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His name was Jesus

Prophecy, a huge proof factor of a religion's genuine origin, can be attributed to no one but God, this is simply beyond our capabilities to acclaim to such lengths of knowledge otherwise life would have been much easier for most of us. Therefore, if a religion could be able to accurately predict events prior to their occurrence with no possibility of it being preplanned or produced then that religion would be deemed superior to others acknowledging that the future is the territory of Divinity. We cannot say that all the religions lead to God for God is not divided. Let us be rational about this, there is one God, therefore there can be one religion. God will have manifested Himself in that specific religion. The quest here is to discover where His divine acts have been manifested, which cannot be attributed to any human power.

Bible Prophecy

The Bible is around 23% prophecies. 70% of which has already come to pass as predicted. Now, if 70% has already come to pass then what says the remaining 30% wont?

How can we be further assured concerning the Bible’s genuine truth and how can we know that it is in fact from a living God? Incidentally, in any encyclopedia you will find the record of a man who was known by thousands of people to have worked many miracles, who taught the most fundamental teachings of God and our relationship with Him, and who was nailed to a cross by Roman hands due to the false accusations of the Jewish religious leaders at that time. This man is non other than the Jesus Christ spoken of in the Bible.

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Records of Jesus Christ

Before going on an area of question must be addressed. It is believed, by many atheists and skeptics, that the man Christ never existed and that the possibility of a man filling in all the prophecies made of Him is a definite impossibility. The recorded proof, other than the Bible, states such quotes as that of second-century theologian, Justin Martyr, who wrote, “Now there is a village in the land of the Jews, 35 stadia from Jerusalem, in which Christ was born, as you can ascertain also from the registries of the taxing under Cyrenius your first procurator in Judea” (First Apology, chapter 34).

Martyr was referring to the records of Jesus’ birth in Judea that were still in existence in his day. But, since he was a theologian who would naturally support accounts of Christ’s existence, his account may seem invalid to the doubter.

So, what about historians against Christianity? What did their writings say? Note: these historians were against Christianity and could very well have declared Christ never existed had it been so.

One of such anti-Christian mentality was Cornelius Tacitus, a Roman historian, senator, consul and governor of the province of Asia. Concerning Jesus and His followers, Tacitus wrote, “Nero…punished with every refinement the notoriously depraved Christians (as they were popularly called). Their originator, Christ, had been executed in Tiberius’ reign by the governor of Judea, Pontius Pilate. But in spite of this temporary setback, the deadly superstition had broken out afresh, not only in Judea (where this mischief had started) but even in Rome” (The Annals of Imperial Rome, XV, 44).

Julian the Apostate (called such because he rejected Christianity after being raised in it), a fourth-century emperor, wrote, “Jesus, whom you celebrate, was one of Caesar’s subjects. If you dispute it, I will prove it by and by; but it may be as well done now. For yourselves allow, that he was enrolled with his father and mother in Cyrenius…But Jesus having persuaded a few among you, and those the worst of men, has now been celebrated about 300 years; having done nothing worthy of remembrance; unless anyone thinks it is a mighty matter to heal lame and blind people, and exorcise demoniacs in the villages of Bethsaida and Bethany” (Cyril Contra Julian, VI, 191, 213).

These are just two quotes from pagan Roman scholars who loathed Christianity. Since these men had access to government records, and hated what Christians believed and stood for, they could have easily “disproved” and discredited the existence of Christ if they so wished. But, because they could not do such a thing, their writings only add to the monumental proof of the life of Christ.

What about the Jewish people? If Christ did not exist, how then could the Jews reject Him?

In his book Antiquities of the Jews, Jewish historian Flavius Josephus writes about Jesus, His disciples and John the Baptist. He referred to John as “the good man” (XVIII, 5, 2). Modern-day scholars recognize Josephus’ account of the death of James, “the brother of Jesus who was called Christ” (XX, 9, 1), as genuine.

The Jewish Encyclopedia (1907 edition) explains that Jesus is also mentioned in the Talmud, the Jewish tradition consisting of the Mishnah and the Gemara. These references to Christ are found in the sections Shabbath 104b and 116b; Sanhedrin 43a, 67a and 107b; and Sotah 47a. You may want to read an article entitled “Jesus of Nazareth,” from The Jewish Encyclopedia (1907), the articles “Jesus Christ” and “Talmud and Midrash” from The New Encyclopedia Britannica (1981), or the article “Jesus” in the Encyclopedia Judaica for more background concerning this subject.

These sources offer valuable information regarding the many proofs of the life of Christ. They point to the immutable facts that He: was born of a virgin, was of Jewish nationality, preached the gospel, healed the sick and diseased, and was betrayed and brutally slaughtered.

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Further records of Christ

The following facts about Jesus were written by early non-Christian sources:

• Jesus was from Nazareth

• Jesus lived a wise and virtuous life.

• Jesus was crucified in Palestine under Pontius Pilate during the reign of Tiberius Caesar at Passover time being considered the Jewish king.

• Jesus was believed by His disciples to have died and risen from the dead three days later.

• Jesus' enemies acknowledged that he performed unusual feats they called "sorcery".

• Jesus' small band of disciples multiplied rapidly, spreading as far as Rome.

• Jesus disciples denied polytheism, lived moral lives, and worshiped Christ as God.

Theologian Norman Geisler remarked, “This general outline is perfectly congruent with that of the New Testament.”⁹ All of these independent accounts, religious and secular, speak of a real man who matches up well with the Jesus in the Gospels. Encyclopedia Britannica cites these various secular accounts of Jesus’ life as convincing proof of his existence. “These independent accounts prove that in ancient times even the opponents of Christianity never doubted the historicity of Jesus.”

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Baffled thinkers

As if the eyewitness reports were not enough to challenge Morison’s skepticism, he was also baffled by the disciples’ behavior. A fact of history that has stumped historians, psychologists, and skeptics alike is that these 11 former cowards were suddenly willing to suffer humiliation, torture, and death. All but one of Jesus’ disciples were slain as martyrs. Would they have done so much for a lie, knowing they had taken the body?

As Paul Little wrote, “Men will die for what they believe to be true, though it may actually be false. They do not, however, die for what they know is a lie.”²⁴ Jesus’ disciples behaved in a manner consistent with a genuine belief that their leader was alive.

Like Muggeridge, Oxford scholar C. S. Lewis was initially convinced that Jesus was nothing more than a myth. Lewis once stated, “All religions, that is, all mythologies … are merely man’s own invention—Christ as much as Loki.”¹⁵ (Loki is an old Norse god. Like Thor, but without the ponytail.)

Ten years after denouncing Jesus as a myth, Lewis discovered that historical details, including several eyewitness documents, verify his existence.

"That a few simple men should in one generation have invented so powerful and appealing a personality, so lofty an ethic and so inspiring a vision of human brotherhood, would be a miracle far more incredible than any recorded in the Gospels. After two centuries of Higher Criticism the outlines of the life, character, and teaching of Christ, remain reasonably clear, and constitute the most fascinating feature in the history of Western man." – Durant

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Bible prophecy and probability

God has placed enough evidence, both biblically and non biblically, for one to base their trust in the belief of Christ's existence. Jesus performed miracles of healings and raised the dead as evidence of His power. The power to transform a sinner into a saint is another evidence of the supernatural power that God gives those who choose to follow Him.

To build our faith in His word God gave us prophecies. Only God knows the future. As mentioned earlier, the Bible is over 20% prophecies. No other religious book contains such a vast amount of prophecy. One of the most profound prophecies, which continues our point, is that of Christ Himself…

The Old Testament predictions of the Messiah to come were so specific and so clearly fulfilled by Jesus. There are more than 125 of these prophecies. Let's review just 12 of them:

Dr. Peter Stoner, former chairman of the departments of mathematics, astronomy, and engineering at Pasadena College (California), worked with 600 students for several years applying the "principle of probability" to the prophecies of the Messiah's coming. They chose just eight prophecies from the many available and finally decided the chances of all eight being fulfilled in one man in a lifetime are one in 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000. What would the odds be on the more than 125 prophecies of the Messiah? It couldn't just happen!

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Conclusion

That being said, the weight of evidence in just this area of fulfilled prophecy is attributed to no other entity than that of Divine origin for such highly specific and enormously profound futuristic foretelling could never have been contrived by mortal beings.

For those who do not believe in God, a question arises, a challenge even, how could 125 documented prophecies about one man, who with out a doubt existed, all come to pass hundreds of years after they were told in such a way as to leave no room for the notion of being humanly contrived?

It is more difficult to accept the thought that all this could have been randomly made up by mere humans over a period of centuries than to believe it was brought about through the aid of Divine intervention.

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