Was Jesus lying crazy or telling the truth when he said his many claims?

Answer 1

Why must it be either?

At that time, MANY young Jewish preachers claimed to be the 'messiah'. They all may genuinely have believed their claim to be true. But the fact is: NONE of them fulfilled all the 23 Jewish messianic prophecies; the Tanakh, the Jewish bible, states that in order to prove himself the messiah, a man MUST fulfill them ALL *before* dying. No 'second coming'.

Also, contrary to what someone has stated here, NONE of the authors of the NT were eyewitnesses. How could they be? The Christian bible was compiled decades *after* Jesus died. Paul never even MET Jesus!

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No one will ever know for sure, anything is possible because it was 2000 years ago. History today has been inaccurate sometimes, so why is 2000 year old history believable? If someone today tried to make a bible they would just say he or she is a crazy cultist. People were stoned to death and burned at the stake and stuff in the past, things were screwed up back then, Jesus could have been a pretty plant for all we know. Now people will probably freak out and call me a heretic.

Answer

The Tanakh does not say the Messiah has to complete all messianic prophesies. You are talking about Jewish commentary to the the Tanakh. Neither the Tanakh nor commentary were assembled until over 300 years after Jesus died, perhaps longer, since no history of editing was kept. Rabbinical Judaism was the sect which wrote the commentary, and it did not exist until a couple of centuries after Jesus died. The position taken, that the messiah must fulfill all messianic prophesies, does not have a basis in Scriptures.

The verses below are a selection which makes it clear that the New Testament witnesses were personal, first hand eyewitnesses of Jesus. The very qualification for an Apostle required this (See Acts 1:21-22 below).

C.S. Lewis pointed out that Jesus was either a lunatic or a liar or Lord when He made His claims. In all the New Testament there are repeated claims that what is being related is sober truth. Many of the persons who had the opportunity to decisively refute Jesus' claims were still around, and yet they were silent on the key issue - the resurrection. Even Jewish opponents of Jesus admitted He performed miracles. The way Jesus behaved was never that of a person who was bereft of their senses, nor of a person who was blatantly dishonest. In any case if Jesus was trying to 'fake it' He could not arrange for all the prophecies about Himself to be fulfilled as many were entirely outside of His control, humanly speaking. He could only fulfill them unless He really was the Messiah.

In addition to this, if Jesus was lying, and He deceived the disciples, then the resurrection was also a colossal fraud - and yet people who had beforehand been frightened were immediately transformed and were willing to die for what they knew was a lie. This is not at all likely, especially when one reads the way the resurrection account unfolded. If it was a fraud, women would not in those days have been proclaimed as the first witnesses.

Thus it is as it says, absolute truth. Every word that Jesus uttered was truth. Such is as true today as when it was written, and such transforms and changes lives, even today.

2 Peter 1:16 (King James Version)16For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty. 1 Corinthians 15:1-11 (King James Version)

1 Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand;

2 By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain.

3 For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures;

4 And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:

5 And that he was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve:

6 After that, he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep.

7 After that, he was seen of James; then of all the apostles.

8 And last of all he was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time.

9 For I am the least of the apostles, that am not meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.

10 But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.

11 Therefore whether it were I or they, so we preach, and so ye believed.

Luke 1:1-4 (King James Version)1Forasmuch as many have taken in hand to set forth in order a declaration of those things which are most surely believed among us, 2Even as they delivered them unto us, which from the beginning were eyewitnesses, and ministers of the word; 3It seemed good to me also, having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first, to write unto thee in order, most excellent Theophilus, 4That thou mightest know the certainty of those things, wherein thou hast been instructed. Acts 1:21-22 (King James Version)21Wherefore of these men which have companied with us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, 22Beginning from the baptism of John, unto that same day that he was taken up from us, must one be ordained to be a witness with us of his resurrection.

Answer:

I often wonder what C.S. Lewis would say if he could read the Gospel of Thomas and have access to some of the linguistic science and historic research that we now have over the internet.

Lewis challenged me to a Christianity that is logically consistent. In order to live up to that challenge I have had to accept the fraud of the Roman Church and the pagan influences it added to the teaching of Yeshua (Jesus). The Christianity that came out of the Council of Nicea was dumbed down for the masses.

Could Lewis accept this? I wonder....

The Gospel of Thomas was written long after the 4 Gospels were assembled by Gnostics who twisted the Christian message to their religious beliefs. Lewis was alive long after the Gospel of Thomas was found, and a few years after it was published.

The Council of Nicea complied books which had been distributed from the 1st Century and were part of early Christian liturgy. They put aside books which were written later.

The scholarship which has come to light in the last few years regarding scriptural and archaeology has only supported Lewis position.