Over the last half a year or so I have posted many
articles on some of the scientific evidences that can lead one to reasonably
conclude that a God, in some form or another, just may exist. What I have not
posted on is the historicity of Christ himself. If there is a God, how can we
know who He is? Mankind’s history is full of hundreds if not thousands of god
figures.
I think one way we can know who the one true God is (if he does in fact exist)
is by examining and studying the life and death of Christ. It’s probably the
most logical starting point anyway. I am by no means an expert on this subject
and I have only just begun to dig into the story and what we can know about it.
I think ultimately the questions of whether or not Christ actually existed and
subsequently whether or not he actually rose from the grave, are two of the
most important questions one searching for truth in theism can ask him or
herself. So as a starting point for now I am going to share some quotes I have
found from the experts on the person of Jesus Christ.
"The early Christians' opponents all accepted that Jesus
existed, taught, had disciples, worked miracles, and was put to death on a
Roman cross. As in our day, debate and disagreement centred largely not on the
story but on the significance of Jesus. Today nearly all historians, whether
Christians or not, accept that Jesus existed and that the gospels contain
plenty of valuable evidence which has to be weighed and assessed critically."
"Plenty of great teachers, mystics, martyrs
and saints have made their appearance at different times in the world, and
lived lives and spoken words full of grace and truth, for which we have every
reason to be grateful. Of none of them, however, has the claim been made, and
accepted, that they were Incarnate God. In the case of Jesus alone the belief
has persisted that when he came into the world God deigned to take on the
likeness of a man in order that thenceforth men might be encouraged to aspire
after the likeness of God; reaching out from their mortality to His
immortality, from their imperfection to His perfection."
- Malcolm Muggeridge, Jesus (New York: Harper & Row, 1975), p. 16.
"Anybody who tries to use the argument that
Jesus of Nazareth never existed [as a verifiable historical figure] is simply
flaunting his or her ignorance. There is no serious question in the mind of any
serious scholar, anywhere in the world that there certainly was a historical personality
named Jesus of Nazareth. Now you can argue if he was the Son of God or not,
argue about the supernatural aspects of his life, but in terms of the
historical character of Jesus, all the evidence is in favour."
- Historian Paul L. Maier
"The historicity of Christ is as axiomatic for an unbiased
historian as the historicity of Julius Caesar."
- F.F. Bruce
"Thousands and tens of thousands have gone
through the evidence which attests the resurrection of Christ, piece by piece,
as carefully as ever a judge summed up on the most important case. I have
myself done it many times over, not to persuade others, but to satisfy myself.
I have been used for many years to study the history of other times, and to
examine and weigh the evidence of those who have written about them, and I know
of no fact in the history of mankind which is proved by better and fitter
evidence and every kind."
"These three great facts--the resurrection
appearances, the empty tomb, and the origin of the Christian faith--all point
unavoidably to one conclusion: The resurrection of Jesus. Today the rational
man can hardly be blamed if he believes that on that first Easter morning a
divine miracle occurred."
