During a lunch table discussion a good friend of mine basically equated religious leaders such as Mohammed and Buddha with Jesus. I remembered an outline I adapted from Josh McDowell's Evidence That Demands A Verdict, Volume 1, and used it to compose this email message. I asked my friend to consider the following question:
JESUS - LORD, LUNATIC, OR LIAR?
This question poses only three alternatives and we will try to demonstrate that there are indeed only three alternatives.
Many skeptics of Christianity want to affirm that Christ was a good moral man and teacher, while rejecting His deity. This is not a choice, as we shall see. In the words of C.S. Lewis: "You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and call Him a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come up with any patronizing nonsense about Him being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to."
Is Jesus Christ God?
1. He claimed to be God.
(Mk. 14:61-64 - But He kept silent and answered nothing. Again the high priest asked Him, saying to Him, "Are You the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?" Jesus said, "I am. And you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven." Then the high priest tore his clothes and said, "What further need do we have of witnesses? "You have heard the blasphemy! What do you think?" And they all condemned Him to be deserving of death.)
This passage shows that Christ was crucified for being who he really was, namely: (1) Son of the Blessed, (2) The one who would sit on the right hand of power, and (3) The Son of Man who would come on the clouds of heaven
(Jn. 10:30-33 - "I and My Father are one." Then the Jews took up stones again to stone Him. Jesus answered them, "Many good works I have shown you from My Father. For which of those works do you stone Me?" The Jews answered Him, saying, "For a good work we do not stone You, but for blasphemy, and because You, being a Man, make Yourself God.")
Here we see Jesus claiming to be one essence (or nature) with the Father, thus equal.
(Jn. 5:17,18 - But Jesus answered them, "My Father has been working until now, and I have been working." Therefore the Jews sought all the more to kill Him, because He not only broke the Sabbath, but also said that God was His Father, making Himself equal with God.)
Once again claiming equality with God.
(Jn. 8:58 - Jesus said to them, "Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM.")
"I Am" - Here Jesus claims to absolute deity, by asserting His preexistence.
(Jn. 5;23,24-26 - For the Father judges no one, but has committed all judgment to the Son, that all should honor the Son just as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him. Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life.)
(Jn. 8:19 -Then they said to Him, "Where is Your Father? "Jesus answered, "You know neither Me nor My Father. If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also.")
(Jn. 14:1,9 - Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. Jesus said to him, Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, 'Show us the Father'?)
(Mt. 5:20,22,26,28,etc. - For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. And whoever says to his brother, 'Raca!' shall be in danger of the council. But whoever says, 'You fool!' shall be in danger of hell fire. Assuredly, I say to you, you will by no means get out of there till you have paid the last penny. But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.)
2. He asked for and accepted worship as God.
The kind of worship reserved only for God. Ð (Mt. 4:10 -Then Jesus said to him, "Away withh you, Satan! For it is written, 'You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve.' ")
He received the kind of worship reserved for God
(1) The leper - (Mt. 8:2 - And behold, a leper came and worshiped Him, saying, "Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.")
(2) The man born blind - (Jn. 9:35-39- Jesus heard that they had cast him out; and when He had found him, He said to him, "Do you believe in the Son of God?" He answered and said, "Who is He, Lord, that I may believe in Him?" And Jesus said to him, "You have both seen Him and it is He who is talking with you." Then he said, "Lord, I believe!" And he worshiped Him. And Jesus said, "For judgment I have come into this world, that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may be made blind.")
(3) The disciples - (Mt. 14:33 -Then those who were in the boat came and worshiped Him, saying, "Truly You are the Son of God.")
(4) Doubting Thomas - (Jn. 20:27-29 - Then He said to Thomas, "Reach your finger here, and look at My hands; and reach your hand here, and put it into My side. Do not be unbelieving, but believing." And Thomas answered and said to Him, "My Lord and my God!" Jesus said to him, "Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.")
Others claimed He was Lord.
Paul - (Phil. 2:9-11 - Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.)
John the Baptist - (Lu. 3:22 - And the Holy Spirit descended in bodily form like a dove upon Him, and a voice came from heaven which said, "You are My beloved Son; in You I am well pleased.")
Peter - (Mt. 16:15-17 - He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?" Simon Peter answered and said, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." Jesus answered and said to him, "Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.)
William Biederwolf drew this conclusion: "A man who can read the New Testament and not see that Christ claims to be more than a man, can look all over the sky at high noon on a cloudless day and not see the sun."
According to the Apostle John in his Gospel 20:30,31. (And truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name.) In other words the whole purpose of the gospel according to John was to present Jesus as the Son of God, that is, on equality with God the Father
Now, if Jesus was not (is not) God then only two alternatives exist: He was a liar or a lunatic!
Was Jesus Christ a Liar?
If so, he was also a hypocrite - because he demanded honesty from others, while he was living a monstrous lie.
If a liar, then a demon, because just like Satan he called on others to entrust Him with their eternal destiny.
If a liar, then a fool, because his claim led to his death. Mk. 14:61-64 (see above)
If he was a liar, then he deserved to die under the Hebrew law (Jn. 19:7 -The Jews answered him, "We have a law, and according to our law He ought to die, because He made Himself the Son of God.")
Philip Schaff in his tract from 1913, The Person of Christ, made these remarks concerning Jesus as an impostor: "The hypothesis of imposture is so revolting to moral as well as common sense, that its mere statement is its condemnation. It was invented by the Jews who crucified the Lord to cover their crime, but has never been seriously carried out, and no scholar of any decency and self-respect would now dare to profess it openly. How in the name of logic, common sense, and experience could an impostor - that is a deceitful, selfish, depraved maan - have invented, and constantly maintained from the beginning to end, the purest and noblest character known in history with the most perfect air of truth and reality? How could he have conceived and carried out a plan of unparalleled beneficence, moral magnitude, sublimity, and sacrificed his own life for it, in the face of the strongest prejudices of his people and ages?"
Was Jesus Christ a Lunatic?
If we reject the theory that Jesus was a liar, then maybe he just thought himself to be God and was mistaken. It is possible to be sincere and wrong!
We judge those that claim to be God today (or his latter day Apostles) as full-fledged nut cases. (Koresh, Jim Jones, The Ayatollah, Saddam Hussein, etc.)
C.S. Lewis in his book, Miracles - A Preliminary Study, offers these thoughts on the lunatic theory: "The historical difficulty of giving for the life saying and influence of Jesus any explanation that is not harder than the Christian explanation is very great. The discrepancy between the depth and sanity of his moral teaching and the rampant megalomania which must lie behind His theological teaching unless He is indeed God has never been satisfactorily explained. Hence non-Christian hypotheses succeed one another with restless fertility of bewilderment."
Philip Schaff (from Person of Christ tract): "Is such an intellect clear as the sky, bracing as the mountain air, sharp and penetrating as a sword, thoroughly healthy and vigorous, always ready and self-possessed - liable to a radical and most serious delusion concerning His own character and mission? Preposterous imagination!"
Some final thoughts...
You must decide for yourself who Jesus is. However, remember that to make him out to be only a great moral teacher is not a legitimate option, based on His own teaching concerning Himself. He is liar, lunatic, or Lord.
Bible evidence is in favor of Jesus as our Lord and Savior!
[All scriptures quoted from the NKJV]