The Truth About the Founder of Christianity/Part 7

Ed. note: This article is based upon the transcript from programs produced by the John Ankerberg Show. Additional material has been added for this print version.

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The Verdict of History

Truth is truth/to th’ end of reck’ning.—Shakespeare

The truth is always the strongest argument.—Sophocles

As noted, today, almost everyone has an opinion of who Jesus Christ is. But these opinions vary widely and are often contradictory. And contrary opinions can’t all be true. How then do we determine who Jesus really is and whether or not He truly is the person of paramount importance He claims to be? The only way is to frankly examine His claims and then see the quality of the evidence which exists to support them. It is our hope that the remainder of this article will help our readers understand the real Jesus Christ.

We can begin by noting that history is defined as follows: “A continuous methodological record of important or public events; past events, those connected to a person or thing… the study of past events, esp. of human affairs” (Oxford American Dictionary). Notice there is no declaration that miracles cannot be part of history, despite their uniqueness. So when we encounter supernatural events in the life of Christ, the only issue is whether or not they occurred. If competent eyewitness testimony indicates miracles happened, then they must be considered part of history. Obviously if God has intervened in history, then miracles could be expected. Thus the true historian should be concerned with what actually did happen, based on careful and impartial investigation of the evidence, not with upholding a bias against the supernatural.

Read Part 8