Wednesday, April 04, 2007
The prophecy from Daniel gives us reason to look closer at who Jesus is, but it is not the final word. Jesus did claim to be God, did claim to have the power to forgive sins and did die on a cross. But is any of that true? My guess is the number who say no is greater than the number who say yes, but is there reason to side with the yeas? I believe there is. After all there were eye witnesses who left both direct and indirect testimony to the event of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
I know there are objections raised about both the authorship and dating the four Gospels. There is also strong evidence that Matthew, Mark, Luke and John actually did write the books in the Bible labeled with their names. I also believe the evidence weighs in their favor.
We know these men claimed to be eyewitnesses to the bodily resurrection of Christ. According to Paul there were about 500 others who also saw, talked with and even eat meals with Jesus after His death on the cross. Paul offered this to a group who were denying the resurrection while the eyewitnesses were still alive and could have been contacted directly.
I started with Matthew's record of Jesus' birth and how the events there collaborated Daniel and Micah's prophecies. Matthew also offers evidence that those who wanted to suppress the growth of Christianity knew Jesus rose from the dead. The first century Jewish leadership had a vested interest in stopping the drain Christianity was having on their nation. They were losing literally thousands of the Jerusalem population to the message of Christ. So, why did they not produce the body? Next post. No, I am not trying to be dramatic here, I just have to go to another meeting.
I know there are objections raised about both the authorship and dating the four Gospels. There is also strong evidence that Matthew, Mark, Luke and John actually did write the books in the Bible labeled with their names. I also believe the evidence weighs in their favor.
We know these men claimed to be eyewitnesses to the bodily resurrection of Christ. According to Paul there were about 500 others who also saw, talked with and even eat meals with Jesus after His death on the cross. Paul offered this to a group who were denying the resurrection while the eyewitnesses were still alive and could have been contacted directly.
I started with Matthew's record of Jesus' birth and how the events there collaborated Daniel and Micah's prophecies. Matthew also offers evidence that those who wanted to suppress the growth of Christianity knew Jesus rose from the dead. The first century Jewish leadership had a vested interest in stopping the drain Christianity was having on their nation. They were losing literally thousands of the Jerusalem population to the message of Christ. So, why did they not produce the body? Next post. No, I am not trying to be dramatic here, I just have to go to another meeting.
