Over the years various “experts” have asserted that Jesus either did not exist or his story was embellished over the years to become supernatural. This lie is often presented as a question, a quest, or a search for evidence. The best advice we can offer is, check it out. Don’t be afraid of the facts or where they may lead you. You will have no problem finding real experts who can point out evidence for a Jesus that is not only historical but real in the lives of people today. You don’t want to live your life based on doubts or rumor or tradition.
What do you do with questions about Jesus? Do your own research. Examine the arguments, then pick a particular issue that you find problematic and dig deeper. Often skeptics will present a number of problems at once, add a dose of ridicule, incredulous that so many Christians could be so gullible. This Gish gallop is a technique used in debate that focuses on overwhelming an opponent with as many arguments as possible, without regard for accuracy or strength of the arguments. Like the lion tamer at the circus that holds up a stool with 4 legs to confuse the animal.
Someone gave me good advice about how to handle doubts. “How sure are you about your faith, 80%? Then examine carefully the other 20%, make your decision, then live completely committed to what you believe. This approach agrees with advice from the Bible itself:
If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. 6 But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. 7 For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; 8 he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. (James 1:5-8)
Usually, the arguments against Jesus being a historical figure will point to the lack of “unbiased” sources from that time period. But isn’t that just what we should expect?! Why would people write about a man who claimed to be the Messiah, the Son of God, if they did not believe Him. Of course we don’t see coins minted with Jesus’ image in the first century. There are no early statues of him. It is true that neither Herod nor Pilate left us memoirs of having met a radical by the name of Jesus of Nazareth. (In fact, historians doubted that Pontius Pilate even existed until 1961 when a stone was found with his name engraved on it.)
Next the skeptics attack the miracles like walking on water. “Who could believe that?!” If you rule out a God and the supernatural as possibilities, then of course there is much of the Bible that is impossible to accept.
“If Peter and John and Paul and the other apostles wanted to invent a new religion, they could hardly have hit on doctrines less plausible to their hearers. To the strictly monotheistic Jews they proclaimed that Jesus was the Son of God and that Jesus and his father were both God. To the rationalistic Greeks they proclaimed that Jesus, lock, stock, and body, had risen from the dead and that his followers would someday experience this same resurrection… The very preposterousness of their teachings is a sign that they were proclaiming what they had experienced as true and were convinced was true.”
Why Believe by C. Stephen Evans p.124
Skeptics may note that much of the material in Matthew and Luke is copied from Mark because of their similarities. Others attack the differences in these gospel accounts. (Was it two blind men that Jesus healed at Jericho or just one? Was it entering or exiting Jericho?) Notice that these two attacks are contradictory. If Matthew copied Mark, then why do these differences exist in the accounts? Those differences actually show that they used independent sources.
All of these questions and more have good answers, but you must honestly look for those answers. Don’t let skeptics and their arguments derail you. Many of these secular scholars are an academic embarrassment. Pursue the truth. If you want help, please send us your questions.
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