Inconvenient Biblical Teaching - Jesus Myth

Yeshua Appears to the Disciples

"Thomas answered and said to Him, “My Lord and my God!”

Yeshua said to Him, “Because you have seen Me, you have believed? Blessed are the ones who have not seen and yet have believed!”

The Reason for Signs and Wonders

Yeshua performed many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book. 31 But these things have been written so that you may believe that Yeshua is Mashiach Ben-Elohim, and that by believing you may have life in His name."
-The Apostle John, written in the 1st century, A.D.

[6th message of the Why I Don't Believe Series]

The messages in this series discuss about how some people who reject Christianity do so because they either cannot accept an inconvenient biblical teaching, or they have taken a stance against the bible (or against Jesus) and is standing their ground, no matter what.

This is understandable as all of us do not want anyone telling us what to do. The bible actually alludes to this as free will. We have also discussed that some people will do the opposite and actually will do what other people tells them to do or expects them to do -- one reason is because they do not wish to be cancelled (a fate worse than death in some societies).

Human Nature

Don't worry, nothing that these people do is out of the ordinary, it's all human nature. Most people would do anything to survive or save their own skin (and we are not talking about putting on sunblock -- okay maybe putting on Sonblock).

Not Common

Now the first Christians could have saved their skins (they would have saved their lives and those of their loved ones) if they would have only denounced Christ. Jesus Christ Himself could have prevented Himself from being sentenced to death. But Jesus Christ and all of the Christian martyrs choose not to save their own skins -- yes quite the opposite of our (human) nature.

No Proof Jesus Ever Existed

Okay, one reason that keeps on getting repeated by people who probably read it somewhere or heard someone say it online is that they will not believe in Christianity because there is no actual evidence that Jesus ever existed. In other words, they are saying Jesus is a myth.

Furthermore some contend that the writings about Jesus was written over a hundred years after the fact, or that aside from the bible, no one wrote about Him.

Of course these are all untrue.

But not that it will matter to anyone who already made up their mind otherwise. This would be the same for those who believe that the Jewish genocide or the Nazi holocaust didn't happen. There are people still alive today who can testify that the genocide happened - Jews, Nazis and other people. There were public trials and Nazis were convicted for this crime. There are videos, photos, testimonies, sworn statements and other documents that support this. But no for some, the holocaust didn't happen. And you can tell because many people today, even celebrities downplay everything about the holocaust. 

Deniers

History.com had to come out with an article a few years ago because like the holocaust deniers there are people who deny that Jesus ever existed.

We can read that article here.

Evidence

From the first followers of Jesus, Paul for example wrote letters to individuals and different churches telling them about Jesus. Many of these letters were written a mere 20 years after Jesus have died. And He was already teaching (verbally) about Jesus just a few years after Jesus' death.

Outside The Bible

And it is true, outside of the bible, Roman and Jewish (non-Christian) historians wrote about Jesus of Nazareth.

Emperor Nero blamed Christians for the Great fire in Rome, back in 64 A.D.  Hold on, so if there was no actual man who was known as Jesus Christ why would there be actual people living in Rome in 64 A.D. being called Christians (followers of Christ)?

In fact our calendar was named after Christ. A.D. is from the latin Anno Domini (nostri Jesu Christi) or 'in the year of the Lord Jesus Christ'. 

A.D and B.C. was originally developed as terminologies to divide periods of time in to two distinct categories -- those which happened after Christ was born and those before He was born. This will look awkward if Jesus wasn't even born to begin with.

If Jesus wasn't born, then for over a thousand years, billions of people have labeled all those years in the name of a person who didn't exist.

Of course in our politically correct world, we have changed A.D. and B.C. to CE and BCE, respectively. So in a few more hundred years, there would be people who would start denying that A.D. and B.C. actually was in use.

We Need More Proof

To those who deny Jesus ever existed, the burden of proof is on those claiming Jesus was a real person, not those who are saying that He was a myth. 

But the sad truth though is that there is nothing we can say to people who have already made up their minds.  Close to nothing will ever make them to change their minds. (Incidentally one of the closest followers of Jesus, Thomas, once was among this group of people). 

Singled Out

We've touched on this earlier in this series with those people who do not believe Christ existed but believe other people did who were born hundreds of years before Christ. And they believe even though there were no "proof" that those people existed.

We actually have no real proof for most people who lived 2,000 years ago or earlier. There would be no actual record to say that they ever existed. But some people will single out Christ and will ask for proof. Now there is no human remains to prove He existed, like the mummies of Egypt. Although if anyone manages to find His remains then that will actually disprove Christianity. This should be their focus. 

People Made Fun of Christians

Now at the time of Jesus, and for decades afterwards, people hated Jesus Christ. But no one from their time denied He existed. In fact their hate proves that He existed.

Jews, Romans, Greeks, Muslims and other people wrote about and talked about Jesus. Some even made fun of Jesus or His followers actually.

Had To Do Studies

For many centuries there have been a few scholarly studies undertaken to try to disprove the Historical Jesus existed. Most if not all of them came to the conclusion that there was a person we now call as Jesus of Nazareth who did exist and walked the earth like all of us. Their findings all said that Jesus is not a myth (granted they are not actually saying that this was the Jesus who walked on water).

Good News

Anyway Jesus is not fake news. He is either the Good News or bad news, individually it is up to us who we will make Him to be.

The John Lennon Interview

In 1966, John Lennon (he existed by the way, he used to tour with Paul McCartney, their group got disbanded in 1970 and he got shot in 1980) stated that:

“Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink. I needn’t argue about that; I know I’m right and I will be proved right. We’re more popular than Jesus now. I don’t know which will go first – rock & roll or Christianity. Jesus was all right, but his disciples were thick and ordinary. It’s them twisting it that ruins it for me.”

So all along maybe this is the main reason why people are denying Jesus after all.

Why I Don't Believe Series