Lord? Liar? Lunatic? Legend?

     2013-???  Genesis-Jonah  

 “No one has ever seen God. The only Son, who is the same as God and is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.” (John 1:18 GNB)  “No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.” (John 1:18 ESV)

 The Gospels are inaccurate, inconsistent, and unreliable  The Gospels were written long after the fact and had meaning primarily for the local Christian communities.  Who was Jesus?  A good moral teacher?  A failed preacher?

 “A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic - on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg - or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God; or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”  C.S. Lewis, ( )

 “This is a false trilemma. It overlooks a fourth option - lord, liar, lunatic, or legend. How do we know that the gospels are an accurate record of events? What if Jesus’ words and deeds were greatly exaggerated or even outright invented by later writers?” – Earl Doherty

 The Gospels are inaccurate, inconsistent, and unreliable  The Gospels were written long after the fact and had meaning primarily for the local Christian communities.  Who was Jesus?  A good moral teacher?  A failed preacher?

 “So then, there were fourteen generations from Abraham to David, and fourteen from David to the exile in Babylon, and fourteen from then to the birth of the Messiah.” (Matthew 1:17)  “From David to the time when the people of Israel were taken into exile in Babylon, the following ancestors are listed: David, Solomon (his mother was the woman who had been Uriah's wife), Rehoboam, Abijah, Asa, Jehoshaphat, Jehoram, Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, Hezekiah, Manasseh, Amon, Josiah, and Jehoiachin and his brothers.” (Matthew 1:6-11)  “Jehoram, Ahaziah, Joash, Amaziah, Uzziah, Jotham…” (1 Chronicles 3:11)

 “As a result, the punishment for the murder of all innocent people will fall on you, from the murder of innocent Abel to the murder of Zechariah son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the Temple and the altar.” (Matthew 23:35)  “The king (Joash) forgot about the loyal service that Zechariah’s father Jehoiada had given him, and he had Zechariah killed. As Zechariah was dying, he called out, ‘May the LORD see what you are doing and punish you!’” (2 Chronicles 24:22)

 “Then what the prophet Jeremiah had said came true: ‘They took the thirty silver coins, the amount the people of Israel had agreed to pay for him, and used the money to buy the potter's field, as the Lord had commanded me.’” (Matthew 27:9)  Zechariah 11:13

 “Happy are those who know they are spiritually poor; the Kingdom of heaven belongs to them!” (Matthew 5:3)  “Happy are you poor; the Kingdom of God is yours!” (Luke 6:21)

 Jesus calms a storm  “When Jesus came to the territory of Gadara (Gerasa) on the other side of the lake, he was met by two men who came out of the burial caves there. These men had demons in them and were so fierce that no one dared travel on that road.” (Matthew 8:28 GNB)  Jesus calms a storm  “Jesus and his disciples sailed on over to the territory of Gerasa, which is across the lake from Galilee. As Jesus stepped ashore, he was met by a man from the town who had demons in him. For a long time this man had gone without clothes and would not stay at home, but spent his time in the burial caves.” (Luke 8:26-27 GNB)

 Jesus speaks a third time about his death (Matthew 20:17-19)  “Then the wife of Zebedee came to Jesus with her two sons, bowed before him, and asked him for a favor. ‘What do you want?’ Jesus asked her. She answered, ‘Promise me that these two sons of mine will sit at your right and your left when you are King.’” (Matthew 20:20-21 GNB)

 Jesus speaks a third time about his death (Mark 10:32-34)  “Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to Jesus. ‘Teacher,’ they said, ‘there is something we want you to do for us.’ ‘What is it?’ Jesus asked them. They answered, ‘When you sit on your throne in your glorious Kingdom, we want you to let us sit with you, one at your right and one at your left.’” (Mark 10:35-37 GNB)

 Jesus speaks a 3 rd time about his death (Matthew vs. Mark)  Request to sit at the right hand (Matthew vs. Mark)  “…like the Son of Man, who did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life to redeem many people.” (Matthew 20:28)  “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served; he came to serve and to give his life to redeem many people.” (Mark 10:45)

 “As Jesus and his disciples were leaving Jericho, a large crowd was following. Two blind men who were sitting by the road heard that Jesus was passing by, so they began to shout, "Son of David! Have mercy on us, sir!" The crowd scolded them and told them to be quiet. But they shouted even more loudly, ‘Son of David! Have mercy on us, sir!’” (Matthew 20: GNB)

 “They came to Jericho, and as Jesus was leaving with his disciples and a large crowd, a blind beggar named Bartimaeus son of Timaeus was sitting by the road. When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout, ‘Jesus! Son of David! Have mercy on me!’ Many of the people scolded him and told him to be quiet. But he shouted even more loudly, ‘Son of David, have mercy on me!’” (Mark 10:46-48 GNB)

 “All Scripture is inspired by God…” (2 Timothy 3:16)

 “I thank God that I did not baptize any of you except Crispus and Gaius. No one can say, then, that you were baptized as my disciples. (Oh yes, I also baptized Stephanas and his family; but I can’t remember whether I baptized anyone else.)” (1 Corinthians 1:14-16)

 “I don't know of anything else the Lord said about marriage. All I can do is to give you my own advice.”  “Now concerning what you wrote about unmarried people: I do not have a command from the Lord, but I give my opinion as one who by the Lord’s mercy is worthy of trust.”  “That is my opinion, and I think that I too have God’s Spirit.” (1 Corinthians 7:12,25,40)

 The Gospels are inaccurate, inconsistent, and unreliable  The Gospels were written long after the fact and had meaning primarily for the local Christian communities.  Who was Jesus?  A good moral teacher?  A failed preacher?

 “This is the disciple who is testifying to these things and has written them” (John 21:24)  “We proclaim to you the One who existed from the beginning, whom we have heard and seen. We saw Him with our own eyes and touched Him with our own hands. He is the Word of life. This One who is life itself was revealed to us, and we have seen Him. And now we testify and proclaim to you that He is the One who is eternal life. He was with the Father, and then He was revealed to us. We proclaim to you what we ourselves have actually seen and heard...” (1 John 1:1-3)

 “Dear Theophilus: Many people have done their best to write a report of the things that have taken place among us. They wrote what we have been told by those who saw these things from the beginning and who proclaimed the message. And so, Your Excellency, because I have carefully studied all these matters from their beginning, I thought it would be good to write an orderly account for you.” (Luke 1:1-3)

 In contrast to ancient records  Women  The Samaritan woman at the well  The Canaanite woman  The Woman caught in adultery  The Women at the tomb

 “Why do you call me good?” (Mark 10:18)  “He has a demon…” (Mark 3:22)  Hanging out with tax collectors, prostitutes  “He was not able to perform any miracles there…” (Mark 6:5)

 “The eleven disciples went to the hill in Galilee where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshiped him, even though some of them doubted.” (Matthew 28:16-17)

 “…the Son of Man, who did not come to be served, but to serve…” (Matthew 20:28)  “When his family heard about it, they set out to take charge of him, because people were saying, ‘He’s gone mad!’” (Mark 3:21)  “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me”

 Peter  “Jesus turned around and said to Peter, ‘Get away from me, Satan!’” (Matthew 16:23)  Thomas  “Love your enemies”  “Shall we call down fire from heaven on them?”

 Jesus feeds 5,000 (Mark 6:30); Jesus feeds 4,000 (Mark 8:1)  “Then the wife of Zebedee came to Jesus with her two sons (James and John), bowed before him, and asked him for a favor. ‘What do you want?’ Jesus asked her. She answered, ‘Promise me that these two sons of mine will sit at your right and your left when you are King.’” (Matthew 20:20-21)

 “On the way they met a man named Simon, who was coming into the city from the country, and the soldiers forced him to carry Jesus' cross. (Simon was from Cyrene and was the father of Alexander and Rufus.)” (Mark 15:21)  “Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the wife of Zebedee.” (Matthew 27:56)  “…a blind beggar named Bartimaeus son of Timaeus…” (Mark 10:46)

 “It was now two days before the Festival of Passover and Unleavened Bread.  The chief priests and the teachers of the Law were looking for a way to arrest Jesus secretly and put him to death…  Jesus was in Bethany  at the house of Simon,  a man who had suffered from a dreaded skin disease.  While Jesus was eating, a woman came in with an alabaster jar full...” (Mark 14:1-3)

 It was the fifteenth year of the rule of Emperor Tiberius;  Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea,  Herod was ruler of Galilee, and  his brother Philip was ruler of the territory of Iturea and Trachonitis;  Lysanias was ruler of Abilene, and  Annas and Caiaphas were High Priests.  At that time the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the desert.” (Luke 3:1-2)

 Where were the Gospels written?  According to Gerd Theissen:  Matthew: Syria  Mark: Syria  Luke: Rome?  John: Palestine-Syria, then Asia Minor

 Simon  Simon (Peter or Cephas)  Simon (the Zealot)  Simon (the leper)  Simon (of Cyrene, father of Alexander and Rufus)  Simon (the tanner)

 Which is easier to remember, names or the stories?  Names are difficult details  If the gospels get the names (the details) right, wouldn’t this suggest that it also gets the story right?

 Characteristic of eyewitness account  “They were in their boat getting their nets ready…they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men...” (Mark 1:19, 20)  “The people sat down in rows, in groups of a hundred and groups of fifty.” (Mark 6:40)  “Simon Peter went aboard and dragged the net ashore full of big fish, a hundred and fifty-three in all…” (John 21:11)

 The details in fictional/fabricated stories are frequently relevant. They are written for a purpose of supporting the fictional story.  The details in historical/real events are frequently irrelevant

 “I have been reading poems, vision- literature, myths all my life. I know what they are like. I know that not one of them is like this.” (C.S. Lewis)  “Legend, Liar, Lunatic….or Lord?

 “No one has ever seen God. But the unique One, who is Himself God, is near to the Father’s heart. He has revealed God to us.” (John 1:18)  “The Father and I are One.” (John 10:30)  “If you’ve seen me, you’ve seen the Father” (John 14:9)  “I AM”