As Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat, and the mall subtly echoes jingling melodies in every shopper’s ear, it causes this semi-humble observer to pause and reflect upon the reality of the season. I actually find it fascinating, how the life and death of Jesus Christ is one of the few events in which we allow time to alter history. “It happened so long ago; we just can’t know for certain,” becomes the familiar, sometimes accepted, societal refrain. And yet, we don’t allow time to change the fact of the reign of the Roman Empire nor that Columbus sailed the ocean blue. The life of Jesus, however, perhaps because of how we feel about some of his teachings, is often a fact rationalized away via the passage of time.
Allow me to humbly share this day a few facts that cause me to pause — brief reasons I know he is real. I speak not from scripture itself (… which I also find to be incredibly fascinating… all the ways inspired prophecies are fulfilled hundreds of years later… so humbling and overwhelming to actually study and read… putting my predetermined opinions aside). There are a few significant facts, no less, that strike me… even with that music in my ears:
- There exist more than 5600 Greek manuscripts of the New Testament, the biblical account that begins with the birth of Jesus and then chronicles his life. Contrastingly, we have 7 Greek manuscripts of Plato’s work, 49 of Aristotle’s, and 643 of Homer’s “Iliad.” Academia presents each of these as unquestionably true.
- Jesus is acknowledged in the major religions which do not worship him. Islam says he was a great prophet. Judaism identifies him as a great teacher. The bottom line is that neither denies Jesus walked this planet.
- Hundreds of witnesses attested to Jesus’s life and death. People who actually saw him and saw his death spoke of it. Allow me to quote Dr. Edwin M. Yamauchi, Professor Emeritus of History at Miami University, as told by writer Josh McDowell: “What gives a special authority to the list (of witnesses) as historical evidence is the reference to most of the five hundred brethren being still alive. St. Paul says in effect, ‘If you do not believe me, you can ask them.’ Such a statement in an admittedly genuine letter written within thirty years of the event is almost as strong evidence as one could hope to get for something that happened nearly two thousand years ago.” Let’s take the more than 500 witnesses who saw Jesus alive after His death and burial, and place them in a courtroom. Do you realize that if each of those 500 people were to testify for only six minutes, including cross-examination, you would have an amazing 50 hours of firsthand testimony? Add to this the testimony of many other eyewitnesses and you would well have the largest and most lopsided trial in history.
I will admit to often wrestling with some of the things Jesus said. They’re not always easy to apply, and I don’t always like the way I feel about what is said. Rarely, however, do I wrestle with what is true.
I’m thus quietly, gleefully moved by that music in my ears this time of year.
Respectfully…
AR
[Intramuralist note: multiple sources were used for this post, including but not limited to the following: “Archaeology and History Attest to the Reliability of the Bible” by Richard M. Fales, Ph.D., “Unshakeable Foundations” by Norman Geisler & Peter Bocchino, the works and studies Josh McDowell, and Wikipedia.]