JESUS | doyouknowwhy

JESUS

If the Bible proves itself as the only book truly inspired by God then we can trust everything that is written there. If we call ourselves Christians we also have no choice but to accept what is taught there. As covered earlier, one category of proofs that the Bible is inspired is prophesy. Fulfilled prophesy is a proof exclusive to the Bible. No other book claiming to be inspired from God shows evidence of detailed prophetic fulfillment like the Bible.

The following site compares prophesies between the Bible and the Qur’an:

The Qur'an (Koran) vs. The Bible: Predictions of human actions show which one is truly from God

http://worldview3.50webs.com/quranvbible.html

Predictions Prove the Bible's Authority

http://worldview3.50webs.com/prophecy.html

The Claim: Jesus Never Existed

As I indicated in the Challenging Statements for Christians section, I’ve provided in this section the basic answers to this claim and also provide additional resources. If you have not already done so, please read the sub-sections on Truth, the evidences for God, and the evidences for the Bible being from God. After reading through the information in just these three sub-sections, you will see the overwhelming evidence for the existence of Jesus, and also how improbable the truth is of this claim against His existence.

Since Truth exists, and if the logical conclusion from the evidence is that God exists and that the Bible is His word, it is very reasonable to conclude that Jesus Christ existed and is the one who the Bible indicates. After reading the information in this section and especially reading the information at the links below, you will see how this claim is so effectively answered.

It is easy to see the implications of this claim that Jesus never existed. If this claim is true, then no evidences given for the existence of Jesus Christ matter at all; neither the evidences for His claims to deity, for His providing salvation, or for anything else about Him. Remember the four primary beliefs held about God’s existence; that there is one God, many gods, Everything is god, or there is no God? When we apply the Law of Non-Contradiction and Truth to these beliefs, we see that only one of these options can be true, automatically making the others false. When we apply this Law and Truth to the existence of Jesus Christ, we also find that there is only one option. He either exists or doesn’t exist, but He can’t have both existed and not existed at the same time.

As we have just covered the evidence for Truth and its implications, as well as the evidences for the existence of God and the evidences that the Bible is from God; it is easy to conclude that anyone making the claim that Jesus never existed has either not explored the actual evidences for the existence of Jesus, or they have already decided that any evidences aren’t true and don’t matter. That saying again,

“Don’t confuse me with the truth, I’ve already made up my mind.”

In the Truth section, what impact did we determine that a person’s decisions have on truth? Absolutely none! Truth is true regardless of what we decide. Whatever is proven by all the evidences; whether history, science, mathematics, etc., is true regardless of what we decide. Remember, which kind of Truth is based upon what a person decides is true? That’s right, Subjective Truth.

So which is true, the claims that Jesus Christ never existed and was a myth, or that Jesus Christ actually did exist?

Some of the specific claims made as evidence for the main claim that Jesus never existed are similar to the following ones from the following Salon article:

5 Reasons To Suspect That Jesus Never Existed

www.salon.com/2014/09/01/5_reasons_to_suspect_that_jesus_never_existed/

1. No first century secular evidence whatsoever exists to support the actuality of Yeshua ben Yosef.

2. The earliest New Testament writers seem ignorant of the details of Jesus’ life, which become more crystalized in later texts.

3. Even the New Testament stories don’t claim to be first-hand accounts.

4. The gospels, our only accounts of a historical Jesus, contradict each other.

5. Modern scholars who claim to have uncovered the real historical Jesus depict wildly different persons.

These claims sound significant when first heard, but like all claims, are easier to make than to substantiate. These claims are answered by the following article:

Did Jesus Ever Really Exist?

http://myocn.net/jesus-ever-really-exist/

I've reproduced Reason 1 from the Salon article and the answer to the reason from the article above. You can use the above link to read the answers to the remaining claims.

Reason 1: “No first century secular evidence whatsoever exists to support the actuality of Yeshua ben Yosef” (i.e. “Jesus son of Joseph”; it sounds more scholarly in the Hebrew). That is, as the article goes on to say, “there is no mention of Jesus at all by any of his pagan contemporaries,” and “there are no birth records, no trial transcripts, no death certificates.”

Answer to Reason 1: This is an astonishing thing to say, and reveals an immense ignorance of how history actually works. For example, there are no birth records, trial transcripts, or death certificate for Saul of Tarsus either (i.e. for St. Paul), but no one seriously doubts that he was born, tried by the Romans, and martyred in Rome in the sixth decade of the first century. And since Jesus was born, lived, and died in a little backwater of the Roman Empire known as Palestine, there is no reason to imagine that any pagan historian would take notice of Him until the movement He founded grew big enough to become a problem.

But actually, one of Jesus’ contemporaries did mention Him – not a pagan contemporary, but a Jewish one. As any first-year college student of the period knows, Josephus (born about 37 A.D.) mentions Jesus in his work Antiquities of the Jews. Most scholars say that the original text read as follows:

“At this time there appeared Jesus, a wise man. For he was a doer of startling deeds, a teacher of people who receive the truth with pleasure. And he gained a following both among many Jews and among many of Greek origin. And when Pilate, because of an accusation made by the leading men among us, condemned him to the cross, those who had loved him previously did not cease to do so. And up until this very day the tribe of Christians (named after him) has not died out.”

Josephus lived and died a Jew, and was never a Christian. There is not the slightest reason to suspect his reporting is not accurate at this point. Josephus' reporting accords well with the New Testament records written independently about the same time. Josephus’ history indeed constitutes “first-century secular evidence” supporting “the actuality” of Jesus.

Check the following links as well for answers to these claims and others similar to the above claim. Additionally, I've included links to the Google Books previews of three books answering these claims.

Was Jesus a Real Person?

http://y-jesus.com/wp-content/tcpdf-pdf/1848.pdf

Who Was the Real Jesus? and other questions

http://y-jesus.com/pdf-list/

Jesus Never Existed? Resources for Study

www.apologetics315.com/2008/12/jesus-never-existed-resources-for-study.html

Did Jesus Exist

www.tektonics.org/jesusexisthub.php

Common Objection #18- "Jesus Never Existed."

http://truthbomb.blogspot.com/2012/09/common-objection-18-jesus-never-existed.html

Did Jesus Even Exist?-The Problematic Argument from Silence

http://apologeticsuk.blogspot.com/2012/01/did-jesus-even-exist-problematic.html