There
is a valid question that non-Christians have the right to put to Christians:
“What is it about your Christ that everyone is challenged to put their trust in
Him to the exclusion of any other saviour?”
Christianity
is Christ. All that Christians hold dear is centred on Jesus Christ. Take Jesus
Christ out of the picture, and there will be nothing left in the Christian
faith. What lies at the centre of the discussion can be expressed in another
question: “What do you think of Jesus?”
If Jesus asked you the question, ‘Who do you
say I am?’, what would your answer be? May be your
answer would be that He is a great teacher, or, a prophet. Jesus asked His disciples the same question.
He asked them, “Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?” (Mathew 16:13). The
disciples replied, “Some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah
or one of the prophets” (Matthew
Was
Jesus a prophet? He certainly was. Was he only a prophet? Certainly not, for
Peter declared Him to be more than just a prophet!
So,
Christians share with Muslims the belief that Jesus is a prophet; but for
Christians He is much more than a prophet. They give Him other titles (as the
apostle Peter did) like ‘Son of God’, which present enormous problems for
Muslims, for Christians believe that Jesus is fully
human and fully divine at the same time.
Now,
you might ask, ‘Please show me where in the Bible it states that Jesus said He
is God and we are to worship Him.’ I have been asked this question many times
before.
Suppose
a man comes up to you and says, "I am God, worship me." Would you
believe him? Would you worship him? Of course not! The immediate reaction of
any decent monotheistic religious person would be to call the person making
such a claim an impostor and a blasphemer. In fact that was the Jews’ reaction
to Jesus as we shall see later. If that is your reaction too, then why would
you demand something from Jesus which you are not going to accept anyway?
Jesus
knew about this natural reaction as well as anybody else and saw no reason to
make His claims in such a foolish way. Instead He did make the claim in
indirect ways and those are just as clear. They were so clear that His
opponents understood what He meant and therefore sought to kill Him!
What
matters in the end is not the existence of any literal statement, but whether
there is clear evidence that He is indeed God, no matter in which form He
issued the claim. If there is clear proof of His divine identity, then you have
to worship Him, even if the wording of His commands is not precisely the way
you may think it should be. You cannot prescribe to God how He should reveal
Himself before you accept it.
In
this article, we will look at evidence that proves that Jesus is more than a Prophet- evidence that proves that He is a divine Person.
If you really wish to understand the Biblical faith, you have to consider the
evidence honestly and with an open mind. Maybe you have already learnt a number
of facts about Jesus that may be new to you. Perhaps you are thinking of
rejecting this new light, like the man who said, “I have made up my mind. Don't
confuse me with facts!” But the Christian's faith rests on facts. Son let us
examine them. Let us look at the variety of evidence which proves that Jesus is
more than a prophet.