Here is a quote from the deceased Christian apologist C.S. Lewis:
"You must make your choice. Either this man was and is the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; 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. He did not intend to. C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
My view is that Jesus was both fully God and fully man. The Bible says He was in the beginning and had a part in the creation (John 1:1-3). Then Jesus was born into this world in the likeness of a man, but His deity was never removed. After His crucifixion He was resurrected and thus is no longer in the flesh. Well that's my faith and my intent now is to try to paint a picture of Christianity. We know from history that in the first few centuries of Christianity hundreds of thousands of people were killed for believing in the Messiahship of Jesus. Why were thousands of first century Christians willing to be crucified, stoned, beheaded, eaten by lions, burned at the stake and even fried alive in metal pans for belief in Jesus?
Well the resurrection of Christ, next to His crucifixion, is the most important teaching of the Bible. If He didn't come back from the dead, then Christians are all still dead in their sins because there is no Savior. But the Christian faith is founded upon that event. If the resurrection of Christ was a mere fairy tale, why would every one of the apostles go to an early grave for a lie? Experience tells us that whenever there is conspiracy, someone always breaks. This is especially the case when the indictments start flying and the person knows they are going to serve Jail time. Someone will break. They always do. And when the first person does break, others will follow because everyone is out to try and save their own hide. Every single apostle (with the exception of John) died gruesome and painful deaths, because they confessed the truth of the resurrected Christ.
I have in my possession a book called "Jesus Freaks" which lists the accounts and stories of at least 200 hundred Christians who were martyred for their faith. The book was written in 1998 and in it reads: "It is said that there are more Christian martyrs today than there were in 100 A.D.--in the days of the Roman Empire. According to a study done at Regent University, there were close to 156,000 Christians martyred around the world in 1998." My question is this, if Jesus is not God then would the Christians be lunatics for dying for their belief? Modern statistics of total Christian martyrs are estimated to total around 70 Million. If Jesus was just a man, then all those Christians died in ignorance; a pretty sad conclusion.
Here is a quote from the deceased Christian apologist C.S. Lewis:
"You must make your choice. Either this man was and is the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; 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. He did not intend to. C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
My view is that Jesus was both fully God and fully man. The Bible says He was in the beginning and had a part in the creation (John 1:1-3). Then Jesus was born into this world in the likeness of a man, but His deity was never removed. After His crucifixion He was resurrected and thus is no longer in the flesh. Well that's my faith and my intent now is to try to paint a picture of Christianity. We know from history that in the first few centuries of Christianity hundreds of thousands of people were killed for believing in the Messiahship of Jesus. Why were thousands of first century Christians willing to be crucified, stoned, beheaded, eaten by lions, burned at the stake and even fried alive in metal pans for belief in Jesus?
Well the resurrection of Christ, next to His crucifixion, is the most important teaching of the Bible. If He didn't come back from the dead, then Christians are all still dead in their sins because there is no Savior. But the Christian faith is founded upon that event. If the resurrection of Christ was a mere fairy tale, why would every one of the apostles go to an early grave for a lie? Experience tells us that whenever there is conspiracy, someone always breaks. This is especially the case when the indictments start flying and the person knows they are going to serve Jail time. Someone will break. They always do. And when the first person does break, others will follow because everyone is out to try and save their own hide. Every single apostle (with the exception of John) died gruesome and painful deaths, because they confessed the truth of the resurrected Christ.
I have in my possession a book called "Jesus Freaks" which lists the accounts and stories of at least 200 hundred Christians who were martyred for their faith. The book was written in 1998 and in it reads: "It is said that there are more Christian martyrs today than there were in 100 A.D.--in the days of the Roman Empire. According to a study done at Regent University, there were close to 156,000 Christians martyred around the world in 1998." My question is this, if Jesus is not God then would the Christians be lunatics for dying for their belief? Modern statistics of total Christian martyrs are estimated to total around 70 Million. If Jesus was just a man, then all those Christians died in ignorance; a pretty sad conclusion.