Is He who He says He is?

     It can be proven beyond the bible that Jesus of Nazareth existed. Ancient writers such as Tasseduss, Pliney the Younger and Josephus have written about him and the first Christians. Some of those writers were no friends of the Christians either. Pliney the Younger in fact gave instructions on how to kill Christians. So it is not a question of whether Jesus existed or not.
     I think the big questions is, is Jesus of Nazareth really who he says he is? When God revealed Himself to Moses, God gave himself an “identity”. Moses had asked God essentially, who is it that is sending him to free the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. God responded, “I AM. Tell them I AM sent you.” In Hebrew “I AM” is “YWH” or “YAWEH”.  This is the Most Holy name of God that till this day the Jews do not pronounce.

     In the Gospel of St. John 8:24, 58, 13:19, 18:5-8, Jesus refers to himself as “I AM”. It is most notable that the language that Jesus spoke was Aramaic and that he switched to Hebrew to refer to himself as God is very significant. For this is the reason the Sadducees and Pharisees wanted to kill Him. It was for blasphemy. The Romans wanted to kill Jesus because he was a threat to the Empire.

     I find it laughable when people refer to Him as a just a good teacher or a charismatic leader. If Jesus wasn’t who He said He was, than that would make Him a dangerous and evil man, or possibly psychotic, because only a dangerous liar or crazy person would actually call them selves God.

     So why do Christians believe that Jesus is God? Because he said he was and he proved it in His Resurrection and His dead body was never found after it was buried in the tomb.

     The day Jesus was crucified he was placed in a tomb with a large stone rolled in front. Three days after he was put in the tomb he had risen from the dead. Common sense tells us that people do not come back from the dead. And we can not assume that he did not die while on the cross. The Romans would never have let that happen.

     He appeared to Mary Magdalene on the same day of His resurrection and she had ran back and told the disciples that He has risen from the dead. For forty days after his resurrection he had appeared to His disciples and continued to teach them until he ascended into Heaven.

     So maybe His disciples hid the body and made up the elaborate story of His resurrection to get power or fame? Well that obviously didn’t happen because all twelve of the Apostles were killed. Some were crucified, some were burned or skinned alive, stoned to death, etc. and not one of them confessed to where they might have hidden his body or admitted to some plot for power and fame. In fact they all were praying for those that were killing them.

     Well maybe the Romans or Jews hid His body? That didn’t happen either. If the Romans did have His body that would have shown it to everyone in order to quite the Christians and that would have been the end. It never happened.

     The only other alternative is that He is God and that He did rise from the dead and He ascended into Heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. We accept this because of the testimony from the written accounts of the Apostles, the Disciples, and the early church fathers. We trust that what they said was true, just like we accept what our parents tell us. How are we to know for a fact that we were born in California in 1975 and not in New York in 1980? It is because of the testimony and faith we put in others. How are we to know for a fact that George Washington crossed the Delaware? We were not there! It is because we trust those who have told us.

     It seems that a lot of what we believe is accepted by faith. By faith we believe in God and the atheist, by his faith, believes that there is no God. Science can not prove there is a God and it can not disprove His existence either. Faith is entirely reasonable.

     Now, a new question has to be asked. How can God die? Short answer: because The Word became flesh in the person of Jesus, Jesus was born of the Virgin Mary, conceived by the Holy Spirit, he suffered died and was buried. Jesus was like us in all things except for sin. He felt pain, He laughed and cried, He was tempted, He slept, ate and drank wine. Jesus was both divine and man. See my post on the Trinity. It might help you to understand the nature of God and the relationship of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.