Jesusians - - Spreading the Truth

In the first century of our era, there lived a remarkable man whom you should investigate - he's been covered over with a lot of religious jargon and traditions, but don't let that put you off!

If you're serious about trying to find reality and the purpose of existence, examine his life intellectually and draw your own conclusions.

First, why does anyone even think this man is God or a close relation of God's? Because he talked like God's son! When I read that as a skeptic, I thought, "That explains it right there - the man was a lunatic."

But this man didn't act like a lunatic! The insane people in psych wards not only make insane claims for themselves, but they act insanely - they produce other symptoms of their mental imbalance. But this man does not behave as a deranged person; his character does not have the abnormalities or extremes of a madman. Indeed, the opposite is true. When anyone in the world - whatever their religious or non-religious background - wishes to set forth an example of a perfectly balanced and integrated personality, he is the one who is presented as the model to follow. If this man was a lunatic, then all of us are hopelessly insane.

But perhaps he was simply a con man, a simple liar! Maybe he knew he wasn't God but deliberately deceived his hearers about his true identity in order to lend authority to his preaching.

But he is universally regarded as the teacher of the highest ethical ideals the world has ever seen; moreover, his life is looked upon as the outstanding example of a perfect, faultless example of his teaching. If he is a liar, then the whole world of logic crumbles in our hands, and our ability to make even the simplest observations with our five senses becomes questionable.

It is nonsense to say that the greatest moral teacher and example the world has ever seen -- lied -- about the focal point of all his teaching -- his own identity! If he was a liar, then the world is a "tale told by an idiot."

Could he have been an ordinary good man who was lionized by his followers after his death?

That, of course, is part of the difficulty for this theory in regard to this man. Legend takes time to develop. The letter to the Galatians was circulating throughout the then-known world by 48 A.D. This was a mere 20 years after this man was crucified. Thousands of people who had seen the crucifixion in Jerusalem were alive when accounts of his life (the very ones we have) were already being read and studied.

If he is not a LUNATIC, or a LIAR, and if he is not a LEGEND, there is only one possibility left -- He really did exist and live the life that the Bible and other contemporary historical records describe in such detail.

But is he more than a remarkable human being? Can he really be the Son of God? Not just a son of God, the same as other human beings who have a spiritual experience--BUT the unique Son of God -- who existed before the universe was created and has a close kinship-relation to God, the creator of the world?

This man not only spoke like God but he acted like God -- that is, he did the kind of things you would expect the Creator's Son to be able to do. He said quietly to a storm on a lake "be still" and the waves smoothed out and the wind went down. He simply touched the withered skin of a leper and said "be clean" and the man was instantly healed. He had power over death and raised a man called Lazarus from the grave. He was able to change the very make-up of matter so that water was changed into wine in a moment by his word. So his life is filled with miracles like these which demonstrate the kind of power over nature and disease that you would expect the Maker of the world to have.

But he was different in character, too, from any of the well-known prophets and religious leaders. All of them are conscious of some moral short-coming; indeed, it is obvious to even their followers. So Mohammed's life was full of acts of vengeance and violence, Buddha's life was withdrawn and recluse; but this man's life was sinless.

Even enemies like Pilate said "This man has done nothing wrong," while the centurion who supervised his crucifixion said, "Surely this man was the Son of God." When he asked his most militant critics, the Pharisees, "Which of you convicts me of sin?" they were silent!

Moreover, twenty centuries of painstaking critiques by the behavioral experts of the world have served only to confirm that the life of this man is the one perfectly sinless life ever lived on earth.

But all of this evidence that this man was the Son of God pales before the one event in his life that sets him apart from all other religious leaders and prophets. He said throughout his public ministry that he would rise from being dead on the third day -- and he did!

Many gurus have been buried alive and through controlled breathing have managed to survive in a kind of trance under the earth, but none have been executed by experts like the Romans -- and then actually risen from the dead.

This is what happened with this man. The soldiers were so sure he was dead that they didn't bother breaking his legs; they simply thrust a spear into his side and a mixture of blood and water poured out. Then he was buried in a private tomb, bound tightly in grave clothes, and then a large stone was rolled across the mouth of the grave.

On Sunday morning (he was buried on Friday night) he met Mary, one of his followers in the garden. When she reported it to the other disciples, they wouldn't believe her. But, in a moment, he appeared suddenly in the room with them. He did this for the next month or more - appearing on more than a dozen occasions. Sometimes he appeared to a few of them, sometimes to more than 500 at one time. Sometimes he ate breakfast or allowed skeptical Thomas to poke his finger into the holes in his hands to make it clear that he was not a ghost or a psychological hallucination. Then he explained that he must return to his Father, the Creator of the universe, and his body has never been found on earth since.

All the hypothetical explanations of the resurrection are harder to believe than the facts themselves. The two vital facts are the EMPTY TOMB and the RESURRECTION APPEARANCES.

The old arguments that he just swooned on the cross and was revived in the coolness of the tomb or that the disciples or the Romans stole the body aren't even very logical. How could a man whose side had been speared by the Roman experts as already dead have recovered from his wounds so completely that he could not only free himself from the grave clothes, roll away the heavy stone, but could appear at a dozen different locations over the next month and appear not only revived but more alive than he had ever been before! It just doesn't make sense.

If the Romans stole the body, why didn't they parade it through the streets to prove that this man was not the Messiah? If the disciples stole it, why did they die for what they knew to be a lie? A man might die for what he believes to be the truth but he will not die for what he knows to be a lie.

The same is true of the suggestion that the resurrection appearances were just hallucinations. They just don't fit the psychological criteria for such phenomena. Hallucinations occur usually to one person who desperately wants to see the deceased person. But this man appeared always to groups of people and normally they had given up all hope that he would rise from the dead. Hallucinations usually continue over a lengthy period of time; but he showed himself alive for about forty days and then disappeared from the earth!

Because of evidence like this, scholars hold that no fact of history has been examined so comprehensively by legal, medical, psychological, religious, and historical experts and emerged so unchallenged as to its veracity. If this man did not rise from the dead, then we can be sure of nothing in mankind's past history.

Who is this man? He is none other than Jesus Christ.

Is Jesus the Son of God?

You must decide for yourself because on your decision hangs the destiny of your own life. If this man Jesus is the Son of God, the creator of the universe, then what has he or his existence to do with you?

He Himself made it clear that He existed long before he appeared in Palestine in the first century of our present era. In reply to a question from theologians he said "Before Abraham was, I am" and in a prayer overheard by some of his disciples he said "Father, restore to me the glory which I had with you before the world was made".

All of this is what we would expect, but there's more. One of his followers - Paul - wrote to people in Ephesus (in one of the New Testament books, Ephesians 2:10) "You are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works which he has prepared beforehand that you should walk in them". This implies that you were created in God's mind (which can obviously see all of time in one milli-second) inside and as part of His son long before you were born in your mother's womb.

This is not only consistent with the view of time taken by Einstein and our contemporary cosmologists, but is also consistent with other statements about Jesus Christ in the Bible, like Colossians 1:15 - "He is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of all creation; for in him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible....- all things were created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together."

In other words, when Our Maker conceived his only-begotten Son, he conceived him also as the first-born being in the whole creation - his is the only real life of God that energizes everything else. Inside Him, God created you so that you would share his life-power and his freedom. Any good or creativity in your life is the result of his activity in you.

But God also saw the results that would follow if He gave billions of beings freedom of will - and He determined that He would face that inside Himself in his dearest Son. And that's what has happened - Christ has held on to you whatever you have done or said to destroy Him or his Father. He bears inside himself every sin or lie in which you have lived - every proud claim of credit for what He has actually done through you. This bearing of your sin or independence was expressed momentarily in 29 A.D. on a cross, but the forbearance of your creator is eternal because He loves you.

The significance of all this for your life is that you are actually part of the Son of the Creator of the universe - and He has a life to live in you (if you agree) that will bring pleasure to your Maker and fulfillment in you.