post-christmas meditations 2

And the answer to the questions I posed yesterday is this: Jesus Christ was a real and historical person whose life and ministry are accurately depicted in the Bible.

He was not a Zealot, a Jewish nationalist who tried rebelling against Roman rule. Nor was he just a hypnotist-illusionist who deceived his followers into thinking he rose from the dead. And most certainly he wasn't just a fictional and sentimental self-esteem booster imagined by wishful thinkers. He did exist.

He was a Jew who really lived and walked on the sands of Palestine. Born in Bethlehem of the virgin Mary around 4 BC, He stayed in Nazareth, and worked as a carpenter most of his life. But during His last three years, He preached, teached and performed many miracles among his countrymen -- He walked on water, fed thousands from a few fish and loaves of bread, cast away demons, and healed the sick. The Pharisees and Saducees, the conservative Jewish parties during those times, conspired against Him, and had him flogged and condemned to death by crucifixion by Pontius Pilate. And after three days, He rose from the dead.

But He was not just a man. He was --and is -- in some strange and ineffable way God, God incarnate, the God-man. The infinite and eternal God took on finite sinews of human flesh, and contained Himself in the space-time continuum He Himself designed. Jesus is the God to whom all Creation, from our DNA to stardust, owes its existence. He is the Son who is one with the Father (John 10:30), the Son in whom the fullness of Deity dwells (Col. 1:19), the Son through whom all things in heaven and earth were created (Col 1:16).

I can almost hear you snorting with laughter now, after reading a handful of Bible quotes on this article. What a fool, you scoff. Another arrogant, annoying, Bible-quoting and radically fanatical Jesus freak trying in vain to convince unsuspecting acquaintances. Of course you wouldn't believe my words as easily as that, especially after you've read what the fictional Professor Leigh Teabing carelessly said in Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code:

the Bible is a product of man. Not of God. It has evolved through countless translations, additions, and revisions...

and is, therefore, untrustworthy. I've met so many people who sincerely assented to Dr. Teabing's seemingly sophisticated beliefs without even researching whether what he said was true.

However, I, together with countless New Testament scholars, do not agree with him and those miserably biased people. I do not intend to make this post a lengthy rebuttal of his statement. Countless others have written books regarding the topic -- such as Lee Strobel and Craig Blomberg. For now, I will quote F.F. Bruce, an esteemed Biblical scholar at the University of Manchester, England:

There is no body of ancient literature in the world which enjoys such a wealth of good textual attestation as the New Testament.

(I have a list of numerous helpful sites on the Internet that discuss these things in more detail, but I still haven't finished organizing my list. Which is why my links sidebar is completely empty. My sincere apologies.)

But you do not need to believe what Dr. Bruce and other Bible historians have written about the historical and textual reliability of the Bible to be convinced that the Bible is true. There is a self-authenticating ring to the Bible's message which one will increasingly hear as he delves into its pages. Hearing it is like discovering that the Sun is hot, when you feel its radiant rays on your face, or that water is good for your body when you slake your thirst on a cupful after a 5-mile run.

What now? So what if the Bible is historically accurate? So what if Jesus is indeed God? So what if He rose from the dead three days after His crucifixion?

I don't care, you might reply. And then you'll brush off these annoying existential questions from your mind -- like what you'd do to a hapless ant that happened to crawl onto your arm.

Dear reader, the implications of these precious truths are more important, oh, so much more important than your lab report grades, or your 34-inch waistline. Come now, take a break from your busy little world, sit down and think about these things.

Think.