On Wednesday nights during the winter time, I teach a class on apologetics. We cover multiple subjects, but the majority of our congregation doesn’t attend that, so it has become part of our tradition to do an apologetics series in the fall of every year. I believe that engaging in apologetics deepens our faith by bringing us face-to-face with the questions that non-believers have concerning our relationship with God. Apologetics comes from the Greek word apologia, usually translated as defense, and 1 Peter 3:15 uses this words to call us to be prepared to give a defense for our faith when some one asks. In 1 Peter 3:15, this defense is linked to the on going sanctification that God is doing in our lives. So as we defend our faith, God uses it to conform us to the image of the Son (Romans 8:29).
In my experience and the experience of other Christians that I have come into contact with, when presenting the Gospel there are always questions that are asked. Now, I would say that there’s about ten common questions that I have been asked throughout my witnessing to people. Things like, did Jesus really rise from the dead? Who made God? Why would God not want me to be happy? But out of these, there are three that kind of encompass the others.
In the next three weeks, we’re going to look at these three encompassing questions so that when we encounter them, or a variation of them, we will be better equipped to give a defense to why we believe in Jesus as Lord and Savior.
The first of these questions is, was Jesus’ a historical person? Jesus’ question to his disciples in Mark 8:29, “Who do you say I am,” is the most important question that a person can answer. Because the answer to this question determines the eternal state of that individual. If we were to answer that Jesus was a good teacher, but not God, then if he is God, that means our eternal state would be separation from him for eternity. Yet if we accept what Jesus says about himself, that he is the Creator God who sacrifices himself for our sin, so that we can be brought back into relationship with him, then our eternal state will be with him for eternity.
And so, the first step for a lot of people is the simple question of, was Jesus’ even real? In our day of hyper skepticism, the very historical person of Jesus is called into question. The term for scholars that reject the historical person of Jesus is myth-icist. These scholars believe that Jesus was simply a myth that combined several beliefs from Jewish, Egyptian, Roman, and other eastern religions.
These mythicists build their case on about four points, first there are other gods that died and rose that the Christians borrowed from. Second, Jesus is never mentioned by Roman sources. Third, there is no archeological evidence for Jesus existing. And finally, the only account of Jesus’ life are the Gospels, which were written long after Jesus’ death.
Today, we’re going to address the first three of these points, and next week address the fourth because it ties into another larger question.
So let’s start with the claim that there are other ancient gods who died and rose from the dead. I want to give you one example that gets brought up a lot, but there are several others as well. The one we’ll talk about is the Egyptian story of Osiris and Seth. The story goes like this, Osiris was the god-king over Egypt. His bother Seth, murdered and dismembered him, spreading the pieces over the entire land. Osiris’ two sisters then searched the land, collecting the body, and put him back together, creating the first mummy. Isis, Osiris sister-wife, then resurrected him, has a child by him, and Osiris lives eternally as king in the underworld. Here is the parallel with Jesus that people bring up, Osiris’ “resurrection.” Expect the two resurrections are vastly different.
First, Jesus’ resurrection was a full restoration from the dead, except for the four wounds from the cross. Second, Jesus didn’t simply live in the realm of the dead, but first returned to earth, where he was seen by hundreds of people, then was seated on the throne of heaven. Finally, there are no wives, or children, or murderous brothers that are a part of the story. So when examined this, and the other examples, fall short of their goal, which is to show that Jesus’ story borrowed from them.
These claims that Jesus is an amalgamation of different ancient religions was pushed in the late part of the 1800s, and has long been dismissed by modern scholarship, because the overwhelming evidence of Jesus’ being a true Jew overshadows any supposed parallel with any other religion.
The response here is that when the question is presented, we must press the issue. We must ask the person to tell us which ancient story they are referring to and then walk through both the story and the biblical account with them showing how Jesus is different. Scholarship, even atheistic and agnostic scholarship, overwhelmingly agree that these supposed parallels come from a biased need to dismiss Jesus and are not rooted in historical reality.
The second point that mythicists make is that Jesus is never mentioned by Roman sources. This comes from the idea that Romans were meticulous in keeping records, so where are the birth and death certificates for Jesus?
There’s a few problems with this, the first is, though the Romans took a lot of records, not every person in the Roman world was seen as important. Yes, Jesus was important to his disciples, and eventually has become the most influential person in history, but in the world around him, he was a no nothing Jew. A non-citizen in a backwater region, why would any of those documents be worth keeping, if they were even produced in the first place?
We can put this into a modern perspective. My house here in Quartzsite was built in 1982. At that time, La Paz county was transitioning out of being a part of Yuma county to become its own entity. There are no records of my house being built with La Paz county, because it was never given to La Paz county by Yuma. At around that same time, the records department in Yuma had a massive fire that destroyed many land documents. Yet, my house is there, but I cannot prove that it was ever built. That was a mere thirty-nine years ago.
What is amazing however is that we do have influential Romans who mention Jesus as a historical figure writing within a hundred years of his life. The Roman historian Tacitus references Jesus when commenting on a large fire that blazed through Rome in the 60s AD. Pliny the Younger, a governor in Asia Minor, mentioned Jesus to Emperor Trajan as the source for the Christian movement. And Mara bar Serpaion, a philosopher, describes the crucifixion of Jesus when he wrote around 73AD. These and several others speak volumes for Jesus being a real historical person and recognized by contemporary influential Romans. Therefore another of the mythicists’ arguments falls short.
The final point to the mythicists’ argument that we’ll cover today is that there is no archeological evidence of Jesus’ existence. This is both true and false. See when people talk about archeological evidence, they’re talking about physical things that are found in the area that’s of interest. So if there was anything that said “I Jesus” on it, that would be gold. Except archeology isn’t an exact science. In his book, Is This Man a Biblical Archaeologist?, Hershael Shanks writes, “Good scholars, honest scholars, will continue to differ about the interpretation of archaeological remains simply because archaeology is not a science. It is an art. And sometimes it is not even a very good art.”
People don’t realize that archaeology is interpreted just like any other form of history. Therefore we must ask, is there archaeological evidence, that has been uncovered, for Jesus? And the answer is yes. The person that the Gospels present to us as Jesus fits the archeological evidence that we have of a 1st Century Palestinian Jew. Jesus’ words, locations, dress, mannerisms, all fit a 1st Century Jew. The people that are referenced, the times that are mentioned, and the world events that surround Jesus, all fit as well. Though there is no single stone that says here is Jesus, everything about Jesus fits everything that would have been in his world. This is also another reason that the borrowing from other religions doesn’t fit, Jesus was too Jewish and his followers too Jewish.
There is more overwhelming evidence for Jesus being a real person, then the majority of ancient people that we take for granted. We’ll get more into that next week, but there are ancient people that are held as absolute historical figures, who do not have a tenth of the evidence for their lives that Jesus does. In fact Bart Erhman, a New Testament scholar who rejects the deity of Jesus and the Christian religion as a whole, states, “I can assure you, as a historian, that whatever else you might want to say about Jesus, he certainly existed (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SB6EZzJ7m1c&t=27s).” In fact, Ehrman wrote a book Did Jesus Exist? that tackles this very issue.
As believers’ we must realize that there are people out there that question if Jesus even existed. Popular podcasts, such as the Joe Rogen Show, and channels dedicated to search history, put forth that Jesus wasn’t a real person, but something made up. This shouldn’t surprise us as believers. John writes in the opening of his his second letter to the churches that, “I say this because many deceivers, who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh, have gone out into the world. Any such person is the deceiver and the antichrist (v.7).”
A denial that Jesus was a real human is one way in which the world denies the totality of Jesus’ message. Because if Jesus was really historical person, then they would have to then wrestle with his words. And many people don’t want to do that. Because to wrestle with Jesus’ words, is to wrestle with God himself, and as the patriarch Jacob learned, no one walks away from God with our being effected (Genesis 32:22-32).
And as believers’ this attack on Jesus’ historical life, attacks all aspects of the Gospel. For most religions, the historicity of events really doesn’t matter. They are tale’s told to inspire, correct, and bring about an inner change. But for Christians, God’s message is link to history. Abraham was a real person, Moses was a real person, David a real king, the exodus and exile were real events. Jesus was a real person crucified, buried, resurrected, and coming again. The Bible puts forth these things are real historical events, and we must realize that the attack on the historicity of the Bible is an attack on the Gospel itself. Therefore we must be ready when the history of Jesus comes under question.
The opening to the book of Hebrews states, “1 In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe. 3 The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven. 4 So he became as much superior to the angels as the name he has inherited is superior to theirs (1:1-4).”
The Bible is clear that it references historical events by which God spoke. Through Jesus, God speaks to us today, so let us be prepared to respond to the accusation that Jesus wasn’t historical, with the truth that God has provided through history.
This week I want to challenge you to learn these three responds to the argument that Jesus wasn’t historical, followed by a reading of Hebrews 1:1-4, and then a prayer asking God to speak to you through Jesus and to speak through you to others by the power of the Holy Spirit, so that others may know the glory of the Father.
Let us walk confidently in the work of God through the history of humanity, waiting expectantly for the return of our Lord, that we may be with him forever. Amen.
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