Visit any part of the world today. Talk to people of any religion. No matter how committed they are to their particular
religion, if they know anything about history, they will have to admit that there has never been a man like Jesus of Nazareth.
He is the most unique personality of all time.
Jesus changed the direction of history. Even the date on your morning newspaper testifies to the fact that Jesus of Nazareth
lived on earth nearly 2,000 years ago. B.C. means "before Christ"; A.D. (Anno Domini), "the year of our Lord".
When we look back at scriptures in the Old Testament, we see that those rejecting Him when He came either willfully
chose to reject His claims to be God’s Messiah or did not realize that His Coming was Foretold.
Look at the life and influence of Jesus of Nazareth throughout history and you will see that Jesus Christ
is, in fact, the living Son of God. He and His message always produce great changes in the lives of men and of nations. Wherever
His teachings and influence have gone, the holiness of marriage has been emphasized, women's rights and voice in society acknowledged;
schools and universities of higher learning established; laws to protect children made; slavery abolished; and a multitude
of other changes accomplished for the good of mankind.
Individual lives are also dramatically changed. For example, Lew Wallace, a famous general and literary genius, was a known
atheist. For two years, Mr. Wallace studied in the leading libraries of Europe and America, seeking information that would
forever destroy Christianity. While writing the second chapter of a book he planned to write, he suddenly found himself on
his knees crying out to Jesus, "My Lord and my God!"
Because of solid indisputable evidence, he could no longer deny that Jesus Christ was the Son of God. Later, Lew Wallace
wrote the book Ben Hur, one of the greatest English novels ever written concerning the time of Christ.
Similarly, the late C.S. Lewis, professor at Oxford University in England, was an agnostic who denied the deity of Christ
for years. But he, too, in intellectual honesty submitted to Jesus as his Lord and Savior after studying the overwhelming
evidence for His deity.
More recently, Dr. Josh McDowell, a previous skeptic of Christianity, made his own honest investigation. You can learn more about the incredible transformation which happened to him by reading “A Skeptic’s Quest.”
Regardless, in these intellectual quests, one has to conclude for themselves – is Jesus Lord, Liar or Lunatic?
In his famous book Mere Christianity, Lewis makes this statement, "A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral
teacher. He would either be a lunatic - on the level with a man who says he is a poached egg - or he would be the devil of
hell. You must take your choice. Either this was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut
Him up for a fool or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense
about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us."
Who is Jesus of Nazareth to you? Your life on this earth and for all of eternity is affected by your answer to this question.
All other religions [such as Hinduism, Buddhism. Confucianism, Shintoism, and Islam] were founded by human beings and are based on man-made philosophies, rules and norms for behavior. Take the founders of
these religions out of both their disciplines and practices of worship and little would change.
But take Jesus Christ out of Christianity, and there
would be nothing left. Biblical Christianity is not just a philosophy of life, nor an ethical standard, nor obedience to religious ritual. True Christianity is based on a vital, personal relationship with a Risen Founder who is our living Savior and Lord.
Jesus of Nazareth was crucified on a cross, buried in a borrowed grave, and three days
later was raised from the dead; Christianity is unique in this regard. Any argument for the validity of Christianity depends
on the proof of the resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth.
Throughout the centuries, most great scholars who have considered the proofs of the resurrection believe that Jesus is
alive. After examining the evidence for the resurrection given by the Gospel writers, the late Simon Greenleaf, the famous
Royal Professor of Law (a follower of Judaism) and an authority on legal issues at Harvard Law School, concluded; "It was therefore impossible that they could have
persisted in affirming the truths they have narrated, had not Jesus actually risen from the dead, and had they not known this
fact as certainly as they knew any other fact." His conclusion led to his decision to accept Jesus as the Messiah promised
in his Old Testament scriptures.
John Singleton Copley, recognized as one of the greatest legal minds in British history, commented: "I know pretty well
what evidence is; and I tell you, such evidence as that for the resurrection has never broken down yet." His study revealed
there were no major contradictions in the Bible, nor was it filled with so-called myths.
The resurrection is central to the faith of a Christian. There are many reasons why those who study the resurrection believe it is true.
