Did Jesus Christ really live? Aren't all those stories just exaggerated fairy tales? If He was crucified 2000 years ago how can He affect anything today? Does any of it really matter.
Firstly Jesus Christ lived. No serious historian would try to argue that He didn't. There are substantial non-biblical, non-Christian records, some of them from authorities antagonistic to Him that confirm several of the details given in the New Testament. The Bible record of his life has historical integrity. Through the 18th and 19th centuries it became fashionable to claim the Bible was fiction. As the various sciences have increasingly matured through the 20th and now the 21st century more and more scientific and historical data in the Bible that was once maligned has been proved correct.
Compared to other famous leaders Jesus is unique in that He convinced His followers that He is God. He made this claim over and over again. It made the religious leaders furious. From the human point of view it was a pretty foolish claim to make because at His trial this alleged blasphemy was the reason the religious leaders wanted Him sentenced to death.
However if He was not God then he must have been either a seriously deluded megalomaniac (mad) or an incredible con artist (bad).
A visit to a psychiatric hospital ward would soon help you realise that a person insane enough to claim that they are the creator of the universe and who freely accepted worship would not be capable of the profound originality of the teaching of the Sermon on the Mount. The incredibly wise way He dealt with people does not go together with someone mad enough to believe they could forgive people's sins and then invite them to trust in Him for their eternal destiny. The Gospel records show a man with far too much mental acumen and poise to be mad.
It has been claimed that he was just a great moral teacher of the age in which he lived but what hypocrisy if he was lying. Liars do not concern themselves with the promoting of righteousness like Jesus did. He practised what he preached even his enemies said so. Those who walked, talked and ate with him would have sussed out such a fraud. They may have not had our technology and resources back then but do not be fooled into thinking they lacked intelligence and wisdom. Jesus was a good man, again even his enemies said so.
The thing is they saw the storm stop at his command. They saw a few loaves and fishes feed five thousand people. They saw the people healed of awful diseases. They saw the deranged become sane. They saw the dead come back to life. They saw and touched him after he rose from the dead three days after his execution. They also saw him rise back up into heaven where he still is now.
Under those circumstances you may well have been persuaded to believe he was God too. Just because the prevailing religion in our corner of the world is atheism it does not mean that God does not exist. If sheer numbers prove anything, then more people in the world as a whole today believe a God exists than don't, but the majority view is not always right. Conversely just because a minority holds an opinion it does not mean they are wrong.
Jesus is not only God. He opened up the way for us to experience God/Himself for ourselves. To have our sins forgiven and to experience our lives being transformed by the power He brings when we let Him in. It is very personnel and it is very real.
If you have never read the story of Jesus in the Bible then how about inspecting the evidence for yourself? The New Testament starts with the four Gospel accounts of the life, death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, try reading one. It cannot possibly do you any harm but only good.
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