicable transformation of Christians for more than 2,000 years (2 Corinthians 5:17), the reactions of Jesus’ enemies immediately after His resurrection (Matthew 28:11ff; Acts 4:1-3,16); and the drastic change in the Apostles after Jesus was resurrected (Acts 1,2).
enough? :P
As mentioned above, the Bible is an amazing historical record and has an incredible amount of archeological documents that support it. The next oldest documents to it(secular) that many would accept as fact have some pretty gaping holes in their history.
A quick search produced this:
http://www.worldinvisible.com/apologet//bi
I encourage you to continue to search and investigate this for yourself. It is the Spirit that has put this on your heart. He is calling you.
Elize34: If you believe that Jesus was a really good person, how do you square that he identified himself as the Son of God? Even to the point that he was killed for his position? If he was lying, that makes him a NOT good person, a deceiver, or even a lunatic. I have a great deal of trouble understanding people that want to believe Jesus was GOOD while considering many of his teachings to be false.
Don't take other people's word for it. Seek it out yourself. Read the book of John. Find out what it says Jesus was about.
You don't become a Christian first and then understand the Bible. You read the Bible and it reads you. The message in it will transform you. Afraid of that? Don't pick it up. Ready to challenge it? You can't honestly challenge it until you've fully read it. Same with any other book.
Blessings.
Elize34: You are as far from a Christian as you could possibly be. You can't have your cake and eat it, too. Yes Jesus Christ was a good man, but that doesn't begin to describe Him. He was perfect; completely without sin. He the the reason for the word Christian. To be like Christ. Yes, He does want us to learn from Him and be like Him. But to believe that He existed as was not the Son of God is blasphemy. No Christian - true Christian - would say that Jesus did not perform His miracles. If you are a Christian you would believe the Word of God, even in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John where Jesus proves time and time again that he is our Messiah, the Son of God.
Nvnate: I love the book of John. John 15 is my favorite chapter of the entire Bible. I am very glad to have someone else here who seeks God's purpose for each of us in this life. I am now a fan of you.
Love in Christ to all of you. God bless.
John 15:13
Your profile lists you in the UK, so my guess is you're in an industrialized area(hence the internet access) and aren't particularily worried about where your next meal will come from, or where you'll sleep tonight. If your age is posted correctly, you're probably living at home as well, having most of your needs provided for you(again, my assumptions).
You have barely lived life. It would be wrong for me to say you haven't experienced hardship yet, but I can tell you that we live in an incredibly broken world. Go to the nearest bookstore - what's the largest section? - Self Help. How to fix yourself. You don't need a religious outlook to see that fact.
So it's not a matter of if, it's really a matter of WHEN life will work you over. WHEN that time comes, you will either wallow in despair and depression, try to fix things yourself (head to that bookstore!), or turn to something greater than you and admit you don't have all the answers. That is when the Bible will come alive to you.
If you've read it like you said, you'll at least understand that that's the reason that all the destitute, the theives, the prostitutes, the 'sinners' (as the pompus religious folk of the time called them) were so enamored with Jesus. He delivered them from all of that. And not by all kinds of tricks of 'goodie-goodieness', but by through simple faith in Him.
When everything is going well, it's easy to think we're in the driver's seat. For many, it takes a severe storm in our lives to open our eyes to real meaning.
So enjoy your life. You sound like a confident individual. That's a great quality to have. I pray that no evil will befall you. But if it does, and you're scraping bottom wondering if it's worth even staying alive, remember there is a God in heaven that loves you unconditionally, so much so that He sent his only son to suffer and die to take your burdens upon him(John 3:16). He too had the wisdom to provide a way for you to get to know Him when you come to that point - He wrote it down through his servants over the years. It's that Bible that sits on the shelf next to you.
God's Blessings.
Thank you for seeing that I'm not an idiot just because my views are different, I can actually have a civilised conversation with all of you.
My son bought me a book for Christmas - "Mere Christianity" by C. S. Lewis. I am in the middle of it now, and I think if you could get your hands on it you might be surprised by what it reveals.
Mr. Lewis was an athiest before unanswered questions of his own caused him to dig deeper and this book explores some of the convictions he came upon. It steers away from controversial topics and just attempts to explain, well, 'mere Christianity'.
The name may sound familiar as one of his fictional books 'The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe' was recently made into a movie. There is another due out soon - "Prince Caspian" - after another one of his works. He also was good friends with JRR Tolkien of 'Lord of the Rings' fame.
Keep searching, you will find answers. God many times does not come 'flying out of the clouds' to help us. He uses those around us(think: your friends) to support us when we need it. He can use you, too to be a friend to someone hurting who needs it.
Check out the book, I think you will enjoy the approach it takes.
:)
Please read Mere Christianity!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
BTW, she is a person, not a 'this'(check her profile).
I understand your point and it has merit. Be careful of your delivery though, as it reminds me of a wonderful story I won't repeat here - only the punchline - it only takes one teaspoon of dog poop added into a delicious mixture of chocolate chip cookie dough to ruin the whole batch that comes out of the oven.
Damon, I think the passage you could not remember is here(v12 - I included the rest for context):
John 14:
10Don't you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. 11Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves. 12I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. 13And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. 14You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.
An easy way to find these kinds of verses(I have not memorized the Bible - God just blessed me with the Internet) is one of the many resources such as www.biblegateway.com . Consider it Google for the Bible. In fact there probably is a 'Google for the bible' site - I'll have to look that one up ;).
I'll leave you with this to consider: I Peter 3:
15But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect,
(a bit out of context I admit, but I feel the message applies)
Which implies you understand what it's trying to tell you, but you are rejecting it. That's actually very good. You also make an attempt to quote scripture, "Turn the other cheek...". Nice. Probably used in the wrong context, but progress, nonetheless. The spirit it pursuing you. :) Quick pointer for you - don't run from it - you can't outrun God. It will only go bad for you. Once He starts after you He won't give up. ;)
However, there is a reason it is called the Christian faith. If it could be proved beyond the shadow of the doubt that Christ WAS the son of God and rose from the grave, it wouldn't be faith anymore. And it doesn't take much to believe a fact.
Why would paul and the other writers of the new testament say go to these people and ask them if they had seen the Christ if it was false woundn't it just be proving it was false!
I don't think that I said that very well but I hope you understand it.
Also Ratdog the Bible doesn't contradict science so why is science more reliable than the Bible?
I personally do believe that God exists but you guys are not going to change each other's mind! Just stick with your own beliefs! If you don't belive in God than why are you guys in his fan club!
Just leave us alone!
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