Friday, April 9, 2010

week 11

The Historicity and Deity of Jesus Christ

“Historically, it is quite doubtful whether Christ ever existed at all, and if He did we do not know anything about Him, so that I am not concerned with the historical question, which is a very difficult one.”
- Bertrand Russell

Is this actually the Case? Is it really doubtful whether Christ ever existed at all? What can we know about His life? Are we confined to the Gospel records when searching for knowledge about His life? Are the Gospel records even historically reliable?

What can we know about Jesus outside the Bible?

First of all, how much information is there about Jesus that can be gleaned from outside the pages of Scripture? What are the sources? What do they tell us about Jesus?
1) Tacitus (AD 55-120)
a. Though we don’t have all of Tacitus’ works today (many have been lost or destroyed), we do have portions that speak about Jesus.
b. Tacitus reported about the great fire in Rome during the reign of Nero that Nero blamed the fires on the Christians.
c. The reference reads as follows:
i. “Consequently, to get rid of the report, Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called Christians by the populace. Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus, and a most mischievous superstition, thus checked for the moment, again broke out not only in Judea, the first source of the evil, but even in Rome, where all things hideous and shameful from every part of the world find their centre and become popular.”
d. This passage is longer and contains more information about early Christianity, but this is the portion that is relevant to knowledge about Christ.
e. From this passage, we learn that:
i. Christ was a real man
ii. He lived during the reign of Pontius Pilate
iii. He “suffered the extreme penalty” under Pontius Pilate
iv. His teachings started a “mischievous superstition” (Christianity), which was stopped for a time, but then broke out again and expanded, possibly lending credence to the resurrection.
2) Suetonius
a. A Roman historian, who was the chief secretary to Emperor Hadrian from about 117 AD until about 138 AD.
b. Writing about the reigns of the various Roman Rulers, he made at least two mentions to Christ and Christianity. Though we don’t really learn much about Christ from this reference, we do learn that Christ was a historical figure who was responsible for the start of a new religious movement that spread through Rome.
3) Josephus
a. “At this time, there was a wise man who was called Jesus. His conduct was good and He was known to be virtuous. And many people from among the Jews and the other nations became his disciples. Pilate condemned him to be crucified and to die. But those who had become his disciples did not abandon his discipleship. They reported that he had appeared to them three days after his crucifixion, and that he was alive; accordingly he was perhaps the Messiah, concerning whom the prophets have recounted wonders.”
b. We learn that Jesus was a wise and virtuous man, recognized for virtuous conduct
c. We learn that Jesus had many disciples, both Jew and Gentile
d. He was condemned to die under Pilate
e. He was Crucified
f. There were reports from His immediate followers that He rose from the dead
g. There were reports that He appeared after his Crucifixion
h. Jesus was believed to be the Messiah and it was thought that the Old Testament Scriptures spoke of Him
4) Thallus
a. Though we don’t have any copies of the works of Thallus, his works survive in the writings of those who quoted him.
b. Julius Africanus, speaking about the darkness that covered the earth around the time of the Crucifixion, quoted Thallus and said,
i. “On the whole world there pressed a most fearful darkness; and the rocks were rent by an earthquake, and many places in Judea and other districts were thrown down. This darkness Thallus, in the third book of his History, calls, as appears to me without reason, an eclipse of the sun.”
c. The reason that Africanus doesn’t believe that the darkness could not have been an eclipse is because this took place during the Passover season, which is during the full moon. It is not possible for there to be an eclipse during a full moon.
5) Pliny the Younger
a. “They (the Christians) were in the habit of meeting on a certain fixed day before it was light, when they sang in alternate verses a hymn to Christ, as to a god, and bound themselves by a solemn oath, not to any wicked deeds, but never to commit any fraud, theft or adultery, never to falsify their word, nor to deny a trust when it was they should be called upon to deliver it up…”
b. They believed that Jesus was God
c. They were bound to a high ethical standard.
6) Emperor Trajan
a. Though this reference doesn’t mention Christ explicitly, it does state that Christians were in the habit of denying Roman Gods and would not worship them.
7) Emperor Hadrian
a. This reference also deals with punishment of Christians, who were often accused of violating the laws.
8) Toledoth Jesu
a. This document is anti-Christian and contains a reference to the ancient belief that the body of Jesus was stolen from the grave and that the resurrection was therefore not a reality.
b. This teaches us several things:
i. The Biblical account that the Jews believed that the body of Christ was stolen is true.
ii. There were serious reports about the resurrection of Christ
iii. The fact that the Toledoth Jesu was not complied until the 5th century gives it no weight against the first century accounts we have in other historical works, including the New Testament.
9) Lucian
a.
10) Mara Bar-Serapion

Can we trust what we know about Jesus from the Bible?
Last week, we covered that the Bible has been copied accurately, but are the things recorded in the Bible accurate accounts of history? How do we know that the writers of the New Testament didn’t fabricate or lie?

My first comment is that the Bible records in more detail the exact same things that secular history records. If the writers of the Bible were lying, the historians of their day would have corrected them.
This is not the case.
As we have show already, the core of the New Testament Message has been confirmed by historical sources outside of the Bible.
We will also show next week that the Biblical records are written by eyewitnesses and that they were written early, with the records and/or sources going back to the very events themselves, not relying on accounts that originated long after the events of the New Testament.

But does the Bible really say that Jesus is God?

Matthew 16:13-15
“Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, He was asking His disciples, ‘Who do people say that the Son of Man is?’ And they said, ‘Some say John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; but still others, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets.’ He said to them, ‘But who do you say that I am?’”

Deity of the Son:
v John 1:1, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
• In the first place, the construction of the Greek in this verse demonstrates that the phrase, “the Word was with God” speaks about Christ’s personality, while the phrase, “the Word was God” speaks about the Character of Jesus (as divine), it emphasizes Christ’s participation in the Divine Nature.
• In the second place, the phrase, “and the Word was God” is so constructed in the Greek language to demonstrate that Jesus is not the only one who has the Divine Nature, but the other members of the Trinity can be implied in the word, “God”.

v John 1:18, “No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him.”
• The word for “only begotten” does not mean that Jesus was “begotten”, as might be implied by the English translation. However, the Greek word is μονογενης, (monogenes) meaning “unique, one of a kind”. See for example Hebrews 11:17 where the word is used of Isaac, who was clearly not Abraham’s only son (remember Ishmael?). Rather, Isaac was Abraham’s son in a unique sense, as the promised son through whom God’s covenant would be fulfilled.

v John 10:30, “I and the Father are One.”
• The word for “one” in the Greek is εν (hen). It is in the neuter gender, which means that Jesus is saying that He and the Father are one in essence, not in number. If Jesus meant to say that He and the Father were one in number, He would have used a different gender for the Greek word and said εις (heis).
• Also of note, the word for “are” is εσμεν (esmen), which is in the first person plural, meaning, “we are”. Thus, the verse should be rendered, “I and the Father, we are One [as to Our essence].”

v John 20:28, “Thomas answered and said to Him, ‘My Lord and my God.’”

v Romans 9:5, “Whose are the fathers, and from whom is the Christ according to the flesh, who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen.”
• Douglas Moo, while commenting on this passage, says: “Connecting ‘God’ to ‘Christ’ is … exegetically preferable, theologically unobjectionable, and contextually appropriate. Paul here calls the Messiah, Jesus, ‘God,’ attributing to him full divine status.”

v 1st Timothy 2:5, “For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.”
• In order to mediate between God and man, Jesus must be able to identify with both God and man. To identify fully with man, He must be fully man. But to identify fully with God, He must also be fully God.
• See Philippians 2:5-8.

v Philippians 2:5-8, “Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”
• Pertaining to the Deity of Christ, this verse is demonstrating that Jesus was indeed God as to His Being. He added humanity; He did not subtract Deity.
• For example, it could be worded this way, “Since He was equal with God, He didn’t need to try and grasp equality.” It was already His, there was no need to “reach” for it.
• The KJV and NKJV use the word “robbery”. To claim Deity is not “robbery”; He can’t “rob” what He rightfully possesses.
• This verse demonstrates that though Jesus was unquestionably God, He was also unequivocally man. Jesus was very God of very God, yet also man in the fullest sense.
• He “emptied Himself” and took the form of a “bond-servant”, being made in the “likeness of men.”
• He was one Person with two Natures. This doctrine is known as the “Hypostatic Union” (from a Greek word meaning “substance, nature or essence”).
• In the words of the Chalcedon Creed, “We then, following the Holy Fathers, all with one consent, teach men to confess one and the same Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, the same perfect in Godhead and also perfect in manhood; truly God and truly man, of a reasonable soul and body; consubstantial with the father according to the Godhead, and consubstantial with us according to the Manhood; in all things like unto us, without sin…”

v Titus 2:13, “Looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus.”
• The Granville Sharp’s rule is to be applied here. This rule of Greek Grammar put roughly is that when you have two terms joined by the word, “and”, which are preceded by only one article (“the”, which is present in the Greek, though not translated into the English), the Noun following governs both of the preceding terms. In this case, if “Savior” refers to Jesus, then “God” must be a further description of Jesus.
• Gordon Fee, commenting on this passage, says, “…Did Paul mean to say our great God and Savior (NIV, GNB, = a twofold designation of one divine Person) or “The great God and our Savior” (GNB margin, KJV, referring to the two divine Persons)? Here the NIV (GNB, RSV) has the better of it, since (a) the single definite article before great God is best understood as controlling both nouns together, (b) the term God and Savior is stereotyped terminology both in the LXX and Hellenistic religions, and (c) nowhere else is God the Father understood to be joining the Son in the Second Coming.”

v Hebrews 1:8, “But of the Son, He says, ‘Your throne, O God, is forever and ever, and the righteous scepter is the scepter of His kingdom.’”
• If God, speaking about the Son (Jesus), calls Him “God”, then how are you going to argue with that?
• If you can’t trust God’s opinion, then how can you even trust your own opinion? “Rather, let God be found true, though every man be found a liar” (Romans 3:4)

v 2nd Peter 1:1, “Simon Peter, a bond-servant and apostle of Jesus Chris, to those who have received a faith of the same kind as ours, by the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ.”
• The Granville Sharp rule applies to this passage as well.
• “God and Savior” therefore are titles applied to Jesus Christ; Peter is not saying Our God, and [another person, designated as] our Savior [who is] Jesus Christ.”

The conclusion that must be drawn is that it is unacceptable to call yourself a Christian and deny the Deity of Christ. In fact, the Bible goes so far as to say that if you Deny Christ (which would include a denial of His deity), then He will deny you. In effect, you cannot deny the Deity of Christ and still claim to be His follower; if you deny this, you are not a Christian and are not (nor could you be) saved.

• Matthew 10:33, “But who ever denies Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father who is in heaven.”

• 2nd Timothy 2:12, “If we endure, we will also reign with Him; If we deny Him, He also will deny us.”

It is unacceptable to call yourself a Christian and deny the Deity of Christ. But it is also inexcusable to be a Christian and be unable to defend the Deity of Christ from the Bible. If you believe this, then you should know why you believe this. Where does the Bible say that Jesus is God? I’ve just given ten verses that clearly ascribe Deity to Jesus, and there are numerous other verses that could have been used. Mark them in your heart.

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