Is Jesus Real?

And Jesus said to him, ?I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me (Holy Bible Book of John). This statement is from John 14:6 where Jesus is saying that He is the only way to God and how to live your life. Jesus exclaimed this because He wanted His followers to know why He was put on this Earth. Most people today need proof or evidence that they comprehend to validate their viewpoint on Jesus. This includes even outside eyewitnesses of Jesus such as Flavius Josephus, a Jewish historian. While the world holds many opinions of Jesus, people still ignore the signs because of their pride and what society tells them to believe. While one of the biggest arguments between Christians and unbelievers is if Jesus was real, the proof of Him can be found in the New Testament books. These accounts from the New Testament were written shortly after Jesus' death. However, some people believe that they were written actually 100- 200 years later. To these people, this means the New Testament can't be considered as evidence for they were written much later which would lead to a folk tales versus historical reality (Slick 2). This point of view becomes problematic because Acts was written after Luke, who also wrote Acts (Slick 2). The book of Luke was written after Matthew, which was written down before Mark (Slick 2). Most scholars conclude that that information is correct. From this evidence, people are able to know that Acts was recorded after those books. Since that is true, the exact date cannot be determined, but internal evidence shows it to be between 62 and 70 A.D (Slick 3). This renders support for the argument that Jesus was a real historical person. Evidence for Jesus to be real does not just come from the Bible and its historical evidence. Flavius Josephus, a famous Jewish historian, recorded Jesus' life down in his manuscripts (GotQuestions 4). One example of this is when he wrote about James, Jesus' brother, in his Antiquities. He said, At this time there was a wise man named Jesus. His conduct was good, and he was known to be virtuous. And many people from among the Jews and the other nations became his disciples (GotQuestions 4). If a person were to say that Jesus is not real because the Bible is incorrect, then they would be wrong because not only does the Bible write about Jesus, but a Jewish historian does as well. Documentation from Flavius Josephus gives great support to the argument that Jesus was a real person. In the next proof of Jesus being real, it comes straight from the Bible in 1 Corinthians 15. At the start of the chapter, he explains how he went to that place in person and preached to people orally, which happened around 51-52 A.D (Habermas 11). In verse 3, Paul writes that what he had received was about Christ dying on the cross for all people's sins (Habermas 11). This is a man who knew the other Apostles and preaches the gospel that they agreed on from Jesus. Since he was connected to the main stream of Christian believers, Paul's teachings represent a Christian tradition that transpires from the central support of Christians (Habermas 11). Most scholars agree that Paul is to be taken serious because there is so much historical evidence of him. Being a person with plenty of historical evidence who wrote about Jesus, Paul leads the affirmation of Jesus' existence and reveals further proof of Him. While many recognize that Jesus is real, there are quite a few who do not believe Jesus to have been real. One viewpoint is that the gospels contradict each other. These people demonstrate that Mark is the earliest existing document of Jesus' life and teachings, while Luke and Matthew added on different corrections to that book to create their books (Tarico 10). They are right that four gospels are similar, but they don't understand that they were all portraying Jesus' teachings from their viewpoint of how it happened. In another example of an opinion against Jesus being real, they believe that the New Testament gospels weren't even written by Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John (Tarico 9). For these people, the reason why the gospels weren't written by their names is because they were believed to have been written in the second century. This makes it too improbable for the disciples to have been alive to scribe the stories about Jesus (Tarico 9). Evidence to oppose this proposition is easily found from Paul where he talks about his teachings coming from witnesses and Jesus himself. Some of these witnesses were indeed the disciples. These disciples were eyewitnesses to the events that took place during Jesus' travels. In today's society and culture, people can be handed pure evidence of something, and still turn away from the truth because of what other people's opinions have told them to be true. When Jesus said to everyone that He is truth and the way, He doesn't need to be believed from evidence. His Word alone is enough for all people to understand and listen to Him. Even if a person wanted to find ways to deny Jesus, they would be hit with several facts that support Jesus. In everyone's soul, there is something that is missing, and that something is Jesus Christ.

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