In our "Good Question" devotional series, we are exploring the basics of the Christian faith. The primary question we are addressing now is whether Jesus is truly God, as the Christian faith claims.
To build a case for Jesus' divinity, the pastor first looks at the evidence outside the biblical accounts. He notes that there are numerous historical references to Jesus from ancient Greek and Roman sources, confirming key facts about his life, teachings, miracles, and crucifixion.
The pastor then turns to examine the credibility of the New Testament documents themselves. Despite the potential bias of the authors, the pastor argues that these texts read like first-century historical accounts, written close to the time of the events they describe. He points out that the documents were circulating and being quoted by other early writers, and that many of the original eyewitnesses were still alive when they were written.
Crucially, the pastor highlights that these documents were "written in blood" - most of the apostles and disciples were willing to suffer persecution and even death for their claims about Jesus, indicating they sincerely believed the accounts to be true, even if they were mistaken.
While the pastor acknowledges the possibility that the disciples were misled, he argues it is difficult to claim they did not genuinely believe Jesus was the Messiah and the Son of God. Overall, he believes there is substantial evidence, both outside and inside the biblical texts, to trust the accounts of Jesus' divinity.
Join us tomorrow as we continue our exploration of the basics of the Christian faith.
