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Argument #1

There is no evidence He ever existed… he is like the Easter Bunny or Santa Claus.

Answer
Of all the religions of the world, only Christianity stakes its credibility upon historical fact. The philosopher, lawyer, and theologian John Warwick Montgomery states, “The historic Christian claim differs qualitatively from the claims of all other religions at the epistemological point: on the issue of testability.” Only Christianity stakes its claim to truthfulness on historical events open to all critics to investigate. And like any truth it stands up to all tests.

All other religions of the world are believed by millions or billions of people despite the lack of genuine evidence for their claims. No genuinely historical and objective evidence exists for the foundational claims of Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, or any other religion except the claims of Christ! All others depend on subjective evidences or blind faith. Dr. Henry Morris a scientist and Christian states: “As a matter of fact, the entire subject of evidences is almost exclusively the domain of Christian evidences. Other religions depend on subjective experience and blind faith, tradition and opinion. Christianity stands or falls upon the objective reality of gigantic supernatural events in history and the evidences therefore. The fact in itself is an evidence of its truth.”

First we must address the Bible record and determine whether it is a true historical document of eyewitness accounts or another religious fraud. Many scholars, lawyers, and skeptics have determined to prove it so, but have failed. For example the famous British scholar and archaeologist Sir William Ramsey was convinced the Bible was fraudulent. So he went to Israel on an expedition to dig up the evidence to prove the New Testament was manufactured by religious men years after the supposed events.

After fifteen years he proved that Paul lived, traveled and wrote a lot of the New Testament. Over the next twenty years he documented evidence in the most minute detail of most events of the New Testament. He proclaimed, “Luke’s history is unsurpassed in respect of its trustworthiness…” And admitted “Luke is a historian of the first rank… In short, this author should be placed along with the very greatest of historians.”

Outside historical evidence demands acceptance of Christ’s existence also. The Roman historian Tactitus mentioned Jesus three times. Josephus was a Pharisee and a priest, and as a Jewish historian wrote: “Now there was about this time Jesus, a wise man, if it be lawful to call him a man, for he was a doer of wonderful works, a teacher of such men as receive the truth with pleasure. He drew over to him both many of the Jews, and many of the Gentiles. He was Christ, and when Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men among us, had condemned him to the cross, those that loved him at the first did not forsake him: for he appeared to them alive again the third day: as the divine prophets had foretold these and ten thousand other wonderful things concerning him. And the tribe of Christians so named from him are not extinct at this day” [Antiquities of the Jews, Book XVIII, Chapter III, Section3].

Argument #2
He was nothing like the man described in the Bible. The church changed the Bible at one of their church councils.

Answer

Again this accusation is not based on historical fact. Even the enemies of Christ in Israel recorded in The Babylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin, 43a that Jesus was a sorcery because he did miracles. Luke 11:15 reports the Jewish leaders said, “He casts out devils through Beelzebub the chief of the devils.” Since they rejected him as their Messiah they had to come up with a reason for his miraculous activities. If his enemies admitted his supernatural life then the evidence had to be overwhelming as the New Testament affirms.

Next, empirical evidence refutes the assumption the church changed the Bible to make Jesus sound so miraculous. The first church council was 325 A.D., almost three hundred years after Christ died. By that time thousands of copies of the New Testament books were already spread across the world and it would have been impossible to gather them all up and fix them. From the documents of church pastors and leaders who wrote letters to one another in the years 100 A.D. to 300 A.D. every verse of the New Testament except eight was quoted and has currently been verified to match the current New Testament. Since we have manuscripts and pieces dating before the first church council that completely agree with our present versions this argument is a worthless myth. Remember these people lived in a primitive world without telephones, television, and modern transportation. They could not find everybody in the world to fix the Bible three hundred years after the fact. Archeologist William Albright made exhaustive studies and concluded, “In my opinion, every book of the New Testament was written by a baptized Jew between the 40s and 80s of the first century… very probably sometime between AD 50 and 75.

”The evidence for the authenticity of the New Testament is many times greater than any other ancient historical document. A simple example is Caesar's first century account of the Gallic Wars. This is the only record of these wars and no one has questioned their reliability. There are no originals and the ten copies in existence were written in 900-950 A.D. Modern skeptics refuse to treat the truths of the New Testament and the Bible like this document. For example, Michael Grant, a Fellow of Trinity College in Cambridge Great Britain has written books such as The Twelve Caesars and The Army of the Caesars and admits this. He wrote, “But if we apply the same sort of criteria that we would apply to any other ancient literary sources, then the evidence is firm and plausible enough to necessitate the conclusion that the tomb was indeed found empty.”

Argument #3
He was only a good man and a teacher.

Answer

This is a problem because Jesus claimed he was one with God [John 10:30] and came to save the world from their sin [John 3:16,17; 12:47]. It is not good to make claims that are not true. This would leave him a liar or a lunatic. But if he came to save us from sin as he claimed he could not be just a good teacher. Peter lived in direct contact with Jesus for three years and claimed he Messiah and sinless. “He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth” [1 Peter 2:22 NIV].

Good teachers do not rise from the dead. No other religion makes such claims and the resurrection of Jesus has more historical evidence than any other miracle in history. After Christ rose he appeared to over five hundred people at one time. On multiple other times he spoke with, ate with, and showed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days” [Acts 1:3] these many eyewitnesses would not be shut up as they spread across the world proclaiming this truth. The goodness of Jesus did not change the world, the truth of the resurrection did.

Argument #4
He never claimed to be God.

Answer
Yes he did and his enemies understood it and used it to condemn him to the cross. When he asked his followers what others were saying about him, Peter said he was Messiah [Christ]. When we examine Matthew 16:15-17 it is clear Jesus accepted this title. John also makes it clear he was the Messiah. Isaiah the prophet made it clear hundreds of years beforehand that the Messiah would be “Mighty God” [Isaiah 9:6]. Jesus was hated by his enemies because he taught the people to believe in him as God [John 5:18; 10:30-31]. He even applied a well known title of God to himself [John 8:56-59]. He would go around and forgive people of their sins. Only God can forgive sins [Mark 2:5-7]. Jesus answered directly to the Jewish leaders at his trial that he was God [Mark 14:61-64].

Not only this he fulfilled all prophecies of the promised Messiah or Savior. A few are listed:

He will betrayed by a friend [Psalm 41:9; Matthew 26:49]

The price of his betrayal will be thirty pieces of silver [Zechariah 11:12; Matthew 27:5]

His betrayal money was to be cast to the floor of a temple [Zechariah 11:13; Matthew 27:5]

He would be forsaken and deserted by his followers [Zechariah 13:7; Mark 14:50]

He would die 483 years after the declaration of Artaxerxes to rebuild the temple of Jerusalem in 444 B.C. [Daniel 9:24]

He would be buried in a rich man’s tomb [Isaiah 53:9; Matthew 27:57-60]

He would come back to life on the third day after his death and ascend to heaven [Psalm 16:10; Acts 2:31]

And finally, Jesus performed his miracles to prove he was God.

Calmed a storm [Matthew 8]

Walked on water [Mark 6]

Healed a paralyzed man [Luke 5]

Raised a dead boy [Luke 7]

Is Jesus your God and King?

Jesus cannot be seen as just another man! We are all confronted by the facts of his life and this forces us to make a decision. The scripture records these truths in much detail so we all can believe and act upon these facts.

You cannot dismiss him as irrelevant! It is intellectual suicide to simply ignore the truth. The day Christ rode the donkey into Jerusalem the multitudes proclaimed him as their Messiah King. They believed because he proved his deity. You cannot afford to dismiss Him!

Conclusion:

“I know men; and I tell you that Jesus Christ is no mere man. Between Him and every other person in the world there is no possible term of comparison. Alexander the Great, Caesar, Charlemagne, and I myself have found empires; but upon what do these creations of our genius depend? Upon force. Jesus alone founded his empire upon love; and to this day millions would die for Him.” Napoleon