How To Communicate Our Belief In Jesus Christ's Existence?

Was Jesus Christ a mythical figure? Did HE not exist in flesh and blood in the form of a human being?

We could be certain of Christ's existence for many reasons. One such reason could be our belief in the teachings of our parents and our church. Alternatively, we may have explored and studied the evidence for Christ's life that credible scholars have examined and affirmed to be trustworthy.

But how could we be reasonably certain of Christ's existence?

Historians affirm the existence of the "Historical Jesus." New Testament scholar and historian, Mike Licona, defines the historical Jesus as, "When the data has been sifted, sorted, and assessed, the historical Jesus is the Jesus historians can prove with reasonable certainty and apart from faith."1

However, many people are of the firm belief that Jesus Christ never existed. "Jesus Mythers" are a group of people who believe that the church fabricated the life of Jesus Christ, that HE never existed.

These Jesus Mythers are quite dogmatic and vocal about their belief, so much so that they will go to any extent of twisting data, providing false claims and appealing to sources who are not scholars, in order to claim that Christ did not exist.2

How do "Jesus Mythers" fool people? Christian apologist, J. Warner Wallace, explains how Jesus mythers employ the similarities between Jesus and the mythological gods before Jesus to deem Christ as a mythological figure, "Movies like Zeitgeist: The Movie and The God Who Wasn't There attempted to convince a generation of skeptics Jesus was simply a mythological creation of the past, shaped and modeled after the mythological gods who preceded Him...In an effort to make the case that Jesus is simply a re-creation of prior deities, many "Jesus Mythers" have referenced similarities between the real Christ and His imaginary predecessors. While these similarities are always dramatically overstated (more on that in tomorrow's post), I think it is fair to first address why there might be any similarities at all between Jesus and the ancient mythologies to which He is often compared."3

Another ploy used by Jesus Mythers is to discredit the writings of the early historians, Josephus and Tacitus (these historians mentioned Jesus in their writings). Furthermore, they claim paucity or a total lack of credible sources outside the Bible (New Testament) that corroborates Christ's existence. They also claim much of geography during Christ's time was mythical e.g. they believe that the towns of Bethany, Bethphage, Capernaum, and Nazareth did not exist in the 1st century AD.

There is no end to their deception.

So if we believe in the existence of Jesus Christ, how could we communicate our belief to honest seekers?

Referencing the testimonies of hostile witnesses would be very valuable. The testimony of a hostile witness is very powerful (cf. Criterion of Unsympathetic Sources). Dr. Bart Ehrman is one such hostile witness. He is a much acclaimed and widely respected scholar.

Bart Ehrman is a hostile witness since he does not believe in the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ. A hostile witness (in this context) has no bias or no need, whatsoever, to affirm in the existence of the Historical Jesus.

Bart Ehrman believes in the existence of the Historical Jesus. Significantly, Ehrman emphasizes that scholars who have genuinely studied the evidence pertaining to the existence of Historical Jesus believe that HE existed, "Mythicists have often gotten upset with me for pointing out that almost no one with any qualifications in the requisite fields of scholarship agrees with them. I can see why that would be upsetting. My sense is that some of them think that I've been rubbing their noses in it. But that isn't really my intent. My intent is to point out to anyone who is interested – for example, someone who just doesn't know what to think – that those who are qualified to speak knowledgeably on such subjects are virtually unified on one view (there was a historical Jesus of Nazareth) and opposed to the other (he is a complete myth)."4