Is Jesus God? Pt 3

If you have been reading this 4 part series I hope you have seen how much evidence there is for the life of Jesus already. In this blog post I want to discuss how Jesus died. The reason this is important is to let you know that Jesus really did die on the cross and in no way shape or form did He fake his death or survive crucifixion. There have been some speculation by scholars that Jesus only seemed to rise from the dead because He never died in the first place. By explaining the method of crucifixion I want to show you that it was impossible for anyone to survive.

Crucifixion was a method of execution developed by the Romans. Thousands of people were crucified under the reign of the Roman Government until Constantine abolished it when he came into power. Therefore it was no uncommon thing for Jesus to be killed in this manner. 

Usually crucifixion had to be order by a Roman Official with high enough ranking to administer this kind of punishment. In the case of Jesus, it was a combination of the Roman Procurator Pontius Pilate and the decision of the Jewish people under the rousing of the High Priest. In ancient Roman times, the High Priest (The highest ranking religious leader) could bring up criminal charges against someone who was committing blasphemy (disrespect to God) which could be punishable by death. It sounds strange that a religious leader had that much power, but they took matters of faith and religion very serious in those days, thus they had power. Because the religious leaders of that time knew that Jesus was telling people He was  God and did not believe him, they urged Pontius Pilate that Jesus be hung on a cross to die. Much discussion went back and forth among the people whether Jesus was guilty of a crime punishable by death but rather than having a riot break out Pilate granted their request.  

They would usually strip naked the person being crucified to be publicly humiliated. Also, in Jesus' case He was spit upon, laughed at, and slapped around. Because Jesus willing let this happen to him and did not fight back, He got treated like an animal. The Roman Soldiers wanted him to slip up, just talk back for a second, or renounce his claim that He was God, but Jesus kept silent. It was as if He was supposed to die or something..

After they beat up on Jesus they would tie his hands to a post where he would be whipped into a bloody pulp. The Roman Soldiers would use something called a "cat of nine tails." Basically it was a leather whip with 9 strands that sometimes had bone and glass tied into it for more penetration. When a person would get whipped, the bone and glass would stick into your skin until they ripped it out leaving your flesh to tear off the body. They did this many many times, even so much that the Bible says Jesus was barely recognized as a man. 

After they had beat him, the Roman Soldiers  put a twisted crown of thorns on his head just to mock him and also placed a robe over his bloodied body.  After the  blood would start coagulating with the cloth robe, they ripped it off, exposing his wounds while it bled profusely. 

Now Jesus would have to carry his own cross just like everyone being crucified did. Imagine being almost beaten to death and then having to carry a 200-300 pound cross to the place where they were going to nail you to it. Jesus was so weak at this point that someone had to help him take it to the crucifixion site. The Bible says Simon of Cyrene, a bystander, was assigned to help carry the cross of Jesus. 

When Jesus finally reached the place He was told to go to, while onlookers stared and mocked him, his hands and feet were nailed to the cross with 8 inch spikes. Crucifixion victims would hang on the cross, bloodied and naked, until they bled to death or suffocated from asphyxiation. 

If that wasn't enough, just to make sure you were dead, they would sometimes thrust a spear into your heart just to make sure you did not survive. Roman Soldiers were responsible to make sure every person being crucified died or else they would be killed themselves for their failure to complete the execution. Not hard to insure though as you can tell. Most victims died within 24-48 hours. The Bible said Jesus died in about 9 hours... 

The only question remains then.. Did Jesus actually rise from the dead? Is there any evidence for it or is it just a made up story for Christians to follow? I will answer this in the last part of "Is Jesus God?"

For the Biblical account of Jesus' crucifixion you can read (Matthew 26:57- 7:61, Mark 14:43-15:47, Luke 22:47-23:56, John 18:28-19:42) 

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. 

Why I blog

Over the past couple of years social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, and others alike have exploded onto the scene with rapid growth. It makes sense .. People crave relationships. They want a sense of belonging and want to connect with others of the same interests and similarities. We were created by God this way so it's good that we desire a connection with other people and what better way to share those homogeneous associations then on the world wide web where you are connected to billions of people as well as many resources to express yourself? 

With all of these networking structures I am surprised more people do not blog. Maybe people really don't know that much about it or they think it's too much maintenance. Sites like Facebook and Myspace are so popular because they are easy to maintain and you can quickly browse through friends to see what they've been up to. Twitter is also getting more and more popular. Twitter is a program that is very simple, just update your status a few times a day so you and your friends can see what everyone has been up to. That's it, no pictures, no notes, no nothing.. It sounds a like a waste of time just updating your status but isn't that what you spend all day on Facebook doing and checking anyways? 

As much as people want to stay connected with others and get that sense of belonging, blogging is an even better way to build community. You can accomplish all the things of Facebook, Myspace, and Twitter, but build a deeper more meaningful community by writing out ideas, thoughts, and day to day activities. 

Let me give you several reasons why I blog and you should too. 

First of all it gets you in the habit of journaling and writing out your thoughts. This is a discipline that most people would like to do but cannot keep up with. Managing your own blog forces you to keep regular with posts. Writing out your thoughts and ideas on paper or in this case on computer will also help you develop an idea and come back to it whenever you need to.

Blogging can be like therapy. Sometimes it is just good to be able to vent or share with others what has been on your mind lately. It can be easier to share your thoughts over the internet because in a sense you are less exposed then in person but you are still getting out your thoughts. It's healthy stuff you know? 

It is like having a reality show about yourself, if you want. If you really want to share with others who you are then write about it! Updating your status once or twice a day is shallow when compared to writing a few paragraphs about your day or an idea you have come across. 

You can provide insight and encouragement to others who read your blog. Maybe you have some good information to share, (like in this blog) and you want to help others by writing it all down. Plus when you are done, people can comment, give you feedback, and help you develop your ideas even more. 

Finally, blogging puts you on the same playing field as everyone else. You don't have to be a somebody to blog, you can be anyone. The beauty of blogging is your thoughts are written down for everyone to see and you don't have to be famous to be heard. The best idea wins.

What are you waiting for? Start blogging and let the world know you a little better by doing so.

The art of brewing coffee

A good cup of coffee can be hard to find sometimes. We all have our preferences, such as flavors, brand, whole bean or grind, light or dark roast, decaf or not, etc.. There are many varieties and ways you can make the perfect cup of coffee that is to your own liking. It truly is an art. Now I am no expert but I will share with you how I brew my perfect cup. 

First, choose the right brand of coffee. I really enjoy the Starbucks breakfast blend so I usually drink that in the mornings. It's got a medium flavor, not too heavy not too light, with a good finish. 

Second, I make sure that I get whole bean. I used to get the already ground stuff but that was in the past. Taking the extra minute to grind your own coffee produces a much fresher and cleaner flavor. If you don't own a grinder you can find one just about anywhere for like 20 bucks. 

Third, after I have put my grinds into the filter, in which I have no preference, I make sure to use ice cold water. The colder the water the better for some reason. If you have bottled watered or purified water it's even better, but I don't go that far. By the way I go the standard two tablespoons for every 6 ounces of water, and yes I measure everything.. I just hate screwing it up. 

Four, after the coffee is made I always use liquid creamer (no flavor) and a spoon of sugar. I know I'm a wuss right for not drinking it black, but black is boring. Then I will take a flavored syrup and add a little of that if I want. I use the sugar free stuff to cut back  a little bit. 

Fifth, when I'm done I store my coffee in an airtight container. Don't freeze your coffee, it will not last longer or stay fresh that way. I know some people say to do it but trust me unless you want jacked up coffee. 

This is my art of brewing the perfect cup of coffee. What is yours? 

Tu Habla Espanol?

My wife and I bought the first level of the Rosetta Stone program to begin to learn Spanish. We both already know some and picked up quite a bit when we were in Peru last year but want to be proficient enough to carry conversations. Just for fun I thought I would give you 10 reasons why you too should learn Spanish. 

1. Spanish is the third most spoken language in the world and becoming more popular than English.

2. You can travel to Mexico and all of South America and communicate with just about everyone.

3. It would be cool to be able to speak another language. 

4. It's very valuable for mission trips.

5. You can impress your friends next time you go to a Mexican restaurant. 

6. You know someone that speaks it or will encounter someone that does.

7. It expands your career choices and makes you stand out above the competition. 

8. You could watch Nacho Libre without subtitles. 

9. You can also communicate to people who speak Italian because the languages are a lot alike. You'd be surprised. 

10. When you get upset you can just go off in Spanish so no one can understand what you are saying. Kinda like my mother did in Korean when she would get mad.  Lol

Clean House

There is this show that my wife and I watch sometimes called "Clean House." Basically people submit videos and pictures of their filthy house hoping that the Clean House crew will come in, clean everything and redecorate their house. Normally the house that is chosen is extremely in need of help. Clothes are thrown everywhere, junk litters the floors, and most rooms aren't even accessible due to all the crap everywhere. Then the Clean House crew gets to work. They pull everything out of the house, sell some of the junk at a yard sale, and then take that money to redecorate their house into something that is much more livable. 

What I find funny is that these people didn't need professionals to come and clean their house, they could have done it themselves.  The bottom line is they are just too lazy to do it. I admit I wouldn't mind if professional cleaning people cleaned my apartment from time to time. But what happens to most of these houses featured is they eventually go back into the same mess they were in the first place. The problem lies not in the Clean House crew but in the people living in those houses being cleaned. Although they have had their house cleaned, they fall back into the same patterns because they have not changed their lazy mindset and eventually they are stuck back in the same mess again.

Sometimes we need to examine our own lives and see what in our "house" needs to be cleaned. Maybe there is a sin that hasn't been properly dealt with or something that you know should be taken care of and you haven't gotten around to it. There could even be things that you don't even realize that might take a closer inspection. Well it' s time to clean house. Our bodies are the temple of the living God for goodness sake! 

But here is what happens when we clean house. We confess our sins to God, we commit never to go back to them again and things are great, at least for a short time. But soon after, we find ourselves committing the same sins over and over, asking God for mercy and grace once again. We've all been guilty of it and I will be the first to admit that. The reason for repeated actions of disobedience towards God comes when there has been no renewing of the mind. We fall into the same traps when we fail to take God's word and let them transform us. 

Transformation happens through meditation, prayer, and a plan of action. Andy Stanley said something profound that I keep with me all the time " Your direction not your intention determines your destination." I love it. We can have good intentions, expect God to do great things, but if we never take action and ownership of God's truths, our old habits will always creep back in, making us filthy again. 

Examine your life and remove not just the uncleanness in it but let God put something new into your heart that will transform the way you act so you don't have to repeat the process all over again. 

Made in his image

Today I awoke early to discover that the ground was covered in snow. I've lived in Lynchburg, Virginia for about two years and I know that snow is a rare sight to see. It turns out we got hit with about 9 inches of snow, the most we've had in a decade according to the weather man. Anyways, like little kids, my wife Lindsey and I went outside to go play in it. We ended up building a rather unusual snowman, or snowthing. It has hair made out of leaves, uneven stick arms, crazy eyes, and a mouth full of crazy sharp twig teeth with a few old berries in his mouth.We didn't really have any rocks so the snowman had to settle for a buttonless coat. It is definitely one of the weirdest snowmen I have ever made.. but I would not change a thing.

I enjoyed making it and even though it's not your "everyday" snowman, I am proud of it. It is my creation and to me its the way I wanted it, whether you may like it or not.

God made us in his image. We are his masterpiece creation. Every person has God's unique touch and whether you or I find flaws in ourselves or other people, He created us just the way He wanted. We can find peace knowing that our creator loves us just the way we are. He would not change a thing.