IS JESUS GOD OR THE SON OF GOD? (Cont’d)
(by D. James Kennedy)
Just Look At His Life
Don’t’ even look at the statements of Scripture that claim this - just look at His
life and you will see that this is evidently a unique person, a divine personality.
He was raised in a little country town of proverbial insignificance among people seldom
and only contemptuously named in ancient writing. "CAN ANY GOOD THING COME OUT OF
NAZARETH?" Well, One good thing came out, and that was the Divine Redeemer. He
lived in poverty and manual labor in the obscurity of a carpenter’s shop, away
from universities, academies, libraries and literary or polished society, without
any help, as far as far as we can tell, except from His parents, the weekly synagogue,
the Sabbath service, and the reading of the Old Testament. And yet He was wiser than
all of the wise.
Meek and lowly of heart, yet He could quote Solomon and then say, but "A GREATER THAN
SOLOMON IS HERE" (Matthew 12:42), referring to Himself. Now it would be the height of
egotism for any mortal man to declare that he is wiser than Solomon or stronger than
Samson. But on the lips of Christ those words do not seem that way at all.
Always the people marveled at him. "HOW KNOWETH THIS MAN LETTERS, HAVING NEVER
LEARNED?" (John 7:15). In case you don’t realize this. . . God has never learned
anything. Did you ever think about that? It’s not because He is a slow learner; it’s just
that He started out knowing everything, and it has been that way forever. An yet Christ,
with no education or learning, emerged from total obscurity, walked up on a mountain and
delivered the greatest oration on human ethics that the world has ever heard of probably
ever will - the Sermon on the Mount. Absolutely astonishing! The Bible says that when
He completed these sayings, they were astonished! The Greek word means "they were knocked
out!" And always, "WHENCE HATH THIS MAN THESE THINGS?" He was wiser than the wisest.
It is well known that the wisest men of Greece and Rome, their greatest philosophers,
condoned all manner of evil, such as slavery, oppression, revenge, infanticide, the
exposure of infants, polygamy, concubinage, and worse vices. Not only did they condone
those things, they practiced many of them themselves. And yet Jesus both was and did
that which He taught. He preached His own life. He lived His own doctrine.
One of the first things they tell you in seminary is, "DON’T PREACH YOURSELF." We have
this treasure in earthen vessels - don’t preach about the earthen vessels. Woe unto
the poor congregation that has a preacher who is always talking about himself, and
wants to sing his favorite hymn, "HOW GREAT I AM." We would look on such a preacher
with utter contempt or pity, yet Jesus did it all of the time. He preached Himself. "I
AM THE WAY, (I AM) THE TRUTH" (John 14:6). "I AM THE DOOR" (John 10:9), "I AM THE
RESURRECTION, AND THE LIFE" (John 11:25). He was constantly preaching about Himself.
Yet He was meek and lowly in heart because He is the Way and the Truth. There was nothing higher that He could possibly preach. Jesus didn’t urge people to come to God; He urged people to come to Himself. And He did all of these things in such a way that seemed perfectly natural for Him because He is God.
He went about doing good, but what did he do? He worked miracles; that’s what He did, because He was a miraculous person. He raised the dead, He opened blind eyes, He unstopped deaf ears, He loosed dumb tongues, and He enabled the lame to walk. He was absolutely a walking astonishment! What a person He is.
I am amazed, sometimes, that people say, "WELL. . . WELL, THAT’S JUST WHAT THE BIBLE
SAYS." Even skeptics have pointed out that it will not do any good to claim that
the Bible is fabulous, mythological, or fabled because the person they desribe is
so incredibly great there was none among those illiterate fishermen capable of producing
a Christ.
Christ In Historical Literature
He is not merely mentioned in the Bible, as many of the ignorant of our time suppose, but there are many secular writers of the time that mentioned Him. Such writers of antiquity who refer to Christ are Tacitis, the great Roman historian; Suetonius, another historian; Pliny the younger; Epictetus; Lucian; Aristides; Galenus; Lampridius; DioCassius; Hinnerius; Libanius; Ammianus; Marcellinus; Eunapius; Zosimus. Others write whole books against Christianity, including Celsus, the earliest; Lucian; Porphyry; Hierocles; and Julian the Apostate. Many of the Jewish writers of the time also wrote about Christ.
So abundant, says the great historian of Yale, Dr. Philip Schaff, is the testimony to
Christ that "STANDING ON THIS ROCK, I FEEL SAFE AGAINST ALL THE ATTACKS OF INFIDELITY.
THE PERSON OF CHRIST IS TO ME THE GREATEST AND SUREST OF ALL FACTS; AS CERTAIN AS MY
OWN PERSONAL EXISTENCE." He goes on to say, "NAY, MORE CERTAIN AM I OF CHRIST THAN I
AM OF MY OWN PERSONAL EXISTENCE." A whole range of history provides indubitable
testimony to the person of Jesus Christ.
So many of the skeptics that spend their lives attacking the Bible end up praising Jesus Christ.
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John Paul (Friedrich) Richter said, "HE IS THE PUREST AMONG THE MIGHTY, THE MIGHTIEST
AMONG THE PURE."
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Ernest Renan, who wrote a whole book criticizing the Bible, was a great orientalist,
a linguist, French scholar, and critic. He tried to tear the Bible apart, and yet when
he came toward the end of his life, in one of his greatest of books, he said, "WHATEVER
MAY BE THE SURPRISES OF THE FUTURE, JESUS WILL NEVER BE SURPASSED."
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Rousseau, who probably did more than anyone else to contribute to the French Revolution,
said, "SHALL WE SUPPOSE THE EVANGELICAL HISTORY A MERE FICTION? INDEED IT BEARS NO MARKS
OF FICTION. . . On the contrary, the history of Socrates, which no one presumes to doubt,
is not so well attested as that of Jesus Christ."
Napoleon was a military genius. He had a gigantic mind. After his defeat at Waterloo,
he was condemned and banished to St. Helena’s Island where he studied the Bible and
theology. The more he studied, the more astonished he was at Christ. When one of his
generals claimed that Jesus was merely a man, Napoleon said, "I KNOW MEN; AND I TELL YOU
THAT JESUS CHRIST IS NOT A MAN . . . SUPERFICIAL MINDS," he said, "SEE A RESEMBLANCE
BETWEEN CHRIST AND THE FOUNDERS OF EMPIRES, AND THE GODS OF OTHER RELIGIONS. THAT
RESEMBLANCE DOES NOT EXIST. THERE IS BETWEEN CHRISTIANITY AND WHATEVER OTHER RELIGIONS
THE DISTANCE OF INFINITY."
The brilliant minds of this world have seen the glory of Christ
Who Is Jesus?
Dr. Charles Hodge, professor of systematic theology at Princeton University, was without
controversy the greatest theologian that America ever produced, and this is what he said:
Listen well: All divine names and titles are applied to Him (Christ). He is called God,
the mighty God, the great God, God over all; Jehovah; Lord; the Lord of lords, and King of
kings. All divine attributes are ascribed to Him. He is declared to be omnipresent,
omniscient, almighty, and immutable, the same yesterday, today, and forever. He is set
forth as the creator and upholder and ruler of the universe. All things were created by
Him and for Him; and by Him all things consist. He is the object of worship to all
intelligent creatures, even the highest; all the angels are commanded to prostate themselves
before Him. . . . He declares that He and the Father are one, that those who had seen Him
had seen the Father also. He calls all men unto Him (NOTE; He doesn’t call people unto
God. He calls them unto Himself); promises to forgive their sins; to send them the
Holy Spirit; to give them rest and peace; to raise them up at the last day; and to give
them eternal life. God is not more, and cannot promise more, or do more than Christ is
said to be, to promise, and to do. He has, therefore, been the Christian’s God from
the beginning, in all ages and in all places.
Who is this Jesus? He is the everlasting, almighty, omnipotent Creator of the universe, and He offers to be your Savior. He came as the Creator and died for the creatures’ sins. I shall never forget ther time that I realized just who He was, this One who for 2,000 years has been reaching down with pierced hands and lifting gnarled souls out of the mire of slime and sin, cleansing them off and transforming them into the heros of the Cross.
This One revealed Himself to me through a simple book, The Greatest Story Ever Told. When
I closed the back cover of that book and laid it down upon the arm of the easy chair,
it seemed that I could see the Cross there in my apartment before my eyes. I slid off of
my chair onto my knees, my head on the carpet, weeping copius tears, and saying, "Oh God, I
didn’t know. I didn’t know. I am sorry. I am so, so sorry. Forgive me." My heart was
changed, and I became a new creature in Jesus Christ. That was 45 years ago, and He gets
better all the time.
Do you know Him? Have you personally met Him? Have you invited Him into your heart as
Lord and Savior of your life? If not, dear friend, you are missing the greatest thing in
the world. The whole world celebrates Christ. Would that you could celebrate Him as Lord
and God and Savior of your heart. If you would like to know Him, He is here. "Wherever
two or three are gathered together in my name, there I will be." Would you like to meet
Him today? If so, in the depths of the sanctuary of your own soul, pray with me this prayer:
PRAYER: LORD JESUS CHRIST, HOW GREAT THOU ART. I NEVER REALLY KNEW THAT THOU ART MY GOD, MY CREATOR, MY JUDGE. BUT YOU ARE WILLING TO BE MY SAVIOR. RIGHT NOW I CONFESS MY SINS, O GOD, WHICH ARE MORE NUMEROUS THAN I COULD POSSIBLY KNOW, AND YET YOU KNOW EVERY ONE. CLEANSE ME AND WASH ME BY THY BLOOD; FORGIVE ME, AND GRANT ME ETERNAL LIFE BY YOUR PURE UNDESERVED, UNMERITED GRACE. COME INTO MY HEART RIGHT NOW AND CHANGE MY LIFE. I PRAY IT IN THY HOLY NAME. AMEN.
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