Who is this Jesus?
And what is His
“Gospel” message?
Bumble@tnsa.net
Review
1) Is there a Creator God (without an
appeal that the Bible said so)?
What about evidences from
science?
2) Did that Creator God communicate
to us? Is that communication in the
Bible? How do you know?
Who is this Jesus?
And what is His
“Gospel” message?
Who is this Jesus?
Who is this Jesus?
Why?
- Find an explanation that fit a worldview
(no miracle, no god, ancient people are
ignorant, etc.)
- The Biblical Jesus interfere with a
preferred lifestyle
Who is this Jesus?
John 9 (follow the healing of the blind)
- “He is a prophet”
- “This man is a sinner”
- “If this man were not from God,
he could do nothing”
Jesus heard that they had cast him out, and having found him he
said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” He answered, “And
who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?” Jesus said to him, “You
have seen him, and it is he who is speaking to you.” He said,
“Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped him. Jesus said, “For
judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may
see, and those who see may become blind.” Some of the
Pharisees near him heard these things, and said to him, “Are we
also blind?” Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would
have no guilt; but now that you say, ‘We see,’ your guilt remains.”
(John 9:35-31)
Jesus as Historical Fact
Only two…
…not only
“Who are you?”
…but…
“What are you?”
Only two…
…not only
“Who are you?”
…but…
“What are you?”
Jesus as Historical Fact
People who impacted the human race
People who claimed to be God
People who impacted the human race
People who claimed to be God
The magnitude of the claim
requires the absolute
certainty about that claim!
The magnitude of the claim
requires the absolute
certainty about that claim!
“If Jesus is NOT God, you better
know beyond the shadow of the
doubt about that fact”
Historical Evidence on Jesus
• Early Greco-Roman sources
– Cornelius Tacitus (55-120), “Annals”
Historian, formerly secretary to emperor
– Pliny the Younger (61-113), “Letters”
Governor of Bithynia, writing to emperor Trajan
– Mara bar Serapion (73-160), “Letter to Son”
Syrian Stoic philosopher
• Early Jewish sources
– Josephus, “Antiquities of the Jews”
• Participant on both sides of the Jewish War (66-73)
• Agapius, “Universal History” (Condensation of
Josephus in Arabic, 10th century)
– Babylonian Talmud, “Sanhedrin”
• References to “Ben Pantera” (A tradition from the
period 70-200)
• Early Christian sources
– New Testament writings
– Other early Christians writings
Historical data on Jesus of Nazareth
1. There was a man claimed to be God
2. The people around Him claimed to see Him do
what seems to be miracle
3. He convinced the people around Him to believe that
he is God.
a. Note that these people are monotheistic Jews (not
pantheistic like Eastern, or polytheistic like Western GrecoRomans)
b. They are the people who were living, eating, sleeping
with Him. (People who live with you would be the last one who
believe your divinity!)
4. After he died, scores and hundreds people attested
that they saw Him resurrected (cf. 1Cor.15)
5. The experience changed them so much, they
transformed and went everywhere to spread the
faith and even died for it!
How do you account for the fact?
1. He is a Legend (we can’t know for sure, his
followers weaved tales about him)
How do you account for the fact?
1. He is a Legend (we can’t know for sure, his
followers weaved tales about him)
• The Bible was not written as legend (nor realisticprose-fiction)
How do you account for the fact?
1. He is a Legend (we can’t know for sure, his
followers weaved tales about him)
• The Bible was not written as legend (nor realisticprose-fiction)
• There’s not enough time lapse to fabricate a legend
because all the eyewitnesses were still alive.
How do you account for the fact?
1. He is a Legend (we can’t know for sure, his
followers weaved tales about him)
• The Bible was not written as legend (nor realisticprose-fiction)
• There’s not enough time lapse to fabricate a legend
because all the eyewitnesses were still alive.
• Would people die for a hoax?
Kenneth Scott Latourette
Yale Historian
“Why among other cults and philosophies
competing in the Greco-Roman world that
Christianity succeeded and outstripped
all others? Why did it succeed despite
getting more severe opposition than any
others? Why did succeed though it has
no influential backers in high places but
consisted of mainly the poor and slave?
How did it succeed so completely that it
forced the most powerful state in history
to come to term with it and then outlive
the very empire that sought to up root it?
It is clear that at the very beginning of
Christianity there must have occurred a
vast release of energy – perhaps
unequaled in history – without it the future
course of Christianity is inexplicable:
It simply true!”
How do you account for the fact?
1. He is a Legend (we can’t know for sure, his
followers weaved tales about him)
2. He is a Leader (Teacher, Good Man, Prophet, etc.)
How do you account for the fact?
1. He is a Legend (we can’t know for sure, his
followers weaved tales about him)
2. He is a Leader (Teacher, Good Man, Prophet, etc.)
• Have you read His teaching?
- “I and God are one, you see me you seen Him”
- “No one come to God but by me!”
- “He who loves me hates his father and mother”
- “Lose your life for my sake”
- “All authority have been given to me”
How do you account for the fact?
1. He is a Legend (we can’t know for sure, his
followers weaved tales about him)
2. He is a Leader (Teacher, Good Man, Prophet, etc.)
3. He is a Liar
4. He is a Lunatic, (or worse)
How do you account for the fact?
1. He is a Legend (we can’t know for sure, his
followers weaved tales about him)
2. He is a Leader (Teacher, Good Man, Prophet, etc.)
3. He is a Liar
4. He is a Lunatic, (or worse)
• Have you read His teaching?
How do you account for the fact?
1. He is a Legend (we can’t know for sure, his
followers weaved tales about him)
2. He is a Leader (Teacher, Good Man, Prophet, etc.)
3. He is a Liar
4. He is a Lunatic, (or worse)
• Have you read His teaching?
How do you account for the fact?
1. He is a Legend (we can’t know for sure, his
followers weaved tales about him)
2. He is a Leader (Teacher, Good Man, Prophet, etc.)
3. He is a Liar
4. He is a Lunatic, (or worse)
5. He is who He says He is: the Lord God
Is your Jesus real?
Or was he a figment of your
imagination?
Who is this Jesus?
And what is His
“Gospel” message?
What is His message?
Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming
the gospel of God, and saying,
“The time is fulfilled, and the
kingdom of God is at hand;
repent and believe in the
gospel.”
(Mark 1:14-15)
What is His message?
(A sample from Luke 15)
1Now
the tax collectors and “sinners” were all gathering
around to hear him. 2But the Pharisees and the
teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes
sinners and eats with them.” 3Then Jesus told them
this parable…
11“There was a man who had two sons. 12The younger
one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the
estate.’ So he divided his property between them.
13“Not long after that, the younger son got together all
he had, set off for a distant country and there
squandered his wealth in wild living…
28“The older brother became angry and refused to go in.
So his father went out and pleaded with him…
What is His message?
(A sample from Luke 15)
• Jesus redefined God
• Jesus redefined Sin
• Jesus redefined Salvation
• Jesus redefined God
• Jesus redefined Sin
• Jesus redefined Sin
–Lost in the badness
• Jesus redefined Sin
–Lost in the badness
–Lost in the goodness
28“The
older brother became angry and refused to go in.
So his father went out and pleaded with him. 29But he
answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been
slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet
you never gave me even a young goat so I could
celebrate with my friends. 30But when this son of yours
who has squandered your property with prostitutes
comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’ 31“ ‘My
son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and
everything I have is yours. 32But we had to celebrate
and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead
and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ ”
• Jesus redefined Salvation
–We need the initiation love
of the Father
–We need to repent in
where we are
–We need to see the cost
that God took to bring us
home. Trust in Jesus.
…the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes
in him may have eternal life. For God so loved the world that he
gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not
perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the
world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does
not believe stands condemned already because he has not
believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. – (John 3:14-18)
Appendix
(This is from Dr. Newman)
Search for the Historical Jesus
Robert C. Newman
Biblical Theological Seminary
Some Recent Examples
The Last Temptation
of Christ
Jesus Christ
Superstar
The Passover Plot
The Sacred
Mushroom & the
Cross
Jesus the Magician
The DaVinci Code
The Last Temptation of Christ
Novel (1955) - Nikos
Kazantzakas
Film (1988) - Martin
Scorsese
Plot:
Makes crosses for
Romans
Gathers followers as
prophet
Love or hate Romans?
Gets Judas to betray him
Fantasies on cross re/
sex & marriage
Rejects temptation, dies
Jesus Christ Superstar
Rock opera (1971) & film (73)
by Andrew Lloyd-Weber & Tim
Rice
Plot:
Jesus a superstar religious
guru, his fame goes to his
head
Begins believing what
others say about him,
leading to cross
Blames God, but dies
anyway
Judas speaks from grave,
also blaming God
No resurrection
The Passover Plot
Book (1966) – Schonfield
Here Jesus has (almost)
everything under control:
Learns to interpret prophecy
Decides he is Messiah
Sets out to fulfill prophecy
Stages triumphal entry
Blows Judas’ mind
Times events so only on cross
briefly
But speared by soldier
Revived in tomb, sends
message, dies
Sacred Mushroom & the Cross
Book (1970) by John M.
Allegro
A super plot theory!
Jesus never existed.
Neither did Christianity!
Or Judaism!
All are code-words or covers
for a super-secret sex-drug
cult.
When all in on secret die,
movements continue as
Christianity & Judaism.
Jesus the Magician
Book (1978) by Morton
Smith
Jesus a gnostic
magician
Possessed by a spirit
Claimed to be deity
Develops self-hypnosis
Claimed to fly & teach
flying
Visited heaven, saw
God
Freed by God from Law
The DaVinci Code
A murder mystery
(2003), set in the
present
Yet the plot turns on
the idea that Jesus
was merely human,
that he had children,
and that the Holy
Grail is Jesus’ royal
blood-line.
Why all this variety?
Are the Gospels
really this unclear?
No.
But if you haven’t
read them, you’re a
sucker for every
charlatan that comes
along.
But why all this
variety?
Why all this variety?
Many don’t like the biblical Jesus.
He interferes with their preferred lifestyle.
Many won’t admit the occurrence of
miracles.
Hume – would you believe a miracle
report?
Harnack – ancient people ignorant of
nature
Bultmann – universe a closed system
So they reconstruct Jesus from
hypothetical sources.
Historical Evidence on Jesus
Early pagan sources
Early Jewish sources
Early Christian sources
Early Pagan Sources
Cornelius Tacitus (55-120), Annals
Historian, formerly secretary to emperor
Pliny the Younger (61-113), Letters
Governor of Bithynia, writing to emperor
Trajan
Mara bar Serapion (73-160), Letter to
Son
Syrian Stoic philosopher
Tacitus, Annals 15.44
But neither human help, nor imperial munificence, nor all
the modes of placating Heaven, could stifle scandal or dispel
the belief that the fire had taken place by order. Therefore to
scotch the rumor, Nero substituted as culprits, and punished
with the utmost refinements of cruelty, a class of men
loathed for their vices, whom the crowd styled Christians.
Christus, the founder of the name, had undergone the death
penalty in the reign of Tiberius, by sentence of the
procurator Pontius Pilatus, and the pernicious superstition
was checked for a moment, only to break our once more…
Pliny the Younger, Letters 10.96
Pliny to the Emperor Trajan:
It is my custom to refer all my difficulties to you, Sir, for no
one is better able to resolve my doubts and inform my
ignorance. I have never been present at an examination of
Christians… For the moment this is the line I have taken with
all persons brought before me on the charge of being
Christians. I have asked them in person if they are Christians,
and if they admit it, I repeat the question a second and third
time, with a warning of the punishment awaiting them. If they
persist, I order them to be led away for execution…
Pliny the Younger, Letters 10.96
An anonymous pamphlet has been circulated which contains
the names of a number of accused persons. Among these I
considered that I should dismiss any who denied that they
were or ever had been Christians, when they had repeated
after me a formula of invocation to the gods and had made
offerings of wine and incense to your statue, none of which
things, I understand, any genuine Christian can be induced to
do. Others, whose names were given me by an informer, first
admitted the charge and then denied it; they said they had
ceased to be Christians two or more years previously…
Pliny the Younger, Letters 10.96
They also declared that the sum total of their guilt or error
amounted to no more than this: they had met regularly before
dawn on a fixed day to chant verses alternately among
themselves in honor of Christ as if to a god… This made me
decide it was all the more necessary to extract the truth by torture
from two slave-women, whom they call deaconesses. I found
nothing but a degenerate sort of cult carried to extravagant
lengths. I have therefore postponed any further examination and
hastened to consult you.
Mara bar Serapion, Letter
For what else have we to say, when wise men are forcibly
dragged by the hands of tyrants, and their wisdom is taken
captive by calumny, and they are oppressed in their
intelligence without defense? For what advantage did the
Athenians gain by their murder of Socrates…. Or the
people of Samos by the burning of Pythagoras… Or the
Jews by the death of their wise king, because from that
time their kingdom was taken away?
Mara bar Serapion, Letter
For with justice did God make recompense to the wisdom
of these three: for the Athenians died of famine; and the
Samians were overwhelmed by the sea without remedy;
and the Jews, desolate and driven from their own kingdom,
are scattered through every country. Socrates is not dead,
because of Plato; neither Pythagoras, because of the statue
of Juno; nor the wise King, because of the laws which he
promulgated.
Summary on Pagan Sources
Jesus lived in Judea in the reign of Tiberius.
A Messianic claim was ascribed to him.
He apparently was a teacher.
He was put to death by Pontius Pilate and/or
the Jews.
His followers continued after his death.
They worshiped Jesus as God, though they
would not worship the gods.
They were willing to endure torture and
death rather than curse Jesus.
Early Jewish Sources
Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews
Participant on both sides of the Jewish
War (66-73)
Agapius, Universal History
Condensation of Josephus in Arabic, 10th
century
Babylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin
References to “Ben Pantera”
A tradition from the period 70-200
Josephus, Antiquities 18.63-64
About this time there lived Jesus, a wise man, if indeed one
ought to call him a man. For he was one who wrought surprising
feats and was a teacher of such people as accept the truth gladly.
He won over many Jews and many of the Greeks. He was the
Messiah. When Pilate, on hearing him accused by men of
highest standing among us, had condemned him to be crucified,
those who had in the first place come to love him did not give up
their affection for him. On the third day he appeared to them
restored to life, for the prophets had prophesied these and
countless other marvelous things about him.
Agapius, Universal History
Similarly Josephus the Hebrew…. At this time there was a
wise man who was called Jesus. His conduct was good and he
was known to be virtuous. And many people from among the
Jews and the other nations became his disciples. Pilate
condemned him to be crucified and to die. But those who had
become his disciples did not abandon his discipleship. They
reported that he had appeared to them three days after his
crucifixion, and that he was alive; accordingly he was perhaps
the Messiah, concerning whom the prophets have recounted
wonders.
Babylonian Talmud and Celsus
The Babylonian Talmud and other early
Jewish literature occasionally refer to
an opponent named “Ben Pantera.”
The pagan author Celsus (c150), in his
anti-Christian work The True
Account, says that Jewish sources
claim Jesus is the illegitimate son of
a Roman soldier Pantera and the
Jewish girl Mary.
Talmud, Sanhedrin 43a
On the eve of Passover Yeshua was hanged. For forty
days before the execution a herald went forth and
cried, “He is going to be stoned because he has
practiced sorcery and enticed Israel to apostasy.
Anyone who can say anything in his favor, let him
come forward and plead on his behalf.” But since
nothing was brought forward in his favor he was
hanged on the eve of Passover.
Summary on Jewish Sources
Jesus lived in Judea during the rule of
Pontius Pilate.
His birth was alleged to be unusual,
illegitimate.
His character was controversial.
He worked miracles, also controversial.
He gathered followers, who considered him
the Messiah.
He was condemned by Pilate, accused by
Jews.
He was hanged/crucified on Passover eve.
His resurrection was reported on the third
day.
Early Christian Sources
The Gospels
Matthew
Mark
Luke
John
The Letters of Paul
An early opponent of
Xy
Became a Xn when
Jesus appeared to
him
Paul, Letters
Jesus is God.
He is also human, a descendant of David.
He had brothers, including James.
Jesus taught, and appointed apostles.
He instituted the Lord’s Supper.
He was killed by rulers.
He rose from the dead on the third day.
He has ascended to heaven.
Conclusions
The earliest sources, though they disagree
in their estimation of Jesus, agree on
several items which moderns often wish to
reject:
Jesus made a Messianic claim.
Jesus worked miracles.
Jesus was put to death by Roman-Jewish
collaboration.
One can reject miracles only by discarding
the very evidence from antiquity that
points most strongly in this direction.
Conclusions
If miracles are not rejected in advance,
the Gospels look good by the
methods used by
Secular historians
Liberal New Testament scholars
Satan’s strategy?
Keep people off balance by bringing out a
new Jesus every few years.
Keep their attention away from the
historical records.
C.S. Lewis’ Trilemma
I am trying to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing
that people often say about [Jesus]: “I’m ready to accept Jesus
as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be
God.” This is the one thing we must not say. A man who was
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 a
level with the 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.
What will you do with Jesus?
Is he:
Liar?
Lunatic?
Lord of all?
There is no place for
postmodernism here:
He either is, or isn’t,
what he claimed to
be.
If he is, you must
face him one day.
What will you do with Jesus?
The choice is yours.