GROW AND GO
FREELY COPYABLE BIBLE STUDIES
SERIES A - BASIC TEACHING
TWO
A2.1 THE LORD JESUS CHRIST - THE EVIDENCE.
We know more about Jesus Christ than any other character of the ancient world. The documents which tell of Him were copied and circulated and translated so widely that we now have over twenty thousand early manuscripts. This compares with just ten copies of the one main document from which we get our knowledge of Julius Caesar.
There was a reason of course. The average peasant in Rome's far-flung empire was not the least interested in the life of Julius Caesar. Only the libraries of Rome wanted a few copies. The same applied to Plato and the historians on which we base our knowledge of that time (Thucidides, Herodotus, Tacitus, Livy - less than a dozen manuscripts in all cases - yet modern historians do not doubt them).
Even Homer was only popular enough to leave us a few hundred manuscripts and he comes second of those ancient characters.
MASSIVE CIRCULATION
But people really did want to know about Jesus Christ. They wanted to know enough to keep on copying and translating and circulating the documents in their thousands round the known world.
We could not have so many unless many more had been produced, and the process must have started well back into the first century (indeed a few existing copies can actually be dated that far back).
So this circulation was going on while people who knew Jesus personally were still there to correct the record if it had been wrong. (And while there were plenty of opponents around who would have liked to prove it wrong).
These documents of which so many copies were produced are available today. Those who can afford it can buy a good modern translation in a bookshop. The collection of the twenty-seven main documents is called The New Testament. You can buy a copy, read it for yourself and form your own conclusions.
WHAT DID JESUS CHRIST SAY ABOUT HIMSELF?
It is better to read the claims of Christ in their context, because many were made in ordinary conversation arising from some incident. Picking them out and quoting them tends to highlight what was frequently said as quiet, low-key statements of fact.
He referred to His close intimate relationship with God the Father since before the foundation of the world, and declared that He had come down from Heaven to save the world, that He would die and rise again. At the end of the age He would send out His angels. On the day of judgment He would be the judge. He accepted worship, forgave sins and called people to total commitment as they left everything to follow Him.
At His trial there was a point when the prosecution looked like failing because of inconsistencies in the evidence. But The Court questioned Him directly and much to the relief of His accusers He confirmed His claim to be Messiah and Son of God.
A2.2 WHAT DID JESUS CALL HIMSELF?
A2.2.1. THE SON OF MAN.
Jesus often called Himself “The Son of Man” The people who heard Him knew that he was quoting the prophecy in Daniel: -
Daniel 7:13-14 KJV
I saw in the night vision and behold one like the Son of Man came with the clouds of Heaven and came to the Ancient of Days and they brought Him near before Him. And there was given Him dominion and glory and a kingdom that all people, nations and languages should serve Him: His dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away, and His kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.
On two occasions He quoted this prophecy in more detail, saying that He, the Son of Man, would come with the clouds of Heaven.
The title, “The Son of Man” tells us:
Jesus is truly human.
He is also the coming ruler who will rule for ever.
He is the Head of the Human Race.
A2.2.2. “THE CHRIST” - or “THE MESSIAH.”
Christ and Messiah are the same word in different languages. He lived in a Nation that constantly spoke of the coming Messiah as their hope. Thinking of the Messiah made people excited. He was the one they dreamed of, hoped for and longed for.
The Samaritan woman said, “I know that when the Messiah comes He will teach us everything.” Jesus replied to Her, “You are speaking to Him now.” (John 4:25-26)
When Peter said to Him, “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God” Jesus told him that His Father had revealed that to him. (Matthew 16:16-17)
He is our Hope and the One who can fill every longing, the centre of our attention, the one who claims our loyalty and gives us purpose. The one worth living for.
A2.2.3. SAVIOUR.
The name Jesus means “God-to-the-Rescue” and Jesus said of Himself, “The Son of Man has come to search for and rescue those who were lost.”
At His birth the angel announced Him as, “A Saviour who is Christ the Lord.”
When He introduced Himself to the people of His home town He claimed to fulfil the words of Isaiah the prophet: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me. He has anointed me to tell good news to those in desperate need. He has sent me to heal broken hearts, to set prisoners free, give sight to the blind, bring freedom to those who have been shattered, to declare that this is the time when God will accept people -”
It is Christ Himself who carries out our rescue - not Christianity, not the Church, not theology, not an emotional experience, not even Christ’s people although He may use them. He does it Himself.
A2.3 BAD, MAD OR GOD?
A man who makes claims like these can only be one of three things: a deliberate deceiver, a pitiable sufferer from a sad delusion, or God in human form.
If the message was a deception, wilful or otherwise, it was both the most successful and the most unsuccessful deception of all time; unsuccessful because it brought Jesus to a terrible death; successful because for two thousand years the number of His worshippers has been continually increasing. Many humans have claimed godhood, but all the others have been leaders of small short-lived cults or rulers worshipped by their own subjects. Jesus has been accepted as God by an increasing number of followers generation after generation.
A2.4 A MAN IS KNOWN TO HIS COMPANIONS.
His hearers knew clearly what the claim meant and it sorted them into those who worshipped Him and those who killed Him. Among those who worshipped Him were men who had travelled the country with Him on foot, sharing food, resources and accommodation. A man comes to be known to such companions.
Yet it was not the gullible masses who most fervently declared Christ’s claims to be true. It was those who knew Him best.
A2.5 ALIVE FROM THE DEAD.
Now for the central fact. If Jesus rose from the dead, He is God and Saviour and the Good News He taught can only be true. If He did not, that is the end of it. (Try asking God to show you if Jesus is alive.)
The public announcement that He was alive came seven weeks after His crucifixion. It was made by His known followers, declared with great confidence and once again the combination of success and suffering. Many believed the News, but those who told it were persecuted.
It was soon enough after the event for the authorities to have found and produced the body if the story was false. The official records of the execution and the people who carried it out were all still available.
Once again we have the three-way choice. Were the apostles deceivers, or deceived or right?
This time the “deceived” option can be ruled out almost at once.
There were too many of them for hallucinations. They had known Jesus well. They claimed to have met Him repeatedly over six weeks after His rising. The claim was made with absolute confidence.
A2.6 THE HOAX THEORY.
The opponents of the message claimed that it was a hoax. (Not even they made any of the other more fanciful suggestions that have been dreamed up since. The hoax theory was the only credible alternative to accepting the News as truth.)
To believe that it was a hoax (the most successful hoax of all time) we have to explain these facts:
1. Several hundred people must have joined the conspiracy and not one of them let out the secret, either at the time or later in their lives.
2. They were a fair cross-section of ordinary people.
3. They had nothing to gain by such a deception.
4. They had a great deal to lose, persecution built up and many of them lost their lives - often after having been given, and rejected, a chance to recant.
5. The message was convincing, again a wide cross-section of people listened, weighed it up intelligently, and accepted that it was true, sharing the persecution as a result.
6. The case against their message was fully argued by dedicated opponents at the time. Nothing that could have been said against the truth of the resurrection was left unsaid. Yet the belief spread.
A2.7 SOMEONE IS DESPERATE.
The “total hoax” theory with all its difficulties is at least worth considering as an explanation of the evidence. But we now come to the fanciful theories that were not put forward at the time because nobody would have taken them seriously. The fact that they are being suggested at all, even in this age of science fiction, shows that someone is desperate to discredit the story at any cost.
Theories based on the idea that Jesus was not dead, ignore the most obvious evidence. Roman officers simply did not muff their job like that. Faced with a request to hand over a body for private burial (a common enough request) there was a clear routine to check that it was really dead. A javelin thrust would put it beyond all doubt. This is what the Bible record states happened.
But assuming an impossibly incompetent Centurion and an unbelievable recovery, we are left with the suggestion that a wounded and weakened man could not only get out of the tomb and evade the guards but - most incredible of all - actually convince His followers that He had conquered death.
If He went to them to be nursed back to health they would never have mistaken His survival for resurrection, and if they did not believe it themselves we are back to the hoax theory.
A2.8 SUMMARY
1. The life of Jesus Christ is the best documented life in ancient history.
2. He claimed to be God, and to have come into the world to rescue us by suffering for our sins.
3. His followers spread the news that He had risen from the dead, and offered new life and forgiveness in His Name.
4. All the known facts fit together if His claims are true; but it is hard to explain them any other way.
5. You can check the evidence by reading the New Testament.
6. If it is true, it has to be the most important fact in life.
BUT THERE THE EVIDENCE OF HISTORY ENDS - -
- - AND YOURS BEGINS.
In the end, the proof comes from knowing Him (and from knowing others who know Him). The evidence is given so that we may realise that we do not have a blind faith, believing what cannot be proved. Belief is based on evidence of fact, but also on a relationship with Christ. That relationship grows deeper over the years and becomes more and more conclusive as evidence the more it is tested by difficult experience.
Every new Christian has to find out the faithfulness of God the hard way.
Recommended book; “EVIDENCE THAT DEMANDS A VERDICT” by Josh McDowell.
also booklet “INVESTIGATION IS DANGEROUS (because you might discover the facts).” obtainable from Grow & Go and incorporating parts of above text.