Who Was Jesus?

Life Center at The Sanctuary

Mark 8:29 "Who do you say I am?" NIV

Jesus of Nazareth was not a fictional character to show us new morals or a religious guru to teach us a new philosophy. He was and is the Son of God, the Messiah (Christ - The Anointed One), sent by God the Father, born of a virgin, to live a sinless life and suffered the penalty of sin; who was crucified and placed in an empty tomb, and who rose from the dead, appearing to over 500 eye witnesses, and who now reigns with God the Father; and who will return to bring the work of redemption, of all creation, to completion.

"The New Testament documents are the most important historical sources for Jesus of Nazareth" - William Lane Craig

"The Bible is a reliable collection of historical documents written down by eyewitnesses during the lifetime of other eyewitnesses. They report of supernatural events that took place in fulfillment of specific prophecies and claimed that their writing are divine rather than human in origin” - Voddie Baucham

Five Reason The Gospels Are Reliable Until Proven Wrong

There was insufficient time for legendary influences to erase the core historical facts. The gospels are not analogous to folk tales or contemporary "urban legends". The Jewish transmission of scared traditions was highly developed and reliable. There were significant restraints on the embellishment of traditions about Jesus, such as the presence of eyewitnesses and the apostles' supervision. The Gospel writers have a proven track record of historical reliability.

Evidence That Jesus Did Exist

Josephus (37AD-101AD) - Jewish Non-Christian Source

“Now around this time lived Jesus, a wise man. For he was a worker of amazing deeds and was a teacher of people who gladly accept the truth. He won over both many Jews and many Greeks. Pilate, when he heard him accused by the leading men among us, condemned him to the cross, (but) those who had first loved him did not cease (doing so). To this day the tribe of Christians named after him has not disappeared." (The Antiquities of the Jews - 93AD)

Tacitus (56-120AD) - Roman Non-Christian Source

“Consequently, to get rid of the report, Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called Christians by the populace. Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus, and a most mischievous superstition, thus checked for the moment, again broke out not only in Judea, the first source of the evil, but even in Rome, where all things hideous and shameful from every part of the world find their centre and become popular.” (“Annals’ of 116AD)

Pliny the Younger (61-113AD) - Roman Non-Christian Source

“They (the Christians) were in the habit of meeting on a certain fixed day before it was light, when they sang in alternate verses a hymn to Christ, as to a god, and bound themselves by a solemn oath, not to any wicked deeds, but never to commit any fraud, theft or adultery, never to falsify their word, nor deny a trust when they should be called upon to deliver it up; after which it was their custom to separate, and then reassemble to partake of food—but food of an ordinary and innocent kind.” (Pliny the Younger, in a letter to the Roman emperor Trajan)

Suetonius (69-140AD) Roman Non-Christian Source

“Because the Jews at Rome caused constant disturbances at the instigation of Chrestus (Christ), he (Claudius) expelled them from the city (Rome).” (Life of Claudius, 25:4)

“Nero inflicted punishment on the Christians, a sect given to a new and mischievous religious belief.” (Lives of the Caesars, 26.2)