The most important questions you will ever ask……..and answer…..come down to a simple binary decision:
Is Jesus divine…….supernatural…….God?
Or
Is he the greatest con-man who ever lived?
This question has a corollary:
Is the Bible true?
Or
Is it a myth?
Because Jesus endorsed the Torah. He also endorsed heaven, eternity, and a literal burning hell.
The answers to these questions will set you on one of two paths. The importance of these questions arises from the destination at the end of each of those paths:
Heaven, Hell, Eternity, something you made up, or dead black nothing.
There cannot possibly be any choice that you will make in your life that is more important. And here is the rub……..not deciding……..ignoring the question……..is, by default, choosing the con-man path.
So what is the evidence?
Jesus clearly and unmistakably said that he was supernatural……devine……..God. And he was crucified for it. This is a historical fact, documented in multiple contemporaneous sources, not to mention the Bible. If this is untrue, then Jesus was a con-man……..or perhaps a lunatic.
Peter saw Jesus transfigured into a supernatural being. Mary and Martha met him a few days after the crucifixion. Paul spoke with Jesus on the road to Damascus years later. If this is untrue, then the divinity of Jesus is not only the rant of a con-man, it is a conspiracy.
Jesus appeared to hundreds of followers on Pentecost. Now, it is a vast conspiracy.
All of the disciples, save John, were brutally killed for their faith. Not one of them ever denied the divinity of Jesus.
Somewhere between 25 million and 100 million Christians have been martyred since then. They died rather than deny the divinity of Jesus. If Jesus is not divine, this is now a vast, lethal conspiracy. Some have called it a delusion.
My first question is this:
Can you name any other belief system that is supported by hundreds of eye witnesses………..any other belief system that tens of millions of followers have endorsed at the cost of their very lives?
My second question is this:
Search your heart. Do you really believe in dead black nothing as your destiny?
Or
Do you really believe that you get to decide the nature of your eternity? Because, if you get to dictate the terms of eternity, then people should be building churches…….to worship you.
“I and the Father are one.”
Jesus, claiming his divinity, John 10: 30, ESV
Jesus took with him Peter and James, and John his brother, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light. And behold, there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him. And Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good that we are here. If you wish, I will make three tents here, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah.” He was still speaking when, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.”
The transfiguration, Matthew 16:1-5, ESV