savedforgod

The first hand accounts of Matthew and John are because they were one of the original 12 disciples. Paul met Peter in Jerusalem said in the Bible), so he got to know him and Barnabas well when he went there. These 3 Apostles collaberated, so they shared information about Jesus. Paul said he saw Jesus in Person. Peter spent 3 years with Jesus as did Matthew and John, the disciple whom Jesus loved. Mark travelled with Paul and Barnabas. Luke travelled with Paul.

savedforgod

Jesus said he was God, so he would be sinning if he lied. In fact, Jesus would not be a very good person at all would he, if he lied about being God now would he? In fact, you would be a better person than Jesus, because you don't like about yourself being God. This is how you know Jesus is God, for he was without sin, and went to the cross selflessly, fulfilling 62 prophecies. Jesus most definitely is the the Messiah and Son of God.

savedforgod

All of Israel predicted the Messiah, and to ensure he was the Messiah, he would have to fulfill 62 prophecies. He did it.

savedforgod

Fact: there is nothing in antiquity that is more well documented than Christianity and earliest still preserved paprysus so close to the events that took place. The Bible exceeds all other comparisons.

savedforgod

Of the ancient Jewish writings, Flavius Josephus is most notable. Josephus was a historian who lived A.D. 37-97. He referred to Jesus Christ twice in his writings. In the first instance, he wrote:

"At this time there was a wise man who was called Jesus. And his conduct was good and (he) was known to be virtuous. And many people from among the Jews and other nations became his disciples. Pilate condemned him to be crucified and to die. And those who had become his disciples did not abandon his discipleship. They reported that he had appeared to them three days after his crucifixion and that he was alive; accordingly, he was perhaps the messiah concerning whom the prophets have recounted wonders." [quoted in The Verdict of History: Conclusive Evidence for the Life of Jesus by Gary Habermas (Nashville: Nelson, 1988), pp 91-92)]

In the second reference, a few pages later, Josephus wrote:
"Festus was now dead, and Albinus was but upon the road; so he assembled the sanhedrin of Judges, and brought before them the brother of Jesus, who was called Christ, whose name was James, and some others, or, some of his companions." [Josephus' History of the Jews 20:9c]

These citations are noteworthy because Josephus was neither a Christian nor a friend of Christianity. In fact, he wrote his history of the Jews for Romans whom he knew to be hateful toward Christianity.

savedforgod

Roman documents make up the third category of ancient sources testifying that Jesus really lived. Before considering examples from this group, however, it is important to note why we should not expect to find many references to Jesus in Roman sources. Imagine you are a preacher for a small country congregation in Oklahoma. If you stayed there for three years, how often do you suppose your name would appear in the Washington Post or the New York Times? That is more in keeping with the level of expectation we should have when it comes to reading about Jesus in ancient Roman writings. An obscure carpenter with few friends, from a remote town thousands of miles from Rome, would hardly make front-page news in the capital city of the world! Even His death on the cross was commonplace in that age of extreme cruelty. Nonetheless, some references were made to Jesus.

Three authors stand out. First, Suetonius (an author who wrote biographies of the first twelve Roman emperors) referred to Christ and Christians in A.D. 120. Second, Pliny the Younger, a governor of Bithinia, sent a letter to the Emperor Trajan in A.D. 112 asking for advice on what to do with Christians. Among other things, he wrote that they "were in the habit of meeting on a certain fixed day before it was light, when they sang in alternate verses a hymn to Christ, as to a god...." [quoted in The Verdict of History: Conclusive Evidence for the Life of Jesus by Gary Habermas (Nashville: Nelson, 1988), p 95)]

Third, perhaps the most outstanding Roman writer who mentioned Jesus was the historian Cornelius Tacitus. In his Annals, written about A.D. 116, Tacitus said this about Nero's attempts to avoid being blamed for the burning of Rome:

"Therefore, to scotch the rumour, Nero substituted as culprits, and punished with the utmost refinements of cruelty, a class of men, loathed for their vices, whom the crowd styled Christians. Christus, the founder of the name, had undergone the death penalty in the reign of Tiberius, by sentence of the procurator Pontius Pilate, and the pernicious superstition was checked for a moment, only to break out once more, not merely in Judaea, the home of the disease, but in the capital itself, where all things horrible or shameful in the world collect and find a vogue. First, then, the confessed members of the sect were arrested; next, on their disclosures, vast numbers were convicted, not so much on the count of arson as for hatred of the human race. And derision accompanied their end: they were covered with wild beasts' skins and torn to death by dogs; or they were fastened on crosses, and, when daylight failed were burned to serve as lamps by night." [quoted in He Walked Among Us by Josh McDowell and Bill Wislon (San Bernardino, CA:, Here's Life Publishers, 1988), p 49)]

This is an important citation, since Tacitus is almost universally praised as one of the world's greatest ancient historians. He was not a follower of Jesus, nor did he like Christians. He simply recorded the facts as he knew them. Among those facts were that a man known as Christus [an apparent corruption of the "Christ"] died at the hands of Pontius Pilate, and that he had a following of people that reached as far as Rome. Tacitus even told of the horrible way Christians were treated. This is very important in itself. Remember, this persecution occurred less than 40 years after the death of Christ. These early Christians obviously believed that Jesus was much more than a myth. They were willing to die for Him.

Sven

And your evidence for this is...?

Umm, no, he said he saw visions.

And your evidence for this is...?

Ever heard about the concept of being honestly mistaken?
BTW, you are again using circular reasoning. You say Jesus did not sin, so he was god. It's impossible that he lied about this, since lying would be sinning and he did not sin.

[snip more preaching]

Apikorus

According to Jewish tradition, the messiah would have to bring an end to war, an end to death, would have to gather in the exiles to Israel, would have to build the Temple in its place in Jerusalem, would usher in an era of miraculous agricultural growth, etc. Jesus apparently did none of these things.

savedforgod

There were 12 apostles.

Julian

[MOD]
savedforgod,

if you are posting material from websites it is required that you supply a link to the site from where you got it, unless it is your own site.

Julian
Moderator BC&H
[/MOD]