Premise .4

Premise .4: Who is Jesus?

With the information based on the first three premises, we can subscribe to Biblical monotheism. This leaves us with either Judaism or Christianity. The difference rests on one's view of who Jesus was or is.

There seems to be a major investigation in the person of Jesus, especially with the popularity of such books as The DaVinci Code and The Jesus Papers and the like. People are looking into the person of Jesus, His ministry, and His purpose. One of the more popular views is to understand Jesus as a wise teacher and a great leader. It is a good idea to take His teachings and apply them to our lives where possible (read: "where convenient").

I, along with philosophers such as C.S. Lewis, propose that such an understanding is faulty. There are things that Jesus said that rule out a wise teacher or a great leader.

First, taking a step back, we must ask, "Did Jesus really exist?" We must then answer, "Yes, He did," based on the historicity of the documents of the New Testament outlined in Premise .3. Okay. That's out of the way.

One of my favorite proofs of the deity of Jesus is Lewis's "Liar, Lunatic, or Lord" line of reason. As previously noted, Jesus said and did things that disqualify Him as a wise teacher or a great leader. Jesus straight out claimed to be God! In John 10:30, Jesus says, "I and the Father are One!" (ESV) Again in John 8:58, Jesus says, "Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am." (ESV) In Mark 2, Jesus uses His authority to forgives sins, an act that He knows only God can do. And these are only a few instances. The problem with believing that someone who makes such claims is a wise teacher is that wise teachers don't make such claims.

There are only three types of people who make these kinds of claims. Liars make such claims. Jesus could have been saying such things when He knows that He, in fact, is not God in human flesh. He could have been trying to deceive everyone with a giant, sadistic farce. But liars do not make wise teachers or great leaders.

Crazy people make such claims. Jesus could have said these things actually believing that they were true, while all along He was mistaken. As Lewis points out, this is along the lines of someone claiming to be a poached egg. If someone claimed to be a poached egg when he or she clearly is not, one would do well to dismiss their claims as faulty and their behavior as crazy. But, again, crazy people also do not make wise teachers or great leaders (for example, my 11^th grade chemistry teacher, but that's another story).

But the option I subscribe to, the option that is presented in the documents of the Gospels and is confirmed by the remainder of the New Testament as well as the Old Testament, is that Jesus was and is the second person of the Holy Trinity, the Son of God, God Himself in human flesh. Was He a wise teacher? Absolutely. Was He a great leader? Depends on who you ask. But the important thing is that He is so much more than a teacher and a leader. He is salvation. He is God. He is the only Way to the Father.

"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." -Lewis, Mere Christianity (HarperCollins: New York, 1980), Book 2, ch. 3, last paragraph.

Premise .1- Absolute, objective truth exists.

Premise .2- A necessary, non-contingent, personal God exists.

Premise .3- The documents of the Bible are historical, verifiable, and accurate. Therefore, the God described in these documents is the true God.

Premise .4- The Jesus described in the Bible is who Jesus really was and is. This means that He is the second person of the Holy Trinity, the Son of God, and the only way to Salvation (among other things).

It is based on these four premises that I am a Christian. It is based on these four premises that I have a personal relationship with the Creator of the universe. It is unlike any other relationship that can be experienced by any human. This is who I am.