Introduction: It Is a Thing Most Wonderful
I BROKE THE UNWRITTEN CODE RECENTLY AND PICKED up a magazine while standing in the checkout line of the grocery store. I couldn’t resist seeing what Newsweek had to say about Jesus Christ in its feature titled “The 100 People Who Shaped Our World.” I should have known that it wouldn’t be good. It was predictably written from a skeptical perspective with little pretense to try to hide the bias. It seems you are expected to be respectful in what you say about any other religion or revered religious figure—except Jesus Christ. Mysteriously, people feel the liberty to malign, disfigure, and reimagine Him as they choose. In this rather brief attempt at a summation of His life and impact, the article communicated the typical notion that we are really unable to know much about Jesus historically.
The impact of Jesus of Nazareth, the itinerant preacher whose teachings became the basis of one of the world’s most practiced religions, is irrefutable. But the nature of the man has been debated time and time again as we view him through the lenses of scholars moving ever further away from the time period in which Jesus lived.
What was fairly shocking was the referral at the end of the article to a book by sociologist Reza Aslan for those who wanted to learn more about Jesus. Of all the authors and books by Christian theologians Newsweek could have referenced, it pointed the reader to a Muslim who doesn’t believe the Gospels are reliable and denies Jesus being the Son of God. I’m not saying a Muslim can’t write about Jesus Christ; it’s just that, at least, someone who could give a Christian perspective should have been referenced. So much for fair and balanced journalism.
This seems par for the course when it comes to the majority of portrayals of Jesus Christ in the secular media. Consistent historical methodology is kicked to the curb in favor of pushing the narrative of skepticism. What is also on display is the strange tendency, when it comes to writing about Jesus, to be disqualified from being referenced as a credible spokesperson if you call yourself a Christian. I can’t think of any other area or issue where this would not be seen as unreasonable. That’s like saying if you’re an American you can’t be trusted to talk authoritatively about the true facts of American history.
This type of consistently slanted presentation has contributed to the dramatic shift in the religious beliefs of those in the United States—especially those under thirty. This phenomenon has been labeled “the rise of the nones,” specifically those that claim no religious affiliation. Pew Research Center states, “As a rising cohort of highly unaffiliated Millennials reaches adulthood, the median age of unaffiliated adults has dropped to 36, down from 38 in 2007 and far lower than the general (adult) population’s median age of 46.”1
Though the numbers are not as grim as some would have us believe, this trend is not something to ignore. There has definitely been an erosion of confidence in the credibility of the Christian faith—particularly among young people. At the heart of this crisis is one question that must be answered clearly in order to stop this downward pattern: Is the Christian story true?
Motivated by this alarming statistical data, I wrote the book God’s Not Dead: Evidence for God in an Age of Uncertainty. The book would inspire a movie by the same name, and millions who watched it would know what it means to become defenders of the faith—specifically that God exists. Both the book and the movie sought to clearly establish the fact that real faith isn’t blind. It is based on evidence. God’s Not Dead, the book, laid out that evidence from science, philosophy, history, and Scripture.
Now in the sequel, Man, Myth, Messiah, we take a closer look at the evidence for the historical Jesus. The central contention that is set forth is that the Jesus of history is the Christ of faith. The Christian faith goes beyond simply declaring God exists and claims that God became man in Jesus Christ, lived among us, and ultimately sacrificed His life in order to atone for our sins. Three days after His death, He would rise again, proving that He was the Son of God, the promised Messiah, and the Savior of the world.
Christianity is the only religion that places the entire weight of its credibility on a singular event, the resurrection, which is a supernatural miracle. The following chapters demonstrate that the evidence from history, which even skeptics would accept, establishes that the resurrection is both the clear and best explanation for the widely accepted facts: Jesus’ execution at the hands of Pontius Pilate, the discovery of His empty tomb by His women followers, the claims by His disciples that they had seen Him alive after His crucifixion, and many other events. If Christ had not been raised, then Christianity would be completely discredited and unworthy of even a moment’s consideration, or as the apostle Paul stated, “And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile” (1 Corinthians 15:17).
Conviction about the reality of the resurrection is the only foundation that can withstand the onslaught of skepticism and unbelief. It is this fact that points to other critical truths, such as the authority of Scripture and the unique role of Jesus as Messiah and Savior. Man, Myth, Messiah provides key insights as to why the crucifixion and resurrection point to the fact that Jesus Christ is indeed the promised Messiah. The challenges from pop culture that the Jesus story is merely a myth or legend are shown to be the real myth. These types of speculative theories abound in a culture attempting to jump to warp speed in its flight away from God.
What is helping restrain that suicidal leap has been a renaissance in Christian apologetics and philosophy. Churches are starting to realize that equipping people to defend their faith is just as vital as teaching the basic doctrines, or preaching comforting and encouraging messages on Sunday.
I think it would be safe to say that no one’s life or death in the history of the world has been studied, analyzed, debated, and heralded to the world as much as Jesus Christ of Nazareth. It’s definitely a daunting task to respond to all of the theories and claims made by critics. During the process of research and writing, I felt the great sense of drama and significance of what is at stake in a study of whether the story is really true or, as skeptics assert, merely a collection of tales attempting to communicate the faith of the early Christians. Millions of people are apparently in the process of reassessing their beliefs. If that’s true, they need to make decisions on the basis of credible evidence, not rumor or hearsay.
Regardless of who you are or where you were born, eventually you must make a decision about what you believe about this Man and the claim that He is the Son of God, the Savior of the world. Because of the gravity of the subject matter, I tried avoiding the everyday analogies and metaphors that are a part of my natural communication style, fearing my efforts would trivialize any number of the important aspects of the story. However, this thought process was eventually abandoned. For the most part, it was because of the realization that every follower of Christ must convey his faith through his own language and personalities. Whether written or spoken, we tell others the story of why we believe and the effect faith has had on our lives and the world around us. This is what has happened for two thousand years, starting with the testimonies of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, the men who wrote down the first biographies about the life of Jesus, and then continued by others for more than fifty generations.
ANSWERING THE GREAT QUESTION
The collective task of proclaiming this message has been called the Great Commission, a term coined by Christian theologians and missiologists to describe the charge that Jesus gave His disciples to go into all the world and make disciples (Matthew 28:19–20). The Great Commandment is the term for the premier commandment Jesus gave us to love one another (John 13:35). So perhaps it would be fitting to describe what Jesus asked His disciples, “Who do you say that I am?” (Matthew 16:15 NKJV) as the Great Question—without a doubt, history’s greatest question. The answer to this affects everything. And if we focus so heavily on the Great Commission and the Great Commandment, shouldn’t we be giving equal attention to the Great Question?
In the Scriptures, the moment of that important question came quite abruptly, like a dreaded pop quiz in a classroom setting. It was asked after a series of dramatic, mind-blowing events: Jesus healing the blind and the lame, miraculously feeding five thousand people from five loaves of bread and two fish (then walking on water), and subsequently feeding another multitude of four thousand people from seven loaves of bread and a few fish.
These miracles were called “signs” in John’s gospel. A sign points to something. If you see an Exit sign, you intuitively know it’s pointing to a door that you can walk through. These signs pointed to the fact that Jesus was no ordinary man. He was the promised one, the Son of God. Jesus then asked the Great Question, “Who do you say I am?” The lone voice that immediately answered was the outspoken disciple Peter. He said, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16:15–16). If this declaration had not been true, Jesus would have instantly corrected such a brash and blasphemous claim. No true prophet of God would have allowed such a pernicious misunderstanding to persist.
Jesus didn’t correct or rebuke Peter for his stunning revelation but instead praised him by saying, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven.” He went on to tell him that He would build His church on this very foundation—one that “the gates of Hades will not overcome” (Matthew 16:17–18). In this exchange between Peter and the Lord, we see the battle line drawn in the sand. And this battle would cost many of Jesus’ followers their very lives.
The cosmic struggle would come down to the knowledge of the true identity of this man from Nazareth in the northern region of Galilee in the tiny nation of Israel. The promise was made that regardless of the fierceness of the conflict, the powers of darkness would not prevail. In light of this exchange, it becomes clear why there has been such a firestorm around the name of Jesus Christ. No other name evokes such debate or emotion—the most popular as well as the most polarizing name in history. At the same time, no other name has inspired such beauty, courage, and sacrifice.
THE VOICE
One of the most popular shows on American television is The Voice. It is yet another talent show inspired by Britain’s Got Talent and American Idol. For those who haven’t seen it, the judges turn their backs on the contestants and hear them sing without getting to see them visibly. Each judge picks the voice he likes the most and then turns his chair around to see who it is he has chosen. This might be one of the best examples of how we decide what voice we will listen to and follow when it comes to spiritual truths.
Well into the twenty-first century, it now feels as though the entire set of rules in Western civilization is being overturned, much like the upheaval at the start of the twentieth century that surrounded the laws of science and nature (relativity and the quantum theory).
Every moral and social structure seems to now be up for grabs—to be redefined in the name of tolerance and freedom. The only voices of opposition to this social and moral revolution are those that appear to be religiously motivated. Some of those voices are reactionary, fearful, and intolerant. However, there is another voice that doesn’t scream or shout but has faithfully spoken from age to age regarding the nature of God and humanity. This is the loving voice of our Creator—not a distant, impersonal force, or detached first cause, but a loving merciful God. This God was powerful enough to create the universe but accessible enough to become part of His own creation in Jesus Christ. This is why His words are different from all others. These are the words that give us more than blind rules to follow but provide, instead, loving instructions on how to live this life to the fullest. It’s the voice that leads us to a narrow path of goodness and light, a voice we can trust because of the life and character that backs it up.
The goal of this book is to build confidence in the reader that Jesus Christ was not only a real person but that He was the promised Messiah (Savior) and the Son of God. It is not my mission to explore every speculation and theory that has attempted to explain away this truth, but to deal with the major obstructions that attempt to block the light that this truth exudes. Without question, the voice you choose to listen to will be the most important decision you will ever make. If you are reading this book, the chances are that you are already a follower of Christ or you desire to explore becoming such a follower. Implicit in that is being able to help others follow Him as well. You have most likely encountered some form of backlash or opposition from others who don’t share this same passion and pursuit. Therefore, you want to be able to give them the reasons for your faith. This book is written to be a tool to help you explain and defend the basic truths and claims of the Christian faith—in other words, to answer the Great Question faithfully and truthfully.
Preparing believers to give the reasons for their faith should be the highest priority of all the efforts of those engaged in Christian ministry. After all, if the truth of the message is in doubt, the whole enterprise of Christianity is in jeopardy. As a pastor I certainly am aware of how busy most church leaders are. The demands facing people in ministry to care for the needs of others can be overwhelming. Many times the pressing needs of our people take priority over the pressing questions about the truth of the faith from outsiders. Yet the enormous needs of everyone, everywhere on this planet, have created an opportunity to practically demonstrate God’s love and to share the gospel with them. “Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone” (Colossians 4:5–6).
Of all the human rights we should be fighting for, leading the way should be the right of every living person to hear the gospel and have the opportunity to know Jesus. While there is amazing work being done around the world by people of faith to help the needy and heal the hurting, we are falling dramatically short in preparing people to have a faith that thrives in the media-saturated, anti-faith twenty-first century. People are flooded with images and messages that suggest faith in God is at best irrelevant. The end result is a large number of Christians being dazed and confused about how crazy the world has become, and how their values and beliefs are not just out of touch with mainstream society but to some are framed as bigoted and ignorant. Perhaps this helps explain why only 3 percent of churches in the United States are growing through evangelism.
The bottom line to me is this simple: if you believe the Jesus story is true and understand why, you will share it with others—if you don’t, you won’t. Christians must be taught and trained, not just comforted and entertained. Because this type of shallow activity is prevalent, is there any wonder that survey after survey shows the trend that young people are dropping out of church in record numbers?
There is no neutral ground in this debate. The claims about Jesus made in Scripture make it virtually impossible to dismiss Him as just a mere man. The other two options are either myth or Messiah. The choice you make should decide how you operate in every area of your life. If Jesus is a myth, then you should live your life your way. Make up your own morality, be your own boss. But if He is the Messiah, the Lord of creation, then live wholly and holy for Him.
Because Jesus is the source of all goodness and life, then He should be at the very center of our personal lives as well as our culture and practices. To do this, we must recover the confidence that His words are true and can be known with a high degree of certainty. They have not been hopelessly lost due to the passing of hundreds of years and humans trying to put words that He never said into His mouth. Our search for the real Jesus will lead us past all the pretenders who try to claim Him as a part of their stories while dismissing the biggest part of His story—that He is the Lord of all creation. This is vital because the message that Christ offers is hope for humanity. Can you think of anything more needed in our time than that? As Jesus said, “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:32).
SOMETIMES A SONG CAN GET STUCK IN YOUR HEAD
Such was the case with the world’s most famous atheist. During a public discussion at Oxford, with a philosopher and a theologian, Richard Dawkins candidly revealed that he had been singing a hymn that very morning in the shower—one that he had learned as a child in the Anglican Church. It was titled, “It Is a Thing Most Wonderful.” After mentioning the title and the first few words of the hymn, he went on to say that, to him, the universe’s coming into being out of nothing and then producing beings such as humans with consciousness was simply too wonderful to be.2 Dawkins obviously stopped short in finishing the rest of the opening stanza of the hymn, words that pointed to another story that was the object of the writer’s amazement:
It is a thing most wonderful—too wonderful to be
That God’s own Son should come from heaven
and die to save a child like me
and yet I know that it is true.3
How ironic that the wonder and grace described in the song was ascribed by Dawkins to simply nothing—nothing but the blind forces of nature. What was missed was the glaring message that Christ was indeed the object of the wonder and the worthy recipient of our gratitude.
You see, like Richard Dawkins, I remember hymns from my childhood as well.
We’ve a story to tell to the nations,
That shall turn their hearts to the right,
A story of truth and mercy,
A story of peace and light.
For the darkness shall turn to dawning,
And the dawning to noonday bright:
And Christ’s great kingdom shall come on earth,
The kingdom of love and light.4
It is with this hope that I write. Your answer to the Great Question about Jesus—man, myth, or Messiah?—will be the most important of all. It’s an answer worth pursuing with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength. The reality of its truth and power will leave you exclaiming, “It is indeed a thing most wonderful, too wonderful to be.”