Is Jesus God? Pt 2

This post is the second of 4 total. Here I want to show you that Jesus existed and is not a made up figure in history. The best way to show this is to take ancient accounts of people who lived around the same time as Jesus and read what they have to say about him if anything.

Tacitus

 Cornelius Tacitus (AD 55-120) was a Roman historian who lived through the reign of over a half dozen Roman emperors. He has been called the “greatest historian” of ancient Rome, acknowledged among scholars for his moral integrity and goodness. Tacitus recorded at least one reference to Christ and two to early Christianity, one in each of his major works. The following was recounted concerning the great fire in Rome during the reign of Nero.

 “Consequently, to get rid of the report, Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called Christians by the populace. Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus, and a most mischievous superstition, thus checked for the moment, again broke out not only in Judaea, the first source of the evil, but even in Rome, where all things hideous and shameful from every part of the world find their centre and become popular. Accordingly, an arrest was first made of all who pleaded guilty; then, upon their information, an immense multitude was convicted, not so much of the crime of firing the city, as of hatred against mankind. Mockery of every sort was added to their deaths. Covered with the skins of beasts, they were torn by dogs and perished, or were nailed to crosses, or were doomed to the flames and burnt, to serve as a nightly illumination, when daylight had expired.”

 From this paragraph alone we can learn many things.

1. Christians were named for their founder, Christus (from the Latin)
2. who was put to death by the Roman procurator Pontius Pilatus (also Latin)
3. during the reign of emperor Tiberius (AD 14-37)
4. His death ended the “superstition” for a short time (The conviction of the early church that Jesus who had been crucified had risen from the grave.)
5. but it broke out again
6. Especially in Judaea, where the teachings had its origin.
7. His followers carried his doctrine to Rome
8. When the great fire destroyed a large part of the city during the reign of Nero (AD 54-68), the emperor placed the blame on the Christians who lived in Rome

 Suetonius

 Little is known about Suetonius except that he was the chief secretary of Emperor Hadrian and that he had access to the imperial records. Writing on a section of Emperor Claudius (AD 41-54) he says:

 “Because the Jews at Rome caused continuous disturbances at the instigation of Chrestus, he expelled them from the city….. After the great fire at Rome… Punishments were also inflicted on the Christians, a sect professing a new and mischievous religious belief.

 From these we can learn

1. There was an expulsion of the Jews from Rome (Also cited in Acts 18:2)
2. That it was Christ who caused the Jews to make the uproar in Rome, apparently by his teachings
3. The term Christians was used to identify this group as followers of the teachings of Christ.

Josephus

 Jewish historian Flavius Josephus (AD 37-97) provides interesting evidence concerning Jesus. There have been some arguments about the authenticity of this particular writing but most scholars consider it to be accurate.

 “At this time there was a wise man who was called Jesus, and his conduct was good, and he was known to be virtuous. And many people from among the Jews and the other nations became his disciples. Pilate condemned him to be crucified and to die. And those who had become his disciples did not abandon their loyalty to him. They reported that he had appeared to them three days after his crucifixion, and that he was alive. Accordingly they believed that he was the Messiah, concerning whom the Prophets have recounted wonders."

 From this one can learn

1. Jesus was known as a wise and virtuous man
2. He had many disciples, both Jews and Gentiles
3. Pilate condemned him to die
4. Crucifixion is how Jesus died
5. The disciples reported that Jesus had risen from the dead
6. Jesus appeared to his disciples after 3 days in the grave
7. Disciples continued to proclaim his teaching
8. Jesus was the brother of James and called the messiah by some

* There are about 10 more extra biblical sources that reveal the life and death of Jesus.

 I got a lot of my information from "The Historical Jesus" by Gary Habermas. You can also check out his website Garyhabermas.com or read Ravi Zacharias, Norman Geisler, or William Lane Craig for more information. 

Is Jesus God? pt1

If you are someone that is seeking for truth and purpose in life please continue to read. 

Christianity has always been known as a religion of faith. Jesus himself said blessed are those who believe without seeing. For hundreds of years many scholars have argued that there was no historical evidence for the life and death of Jesus. Rudolph Bultmann, professor of New Testament in the early 1900’s and one of the leading theologians of his day said that there was no way to know the historical Jesus and quickly dismissed it, arguing that faith alone derived from the Bible was enough. Bultmann, although heavily criticized by his peers remained persistent in his beliefs until his death in 1976. One of Bultmann’s students, Ernst Kasemann, thought a little differently. He claimed that there was historical evidence for the life of Jesus, but even Kasemann admitted there was very little.

Regardless of one’s beliefs today, it is clear that Jesus has been criticized, questioned, and debated about more than any other person in history. While there are many world religions, it is only Jesus that claimed He was God and was the only way to heaven. Other religious leaders never claimed that, think about it, why else would Jesus be so criticized? If someone is truly seeking for truth, regardless of other thoughts or beliefs they should look into the claims of Jesus and make a decision whether to follow him or not. If Jesus did in fact rise from the dead, He should be followed, and worshipped as God right? Otherwise you can toss him back into the sea of religions to sink or float with the rest of them. 

So the question remains, did Jesus actually exist and if He did, did He really die on a cross and resurrect from the dead proving He is the Son of God? The Bible would say yes to all of those questions but are there any other sources of evidence outside of the Bible crediting its claims? When one looks into the different evidences, they will be astonished to find the overwhelming amount of proof leading to the existence of Jesus and the validity of his works.

 Three questions will be answered WITHOUT using the Bible as proof but only as a reference.  

1. Did Jesus actually exist?
2. How did He die?
3. Did he really rise from the dead?

I will answer these in the next post or two. Stay tuned, especially if you are a skeptic.