When Science Proves Faith: What Happens?

The Story Of Faith

We are living in a non-believing secular society that even in the 21st century doesn’t accept Jesus as the Christ-the Son of God.  Just like doubting Thomas from the Gospel, some people will never believe in Jesus unless they are presented with some physical proof. These 21st century doubting Thomas’ are trying to conjure up the concept that somehow Jesus never existed. 

This was the reason why the Jesus Project, announced in December 2007, was intended as a five-year investigation to examine whether Jesus existed as a historical figure.  This group was tasked with plans putting together a group of 32 scholars from a variety of disciplines who would meet regularly with no preconceived ideas, funded by the Committee for the Scientific Examination of Religion, part of the Center for Inquiry.  The goal of the organization was to prove once and for all that Jesus did or did not exist.  The project was abandoned two years later as the group began to come to the conclusion that Jesus did exist and had existed on this earth about 2,000 years ago.  It was going to be billed as a scientific approach to the discovery of Jesus.  When they were on the verge of this discovery, they folded their tents and called it a day.  Why? Maybe because the results did not meet the requirements of their science?  If this is the case, what does this say about their science?  I had thought that the purpose of science was to question and test a hypothesis, not just try to come up with a required outcome based on a predetermined result.  Brothers and sisters, if this is not the case here this is truly not science. 

How can you come to this conclusion?  Simple, look at these facts. Typically, when this question is asked, the person asking qualifies the question with “outside of the Bible.” We do not grant this idea that the Bible cannot be considered a source of evidence for the existence of Jesus. The New Testament contains hundreds of references to Jesus Christ. There are those who date the writing of the Gospels to the second century A.D., more than 100 years after Jesus’ death. Even if this were the case (which we strongly dispute), in terms of ancient evidence, writings less than 200 years after events took place are considered very reliable evidence. Further, the vast majority of scholars (Christian and non-Christian) will grant that the Epistles of Paul were in fact written by Paul in the middle of the first century A.D., less than 40 years after Jesus’ death. In terms of ancient manuscript evidence, this is extraordinarily strong proof of the existence of a man named Jesus in Israel in the early first century A.D. 

It is also important to recognize that in A.D. 70, the Romans invaded and destroyed Jerusalem and most of Israel, slaughtering its inhabitants. Entire cities were literally burned to the ground. We should not be surprised, then, if much evidence of Jesus’ existence was destroyed. Many of the eyewitnesses of Jesus would have been killed. These facts likely limited the amount of surviving eyewitness testimony of Jesus.

Considering that Jesus’ ministry was largely confined to a relatively unimportant area in a small corner of the Roman Empire, a surprising amount of information about Jesus can be drawn from secular historical sources. Some of the more important historical evidences of Jesus include the following:

The first-century Roman Tacitus, who is considered one of the more accurate historians of the ancient world, mentioned superstitious “Christians” (from Christus, which is Latin for Christ), who suffered under Pontius Pilate during the reign of Tiberius. Suetonius, chief secretary to Emperor Hadrian, wrote that there was a man named Chrestus (or Christ) who lived during the first century (Annals 15.44).  Please note that we see a great deal of validity here.  You have Jesus (Christ) who suffered under Pontius Pilate during the reign of Tiberius.  All of which actually backs up the complete story that Jesus existed. 

Flavius Josephus is the most famous Jewish historian. In his Antiquities he refers to James, “the brother of Jesus, who was called Christ.” There is a controversial verse (18:3) that says, “Now there was about this time Jesus, a wise man, if it be lawful to call him a man. For he was one who wrought surprising feats....He was [the] Christ...he appeared to them alive again the third day, as the divine prophets had foretold these and ten thousand other wonderful things concerning him.” One version reads, “At this time there was a wise man named 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 became 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.”  James, the brother of Jesus was the first Bishop of Jerusalem.  He also wrote an Anaphora which is the oldest in the Church today.  It is used every Friday of Holy Week. Again this proves that Jesus lived and influenced people of his day. 

Julius Africanus quotes the historian Thallus in a discussion of the darkness that followed the crucifixion of Christ (Extant Writings, 18).

Pliny the Younger, in Letters 10:96, recorded early Christian worship practices including the fact that Christians worshiped Jesus as God and were very ethical, and he includes a reference to the love feast and Lord’s Supper.

The Babylonian Talmud (Sanhedrin 43a) confirms Jesus’ crucifixion on the eve of Passover and the accusations against Christ of practicing sorcery and encouraging Jewish apostasy.

Lucian of Samosata was a second-century Greek writer who admits that Jesus was worshiped by Christians, introduced new teachings, and was crucified for them. He said that Jesus’ teachings included the brotherhood of believers, the importance of conversion, and the importance of denying other gods. Christians lived according to Jesus’ laws, believed themselves to be immortal, and were characterized by contempt for death, and renunciation of material goods.

Mara Bar-Serapion confirms that Jesus was thought to be a wise and virtuous man, was considered by many to be the king of Israel, was put to death by the Jews, and lived on in the teachings of His followers.

Then we have all the Gnostic writings (The Gospel of Truth, The Apocryphon of John, The Gospel of Thomas, The Treatise on Resurrection, etc.) that all mention Jesus.

In fact, we can almost reconstruct the gospel just from early non-Christian sources: Jesus was called the Christ (Josephus), did “magic,” led Israel into new teachings, and was hanged on Passover for them (Babylonian Talmud) in Judea (Tacitus), but claimed to be God and would return (Eliezar), which his followers believed, worshiping Him as God (Pliny the Younger).

There is overwhelming evidence for the existence of Jesus Christ, both in secular and biblical history. Perhaps the greatest evidence that Jesus did exist is the fact that literally thousands of Christians in the first century AD, including the twelve apostles, were willing to give their lives as martyrs for Jesus Christ. People will die for what they believe to be true, but no one will die for what they know to be a lie.

Jesus Christ – The Absolutely Pure and Sinless One

Remarkably, even though the Quran acknowledges that all creatures are sinners who need mercy and forgiveness, including God’s prophets and messengers, it exempts Jesus from this list since it states that he was absolutely sinless from the moment of his miraculous conception!

Note what the following passage says:

He said: I am only a messenger of your Lord: That I will give you a pure boy (ghulaman zakiyyan). S. 19:19

What follows is a series of translations and commentaries which help bring out the implication of the Arabic phrase zakiyyan.

Translations

“… I shall bestow upon thee the gift of a son endowed with purity." Muhammad Asad

“… that I may bestow on thee a faultless son.” Pickthall

“… I am assigned to grace you with the divine prerogative of procreating a son who is stamped with the character of sublimity, holiness and piety.” Al-Muntakhab

“…'I shall bestow upon you the gift of a son endowed with a spotless character…” Shabbir Ahmed

“… I am merely a messenger from your Lord to tell you about the gift of a holy son.” Farook Malik

Conclusion

You can clearly see that Jesus was here with us and was a historical character. Trying to doubt this is truly the same as doubting that the sun will rise in the morning. The trouble with our world today is that they believe so strongly in something they forget that the truth is out there.  Here, brothers and sisters, you know the truth- Jesus is the Christ, he is our Lord and Savior now and forever. Amen