The Truth About the Founder of Christianity/Part 4
| By: Dr. John Ankerberg and Dr. John Weldon; ©{{{copyright}}} |
| The Influence of Jesus |
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.
Contents
The Influence of Jesus
First, no one can logically claim to be a truly educated person if he does not understand who Jesus is and the influence He has exerted upon humanity. Christ’s influence in the world and His claims on people’s lives are unparalleled. Jesus Christ is undoubtedly the single most commanding person in the entire history of mankind. Indeed, it is not too much to say that if Jesus Christ had never been born, you and I and this entire country, and our entire Western Civilization, would not exist as it does (see James Kennedy, What If Jesus Had Never Been Born? (1994). Even His death is unique.
His death, beyond any question of dispute, was the most famous death in human history. No other death has aroused a fraction of such intense feeling over so many hundreds of years…. Few can be passive about Jesus. No other human being has been so loved and so hated, so adored and so despised, so proclaimed and so opposed…. Yet if the records of Jesus are true, then unquestionably there is no greater truth to be found anywhere in the universe.[1]
Can anyone deny that because of Jesus, Christianity has become the largest religion of the world? That it has a membership of over one and one-half billion? That geographically, it is the most widely diffused of all religions? That it has positively altered individuals, countries, and cultures?
The second reason to be informed about Christ is of paramount importance to each individual personally. As we will see, Jesus Christ makes stupendous claims upon everyone’s life. These claims compel us to conclude that one’s relationship to Christ, or lack of it, will dramatically affect one’s present and future existence. His life is far more vital to our life, as well as the life of our friends and family, than we realize. Jesus Christ is that important, and the evidence backs it up.
Notes
- ↑ David Watson, Jesus Then and Now (Belleville, MI: Lion, 1986), p. 5.
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