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The Wrong Jesus
Fact, Belief, Legend, Truth ... Making Sense of What You've Heard
By Greg Monette Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.
Copyright © 2014 Gregory J. Monette
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-61291-499-2
CHAPTER 1
WHY DOES HISTORY MATTER?
History is an indispensable key to the correct interpretation of the figure and message of Christ. The originality of Christianity is rooted precisely in the affirmation that human history has embraced the indescribable event of the presence of God as man, redeemer of mankind through his mysterious death and resurrection.
Angelo Amato, cardinal and theologian, Roman Catholic Church
Imagine you're at a family reunion and there's one relative everyone looks forward to seeing each year but nobody can completely figure him out—everyone has conflicting views about that person. If you really like him enough, or even love him, you'll undoubtedly want to form some kind of relationship with him to understand who he really is as accurately as possible. You don't do it out of fear or pressure. You're going to try to understand him so you can get to know the true person as he really is because, quite frankly, you really like him and want to know him better and have a deeper relationship with the true person, not your preconceived ideas about him.
This is exactly why those of us who identify ourselves as Christians should care about history and trying to know what we can about Jesus. It's not that we have to have him all figured out in order to have a relationship with him, but it's a way we can show love and care to the person who means so much to us (and to the family of Christian believers). By getting to know important facts, we can have confidence that the New Testament's portraits of Jesus are reliable and Jesus is who he says he is and we can trust him and follow him with confidence.
Now pause for a second. If right now you wouldn't consider yourself part of the family of Jesus and want to know if he's worth following, close this book, grab the Bible, and read the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John). These writings are the earliest biographical portraits we have of Jesus and the best place to begin learning about him. Once you've read his bio(s), come back to The Wrong Jesus. This book is meant to be a second step after reading the stories about Jesus.
It's true that many people reject Christianity because they misunderstand Jesus or believe that what's written about him couldn't possibly be true. I hope this book will help you rethink him, as you might have the wrong Jesus in your mind.
I COULD BE WRONG ABOUT JESUS
I have to confess that I could be wrong about Jesus. There are nights when I lie in bed and stare at the ceiling wondering, What if I'm wrong? What if it's all just too good to be true? The evidence for Christianity sure seems to point toward it all being true, yet I sometimes wonder if I'm missing something.
This is a major question for many people. Maybe you've asked similar questions about your worldview. The reason it's so nerve-racking for many of us to ponder is that it's possible our eternal destinies depend on our beliefs. I have friends with alternative religious worldviews (Muslims, Jews, agnostics, atheists) who ask the very same question: What if I'm wrong? It really doesn't matter which worldview we hold when it comes to doubt; most of us will encounter times of intense questioning.
REASONS FOR DOUBT
There are many reasons people quit being Christians, wander away from following Jesus, or have very little interest in even considering Christianity. These reasons include the popular (and maybe accurate in some cases) perception that many Christians are narrow-minded, shallow, anti-science, exclusive, and antiintellectual. James S. Spiegel has argued that some people stop believing in God or don't believe in God at all because they can't imagine a loving heavenly Father (God) either because they were young when their own fathers died or their fathers were horrible people (neglectful or abusive). Many people reject Christianity or turn to atheism because they are drawn to lifestyles that don't align with what the Bible says is okay. They don't want to be held accountable to a moral lawgiver. One of the other major reasons young people drop out of Christianity is because they no longer believe Christianity is true. David Kinnaman interviewed thousands of young adults between the ages of eighteen and twenty-nine and discovered that almost one-fourth of young adults who identified as being Christians had "significant intellectual doubts about faith."
There may be some good reasons to have doubts in the first place, but there's no reason you need to remain stuck in your doubts. In fact, there's a way to experience some freedom. Because Christianity is based around its founder, Jesus of Nazareth, when we focus on the historical person of Jesus, we can see how firm the foundation of Christianity really is. The historical evidence underpinning the life of Jesus is very well substantiated.
Although I occasionally raise questions of doubt, the truth is that my faith has been rejuvenated in recent years by my study of history and how it intersects with the historical person, Jesus of Nazareth. I've come to realize that when we take the time to really pay attention to where faith and history collide, we see the truth of Christianity come alive. Historical study helps us be able to have faith, and for those who already have faith, it confirms what we already know and believe to be true through our experience of God in our lives. This is the power of faith and history coming together!
THE FAITHOMETER
Sometimes I can't get to sleep, so I watch late-night television. Every once in a while, I enjoy torturing myself by watching prosperity preachers tell people that they need to "have more faith!" If only you had more faith, you would be healed or would have more money or ... whatever. They make it sound like there's a "faithometer" that exists somewhere and that humans can control how much faith they have like The Little Engine That Could, who kept saying, "I think I can, I think I can, I think I can!"
I'm convinced that you can't force yourself intellectually to believe something you don't actually believe. For many of us, we need good reasons to be able to have faith in something or trust something or someone.
The word faith has some negative connotations in today's world because for many people, faith equals believing in something when there's no evidence. This really isn't a good definition when you consider that the word faith means "trust." It's impossible to trust in something without good evidence. For example, let's say you purchased a new car and someone asked you if they could borrow it for a couple hours. You'd be foolish to put blind faith in just anyone to borrow your car for the afternoon. Instead, you'd want to be able to trust him, and this would require some evidence. Do you know him? Does he have his driver's license? What's his driving record like? How much has he driven, and has he ever been in an accident before? Does he have a reputation for driving over the speed limit or talking on a cell phone while driving? There are many questions you'd be justified in asking prior to letting someone borrow your car. The point is this: You would never just give the keys to your car to a complete stranger or to somebody you didn't trust. Now, when it comes to your entire worldview, it can require at least this level of research before being able to place your trust in a given ideology or set of beliefs. For some of us, we need some help to take us closer to making a decision to put our faith, or trust, in Jesus. As we dig into some facts here as well as in the following chapters, the evidence will help you make an informed decision about whether or not you can and should put your trust in Jesus of Nazareth.
JESUS AND HISTORY
Because I've been putting so much emphasis on historical proof about Jesus and Christianity, you're probably wondering if there are any facts we can know with certainty about Jesus—anything followers and skeptics can agree about. E. P. Sanders, world-renowned historian of Jesus of Nazareth who does not believe the Bible to be completely reliable, provides a list of common facts practically every scholar and historian know with virtual certainty about Jesus. This list alone should show that there is much more to the history of Christianity and its founder, Jesus of Nazareth, than many people think:
1. Jesus was born c. 4 BCE, near the time of the death of Herod the Great.
2. He spent his childhood and early-adult years in Nazareth, a Galilean village.
3. He was baptized by John the Baptist.
4. He called disciples.
5. He taught in the towns, villages, and countryside of Galilee (apparently not the cities).
6. He preached "the kingdom of God."
7. About the year AD 30, he went to Jerusalem for Passover.
8. He created a disturbance in the temple area.
9. He had a final meal with the disciples.
10. He was arrested and interrogated by Jewish authorities, specifically the high priest.
11. He was executed on the orders of the Roman prefect, Pontius Pilate.
12. His disciples at first fled.
13. They saw him (in what sense is not certain) after his death.
14. As a consequence, they believed that he would return to found the kingdom.
15. They formed a community to await his return and sought to win others to faith in him as God's Messiah.
There are many other details about Jesus' life that could be added to this list, but this is a good place to start if for no other reason than to show that historians take Jesus seriously and there is a set of generally agreed-upon facts about his life from which the majority of scholars begin their historical detective work.
WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN?
Unlike the analogy of the relative at a family reunion used at the beginning of this chapter, Jesus is not just your ordinary figure of history. More than two billion people have placed their faith and trust in Jesus of Nazareth. (Not too many uncles have this kind of devotion!) For this reason among many others, it's important to know what we can about Jesus historically. Also, because many people struggle with doubt about the Christian faith and find it difficult to maintain trust in the biblical depictions of Jesus, knowing where history and faith intersect is even more necessary. So without further ado, let's look at some of the most probing questions Christians and non-Christians have about where history and faith come together when we focus on Jesus.
QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION AND DISCUSSION
1. Do you agree that faith and history need to intersect?
2. What keeps people from taking Jesus of Nazareth seriously?
3. What causes people to have increased faith/trust? Can you gain more trust by sheer will?
4. What are the reasons people leave Christianity?
5. If you were wrong about Jesus, what would change?
(Continues...)
Excerpted from The Wrong Jesus by Greg Monette. Copyright © 2014 Gregory J. Monette. Excerpted by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc..
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