Was Jesus Preaching A Spiritual Message? Essay

Jesus: What is Jesus' true identity? What did Jesus do? Why is Jesus' identity and work significant for the Christian worldview?

Christians often disagree about just who Jesus is, they all affirm his standing as a unique figure in sacred history Page 15.

Over the course of history, the historical information regarding Jesus Christ has been interpreted by many different individuals and has led to different beliefs and views regarding the existence of Jesus Christ as a real man. Today I will be interpreting this evidence and i will be attempting to answer the question “Was Jesus Christ a real man?”. The evidence I will be looking at to answer this question will be information regarding the context of Jesus Christ, the historical accounts of non-Christian authors as well as the evidence for the Bible which is the main source regarding the life of Jesus Christ.

When it comes to the crucifixion of Jesus, there are many different arguments that appeal to specific peoples’ beliefs or arguments as to what makes the most sense. What really is the determining factor though when we are deciding how we portray Jesus’ death? Is it our faith? Is it what logically makes the most sense to us? Is it what we are taught growing up by our parents or Sunday school? Could it possibly a mixture of all of those factors? Either way, we all have different beliefs and ideas when it comes to His death. One of the most popular arguments for Jesus’ crucifixion is that the reason he died was purely in place of us due to our sins; he was the ultimate sacrifice. In this paper, I will argue from a logical standpoint that not only does this theory not make sense, but Jesus’ life and choices were related to his crucifixion as well. The most logical circumstance is that, instead, Jesus died as a ransom.

Award-winning journalist, Lee Strobel wrote The Case for Christ to retrace and enlarge his journey toward becoming a Christian. Strobel once atheist, and now Christian, shares how he began to look upon the Bible and God. As an atheist, Strobel lived the life of selfishness and only worried to please himself. When his wife began to go to church he wasn’t very pleased until after he saw the positive and attractive change in her. This is the start of his curiosity and investigation about Christianity. He wanted to understand what changed her like this. He wanted to relate with his wife so he decided to study about this and attend church services with her. Strobel began his journey and interviewed thirteen leading scholars who defended their views concerning the historical reliability of the New Testament. Strobel splits the case for Christ into three basic sections: Examining the Record, Analyzing Jesus, and Researching the Resurrection.

The most rebutted aspect of the work done by the scholars was their idiosyncrasy to equate “unverifiable” with “unauthentic.” Most scholars who study the elements attribute to the life of Jesus stand on common ground when it comes to the realization that many of the sayings and deeds associated to Jesus in the Gospels lack sufficient evidence to establish authenticity. However, to many scholars insufficient evidence means an element cannot be verified, and therefore should not be deemed as historical. In contrast, the Jesus Seminar went beyond this scope and maintained that Jesus did not say or did not do things that cannot be authenticated by evidence. For example, it is widely accepted that there is very little evidence to support whether or not Jesus was born from his virgin mother, Mary. As a result, this element of his life has just been something that one would believe on the foundation of religious faith rather than historical science. However, the Jesus Seminar applied a post-Enlightenment historical scientific view to this element in order to determine authenticity. Under this assessment, they determined not only what is confirmable but what also is scientifically possible. Therefore, the scholars deemed the virgin birth as non-historical, concluding that Jesus had been conceived through normal sexual intercourse between a male and female because it fit the paradigm known today. This stance held by the Jesus Seminar “turn[s] a corner in the traditional understanding of the relationship that faith and philosophy bear to science and history” (Powell, 115). For this reason, I reject the integrity of their work. I believe faith and philosophy should be kept separate of science and history, unless the two aim to support one another. Rescinding concepts of faith simply because they do fall within current scientific boundaries is illegitimate. The major flaw of the Jesus Seminar is their

Everyone in life, has a certain image of what he or she thinks of Jesus. In the beginning of the book, Phillip Yancey, talks about, “Who Jesus Was” in part one. In part one, the reader gains a better insight into Jesus’s younger years, which is unknown to many people. In fact, the only information that people known about Jesus’ younger years are

The divinity of Jesus Christ is something that is very apparent in the gospel of John. Käsemann’s quote

“Who do people say that I am?” (Mark 8:27) is one of the most fundamental questions that Jesus asked his disciples. It is a question, from my personal viewpoint, that has a simple answer. Jesus is Lord! Needless to say, there is more to the identity of Jesus, but it is my belief that Jesus is the Messiah, the second person of the Holy Trinity. He is the promised Savior foretold in the Old Testament by the prophets. There is an endless list that gives Jesus titles such as Ruler and King, Master and Teacher, Savior and Christ, but in Acts 2:36 Luke writes, “God has made him both Lord and Messiah, this Jesus whom you crucified.” Jesus is the one who went to the Cross to bring humankind forgiveness, redemption, and salvation.

Once during a passionate sermon at church, my pastor had made a vivid statement about incorporation of sin in law. Pastor Smith stated, “the world has developed loopholes to maintain its dignity by incorporating sin into the law, and as long as we are operating under the law, our actions are perceived as being justified”(Smith). Reflecting on his theory has brought me to the realization that the United Stated has established a profitable industry, governed by the creation and the manipulation of laws. Although, it’s ideal to believe that the standards of laws were truly orchestrated with the foundation of equality, justice, and freedom. It is imperative to be informed of historical events that has transpired through the history of the black race each operating under the ordinance of law. Beginning with the development of slavery, to the alarming rate of black men behind bars. I am compelled to present the clause of injustice that has labeled the United States as the home of 25% of the world 's prisoners ().

There is far reaching agreement among researchers today over a wide religious spectrum that the resurrection of Jesus is the focal point of Christianity, asserted by conventional believers in light of New Testament passages like 1 Corinthians 15:12-20. However, it is also declared by secular analytical intellectuals also. One of the major confrontational arguments facing Christian theology or apologetics is the resurrection of Jesus being a significant part; therefore, if the

raises the issues of Jesus simply as a man who was good or that it

The quest for the knowledge on the historical Jesus started as a protest against the traditional dogma of Christianity, but when the neutral historians joined the movement, all they saw was Jesus without features. Even when these scholars decided that other biblical figures such as John the evangelist, John the Baptist, Paul, and others were at home in a symbolic and richly storied world. Jesus himself

Johannine literature truly portrays Jesus as God, with the theme of His deity interwoven throughout numerous passages. In this respect, John’s style differs from the other four gospels, as Bickel & Jantz (1998) point out that the other three had been written prior to John’s gospel, therefore, “he wasn’t interested in just retelling the events” (p. 222). Since Jesus is the focal point of Scripture, a scholar of the New Testament with uncertainty concerning Jesus’ oneness with God will fail to perceive the crux of Christianity. Therefore, in spite of its importance, John does not focus on Jesus’ entrance into the

Studies of Jesus primarily focus on the duality of Jesus and how he is able to be both human and divine at once. This subject was disputed at the Council of Chalcedon in the year 451 between the