𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗝𝗲𝘀𝘂𝘀 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗯𝗹𝗲𝗺

I want to talk about a problem historians have, not a problem believers have.
Two thousand years ago a Jewish carpenter from a village nobody respected was executed by the Roman state as a criminal. He wrote no book. He held no office. He commanded no army. He never travelled more than about a hundred miles from where He was born. His public career lasted roughly three years. At His death His followers had scattered, His chief disciple had denied knowing Him, and Rome had done what Rome did to troublemakers.
By every rule of history, that is the end of the story.
Instead, the calendar you are reading this on counts from His birth.
𝗧𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗯𝗹𝗲𝗺. Not whether you like Him. Whether you can explain Him.
Nobody has to answer "who is Socrates to you?" Nobody loses sleep over Confucius or Alexander. But every major worldview on earth has been forced to file a position on this one man.
Islam calls Him the Messiah, born of a virgin, and awaits His return. Judaism has argued about Him for two millennia. Hinduism makes room for Him as an avatar. Buddhism calls Him an enlightened teacher. Secular historians, with no stake in the matter, nearly all concede He existed, was baptised by John, and was crucified under Pilate. Even the atheist is compelled to write books explaining why He didn't mean what He said.
Why does a failed Galilean preacher require everyone's answer?
𝗧𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗯.
Here is a fact historians on both sides accept: within weeks of the execution, in the same city where it happened, His followers were publicly proclaiming He had risen. Not in a distant land where nobody could check. In Jerusalem, where the tomb could be visited.
The authorities had every motive to produce a body. They never did.
And the men who made the claim did not get rich. They were beaten, imprisoned, and most of them were killed. People will die for something they believe is true. People do not die for something they know they invented. Liars make poor martyrs.
𝗡𝗼𝘄 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗮𝗿𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗰𝗹𝗼𝘀𝗲𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗲𝘅𝗶𝘁𝘀.
The comfortable position is: good man, great teacher, not God. But that is the one position He did not leave open. He forgave sins that were not committed against Him. He said, "Before Abraham was, I am." He said, "I and my Father are one." He accepted worship. He claimed He would judge the world.
A merely good man does not say those things. Either He was lying, and so not good. Or He was deluded, and so not a great teacher. Or He was telling the truth.
C.S. Lewis, who came to this as a sceptic, put it plainly: He did not leave us the option of calling Him a great moral teacher. He did not intend to.
So you can reject Him. That is a position. You can worship Him. That is a position.
What you cannot do is ignore Him. History has proven that impossible.
He asked one question of His own friends that is still the only question that matters:
"But whom say ye that I am?" Matthew 16:15
Everybody answers. Even silence is an answer.
What is yours?
#Faith #Jesus #History #Truth