Jesus: Lord or Lunatic?

The fact that Jesus was an actual, historical figure, living in first century Palestine is undisputed. His existence, life, and death accounts are supported in many secular, historical works from the time.  But who was he?  That is where the controversy lies.  Christians believe Jesus was the Son of God, that he died for our sins, was raised from the dead, and is returning.

• Discussion:  What are your thoughts, or what have you heard about who Jesus really was?  Is it possible that he was and/or was not the Son of God?

C.S. Lewis says:  “I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: 'I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept His claim to be God.'  That is the one thing we must not say.  A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things that Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher.  He would either be a lunatic—on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg—or else he would be the Devil of Hell.  You must make your choice.  Either this man was, and is, the Son of God:  or else a madman or something worse.  You can shut him up as a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God.  But let us not come with any patronising nonsense about His being a great human teacher.  He has not left that open to us.  He did not intend to.”1

*The Bible has much to say about who Jesus was, but can we trust this source?  We have already looked at why we can trust the Bible, but when we talk about resurrection and other miracles, do we have any further evidence to support our trust in this Book?  And why is this important?

First of all, the Bible uses eyewitness accounts when retelling the events in Jesus' life:

2 Peter 1:16 – 21:  “For we did not follow cleverly devised stories when we told you about the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ in power, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty.  He received honor and glory from God the Father when the voice came to him from the Majestic Glory, saying, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”  We ourselves heard this voice that came from heaven when we were with him on the sacred mountain.  We also have the prophetic message as something completely reliable, and you will do well to pay attention to it, as to a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.  Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation of things.  For prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.” (emphasis added).

Most of the accounts we have in the Bible about Jesus are from eyewitnesses.  They wrote what they saw, heard, experienced.   (hand out list for later review; look up a few if time allows:  Matt 28:9, 10, 16 – 20; Mark 16:9, 14 – 20;  Luke 1: 1 – 3; Luke 24: 13 – 52; John 20:14 – 31; John 21: 1 – 23; Acts 1: 1 - 12;  Acts 2:22; Acts 7: 55; Acts 9: 3 – 6; Acts 10: 39 – 42;  Acts 22: 17 – 21; Acts 23:11; 1 Cor 15: 5 – 8;  1 Peter 5:1; 1 John 1: 1-4; 1 John 4:14).

The church was founded on the resurrection of Jesus.  Disproving it would have ended the Christian movement, but no one could refute it!  So they persecuted the Christians instead, intending to threaten and scare them out of believing.

So, let's take a look at the resurrection.  If this event really happened, then we can trust that the rest of Jesus' story is true as well.

“If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised.  And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith.  More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead.  But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised.”  1 Corinthians 15:13 – 15.

The most important fact is that the tomb was empty.  No one ever refuted that.  No one visited the empty tomb for years.  Everyone knew Jesus wasn't there.

  • What are some of the alternatives that you may have heard to explain away the empty tomb? List them.

Let's look at some of the alternative theories:

1.  Was Jesus' resurrection a mass hallucination?  He was seen alive by more than 500 people at once. (1 Corinthians 15:6).  Thomas doubted until he was able to touch the risen Jesus' body.  (John 20:27). Jesus was seen alive, after the resurrection by too many people, at too many times, and under too many circumstances for this to have been a hallucination.


2.  Did the disciples make the whole thing up, maybe out of grief?  The disciples were heavily persecuted, and all but one of them died a terrible death for their belief in the resurrection.  For days after Jesus' death, the disciples hid in the upper room, and some even left town; they were afraid for their lives.  Then, immediately upon seeing with their own eyes that Jesus was alive, they had a new boldness.  Something had to have changed, dramatically, for them to have such a complete turnaround. They would not have risked their lives for a lie, rather, they would have left the ministry and gone off into hiding had Jesus not been raised to life, and changed their understanding and beliefs forever.


3.  (Swoon theory)  Maybe Jesus wasn't really dead.  Read how he died: He was beaten, unrecognizable, too weak to carry the cross, hung on the cross, spear thrust through his side (water/blood proof of death); soldiers confirmed death (and they would know); afterward, he was wrapped in 100 lbs. of spices and linens.  There was a huge stone in front of tomb, with trained soldiers guarding the tomb.  Jesus could not have just awakened from a deep sleep, or even a coma, and walked away (7 miles to Emmaus).

4.  Did they have the wrong tomb?  (Ask why we know this couldn't have happened). Jesus was not buried in a cemetery where there would have been lots of other choices.  And why would an alternate tomb be empty?  Usually, a sepulcher like this would have had bones from many bodies; it was unusual for Jesus' tomb (originally Joseph's) to be new and unused.  Also, the women had just been to this tomb hours before.  What about the angel that was there in the morning?  Peter and John went to the tomb as soon as they heard, and they arrived at the same place.  Could they have all gone to the same wrong, empty tomb?  Joseph or Nicodemus would have corrected them, if that was the case.  Priests/guards would have produced the body if they had all gone to the wrong tomb.

5. The Jews propagated the lie that the disciples stole the body.  (Matt 28: 11- 15).  Could that be what happened?

Remember, the disciples were afraid already.  They wouldn’t have had the courage to steal the body under guard.  They didn't believe he was raised, they also didn't yet understand the prophecies or Jesus' own statements that he had to die.  They wouldn't have had motive.  Only 2 of them left to check it out when the women returned to the upper room to tell the disciples what had happened.

Guards:  Matthew 27: 62 – 66.  Guards were under penalty of death and were trained killers.  They wouldn't have sat by and allowed their post to be invaded.  They wouldn't have fallen asleep.  If they had somehow fallen asleep, the large stone being rolled away would have awakened them.  Could all of them fallen asleep at the same time?  Also,  the stone was sealed.  It would have broken Roman law to break the seal, which carried the death penalty.  The guards said they were asleep, AND the disciples stole the body.  It couldn’t have been both.  Which was it?  If they were awake, why let anyone steal the body?  If they were asleep, how did they know it was the disciples?  They were paid off and protected by the priests.  If they didn't have this protection, they would have been executed.  If this story were true, the priest would not have protected them.  The priests would have wanted them executed as well. The fact that they weren't executed further substantiates that this didn’t happen.2

Condition of the tomb:  Read John 19: 38 – 42 and John 20:6-9.  Linens and spices that had been wrapped around his body by Joseph and Nicodemus were still wrapped!  Thieves wouldn't have re-wrapped the linens. John's description implies Jesus melted right through them.  Seeing the placement of the linen wrappings, still folded, made a significant impact on John and made him a believer.

• Discussion:  In light of all the evidence, what makes the most sense?  What questions do you still have about the resurrection?

Conclusion: Jesus had previously predicted he would die and rise again.  If what he said about this was true, can't we trust everything else he said? If God really came to earth as a man, and lived a substitute life for humanity, and allowed himself to experience death, we would expect him to come back to life, wouldn’t we?  We believe God to be powerful enough to do this, since he created everything in the first place.  If we believe he has the power of life and death, can we trust him to be a power in our lives?

1Lewis, C.S., Mere Christianity, chapter 3, C. S. Lewis Pte, Ltd., 1952
2McDowel, Josh, Evidence that Demands a Verdict, Volume I, Here's Life Publishers, San Bernardino, CA, 1979, chapter 10.

Is the Bible just a book?

Lesson 7:  IS THE BIBLE JUST A BOOK?

• The Old Testament was originally written in a Hebrew language that is no longer spoken.  Can we know that the Bible we have today is essentially the same as the original?

 • I've heard the Bible contradicts itself.  Is this true?  If so, how can we say it is reliable?

Let's first look at what Jesus had to say about the Bible.  Keep in mind that when Jesus refers to the scriptures, he was referring to the Old Testament, not the Bible that we have, as the New Testament had not yet been written.  According to the Bible, Jesus believed and taught from the scriptures.  Luke 4:16 says, “He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom.  And he stood up to read.” (NIV).  Throughout his ministry, Jesus taught the people about the Kingdom of God.  He frequently referred to the scriptures in making his points.  See Matthew 4:1-11; 5:17; 10:15, 12:40, 41; 24:37, 38; Luke 4:21. (Many more!) He asked his audience, “Have you not read?” 11 times in the gospels and “It is written” 30 times.  Jesus obviously believed the Bible to be true and relevant. See John 17:17; Matthew 19:4-6. 
The apostles also believed the Bible to be truth.  According to the Bible, an apostle is someone who was an eyewitness to the resurrection of Jesus and was able, through the Holy Spirit, to perform miracles.  See Acts 1:22; 1 Corinthians 9:1; and 2 Corinthians 12:12. If the Bible is true, then the apostles would be the perfect people to confirm it.  “All scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness...” (2 Timothy 3: 16, NIV).   What "scripture" was Timothy referring to?  See 2 Peter 1: 16-21 & 3:16.  

  

Since it isn't enough to use the Bible to justify itself, what else can we know about the Bible and its translations that can help us test its reliability?

1.  Archeology has corroborated the names, places, and customs written in the Bible.  If the genealogies in the gospels and elsewhere in the Bible were not real people, what would be the purpose of listing them out in such detail?

2.  The manuscripts we have are older and more numerous, and were written closer to the people and events they describe than any other ancient work of literature.  Looking specifically at the New Testament, which was written around 2000 years ago, we can see that our sources are reliable.  We have more than 24,000 early New Testament manuscripts.  That compares to 643 copies of Homer's Iliad, which is the next most numerous ancient text.  This is also a great text to use for comparison, as the Iliad was also considered a “sacred” text, was used to teach children in school, was illustrated in murals, and was referred to in many commentaries, so it would have had historical significance and a desire for preservation.  No one questions the origin or authenticity of the Iliad.  Using the same criteria, we cannot question the origin of the New Testament.

3.  The copies we have of the New Testament manuscripts are from different geographical areas and were translated into different languages.  The New Testament was copied soon after the time of the apostles into Latin, Syriac, Coptic, Ethiopian, etc., in effort to spread the gospels.  This gives us distinct sources for comparison as to the reliability of the text we have now.   We can know that no doctrines were affected during translation and copying, because when we compare the multiple translations that we have, we can see what the original would have said.

4. The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1947 attested to the authenticity of the Old Testament.  These scrolls were very old manuscripts and were very well preserved.  Some of them were dated to around 980 AD.  This gave us the opportunity to compare the oldest manuscripts we previously had to these new discoveries, and the results were that our copies of the Old Testament were essentially unchanged over the centuries.  The errors that were found were mostly spelling errors.

5.  The Bible survived many attempts to abolish it.  If it were just a storybook, no one would have fought to keep it and protect it as they did.  The harder its enemies worked to destroy it, the faster it was copied and shared.  Many people have risked their lives and died copying and distributing the pages in order to make them available to everyone.  This is still happening today.  People

that risked their lives to preserve the script would have taken the necessary care to be accurate in their work.  And no one would have risked their lives to protect a book that was nothing more than made up stories.

6.  It was carefully transcribed to begin with.  Throughout history, there have been people whose only job was to accurately and carefully transcribe every word, every line, every stroke.  They were dedicated and reverent in their job.  There were specific guidelines for how the columns and lines were laid out.  They had to count words, lines, middle words, etc., to be sure they didn't miss a thing. Only after a manuscript was validated would it be counted as accurate.

7.  If we had no early manuscripts, we could still rely on the many sermons, commentaries, and letters that exist from the early church fathers.  So many, in fact, that we could reproduce all but 11 verses of the New Testament.1   For example, the apostle John's disciple, Polycarp (AD 69 – 155) and his disciple, Irenaes (AD 130 – 202), together quote 23 of the 27 New Testament books.

8.  We have early manuscripts.  Most scholars agree that the eyewitness accounts in the New Testament were written within 1 generation of the actual accounts.  If they had been written after AD 70, they would logically have included accounts of the destruction of Jerusalem that year.  In addition to that being a national tragedy, the genealogical records of the Jewish nation were destroyed in Jerusalem, except for the records of the Levites.  If the writers came after 70 AD, they could not have proven the lines of Judah, Jesse, or David, which were cited in the ancestry of Jesus. The actual copies that we have (the originals were written on papyrus or animal skins that didn't age well and led to the need for copies) are dated within 300 years of the originals, and some are within 100 years.  In comparison, the manuscripts in existence for other ancient works are much later.  For example, the oldest text of Caesar's Gallic Wars is from 900 years after its origin.  Other Greek manuscripts are 1000 years or more from their origins (Plato's works 1200 years, Aristotle's 1400 years post originals) yet no one questions their validity.

9.  The first printing press was invented with the purpose of producing the Bible and making it available to the common people.  This helped to provide multiple, consistent copies.

10.  The story line of the Bible is not consistent with that of fiction.  The “heroes” of the Bible are liars, murderers, adulterers, drunkards, prostitutes.  The examples of their failures are preserved along with their successes.  The Hebrew nation is shown as weak, backsliding, unfaithful and disobedient, yet God rescues and preserves them.  The New Testament shows God offering his sinless Son to save sinners that don't deserve to be saved.  This is not a typical fairy tale.  The Bible also honors women, elevates the poor and disabled, slaves, and outcasts.  This is not typical of any literature past or present, unless it is biographical.

11.  The New Testament claims to be largely eyewitness testimony.  See 2 Peter 1:6 for example.  (we will explore this more in a future lesson).  Many people believe that the Bible is full of contradictions, such as the difference in the Gospel accounts regarding the angel(s) at the tomb of Jesus after his resurrection.  One says there was one angel, another says there were two.  Eyewitness courtroom testimony is often like this.  In fact, if witness testimony is too close, they are considered to be in collusion. In this example, the statement that there was one angel doesn't say ONLY one angel.  There could have been two.  And the resurrection story is the same, whether there were one or two angels.

 Discussion:  Does this information support our trust in the Bible's accuracy?  Why or why not?

1Leach, Charles.  “Our Bible.  How we got it.” Chicago, Moody Press, 1878, pp. 35, 36.