Ask the Pastor 42

Who is Jesus?

A few weeks back, all around the world, we celebrated the birth of Jesus. Due to the relationship that I have with Him, I will refer to Him as Lord. This question will lead to many more questions because it cannot be answered in one simple paragraph. Thomas Paine, an influential thinker and author of such works as Common Sense and Age of Reason, stated, “There is no history written at the time of Jesus Christ is said to have lived that speaks of the existence of such a person, even such a man.” First of all, that statement is not true, Josephus was a Jewish historian, born in 37 A.D., who referred to the Lord Jesus and there are at least 21 writers of antiquity who refer to the Lord Jesus including a report written by Pontius Pilot to Tiberius Caesar. A more important problem with that statement is that it discredits the Bible as a reliable source of historical events. It is true that the Bible is not a “history book” but nevertheless the history that is recorded has always been found to be true and without error. The Gospel records were written by eye-witnesses within 40 years of their happening. They were written not by one but by four authors who all agree on the main points of His life. These records agree with the historical record of other secular and Jewish historians of the first and second centuries and the Bible has always been proven to be remarkable accurate in what it says about the ancient world. In future articles we will present arguments as to how we know that the Lord Jesus is who He said He is and why that is important.

Have questions about the Bible? Send them to Dr. Greg Koehn at gak4850@gmail.com and read the answer here in this article.