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Was Jesus of Nazareth truly the Christ the Son of the
Living God? Is it possible that single-handedly He could have
perpetrated a mass deception upon mankind? Could this lowly
Nazarene have involved His own mother in a lie even to the point where
she would stand and watch her own son suffer and die on a cross for
something she knew to be false? Could Jesus have persuaded twelve
Galileans from different educational backgrounds and social casts to
abandon their jobs to follow Him? Could He have convinced these men to
assist Him in promulgating enthusiastically a doctrine they never
really believed to be true?
WHAT ABOUT PROPHECY?
Is it possible that this man from Nazareth could have
fulfilled every prophecy recorded in the Old Testament concerning the
Messiah, exactly as it was stated, at the exact time, place, and in the
exact manner of the fulfillment, without making a single mistake? Was
it by chance that God made use of an event in world politics to effect
the fulfillment of prophecy concerning the place Jesus was to be born?
(Lk. 2:1,4-7; Mic. 5:2; Matt. 2:6). Was it by mere chance that Jesus
was carried to Egypt to escape the awful decree of Herod the Great and
thereby fulfill another prophecy? (Num. 24:;8; Matt. 2:15). Upon His
entrance into Jerusalem in the closing days of His ministry, was it by
chance that the owners of a small colt and the Lord's disciples all
cooperated in releasing and bringing the young animal to Him that the
Scriptures might be fulfilled? (Zach. 9:9; Matt. 21:4; Lk. 19:29-35).
Was it a mere guess that Jesus foretold the events surrounding His own
death and resurrection? (Jno. 18:32; Matt. 20:19; Lk. 24:44-46).
WHAT ABOUT MIRACLES?
Is it possible that the wonders performed by Jesus
(which were not done in a corner, Acts 26:26) were mere tricks and not
miracles? Even by removing all hearsay evidence and by performing
wonders even before the eyes of prejudiced viewers, is it possible that
Jesus could have fooled all the people all of the time? Did Jesus
restrict Himself to the alleged cure of aches and pains as modern-day
fake-healers do? Did He not restore sight to the blind and raise the
dead? (Jno. 9:1-41; 11:1-46). His bitterest enemies the scribes and
Pharisees, admitted the miracles that He wrought. (Jno. 9:16; 11:47;
Acts 4:16). If Jesus had failed in just one attempt to heal somebody,
would not His bitterest foes, including the Roman government, have
published it in foot-long headlines throughout the whole world?
WAS JESUS RESURRECTED?
Assuming all would agree that Jesus of Nazareth died and
was buried, what is the probability that His disciples, as dejected and
as doubtful as they already were, would feign the report that Jesus was
raised from the dead? Since Jesus had claimed that he would be raised
from the dead after three days, Pilate had the stone sealed around the
new tomb (Lk. 23:53) and set a wathch. He straitly commanded the
Pharisees saying, "Ye have a watch, go your way, make it as sure as you
can." (Matt. 27:62-66). If it be claimed that the body of Jesus was
stolen, we can immediately rule out the possibility of the Jews or
Romans having stolen it. It took a large sum of money and a promise of
the intervention by the entire Jewish leadership to gert the soldiers
to say the body was stolen (while they slept). (Matt. 28:11-15). If the
disciples stole the body, where would they hide it? The Roman guard
probably numbered from fifteen to sixty men. There were thousands of
hostile Jews in Jerusalem at this time. The city covered about 300
acres; the streets were narrow; the buildings were crowded. There were
250,000 natives of Jerusalem, and, according to Josephus, three million
were there for the Passover feast.
If w assume that the disciples stole the body, is it
probable that they would continue to preach the doctrine of the
resurrection which they themselves knew to be untrue? Would they have
suffered violent deaths (as most did) for a lie? Among the many
appearances of Jesus following His resurrection, He appeared to over
500 brethren at once. (1 Cor. 15:6). Could this have been a case of
mass deception? Is it not probable that just one soul out of 500 would
be left alive who could show that Jesus was not raised and that the
whole thing was one big gigantic lie?
THE OVERWHELMING CONCLUSION!
Since it is mathematically improbable that Jesus of
Nazareth could have gotten His mother, His disciples, the apostles, His
bitter enemies, and all others involved in His life, to act together
exactly as they did, in the right way, at the right time, and for the
exact purpose of confirming the fact that He is the Christ; and since
it is improbable that one man could perpetrate a universal deception
without a single mistake, and have the entire weight of the Old
Testament history behind His every action, the overwhelming evidence
leads any reasonable man to the inescapable conclusion, that Surely,
Jesus Is The Christ!
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