This one lagi CRYSTAL CLEAR!
Ye men of Israel, hear these words; Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know. ( THE ACTS 2:22)
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This one lagi CRYSTAL CLEAR!
Ye men of Israel, hear these words; Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know. ( THE ACTS 2:22)
Why China banned the Bible?
It is a fairly tale story that will break up China and cause disunity among the Chinese if Bible is allowed to be preached. How many wars were started by the Christians? Many?
Christianity is going down the drain when people begin to realise the absurdity of the story line in the NT. Jesus teaching on the sermons on the plain/mount, was derived from Buddhist Dhama scripture, and Paul idea of God was from his Roman Godly beleive.
It is a fairly tale story that will break up China and cause disunity among the Chinese if Bible is allowed to be preached. How many wars were started by the Christians? Many?
Christianity is going down the drain when people begin to realise the absurdity of the story line in the NT. Jesus teaching on the sermons on the plain/mount, was derived from Buddhist Dhama scripture, and Paul idea of God was from his Roman Godly beleive.
maybe the reason why ppl dont bother and just believe in any particular religion(not finger pointing here) is that they do not read their own scriptures.
Or as in the case of others, they do read but gloss over the confusing and whattheheckwasthat parts?
Wasnt it written in the Bible , " seek the truth and the truth shall set you free". Knowledge is power,but a little knowledge.....
Or as in the case of others, they do read but gloss over the confusing and whattheheckwasthat parts?
Wasnt it written in the Bible , " seek the truth and the truth shall set you free". Knowledge is power,but a little knowledge.....
thats one of the only thing good china has done.....banning the bible....becoz of xtianity there are so many wars.....the bible is renown to be the bloodiest book on earth
There are many reasons why some are against the idea of Christ being God:
(a) all the prophets are subjected to Christ and from the smallest to the greatest, they have to bow down and be subjected to Christ;
(b) they are intellectually arrogant and they equate their own confusion to that of others;
(c) they are genuinely lost.
It is to this last group that I dedicate the following three articles. If after reading further and you need to ask more questions, then do join any Alpha Course of the local church of your choice. At the end of the day, you need to make your decision if Christ is God and you want to worship Him.
(a) all the prophets are subjected to Christ and from the smallest to the greatest, they have to bow down and be subjected to Christ;
(b) they are intellectually arrogant and they equate their own confusion to that of others;
(c) they are genuinely lost.
It is to this last group that I dedicate the following three articles. If after reading further and you need to ask more questions, then do join any Alpha Course of the local church of your choice. At the end of the day, you need to make your decision if Christ is God and you want to worship Him.
"Beyond Blind Faith - Is Jesus God?" By Paul E. Little
It is impossible for us to know conclusively whether God exists and what He is like unless He takes the initiative and reveals Himself. We must scan the horizon of history to see if there is any clue to God's revelation. There is one clear clue. In an obscure village in Palestine, 2,000 years ago, a Child was born in a stable. Today the entire world is still celebrating the birth of Jesus.
He lived in obscurity until He was thirty, and then began a public ministry that lasted three years. It was destined to change the course of history. He was a kindly person and we're told that "the common people heard Him gladly." And, "He taught as One who had authority, and not as their teachers of the Law."1
Is Jesus God? He Was Very Clear About It
It soon became apparent, however, that He was making shocking and startling statements about Himself. He began to identify Himself as far more than a remarkable teacher or prophet. He began to say clearly that He was God. He made His identity the focal point of His teaching. The all-important question He put to those who followed Him was, "Who do you say I am?" When Peter answered and said, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God"2, Jesus was not shocked, nor did He rebuke Peter. On the contrary, He commended him!
He made the claim explicitly, and His hearers got the full impact of His words. We are told, "The Jews tried all the harder to kill Him; not only was He breaking the Sabbath, but He was even calling God His own Father, making Himself equal with God."3
On another occasion he said, "I and My Father are One." Immediately the Jews wanted to stone Him. He asked them for which good work they wanted to kill Him. They replied, "We are not stoning You for any of these but for blasphemy, because You, a mere man, claim to be God."4
Is Jesus God? Look At His Life
When a paralyzed man was let down through the roof wanting to be healed by Him, He said, "Son, your sins are forgiven you." This caused a great to-do among the religious leaders, who said in their hearts, "Why does this fellow talk like that? He's blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?"
At the critical moment when His life was at stake, the high priest put the question to Him directly: "Are You the Christ, the Son of the Blessed One?"
"I am," said Jesus. "And you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven."
The high priest tore his clothes. "Why do we need any more witnesses?" he asked. "You have heard the blasphemy."5
So close was His connection with God that He equated a person's attitude to Himself with the person's attitude toward God. Thus, to know Him was to know God.6 To see Him was to see God.7 To believe in Him was to believe in God.8 To receive Him was to receive God.9 To hate Him was to hate God.10 And to honor Him was to honor God.11
Is Jesus God? - Four Possible Explanations
“As we face the claims of Christ, there are only four possibilities. He was either a liar, a lunatic, a legend, or the Truth.”
As we face the claims of Christ, there are only four possibilities. He was either a liar, a lunatic, a legend, or the Truth. If we say He is not the Truth, we are automatically affirming one of the other three alternatives, whether we realize it or not.
(1) One possibility is that Jesus lied when He said He was God -- that He knew He was not God, but deliberately deceived His hearers to lend authority to His teaching. Few, if any, seriously hold this position. Even those who deny His deity affirm that He was a great moral teacher. They fail to realize those two statements are a contradiction. Jesus could hardly be a great moral teacher if, on the most crucial point of His teaching -- His identity -- He was a deliberate liar.
(2) A kinder, though no less shocking possibility, is that He was sincere but self-deceived. We have a name for a person today who thinks he is God. That name is lunatic, and it certainly would apply to Christ if He were deceived on this all-important issue. But as we look at the life of Christ, we see no evidence of the abnormality and imbalance we find in a deranged person. Rather, we find the greatest composure under pressure.
(3) The third alternative is that all of the talk about His claiming to be God is a legend -- that what actually happened was that His enthusiastic followers, in the third and fourth centuries, put words into His mouth He would have been shocked to hear. Were He to return, He would immediately repudiate them.
The legend theory has been significantly refuted by many discoveries of modern archeology. These have conclusively shown that the four biographies of Christ were written within the lifetime of contemporaries of Christ. Some time ago Dr. William F. Albright, world-famous archaeologist now retired from Johns Hopkins University, said that there was no reason to believe that any of the Gospels were written later than A.D. 70. For a mere legend about Christ, in the form of the Gospel, to have gained the circulation and to have had the impact it had, without one shred of basis in fact, is incredible.
For this to have happened would be as fantastic as for someone in our own time to write a biography of the late John F. Kennedy and in it say he claimed to be God, to forgive people's sins, and to have risen from the dead. Such a story is so wild it would never get off the ground because there are still too many people around who knew Kennedy. The legend theory does not hold water in the light of the early date of the Gospel manuscripts.
(4) The only other alternative is that Jesus spoke the truth. From one point of view, however, claims don't mean much. Talk is cheap. Anyone can make claims. There have been others who have claimed to be God. I could claim to be God, and you could claim to be God, but the question all of us must answer is, "What credentials do we bring to substantiate our claim?" In my case it wouldn't take you five minutes to disprove my claim. It probably wouldn't take too much more to dispose of yours. But when it comes to Jesus of Nazareth, it's not so simple. He had the credentials to back up His claim. He said, "Even though you do not believe Me, believe the evidence of the miracles, that you may learn and understand that the Father is in Me, and I in the Father."12
The Life of Jesus - His Unique Moral Character
His moral character coincided with His claims. Many asylum inmates claim to be celebrities or deities. But their claims are belied by their characters. Not so with Christ. He is unique -- as unique as God.
Jesus Christ was sinless. The caliber of His life was such that He was able to challenge His enemies with the question, "Can any of you prove Me guilty of sin?"13 He was met by silence, even though He addressed those who would have liked to point out a flaw in His character.
We read of the temptations of Jesus, but we never hear of a confession of sin on His part. He never asked for forgiveness, though He told His followers to do so.
This lack of any sense of moral failure on Jesus' part is astonishing in view of the fact that it is completely contrary to the experience of the saints and mystics in all ages. The closer men and women draw to God, the more overwhelmed they are with their own failure, corruption, and shortcomings. The closer one is to a shining light, the more he realizes his need of a bath. This is true also, in the moral realm, for ordinary mortals.
It is also striking that John, Paul, and Peter, all of whom were trained from earliest childhood to believe in the universality of sin, all spoke of the sinlessness of Christ: "He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in His mouth."14
Pilate, no friend of Jesus, said, "What evil has He done?" He implicitly recognized Christ's innocence. And the Roman centurion who witnessed the death of Christ said, "Surely He was the Son of God."15
Is Jesus God? His Ability to Control Nature
Christ demonstrated a power over natural forces which could belong only to God, the Author of these forces.
He stilled a raging storm of wind and waves on the Sea of Galilee. In doing this He provoked from those in the boat the awestruck question, "Who is this? Even the wind and waves obey Him!"16 He turned water into wine, fed 5,000 people from five loaves and two fish, gave a grieving widow back her only son by raising him from the dead, and brought to life the dead daughter of a shattered father. To an old friend He said, "Lazarus, come forth!" and dramatically raised him from the dead. It is most significant that His enemies did not deny this miracle. Rather, they tried to kill Him. "If we let Him go on like this," they said, "everyone will believe in Him."17
Is Jesus God? He Cured the Sick
Jesus demonstrated the Creator's power over sickness and disease. He made the lame to walk, the dumb to speak, and the blind to see. Some of His healings were of congenital problems not susceptible to psychosomatic cure. The most outstanding was that of the blind man whose case is recorded in John 9. Though the man couldn't answer his speculative questioners, his experience was enough to convince him. "One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see!" he declared. He was astounded that his friends didn't recognize this Healer as the Son of God. "Nobody has ever heard of opening the eyes of a man born blind," he said.18 To him the evidence was obvious.
Jesus God' Greatest Proof - Rising from the Dead
Jesus' supreme credential to authenticate His claim to deity was His resurrection from the dead. Five times in the course of His life He predicted He would die. He also predicted how He would die and that three days later He would rise from the dead and appear to His disciples.
Surely this was the great test. It was a claim that was easy to verify. It either happened or it didn't.
The Life of Jesus Gives Proof - Yet His Resurrection Even Moreso
Both friends and enemies of the Christian faith have recognized the resurrection of Christ to be the foundation stone of the faith. Paul, the great apostle, wrote, "If Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith."19 Paul rested his whole case on the bodily resurrection of Christ. Either He did or He didn't rise from the dead. If He did, it was the most sensational event in all of history.
If Christ rose, we know with certainty that God exists, what He is like, and how we may know Him in personal experience. The universe takes on meaning and purpose, and it is possible to experience the living God in contemporary life.
“Talk is cheap. Anyone can make claims. But when it comes to Jesus of Nazareth... He had the credentials to back up His claim.”
On the other hand, if Christ did not rise from the dead, Christianity is an interesting museum piece -- nothing more. It has no objective validity or reality. Though it is a nice wishful thought, it certainly isn't worth getting steamed up about. The martyrs who went singing to the lions, and contemporary missionaries who have given their lives while taking this message to others, have been poor deluded fools.
The attack on Christianity by its enemies has most often concentrated on the Resurrection because it has been clearly seen that this event is the crux of the matter. A remarkable attack was the one contemplated in the early '30s by a young British lawyer. He was convinced that the Resurrection was mere fable and fantasy. Sensing that it was the foundation stone of the Christian faith, he decided to do the world a favor by once and for all exposing this fraud and superstition. As a lawyer, he felt he had the critical faculties to rigidly sift evidence and to admit nothing as evidence which did not meet the stiff criteria for admission into a law court today.
However, while Frank Morrison was doing his research, a remarkable thing happened. The case was not nearly as easy as he had supposed. As a result, the first chapter in his book, Who Moved the Stone? is entitled, "The Book That Refused to Be Written." In it he described how, as he examined the evidence, he became persuaded against his will, of the fact of the bodily resurrection of Christ.
Did Jesus Prove He is God? Facts About His Resurrection
Jesus' death was by public execution on a cross. The government said it was for blasphemy. Jesus said it was to pay for our sin. After being severely tortured, Jesus' wrists and feet were nailed to a cross where He hung, eventually dying of slow suffocation. A sword was thrust into His side to confirm His death.
The body of Jesus was then wrapped in linens covered with approximately 100 pounds of gummy-wet spices. His body was placed in a solid rock tomb A 1 1/2- 2 ton boulder was rolled by levers to secure the entrance. Because Jesus had publicly said He would rise from the dead in three days, a guard of trained Roman soldiers was stationed at the tomb. And an official Roman seal was affixed to the tomb entrance declaring it government property.
In spite of all this, three days later the body was gone. Only the grave linens remained, in the form of the body, but caved in. The boulder formerly sealing the tomb was found up a slope, some distance away from the tomb.
The earliest explanation circulated was that the disciples stole the body! In Matthew 28:11-15, we have the record of the reaction of the chief priests and the elders when the guards gave them the infuriating and mysterious news that the body was gone. They gave the soldiers money and told them to explain that the disciples had come at night and stolen the body while they were asleep. That story was so false that Matthew didn't even bother to refute it! What judge would listen to you if you said that while you were asleep you knew it was your neighbor who came into your house and stole your television set? Who knows what goes on while he's asleep? Testimony like this would be laughed out of any court.
Furthermore, we are faced with a psychological and ethical impossibility. Stealing the body of Christ is something totally foreign to the character of the disciples and all that we know of them. It would mean that they were perpetrators of a deliberate lie which was responsible for the deception and ultimate death of thousands of people. It is inconceivable that, even if a few of the disciples had conspired and pulled off this theft, they would never have told the others.
Each of the disciples faced the test of torture and martyrdom for his statements and beliefs. Men and women will die for what they believe to be true, though it may actually be false. They do not, however, die for what they know is a lie. If ever a man tells the truth, it is on his deathbed. And if the disciples had taken the body, and Christ was still dead, we would still have the problem of explaining His alleged appearances.
A second hypothesis is that the authorities, Jewish or Roman, moved the body! But why? Having put guards at the tomb, what would be their reason for moving the body? Also, what about the silence of the authorities in the face of the apostles' bold preaching about the Resurrection in Jerusalem? The ecclesiastical leaders were seething with rage, and did everything possible to prevent the spread of this message that Jesus rose from the dead. They arrested Peter and John and beat and threatened them, in an attempt to close their mouths.
But there was a very simple solution to their problem. If they had Christ's body, they could have paraded it through the streets of Jerusalem. In one fell swoop they would have successfully smothered Christianity in its cradle. That they did not do this bears eloquent testimony to the fact that they did not have the body.
Another popular theory has been that the women, distraught and overcome by grief, missed their way in the dimness of the morning and went to the wrong tomb. In their distress they imagined Christ had risen because the tomb was empty. This theory, however, falls before the same fact that destroys the previous one. If the women went to the wrong tomb, why did the high priests and other enemies of the faith not go to the right tomb and produce the body? Further, it is inconceivable that Peter and John would succumb to the same mistake, and certainly Joseph of Arimathea, owner of the tomb, would have solved the problem. In addition, it must be remembered that this was a private burial ground, not a public cemetery. There was no other tomb nearby that would have allowed them to make this mistake.
The swoon theory has also been advanced to explain the empty tomb. In this view, Christ did not actually die. He was mistakenly reported to be dead, but had swooned from exhaustion, pain, and loss of blood. When He was laid in the coolness of the tomb, He revived. He came out of the tomb and appeared to His disciples, who mistakenly thought He had risen from the dead.
“Men and women will die for what they believe to be true, though it may actually be false. They do not, however, die for what they know is a lie.”
This is a theory of modern construction. It first appeared at the end of the eighteenth century. It is significant that not a suggestion of this kind has come down from antiquity among all the violent attacks which have been made on Christianity. All of the earliest records are emphatic about Jesus' death.
But let us assume for a moment that Christ was buried alive and swooned. Is it possible to believe that He would have survived three days in a damp tomb without food or water or attention of any kind? Would He have had the strength to extricate Himself from the graveclothes, push the heavy stone away from the mouth of the grave, overcome the Roman guards, and walk miles on feet that had been pierced with spikes? Such a belief is more fantastic than the simple fact of the Resurrection itself.
Even the German critic David Strauss, who by no means believes in the Resurrection, rejected this idea as incredible. He said:
It is impossible that One who had just come forth from the grave half dead, who crept about weak and ill, who stood in the need of medical treatment, of bandaging, strengthening, and tender care, and who at last succumbed to suffering, could ever have given the disciples the impression that He was a conqueror over death and the grave; that He was the Prince of Life.
Finally, if this theory is correct, Christ Himself was involved in flagrant lies. His disciples believed and preached that He was dead but came alive again. Jesus did nothing to dispel this belief, but rather encouraged it.
Is Jesus God?
The only theory that adequately explains the empty tomb is the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. All four authors of the gospels record details of Jesus' resurrection. Jesus' followers, who fled at his arrest, became absolutely convinced of Jesus' resurrection. Not just from the empty tomb, but because Jesus showed himself alive to them, on numerous occasions.
When Thomas, one of Jesus' disciples, heard from the others that Jesus had risen, he would not believe it. In fact, he flatly stated, "Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it." One week later, Jesus appeared to them again, with Thomas now present. Jesus said to Thomas, "Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe." Thomas replied, "My Lord and my God!"
Jesus told him "Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."20
This is your opportunity. Jesus Christ rose from the dead, proving He is God and is alive today. He is willing to be more than worshiped. He is willing to be known and to come into our lives.
The late Carl Gustav Jung said, "The central neurosis of our time is emptiness." All of us have a deep longing for our life to have meaning and depth. Jesus offers us a more meaningful, abundant life, which comes through a relationship with Him. Jesus said, "I came that they might have life, and have it abundantly."21
Jesus said, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life."22 The only way we can experience this life is by being in relationship with Him. Jesus came to take our sin on Himself, on the cross. He chose to receive punishment for our sin, so that our sin would no longer be a barrier between us and Him.
He went to the cross for us, all of us. Because He fully paid for your sin, He offers you complete forgiveness and a relationship with Him.
This means you have a decision to make.
Jesus said, "Behold, I stand at the door [of your heart] and knock; if anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come into him."23
Right now you can invite Jesus Christ into your life. You could say to Him something like, "I do believe in you. Thank You for dying on the cross for my sins. I ask You to forgive me and to come into my life right now. Thank You for giving me a relationship with You."
http://www.everystudent.com/features/faith.html
It is impossible for us to know conclusively whether God exists and what He is like unless He takes the initiative and reveals Himself. We must scan the horizon of history to see if there is any clue to God's revelation. There is one clear clue. In an obscure village in Palestine, 2,000 years ago, a Child was born in a stable. Today the entire world is still celebrating the birth of Jesus.
He lived in obscurity until He was thirty, and then began a public ministry that lasted three years. It was destined to change the course of history. He was a kindly person and we're told that "the common people heard Him gladly." And, "He taught as One who had authority, and not as their teachers of the Law."1
Is Jesus God? He Was Very Clear About It
It soon became apparent, however, that He was making shocking and startling statements about Himself. He began to identify Himself as far more than a remarkable teacher or prophet. He began to say clearly that He was God. He made His identity the focal point of His teaching. The all-important question He put to those who followed Him was, "Who do you say I am?" When Peter answered and said, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God"2, Jesus was not shocked, nor did He rebuke Peter. On the contrary, He commended him!
He made the claim explicitly, and His hearers got the full impact of His words. We are told, "The Jews tried all the harder to kill Him; not only was He breaking the Sabbath, but He was even calling God His own Father, making Himself equal with God."3
On another occasion he said, "I and My Father are One." Immediately the Jews wanted to stone Him. He asked them for which good work they wanted to kill Him. They replied, "We are not stoning You for any of these but for blasphemy, because You, a mere man, claim to be God."4
Is Jesus God? Look At His Life
When a paralyzed man was let down through the roof wanting to be healed by Him, He said, "Son, your sins are forgiven you." This caused a great to-do among the religious leaders, who said in their hearts, "Why does this fellow talk like that? He's blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?"
At the critical moment when His life was at stake, the high priest put the question to Him directly: "Are You the Christ, the Son of the Blessed One?"
"I am," said Jesus. "And you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven."
The high priest tore his clothes. "Why do we need any more witnesses?" he asked. "You have heard the blasphemy."5
So close was His connection with God that He equated a person's attitude to Himself with the person's attitude toward God. Thus, to know Him was to know God.6 To see Him was to see God.7 To believe in Him was to believe in God.8 To receive Him was to receive God.9 To hate Him was to hate God.10 And to honor Him was to honor God.11
Is Jesus God? - Four Possible Explanations
“As we face the claims of Christ, there are only four possibilities. He was either a liar, a lunatic, a legend, or the Truth.”
As we face the claims of Christ, there are only four possibilities. He was either a liar, a lunatic, a legend, or the Truth. If we say He is not the Truth, we are automatically affirming one of the other three alternatives, whether we realize it or not.
(1) One possibility is that Jesus lied when He said He was God -- that He knew He was not God, but deliberately deceived His hearers to lend authority to His teaching. Few, if any, seriously hold this position. Even those who deny His deity affirm that He was a great moral teacher. They fail to realize those two statements are a contradiction. Jesus could hardly be a great moral teacher if, on the most crucial point of His teaching -- His identity -- He was a deliberate liar.
(2) A kinder, though no less shocking possibility, is that He was sincere but self-deceived. We have a name for a person today who thinks he is God. That name is lunatic, and it certainly would apply to Christ if He were deceived on this all-important issue. But as we look at the life of Christ, we see no evidence of the abnormality and imbalance we find in a deranged person. Rather, we find the greatest composure under pressure.
(3) The third alternative is that all of the talk about His claiming to be God is a legend -- that what actually happened was that His enthusiastic followers, in the third and fourth centuries, put words into His mouth He would have been shocked to hear. Were He to return, He would immediately repudiate them.
The legend theory has been significantly refuted by many discoveries of modern archeology. These have conclusively shown that the four biographies of Christ were written within the lifetime of contemporaries of Christ. Some time ago Dr. William F. Albright, world-famous archaeologist now retired from Johns Hopkins University, said that there was no reason to believe that any of the Gospels were written later than A.D. 70. For a mere legend about Christ, in the form of the Gospel, to have gained the circulation and to have had the impact it had, without one shred of basis in fact, is incredible.
For this to have happened would be as fantastic as for someone in our own time to write a biography of the late John F. Kennedy and in it say he claimed to be God, to forgive people's sins, and to have risen from the dead. Such a story is so wild it would never get off the ground because there are still too many people around who knew Kennedy. The legend theory does not hold water in the light of the early date of the Gospel manuscripts.
(4) The only other alternative is that Jesus spoke the truth. From one point of view, however, claims don't mean much. Talk is cheap. Anyone can make claims. There have been others who have claimed to be God. I could claim to be God, and you could claim to be God, but the question all of us must answer is, "What credentials do we bring to substantiate our claim?" In my case it wouldn't take you five minutes to disprove my claim. It probably wouldn't take too much more to dispose of yours. But when it comes to Jesus of Nazareth, it's not so simple. He had the credentials to back up His claim. He said, "Even though you do not believe Me, believe the evidence of the miracles, that you may learn and understand that the Father is in Me, and I in the Father."12
The Life of Jesus - His Unique Moral Character
His moral character coincided with His claims. Many asylum inmates claim to be celebrities or deities. But their claims are belied by their characters. Not so with Christ. He is unique -- as unique as God.
Jesus Christ was sinless. The caliber of His life was such that He was able to challenge His enemies with the question, "Can any of you prove Me guilty of sin?"13 He was met by silence, even though He addressed those who would have liked to point out a flaw in His character.
We read of the temptations of Jesus, but we never hear of a confession of sin on His part. He never asked for forgiveness, though He told His followers to do so.
This lack of any sense of moral failure on Jesus' part is astonishing in view of the fact that it is completely contrary to the experience of the saints and mystics in all ages. The closer men and women draw to God, the more overwhelmed they are with their own failure, corruption, and shortcomings. The closer one is to a shining light, the more he realizes his need of a bath. This is true also, in the moral realm, for ordinary mortals.
It is also striking that John, Paul, and Peter, all of whom were trained from earliest childhood to believe in the universality of sin, all spoke of the sinlessness of Christ: "He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in His mouth."14
Pilate, no friend of Jesus, said, "What evil has He done?" He implicitly recognized Christ's innocence. And the Roman centurion who witnessed the death of Christ said, "Surely He was the Son of God."15
Is Jesus God? His Ability to Control Nature
Christ demonstrated a power over natural forces which could belong only to God, the Author of these forces.
He stilled a raging storm of wind and waves on the Sea of Galilee. In doing this He provoked from those in the boat the awestruck question, "Who is this? Even the wind and waves obey Him!"16 He turned water into wine, fed 5,000 people from five loaves and two fish, gave a grieving widow back her only son by raising him from the dead, and brought to life the dead daughter of a shattered father. To an old friend He said, "Lazarus, come forth!" and dramatically raised him from the dead. It is most significant that His enemies did not deny this miracle. Rather, they tried to kill Him. "If we let Him go on like this," they said, "everyone will believe in Him."17
Is Jesus God? He Cured the Sick
Jesus demonstrated the Creator's power over sickness and disease. He made the lame to walk, the dumb to speak, and the blind to see. Some of His healings were of congenital problems not susceptible to psychosomatic cure. The most outstanding was that of the blind man whose case is recorded in John 9. Though the man couldn't answer his speculative questioners, his experience was enough to convince him. "One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see!" he declared. He was astounded that his friends didn't recognize this Healer as the Son of God. "Nobody has ever heard of opening the eyes of a man born blind," he said.18 To him the evidence was obvious.
Jesus God' Greatest Proof - Rising from the Dead
Jesus' supreme credential to authenticate His claim to deity was His resurrection from the dead. Five times in the course of His life He predicted He would die. He also predicted how He would die and that three days later He would rise from the dead and appear to His disciples.
Surely this was the great test. It was a claim that was easy to verify. It either happened or it didn't.
The Life of Jesus Gives Proof - Yet His Resurrection Even Moreso
Both friends and enemies of the Christian faith have recognized the resurrection of Christ to be the foundation stone of the faith. Paul, the great apostle, wrote, "If Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith."19 Paul rested his whole case on the bodily resurrection of Christ. Either He did or He didn't rise from the dead. If He did, it was the most sensational event in all of history.
If Christ rose, we know with certainty that God exists, what He is like, and how we may know Him in personal experience. The universe takes on meaning and purpose, and it is possible to experience the living God in contemporary life.
“Talk is cheap. Anyone can make claims. But when it comes to Jesus of Nazareth... He had the credentials to back up His claim.”
On the other hand, if Christ did not rise from the dead, Christianity is an interesting museum piece -- nothing more. It has no objective validity or reality. Though it is a nice wishful thought, it certainly isn't worth getting steamed up about. The martyrs who went singing to the lions, and contemporary missionaries who have given their lives while taking this message to others, have been poor deluded fools.
The attack on Christianity by its enemies has most often concentrated on the Resurrection because it has been clearly seen that this event is the crux of the matter. A remarkable attack was the one contemplated in the early '30s by a young British lawyer. He was convinced that the Resurrection was mere fable and fantasy. Sensing that it was the foundation stone of the Christian faith, he decided to do the world a favor by once and for all exposing this fraud and superstition. As a lawyer, he felt he had the critical faculties to rigidly sift evidence and to admit nothing as evidence which did not meet the stiff criteria for admission into a law court today.
However, while Frank Morrison was doing his research, a remarkable thing happened. The case was not nearly as easy as he had supposed. As a result, the first chapter in his book, Who Moved the Stone? is entitled, "The Book That Refused to Be Written." In it he described how, as he examined the evidence, he became persuaded against his will, of the fact of the bodily resurrection of Christ.
Did Jesus Prove He is God? Facts About His Resurrection
Jesus' death was by public execution on a cross. The government said it was for blasphemy. Jesus said it was to pay for our sin. After being severely tortured, Jesus' wrists and feet were nailed to a cross where He hung, eventually dying of slow suffocation. A sword was thrust into His side to confirm His death.
The body of Jesus was then wrapped in linens covered with approximately 100 pounds of gummy-wet spices. His body was placed in a solid rock tomb A 1 1/2- 2 ton boulder was rolled by levers to secure the entrance. Because Jesus had publicly said He would rise from the dead in three days, a guard of trained Roman soldiers was stationed at the tomb. And an official Roman seal was affixed to the tomb entrance declaring it government property.
In spite of all this, three days later the body was gone. Only the grave linens remained, in the form of the body, but caved in. The boulder formerly sealing the tomb was found up a slope, some distance away from the tomb.
The earliest explanation circulated was that the disciples stole the body! In Matthew 28:11-15, we have the record of the reaction of the chief priests and the elders when the guards gave them the infuriating and mysterious news that the body was gone. They gave the soldiers money and told them to explain that the disciples had come at night and stolen the body while they were asleep. That story was so false that Matthew didn't even bother to refute it! What judge would listen to you if you said that while you were asleep you knew it was your neighbor who came into your house and stole your television set? Who knows what goes on while he's asleep? Testimony like this would be laughed out of any court.
Furthermore, we are faced with a psychological and ethical impossibility. Stealing the body of Christ is something totally foreign to the character of the disciples and all that we know of them. It would mean that they were perpetrators of a deliberate lie which was responsible for the deception and ultimate death of thousands of people. It is inconceivable that, even if a few of the disciples had conspired and pulled off this theft, they would never have told the others.
Each of the disciples faced the test of torture and martyrdom for his statements and beliefs. Men and women will die for what they believe to be true, though it may actually be false. They do not, however, die for what they know is a lie. If ever a man tells the truth, it is on his deathbed. And if the disciples had taken the body, and Christ was still dead, we would still have the problem of explaining His alleged appearances.
A second hypothesis is that the authorities, Jewish or Roman, moved the body! But why? Having put guards at the tomb, what would be their reason for moving the body? Also, what about the silence of the authorities in the face of the apostles' bold preaching about the Resurrection in Jerusalem? The ecclesiastical leaders were seething with rage, and did everything possible to prevent the spread of this message that Jesus rose from the dead. They arrested Peter and John and beat and threatened them, in an attempt to close their mouths.
But there was a very simple solution to their problem. If they had Christ's body, they could have paraded it through the streets of Jerusalem. In one fell swoop they would have successfully smothered Christianity in its cradle. That they did not do this bears eloquent testimony to the fact that they did not have the body.
Another popular theory has been that the women, distraught and overcome by grief, missed their way in the dimness of the morning and went to the wrong tomb. In their distress they imagined Christ had risen because the tomb was empty. This theory, however, falls before the same fact that destroys the previous one. If the women went to the wrong tomb, why did the high priests and other enemies of the faith not go to the right tomb and produce the body? Further, it is inconceivable that Peter and John would succumb to the same mistake, and certainly Joseph of Arimathea, owner of the tomb, would have solved the problem. In addition, it must be remembered that this was a private burial ground, not a public cemetery. There was no other tomb nearby that would have allowed them to make this mistake.
The swoon theory has also been advanced to explain the empty tomb. In this view, Christ did not actually die. He was mistakenly reported to be dead, but had swooned from exhaustion, pain, and loss of blood. When He was laid in the coolness of the tomb, He revived. He came out of the tomb and appeared to His disciples, who mistakenly thought He had risen from the dead.
“Men and women will die for what they believe to be true, though it may actually be false. They do not, however, die for what they know is a lie.”
This is a theory of modern construction. It first appeared at the end of the eighteenth century. It is significant that not a suggestion of this kind has come down from antiquity among all the violent attacks which have been made on Christianity. All of the earliest records are emphatic about Jesus' death.
But let us assume for a moment that Christ was buried alive and swooned. Is it possible to believe that He would have survived three days in a damp tomb without food or water or attention of any kind? Would He have had the strength to extricate Himself from the graveclothes, push the heavy stone away from the mouth of the grave, overcome the Roman guards, and walk miles on feet that had been pierced with spikes? Such a belief is more fantastic than the simple fact of the Resurrection itself.
Even the German critic David Strauss, who by no means believes in the Resurrection, rejected this idea as incredible. He said:
It is impossible that One who had just come forth from the grave half dead, who crept about weak and ill, who stood in the need of medical treatment, of bandaging, strengthening, and tender care, and who at last succumbed to suffering, could ever have given the disciples the impression that He was a conqueror over death and the grave; that He was the Prince of Life.
Finally, if this theory is correct, Christ Himself was involved in flagrant lies. His disciples believed and preached that He was dead but came alive again. Jesus did nothing to dispel this belief, but rather encouraged it.
Is Jesus God?
The only theory that adequately explains the empty tomb is the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. All four authors of the gospels record details of Jesus' resurrection. Jesus' followers, who fled at his arrest, became absolutely convinced of Jesus' resurrection. Not just from the empty tomb, but because Jesus showed himself alive to them, on numerous occasions.
When Thomas, one of Jesus' disciples, heard from the others that Jesus had risen, he would not believe it. In fact, he flatly stated, "Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it." One week later, Jesus appeared to them again, with Thomas now present. Jesus said to Thomas, "Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe." Thomas replied, "My Lord and my God!"
Jesus told him "Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."20
This is your opportunity. Jesus Christ rose from the dead, proving He is God and is alive today. He is willing to be more than worshiped. He is willing to be known and to come into our lives.
The late Carl Gustav Jung said, "The central neurosis of our time is emptiness." All of us have a deep longing for our life to have meaning and depth. Jesus offers us a more meaningful, abundant life, which comes through a relationship with Him. Jesus said, "I came that they might have life, and have it abundantly."21
Jesus said, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life."22 The only way we can experience this life is by being in relationship with Him. Jesus came to take our sin on Himself, on the cross. He chose to receive punishment for our sin, so that our sin would no longer be a barrier between us and Him.
He went to the cross for us, all of us. Because He fully paid for your sin, He offers you complete forgiveness and a relationship with Him.
This means you have a decision to make.
Jesus said, "Behold, I stand at the door [of your heart] and knock; if anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come into him."23
Right now you can invite Jesus Christ into your life. You could say to Him something like, "I do believe in you. Thank You for dying on the cross for my sins. I ask You to forgive me and to come into my life right now. Thank You for giving me a relationship with You."
http://www.everystudent.com/features/faith.html
"Who was Jesus"? - Through the eyes of St John the Apostle
The following gives you a quick look at the life of Jesus Christ. These are excerpts straight from the Gospel of John, in the Bible. No comments added. They will give you an accurate and fast read of Jesus' life, death, and resurrection...and why his life is significant for you.
John 3
There was a man named Nicodemus, a Jewish religious leader who was a Pharisee. After dark one evening, he came to speak with Jesus. "Rabbi," he said, "we all know that God has sent you to teach us. Your miraculous signs are evidence that God is with you."
Jesus replied, "I tell you the truth, unless you are born again, you cannot see the Kingdom of God."
"What do you mean?" exclaimed Nicodemus. "How can an old man go back into his mother's womb and be born again?"
Jesus replied, "I assure you, no one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit. Humans can reproduce only human life, but the Holy Spirit gives birth to spiritual life. So don't be surprised when I say, 'You must be born again.' The wind blows wherever it wants. Just as you can hear the wind but can't tell where it comes from or where it is going, so you can't explain how people are born of the Spirit."
"How are these things possible?" Nicodemus asked.
Jesus replied, "You are a respected Jewish teacher, and yet you don't understand these things? No one has ever gone to heaven and returned. But the Son of Man has come down from heaven. Everyone who believes in him will have eternal life."
For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him. There is no judgment against anyone who believes in him. But anyone who does not believe in him has already been judged for not believing in God's one and only Son.
John 1
In the beginning the Word [Jesus] already existed.
The Word was with God,
and the Word was God.
He existed in the beginning with God.
God created everything through him,
and nothing was created except through him.
The Word gave life to everything that was created,
and his life brought light to everyone.
The light shines in the darkness,
and the darkness can never extinguish it.
He came into the very world he created, but the world didn't recognize him. He came to his own people, and even they rejected him. But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God. They are reborn--not with a physical birth resulting from human passion or plan, but a birth that comes from God.
So the Word became human and made his home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father's one and only Son.
John 5
Crowds of sick people--blind, lame, or paralyzed--lay on the porches. One of the men lying there had been sick for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him and knew he had been ill for a long time.
Jesus told him, "Stand up, pick up your mat, and walk!"
Instantly, the man was healed! He rolled up his sleeping mat and began walking! But this miracle happened on the Sabbath, so the Jewish leaders objected. They said to the man who was cured, "You can't work on the Sabbath! The law doesn't allow you to carry that sleeping mat!"
But he replied, "The man who healed me told me, 'Pick up your mat and walk.'"
"Who said such a thing as that?" they demanded. Then the man...told the Jewish leaders that it was Jesus who had healed him.
So the Jewish leaders began harassing Jesus for breaking the Sabbath rules. But Jesus replied, "My Father is always working, and so am I."
So the Jewish leaders tried all the harder to find a way to kill him. For he not only broke the Sabbath, he called God his Father, thereby making himself equal with God.
John 6
Jesus soon saw a huge crowd of people coming to look for him. Turning to Philip, he asked, "Where can we buy bread to feed all these people?" He was testing Philip, for he already knew what he was going to do.
Philip replied, "Even if we worked for months, we wouldn't have enough money to feed them!"
Then Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, spoke up. "There's a young boy here with five barley loaves and two fish. But what good is that with this huge crowd?"
"Tell everyone to sit down," Jesus said. So they all sat down on the grassy slopes. (The men alone numbered about 5,000.) Then Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks to God, and distributed them to the people. Afterward he did the same with the fish. And they all ate as much as they wanted.
After everyone was full, Jesus told his disciples, "Now gather the leftovers, so that nothing is wasted." So they picked up the pieces and filled twelve baskets with scraps left by the people who had eaten from the five barley loaves.
"I tell you the truth, you want to be with me because I fed you, not because you understood the miraculous signs. But don't be so concerned about perishable things like food. Spend your energy seeking the eternal life that the Son of Man can give you. For God the Father has given me the seal of his approval."
They replied, "We want to perform God's works, too. What should we do?"
Jesus told them, "This is the only work God wants from you: Believe in the one he has sent."
"I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry again. Whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. For it is my Father's will that all who see his Son and believe in him should have eternal life. I will raise them up at the last day."
John 7
On the last day, the climax of the festival, Jesus stood and shouted to the crowds, "Anyone who is thirsty may come to me! Anyone who believes in me may come and drink! For the Scriptures declare, 'Rivers of living water will flow from his heart.'" (When he said "living water," he was speaking of the Spirit, who would be given to everyone believing in him. But the Spirit had not yet been given, because Jesus had not yet entered into his glory.)
When the crowds heard him say this, some of them declared, "Surely this man is the Prophet we've been expecting." Others said, "He is the Messiah."
John 10
"I tell you the truth, anyone who sneaks over the wall of a sheepfold, rather than going through the gate, must surely be a thief and a robber! But the one who enters through the gate is the shepherd of the sheep.
Those who heard Jesus use this illustration didn't understand what he meant, so he explained it to them:
"I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd sacrifices his life for the sheep. A hired hand will run when he sees a wolf coming. He will abandon the sheep because they don't belong to him and he isn't their shepherd. And so the wolf attacks them and scatters the flock. The hired hand runs away because he's working only for the money and doesn't really care about the sheep.
"I am the good shepherd; I know my own sheep, and they know me, just as my Father knows me and I know the Father. So I sacrifice my life for the sheep.
"The Father loves me because I sacrifice my life so I may take it back again. No one can take my life from me. I sacrifice it voluntarily. For I have the authority to lay it down when I want to and also to take it up again.
But if I do his work, believe in the evidence of the miraculous works I have done, even if you don't believe me. Then you will know and understand that the Father is in me, and I am in the Father."
John 11
A man named Lazarus was sick. He lived in Bethany with his sisters, Mary and Martha. So the two sisters sent a message to Jesus telling him, "Lord, your dear friend is very sick."
But when Jesus heard about it...although Jesus loved Martha, Mary, and Lazarus, he stayed where he was for the next two days.
Finally, he said to his disciples, "Let's go back to Judea." But his disciples objected. "Rabbi," they said, "only a few days ago the people in Judea were trying to stone you. Are you going there again?"
Jesus replied..."Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but now I will go and wake him up."
The disciples said, "Lord, if he is sleeping, he will soon get better!" They thought Jesus meant Lazarus was simply sleeping, but Jesus meant Lazarus had died. So he told them plainly, "Lazarus is dead...Come, let's go see him."
When Jesus arrived at Bethany, he was told that Lazarus had already been in his grave for four days. Martha said to Jesus, "Lord, if only you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask."
Jesus told her, "Your brother will rise again."
"Yes," Martha said, "he will rise when everyone else rises, at the last day."
Jesus told her, "I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying. Everyone who lives in me and believes in me will never ever die. Do you believe this, Martha?"
"Yes, Lord," she told him. "I have always believed you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one who has come into the world from God."
When Mary arrived and saw Jesus, she fell at his feet and said, "Lord, if only you had been here, my brother would not have died."
When Jesus saw her weeping and saw the other people wailing with her, a deep anger welled up within him, and he was deeply troubled. "Where have you put him?" he asked them. They told him, "Lord, come and see."
Then Jesus wept. The people who were standing nearby said, "See how much he loved him!" But some said, "This man healed a blind man. Couldn't he have kept Lazarus from dying?"
Jesus was still angry as he arrived at the tomb, a cave with a stone rolled across its entrance. "Roll the stone aside," Jesus told them.
But Martha, the dead man's sister, protested, "Lord, he has been dead for four days. The smell will be terrible."
Jesus responded, "Didn't I tell you that you would see God's glory if you believe?"
So they rolled the stone aside. Then Jesus looked up to heaven and said, "Father, thank you for hearing me. You always hear me, but I said it out loud for the sake of all these people standing here, so that they will believe you sent me."
Then Jesus shouted, "Lazarus, come out!" And the dead man came out, his hands and feet bound in graveclothes, his face wrapped in a headcloth. Jesus told them, "Unwrap him and let him go!" Many of the people who were with Mary believed in Jesus when they saw this happen.
But some went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. Then the leading priests and Pharisees called the high council together. "What are we going to do?" they asked each other. "This man certainly performs many miraculous signs. If we allow him to go on like this, soon everyone will believe in him." So from that time on, the Jewish leaders began to plot Jesus' death.
John 12
Many people did believe in him, however, including some of the Jewish leaders. But they wouldn't admit it for fear that the Pharisees would expel them from the synagogue. For they loved human praise more than the praise of God.
John 13
Before the Passover celebration, Jesus knew that his hour had come to leave this world and return to his Father. It was time for supper, and the devil had already prompted Judas, son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Jesus.
Now Jesus was deeply troubled, and he exclaimed, "I tell you the truth, one of you will betray me!" Judas left at once, going out into the night.
John 14
[Jesus speaking] "Don't let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in me. There is more than enough room in my Father's home. If this were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am.
Soon the world will no longer see me, but you will see me. Since I live, you also will live. When I am raised to life again, you will know that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. Those who accept my commandments and obey them are the ones who love me. And because they love me, my Father will love them. And I will love them and reveal myself to each of them."
John 15
[Jesus speaking] "I have loved you even as the Father has loved me. Remain in my love. When you obey my commandments, you remain in my love, just as I obey my Father's commandments and remain in his love. I have told you these things so that you will be filled with my joy. Yes, your joy will overflow!"
"This is my commandment: Love each other in the same way I have loved you. There is no greater love than to lay down one's life for one's friends."
"If the world hates you, remember that it hated me first. If I hadn't done such miraculous signs among them that no one else could do, they would not be guilty. But as it is, they have seen everything I did, yet they still hate me and my Father. This fulfills what is written in their Scriptures: 'They hated me without cause.'"
John 16
[Jesus speaking] I tell you the truth, you will weep and mourn over what is going to happen to me, but the world will rejoice. You will grieve, but your grief will suddenly turn to wonderful joy. So you have sorrow now, but I will see you again; then you will rejoice, and no one can rob you of that joy.... the Father himself loves you dearly because you love me and believe that I came from God. Yes, I came from the Father into the world, and now I will leave the world and return to the Father."
John 17
After saying all these things, Jesus looked up to heaven and said:
"Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son so he can give glory back to you. For you have given him authority over everyone. He gives eternal life to each one you have given him. And this is the way to have eternal life--to know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, the one you sent to earth.
I brought glory to you here on earth by completing the work you gave me to do. Now, Father, bring me into the glory we shared before the world began.
I told them many things while I was with them in this world so they would be filled with my joy. I have given them your word. And the world hates them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world.
I am praying not only for these disciples but also for all who will ever believe in me through their message.
O righteous Father, the world doesn't know you, but I do; and these disciples know you sent me. I have revealed you to them, and I will continue to do so. Then your love for me will be in them, and I will be in them."
John 18
After saying these things, Jesus crossed the Kidron Valley with his disciples and entered a grove of olive trees. Judas, the betrayer, knew this place, because Jesus had often gone there with his disciples. The leading priests and Pharisees had given Judas a contingent of Roman soldiers and Temple guards to accompany him. Now with blazing torches, lanterns, and weapons, they arrived at the olive grove.
Jesus fully realized all that was going to happen to him, so he stepped forward to meet them. "Who are you looking for?" he asked.
"Jesus the Nazarene," they replied.
"I Am he," Jesus said. (Judas, who betrayed him, was standing with them.) The soldiers, their commanding officer, and the Temple guards arrested Jesus and tied him up.
Pilate, the governor, asked, "What is your charge against this man?"
"We wouldn't have handed him over to you if he weren't a criminal!" they retorted.
"Then take him away and judge him by your own [Jewish] law," Pilate told them.
"Only the Romans are permitted to execute someone," the Jewish leaders replied. 32 (This fulfilled Jesus' prediction about the way he would die.)
John 19
Pilate had Jesus flogged with a lead-tipped whip. The soldiers wove a crown of thorns and put it on his head, and they put a purple robe on him. "Hail! King of the Jews!" they mocked, as they slapped him across the face.
Pilate went outside again and said to the people, "I am going to bring him out to you now, but understand clearly that I find him not guilty."
Then Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. And Pilate said, "Look, here is the man!" When they saw him, the leading priests and Temple guards began shouting, "Crucify him! Crucify him!"
"Take him yourselves and crucify him," Pilate said. "I find him not guilty."
The Jewish leaders replied, "By our law he ought to die because he called himself the Son of God."
When Pilate heard this, he was more frightened than ever. He took Jesus back into the headquarters again and asked him, "Where are you from?"
But Jesus gave no answer.
"Why don't you talk to me?" Pilate demanded. "Don't you realize that I have the power to release you or crucify you?"
Then Jesus said, "You would have no power over me at all unless it were given to you from above. So the one who handed me over to you has the greater sin."
Then Pilate tried to release him, but the Jewish leaders shouted... "Away with him," they yelled. "Away with him! Crucify him!" Then Pilate turned Jesus over to them to be crucified.
So they took Jesus away. Carrying the cross by himself, he went to the place called Place of the Skull (in Hebrew, Golgotha). There they nailed him to the cross.
Jesus knew that his mission was now finished, and to fulfill Scripture he said, "I am thirsty." A jar of sour wine was sitting there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put it on a hyssop branch, and held it up to his lips. When Jesus had tasted it, he said, "It is finished!" Then he bowed his head and released his spirit.
It was the day of preparation, and the Jewish leaders didn't want the bodies hanging there the next day, which was the Sabbath (and a very special Sabbath, because it was the Passover). So they asked Pilate to hasten their deaths by ordering that their legs be broken. Then their bodies could be taken down.
So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the two men crucified with Jesus. But when they came to Jesus, they saw that he was already dead, so they didn't break his legs. One of the soldiers, however, pierced his side with a spear, and immediately blood and water flowed out.
When Pilate gave permission, Joseph came and took the body away. With him came Nicodemus, the man who had come to Jesus at night. He brought seventy-five pounds of perfumed ointment made from myrrh and aloes. Following Jewish burial custom, they wrapped Jesus' body with the spices in long sheets of linen cloth. The place of crucifixion was near a garden, where there was a new tomb, never used before. And so, because it was the day of preparation for the Jewish Passover and since the tomb was close at hand, they laid Jesus there.
John 20
Early on Sunday morning, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and found that the stone had been rolled away from the entrance. She ran and found Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved. She said, "They have taken the Lord's body out of the tomb, and we don't know where they have put him!"
Peter and the other disciple started out for the tomb. They were both running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He stooped and looked in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he didn't go in.
Then Simon Peter arrived and went inside. He also noticed the linen wrappings lying there, while the cloth that had covered Jesus' head was folded up and lying apart from the other wrappings. Then the disciple who had reached the tomb first also went in, and he saw and believed--for until then they still hadn't understood the Scriptures that said Jesus must rise from the dead. Then they went home.
Mary was standing outside the tomb crying, and as she wept, she stooped and looked in. She saw two white-robed angels, one sitting at the head and the other at the foot of the place where the body of Jesus had been lying.
"Dear woman, why are you crying?" the angels asked her.
"Because they have taken away my Lord," she replied, "and I don't know where they have put him."
She turned to leave and saw someone standing there. It was Jesus, but she didn't recognize him.
"Dear woman, why are you crying?" Jesus asked her. "Who are you looking for?"
She thought he was the gardener. "Sir," she said, "if you have taken him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will go and get him."
"Mary!" Jesus said.
She turned to him and cried out, "Rabboni!" (which is Hebrew for "Teacher").
"Don't cling to me," Jesus said, "for I haven't yet ascended to the Father. But go find my brothers and tell them, 'I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.'"
Mary Magdalene found the disciples and told them, "I have seen the Lord!"
That Sunday evening the disciples were meeting behind locked doors because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders. Suddenly, Jesus was standing there among them! "Peace be with you," he said.
As he spoke, he showed them the wounds in his hands and his side. They were filled with joy when they saw the Lord! Again he said, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you." Then he breathed on them and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit."
One of the twelve disciples, Thomas...was not with the others when Jesus came. They told him, "We have seen the Lord!"
But he replied, "I won't believe it unless I see the nail wounds in his hands, put my fingers into them, and place my hand into the wound in his side."
Eight days later the disciples were together again, and this time Thomas was with them. The doors were locked; but suddenly, as before, Jesus was standing among them. "Peace be with you," he said.
Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here, and look at my hands. Put your hand into the wound in my side. Don't be faithless any longer. Believe!"
"My Lord and my God!" Thomas exclaimed.
Then Jesus told him, "You believe because you have seen me. Blessed are those who believe without seeing me."
http://www.everystudent.com/wires/whowas.html
The following gives you a quick look at the life of Jesus Christ. These are excerpts straight from the Gospel of John, in the Bible. No comments added. They will give you an accurate and fast read of Jesus' life, death, and resurrection...and why his life is significant for you.
John 3
There was a man named Nicodemus, a Jewish religious leader who was a Pharisee. After dark one evening, he came to speak with Jesus. "Rabbi," he said, "we all know that God has sent you to teach us. Your miraculous signs are evidence that God is with you."
Jesus replied, "I tell you the truth, unless you are born again, you cannot see the Kingdom of God."
"What do you mean?" exclaimed Nicodemus. "How can an old man go back into his mother's womb and be born again?"
Jesus replied, "I assure you, no one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit. Humans can reproduce only human life, but the Holy Spirit gives birth to spiritual life. So don't be surprised when I say, 'You must be born again.' The wind blows wherever it wants. Just as you can hear the wind but can't tell where it comes from or where it is going, so you can't explain how people are born of the Spirit."
"How are these things possible?" Nicodemus asked.
Jesus replied, "You are a respected Jewish teacher, and yet you don't understand these things? No one has ever gone to heaven and returned. But the Son of Man has come down from heaven. Everyone who believes in him will have eternal life."
For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him. There is no judgment against anyone who believes in him. But anyone who does not believe in him has already been judged for not believing in God's one and only Son.
John 1
In the beginning the Word [Jesus] already existed.
The Word was with God,
and the Word was God.
He existed in the beginning with God.
God created everything through him,
and nothing was created except through him.
The Word gave life to everything that was created,
and his life brought light to everyone.
The light shines in the darkness,
and the darkness can never extinguish it.
He came into the very world he created, but the world didn't recognize him. He came to his own people, and even they rejected him. But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God. They are reborn--not with a physical birth resulting from human passion or plan, but a birth that comes from God.
So the Word became human and made his home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father's one and only Son.
John 5
Crowds of sick people--blind, lame, or paralyzed--lay on the porches. One of the men lying there had been sick for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him and knew he had been ill for a long time.
Jesus told him, "Stand up, pick up your mat, and walk!"
Instantly, the man was healed! He rolled up his sleeping mat and began walking! But this miracle happened on the Sabbath, so the Jewish leaders objected. They said to the man who was cured, "You can't work on the Sabbath! The law doesn't allow you to carry that sleeping mat!"
But he replied, "The man who healed me told me, 'Pick up your mat and walk.'"
"Who said such a thing as that?" they demanded. Then the man...told the Jewish leaders that it was Jesus who had healed him.
So the Jewish leaders began harassing Jesus for breaking the Sabbath rules. But Jesus replied, "My Father is always working, and so am I."
So the Jewish leaders tried all the harder to find a way to kill him. For he not only broke the Sabbath, he called God his Father, thereby making himself equal with God.
John 6
Jesus soon saw a huge crowd of people coming to look for him. Turning to Philip, he asked, "Where can we buy bread to feed all these people?" He was testing Philip, for he already knew what he was going to do.
Philip replied, "Even if we worked for months, we wouldn't have enough money to feed them!"
Then Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, spoke up. "There's a young boy here with five barley loaves and two fish. But what good is that with this huge crowd?"
"Tell everyone to sit down," Jesus said. So they all sat down on the grassy slopes. (The men alone numbered about 5,000.) Then Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks to God, and distributed them to the people. Afterward he did the same with the fish. And they all ate as much as they wanted.
After everyone was full, Jesus told his disciples, "Now gather the leftovers, so that nothing is wasted." So they picked up the pieces and filled twelve baskets with scraps left by the people who had eaten from the five barley loaves.
"I tell you the truth, you want to be with me because I fed you, not because you understood the miraculous signs. But don't be so concerned about perishable things like food. Spend your energy seeking the eternal life that the Son of Man can give you. For God the Father has given me the seal of his approval."
They replied, "We want to perform God's works, too. What should we do?"
Jesus told them, "This is the only work God wants from you: Believe in the one he has sent."
"I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry again. Whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. For it is my Father's will that all who see his Son and believe in him should have eternal life. I will raise them up at the last day."
John 7
On the last day, the climax of the festival, Jesus stood and shouted to the crowds, "Anyone who is thirsty may come to me! Anyone who believes in me may come and drink! For the Scriptures declare, 'Rivers of living water will flow from his heart.'" (When he said "living water," he was speaking of the Spirit, who would be given to everyone believing in him. But the Spirit had not yet been given, because Jesus had not yet entered into his glory.)
When the crowds heard him say this, some of them declared, "Surely this man is the Prophet we've been expecting." Others said, "He is the Messiah."
John 10
"I tell you the truth, anyone who sneaks over the wall of a sheepfold, rather than going through the gate, must surely be a thief and a robber! But the one who enters through the gate is the shepherd of the sheep.
Those who heard Jesus use this illustration didn't understand what he meant, so he explained it to them:
"I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd sacrifices his life for the sheep. A hired hand will run when he sees a wolf coming. He will abandon the sheep because they don't belong to him and he isn't their shepherd. And so the wolf attacks them and scatters the flock. The hired hand runs away because he's working only for the money and doesn't really care about the sheep.
"I am the good shepherd; I know my own sheep, and they know me, just as my Father knows me and I know the Father. So I sacrifice my life for the sheep.
"The Father loves me because I sacrifice my life so I may take it back again. No one can take my life from me. I sacrifice it voluntarily. For I have the authority to lay it down when I want to and also to take it up again.
But if I do his work, believe in the evidence of the miraculous works I have done, even if you don't believe me. Then you will know and understand that the Father is in me, and I am in the Father."
John 11
A man named Lazarus was sick. He lived in Bethany with his sisters, Mary and Martha. So the two sisters sent a message to Jesus telling him, "Lord, your dear friend is very sick."
But when Jesus heard about it...although Jesus loved Martha, Mary, and Lazarus, he stayed where he was for the next two days.
Finally, he said to his disciples, "Let's go back to Judea." But his disciples objected. "Rabbi," they said, "only a few days ago the people in Judea were trying to stone you. Are you going there again?"
Jesus replied..."Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but now I will go and wake him up."
The disciples said, "Lord, if he is sleeping, he will soon get better!" They thought Jesus meant Lazarus was simply sleeping, but Jesus meant Lazarus had died. So he told them plainly, "Lazarus is dead...Come, let's go see him."
When Jesus arrived at Bethany, he was told that Lazarus had already been in his grave for four days. Martha said to Jesus, "Lord, if only you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask."
Jesus told her, "Your brother will rise again."
"Yes," Martha said, "he will rise when everyone else rises, at the last day."
Jesus told her, "I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying. Everyone who lives in me and believes in me will never ever die. Do you believe this, Martha?"
"Yes, Lord," she told him. "I have always believed you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one who has come into the world from God."
When Mary arrived and saw Jesus, she fell at his feet and said, "Lord, if only you had been here, my brother would not have died."
When Jesus saw her weeping and saw the other people wailing with her, a deep anger welled up within him, and he was deeply troubled. "Where have you put him?" he asked them. They told him, "Lord, come and see."
Then Jesus wept. The people who were standing nearby said, "See how much he loved him!" But some said, "This man healed a blind man. Couldn't he have kept Lazarus from dying?"
Jesus was still angry as he arrived at the tomb, a cave with a stone rolled across its entrance. "Roll the stone aside," Jesus told them.
But Martha, the dead man's sister, protested, "Lord, he has been dead for four days. The smell will be terrible."
Jesus responded, "Didn't I tell you that you would see God's glory if you believe?"
So they rolled the stone aside. Then Jesus looked up to heaven and said, "Father, thank you for hearing me. You always hear me, but I said it out loud for the sake of all these people standing here, so that they will believe you sent me."
Then Jesus shouted, "Lazarus, come out!" And the dead man came out, his hands and feet bound in graveclothes, his face wrapped in a headcloth. Jesus told them, "Unwrap him and let him go!" Many of the people who were with Mary believed in Jesus when they saw this happen.
But some went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. Then the leading priests and Pharisees called the high council together. "What are we going to do?" they asked each other. "This man certainly performs many miraculous signs. If we allow him to go on like this, soon everyone will believe in him." So from that time on, the Jewish leaders began to plot Jesus' death.
John 12
Many people did believe in him, however, including some of the Jewish leaders. But they wouldn't admit it for fear that the Pharisees would expel them from the synagogue. For they loved human praise more than the praise of God.
John 13
Before the Passover celebration, Jesus knew that his hour had come to leave this world and return to his Father. It was time for supper, and the devil had already prompted Judas, son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Jesus.
Now Jesus was deeply troubled, and he exclaimed, "I tell you the truth, one of you will betray me!" Judas left at once, going out into the night.
John 14
[Jesus speaking] "Don't let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in me. There is more than enough room in my Father's home. If this were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am.
Soon the world will no longer see me, but you will see me. Since I live, you also will live. When I am raised to life again, you will know that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. Those who accept my commandments and obey them are the ones who love me. And because they love me, my Father will love them. And I will love them and reveal myself to each of them."
John 15
[Jesus speaking] "I have loved you even as the Father has loved me. Remain in my love. When you obey my commandments, you remain in my love, just as I obey my Father's commandments and remain in his love. I have told you these things so that you will be filled with my joy. Yes, your joy will overflow!"
"This is my commandment: Love each other in the same way I have loved you. There is no greater love than to lay down one's life for one's friends."
"If the world hates you, remember that it hated me first. If I hadn't done such miraculous signs among them that no one else could do, they would not be guilty. But as it is, they have seen everything I did, yet they still hate me and my Father. This fulfills what is written in their Scriptures: 'They hated me without cause.'"
John 16
[Jesus speaking] I tell you the truth, you will weep and mourn over what is going to happen to me, but the world will rejoice. You will grieve, but your grief will suddenly turn to wonderful joy. So you have sorrow now, but I will see you again; then you will rejoice, and no one can rob you of that joy.... the Father himself loves you dearly because you love me and believe that I came from God. Yes, I came from the Father into the world, and now I will leave the world and return to the Father."
John 17
After saying all these things, Jesus looked up to heaven and said:
"Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son so he can give glory back to you. For you have given him authority over everyone. He gives eternal life to each one you have given him. And this is the way to have eternal life--to know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, the one you sent to earth.
I brought glory to you here on earth by completing the work you gave me to do. Now, Father, bring me into the glory we shared before the world began.
I told them many things while I was with them in this world so they would be filled with my joy. I have given them your word. And the world hates them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world.
I am praying not only for these disciples but also for all who will ever believe in me through their message.
O righteous Father, the world doesn't know you, but I do; and these disciples know you sent me. I have revealed you to them, and I will continue to do so. Then your love for me will be in them, and I will be in them."
John 18
After saying these things, Jesus crossed the Kidron Valley with his disciples and entered a grove of olive trees. Judas, the betrayer, knew this place, because Jesus had often gone there with his disciples. The leading priests and Pharisees had given Judas a contingent of Roman soldiers and Temple guards to accompany him. Now with blazing torches, lanterns, and weapons, they arrived at the olive grove.
Jesus fully realized all that was going to happen to him, so he stepped forward to meet them. "Who are you looking for?" he asked.
"Jesus the Nazarene," they replied.
"I Am he," Jesus said. (Judas, who betrayed him, was standing with them.) The soldiers, their commanding officer, and the Temple guards arrested Jesus and tied him up.
Pilate, the governor, asked, "What is your charge against this man?"
"We wouldn't have handed him over to you if he weren't a criminal!" they retorted.
"Then take him away and judge him by your own [Jewish] law," Pilate told them.
"Only the Romans are permitted to execute someone," the Jewish leaders replied. 32 (This fulfilled Jesus' prediction about the way he would die.)
John 19
Pilate had Jesus flogged with a lead-tipped whip. The soldiers wove a crown of thorns and put it on his head, and they put a purple robe on him. "Hail! King of the Jews!" they mocked, as they slapped him across the face.
Pilate went outside again and said to the people, "I am going to bring him out to you now, but understand clearly that I find him not guilty."
Then Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. And Pilate said, "Look, here is the man!" When they saw him, the leading priests and Temple guards began shouting, "Crucify him! Crucify him!"
"Take him yourselves and crucify him," Pilate said. "I find him not guilty."
The Jewish leaders replied, "By our law he ought to die because he called himself the Son of God."
When Pilate heard this, he was more frightened than ever. He took Jesus back into the headquarters again and asked him, "Where are you from?"
But Jesus gave no answer.
"Why don't you talk to me?" Pilate demanded. "Don't you realize that I have the power to release you or crucify you?"
Then Jesus said, "You would have no power over me at all unless it were given to you from above. So the one who handed me over to you has the greater sin."
Then Pilate tried to release him, but the Jewish leaders shouted... "Away with him," they yelled. "Away with him! Crucify him!" Then Pilate turned Jesus over to them to be crucified.
So they took Jesus away. Carrying the cross by himself, he went to the place called Place of the Skull (in Hebrew, Golgotha). There they nailed him to the cross.
Jesus knew that his mission was now finished, and to fulfill Scripture he said, "I am thirsty." A jar of sour wine was sitting there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put it on a hyssop branch, and held it up to his lips. When Jesus had tasted it, he said, "It is finished!" Then he bowed his head and released his spirit.
It was the day of preparation, and the Jewish leaders didn't want the bodies hanging there the next day, which was the Sabbath (and a very special Sabbath, because it was the Passover). So they asked Pilate to hasten their deaths by ordering that their legs be broken. Then their bodies could be taken down.
So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the two men crucified with Jesus. But when they came to Jesus, they saw that he was already dead, so they didn't break his legs. One of the soldiers, however, pierced his side with a spear, and immediately blood and water flowed out.
When Pilate gave permission, Joseph came and took the body away. With him came Nicodemus, the man who had come to Jesus at night. He brought seventy-five pounds of perfumed ointment made from myrrh and aloes. Following Jewish burial custom, they wrapped Jesus' body with the spices in long sheets of linen cloth. The place of crucifixion was near a garden, where there was a new tomb, never used before. And so, because it was the day of preparation for the Jewish Passover and since the tomb was close at hand, they laid Jesus there.
John 20
Early on Sunday morning, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and found that the stone had been rolled away from the entrance. She ran and found Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved. She said, "They have taken the Lord's body out of the tomb, and we don't know where they have put him!"
Peter and the other disciple started out for the tomb. They were both running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He stooped and looked in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he didn't go in.
Then Simon Peter arrived and went inside. He also noticed the linen wrappings lying there, while the cloth that had covered Jesus' head was folded up and lying apart from the other wrappings. Then the disciple who had reached the tomb first also went in, and he saw and believed--for until then they still hadn't understood the Scriptures that said Jesus must rise from the dead. Then they went home.
Mary was standing outside the tomb crying, and as she wept, she stooped and looked in. She saw two white-robed angels, one sitting at the head and the other at the foot of the place where the body of Jesus had been lying.
"Dear woman, why are you crying?" the angels asked her.
"Because they have taken away my Lord," she replied, "and I don't know where they have put him."
She turned to leave and saw someone standing there. It was Jesus, but she didn't recognize him.
"Dear woman, why are you crying?" Jesus asked her. "Who are you looking for?"
She thought he was the gardener. "Sir," she said, "if you have taken him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will go and get him."
"Mary!" Jesus said.
She turned to him and cried out, "Rabboni!" (which is Hebrew for "Teacher").
"Don't cling to me," Jesus said, "for I haven't yet ascended to the Father. But go find my brothers and tell them, 'I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.'"
Mary Magdalene found the disciples and told them, "I have seen the Lord!"
That Sunday evening the disciples were meeting behind locked doors because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders. Suddenly, Jesus was standing there among them! "Peace be with you," he said.
As he spoke, he showed them the wounds in his hands and his side. They were filled with joy when they saw the Lord! Again he said, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you." Then he breathed on them and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit."
One of the twelve disciples, Thomas...was not with the others when Jesus came. They told him, "We have seen the Lord!"
But he replied, "I won't believe it unless I see the nail wounds in his hands, put my fingers into them, and place my hand into the wound in his side."
Eight days later the disciples were together again, and this time Thomas was with them. The doors were locked; but suddenly, as before, Jesus was standing among them. "Peace be with you," he said.
Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here, and look at my hands. Put your hand into the wound in my side. Don't be faithless any longer. Believe!"
"My Lord and my God!" Thomas exclaimed.
Then Jesus told him, "You believe because you have seen me. Blessed are those who believe without seeing me."
http://www.everystudent.com/wires/whowas.html
The Authenticity of the Gospel of John
The Enlightenment was an intellectual movement of the 17th and 18th centuries marked by a celebration of the powers of human reason, a keen interest in science, the promotion of religious tolerance and an attitude of unbelief in the supernatural. During this period various attitudes regarding the Bible and religion developed which we would today identify with modernism and humanism. Part of this "Enlightenment" was to question the integrity of the Bible, and in particular to raise questions about the New Testament account of Jesus & the gospel of John specifically. Regarding the gospel of John, Horne said: "Its authenticity has been questioned by Erasmus, Calvin, Beza, Grotius, LeClerc, Wetstein, Semler, Schulze, Morus, Haenlein, Paulus, Schmidt, and various other writers who are mentioned by Wolfius, and by Koecher..." (Introduction to the Scriptures, Baker, 1970, Horne).
More recently and in our time there is the Jesus Seminar; a group of New Testament scholars who met first in 1985, and have worked together periodically since then using the tools and methods of modernism to call into question almost everything the New Testament says about the Lord, and
continue the unjustified attack on the book of John. These men have "voted out" the book of John.
These men began with certain assumptions. Josh McDowell deals with this in a chapter titled: "The Presupposition of Anti-supernaturalism," (More Evidence That Demands A Verdict, p.#3). Many, McDowell observes, "...are led astray because of conclusions that are allegedly based upon objective historical or literary investigation and method. However, in reality, the conclusions are the result of a subjective world view." (p.#3). McDowell uses the term "Anti-supernaturalism" --- "...disbelief either in God's existence or His intervention in the natural order of the universe." So, these men begin with their long ingrained intellectual assumptions; those assumptions determine and shape their methods - they invent this Jesus, and He becomes an advocate of their worldview. In order to do all this, they must reject the book of John.
It is not a matter of the synoptic problem, a question of dating, evidence or literary structure. It seems to me the real problem with the gospel of John is - THE STRAIGHTFORWARD AND REPEATED CLAIMS MADE ABOUT WHO JESUS IS! Remember, we are talking about a group of men who assume Jesus is not Deity. Or, they define His deity is such a manner, there is no uniqueness to Him. Some border on a New Age definition of Deity. If you begin with these assumptions of unbelief - if you have a bias you are working from that is (as Josh McDowell says) anti-supernatural, I believe your problem with John will not be literary, but doctrinal not objective, but subjective.
External Testimony
Early "church tradition" is unanimous in ascribing the fourth gospel to John. Ireneus (c. A.D. 130-202) was the first to name the gospel of John and said that it was written after the other gospels from Ephesus.
John was either cited or named as authentic during the first four centuries by the following:
Clement of Rome (c. 95-97)
Ignatius, in 110 quoted Jno. 3:8
Polycarp (110-150)
Basilides, in 120 AD quoted Jno. 1:9
Papias (c.130-40)
Irenaeus (c.130-202)
Justin Martyr (c.150-155)
Clement of Alexandria (c.150-215)
Tertullian (c.150-220)
The Muratorian Fragment (c.170-200)
The Latin Marcionite Prologue (c.200)
Origen (c.185-254)
Cyril of Jerusalem (c.315-386)
Eusebius (c.325-340)
Jerome (c.340-420)
Augustine (c.400)
Eusebius specifically identified John with the Gospel which bears his name and he classified the gospel without hesitation as being among "the undisputed writings." External evidence leads to the conclusion that what we call "the gospel of John" is the authentic writing of the apostle John. Westcott declared: "All the evidence points in one direction. There is not, with one questionable exception, any positive indication that doubt was anywhere thrown upon the authenticity of this book." (The Gospel According to Saint John, B.C. Westcott, p. xxxii).
Internal Evidence
The information from within the Gospel itself supports the universal tradition of the "early church fathers" who assigned the work to the Apostle John:
The author was a Jew. He understood and quoted from the Old Testament (12:40;13:18; 19:37). He knew and understood Jewish customs (2:1-10; 3:25; 11:55; 11:38,44; 19:40). He knew and understood the Jewish expectation of the coming Messiah (1:19-18). He was aware of the religious differences between Jews and Samaritans (4:9,20). The writer was a Jew. A Jew from Palestine. He knew the pool of Bethesda had five porches (5:2). {Archaeologists have unearthed the five porticoes of the pool of Bethesda by the Sheep Gate. Among many scholars who were not asked to participate in the Jesus Seminar, there is a new consensus of confidence in John due to these recent discoveries. Some have even asserted that John's record is more reliable than the synoptics (Smalley, quoted in THE EVIDENCE FOR JESUS, by France, p.#131)}. But further, he knew that Bethany was only fifteen furlongs away from Jerusalem (11:18). He knew that Ephraim was near the wilderness (11:54). He knew that the Garden of Gethsemane was on the other side of the brook Kidron (18:1). He knew that there was a paved area outside of the praetorium (19:13). He was aware of the region of Samaria and that Jacob's well was located in Sychar (4:5-6), and that it was deep (4:11). Again, archaeologists have found this well. He knew about the sacred mountain of Samaritan worship (4:20-21). He was aware of Galilee (1:44,46; 2:1,2). Another interesting feature of John is that, when compared with the Synoptics, his Gospel consistently gives more references to chronology, geography, topography, and the like. As recently as 1961 an inscription was discovered in Caesarea, providing for the first time extra-biblical corroboration of Pilate as Judea's prefect during the time of Christ.
Also, the writer was an eye-witness of what happened. He does not state his name, but there are traces of his own hand in the gospel. "We beheld his glory," (1:14). He knew the number of pots used at the wedding at Cana (2:6). He knew the value of the anointing perfume (12:5). He was at the crucifixion (19:33-35). He knew the distance from the shore of the apostles boat and the number of fish caught (21:8,11). "This is the disciple who is bearing witness to these things, and who has written these things; and we know that his testimony is true," (21:24).
So the writer was a Jew from Palestine, who was an eye-witness and he was a master of accuracy in chronology,
geography and history. Also, an apostle, "whom Jesus loved." He refers to himself often as the disciple whom Jesus loved (13:23; 19:26; 20:2; 21:7,20). The identity of this "one whom Jesus loved" is narrowed down to be John from the following --
(a) From 21:7, the "disciple" may be identified as one of the seven persons mentioned in 21:2.
- Simon Peter
- Thomas called the Twin
- Nathaniel of Cana in Galilee
- The sons of Zebedee
- Two others
(b) He must be one of the Twelve since only they were with the Lord at the lastsupper (Jno. 13:23-24; cf. Mk. 14:17; Lk. 22:14).
(c) He is not Peter: - He sat next to the Lord at the last supper, and Peter motioned to him (13:23-24). - His future is distinguished from Peter's (21:20ff).
(d) He is closely related to Peter and thus seems to be one of the inner three {James, John, Peter} (20:2-10; cf. Mrk. 5:37-38; 9:2-3;14:33).
(e) James (John's brother) died in AD 44, therefore, he was not the author (Acts 12:2).
(f) Therefore, if it is true that he was an apostle, and one of the inner three, and he was not Peter, or James, then he must have been the Apostle John, the son of Zebedee.
Internal evidence leads to the conclusion that what we call "the gospel of John" is the authentic writing of the apostle John. Luke wrote that "with great power gave the apostles their witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus: and great grace was upon them all," (Acts 4:33). One manifestation of this great power was the gospel of John. In this marvelous work we discover the same Messiah promised by the prophets ... the same King introduced by Matthew ... the same Servant we learn to trust in Mark ... the same Man we long to be like in Luke.
By Warren E. Berkley
The Front Page
From Expository Files 5.7; July 1998
http://www.bible.ca/ef/topical-the-authenticity-of-the-gospel-of-john.htm
The Enlightenment was an intellectual movement of the 17th and 18th centuries marked by a celebration of the powers of human reason, a keen interest in science, the promotion of religious tolerance and an attitude of unbelief in the supernatural. During this period various attitudes regarding the Bible and religion developed which we would today identify with modernism and humanism. Part of this "Enlightenment" was to question the integrity of the Bible, and in particular to raise questions about the New Testament account of Jesus & the gospel of John specifically. Regarding the gospel of John, Horne said: "Its authenticity has been questioned by Erasmus, Calvin, Beza, Grotius, LeClerc, Wetstein, Semler, Schulze, Morus, Haenlein, Paulus, Schmidt, and various other writers who are mentioned by Wolfius, and by Koecher..." (Introduction to the Scriptures, Baker, 1970, Horne).
More recently and in our time there is the Jesus Seminar; a group of New Testament scholars who met first in 1985, and have worked together periodically since then using the tools and methods of modernism to call into question almost everything the New Testament says about the Lord, and
continue the unjustified attack on the book of John. These men have "voted out" the book of John.
These men began with certain assumptions. Josh McDowell deals with this in a chapter titled: "The Presupposition of Anti-supernaturalism," (More Evidence That Demands A Verdict, p.#3). Many, McDowell observes, "...are led astray because of conclusions that are allegedly based upon objective historical or literary investigation and method. However, in reality, the conclusions are the result of a subjective world view." (p.#3). McDowell uses the term "Anti-supernaturalism" --- "...disbelief either in God's existence or His intervention in the natural order of the universe." So, these men begin with their long ingrained intellectual assumptions; those assumptions determine and shape their methods - they invent this Jesus, and He becomes an advocate of their worldview. In order to do all this, they must reject the book of John.
It is not a matter of the synoptic problem, a question of dating, evidence or literary structure. It seems to me the real problem with the gospel of John is - THE STRAIGHTFORWARD AND REPEATED CLAIMS MADE ABOUT WHO JESUS IS! Remember, we are talking about a group of men who assume Jesus is not Deity. Or, they define His deity is such a manner, there is no uniqueness to Him. Some border on a New Age definition of Deity. If you begin with these assumptions of unbelief - if you have a bias you are working from that is (as Josh McDowell says) anti-supernatural, I believe your problem with John will not be literary, but doctrinal not objective, but subjective.
External Testimony
Early "church tradition" is unanimous in ascribing the fourth gospel to John. Ireneus (c. A.D. 130-202) was the first to name the gospel of John and said that it was written after the other gospels from Ephesus.
John was either cited or named as authentic during the first four centuries by the following:
Clement of Rome (c. 95-97)
Ignatius, in 110 quoted Jno. 3:8
Polycarp (110-150)
Basilides, in 120 AD quoted Jno. 1:9
Papias (c.130-40)
Irenaeus (c.130-202)
Justin Martyr (c.150-155)
Clement of Alexandria (c.150-215)
Tertullian (c.150-220)
The Muratorian Fragment (c.170-200)
The Latin Marcionite Prologue (c.200)
Origen (c.185-254)
Cyril of Jerusalem (c.315-386)
Eusebius (c.325-340)
Jerome (c.340-420)
Augustine (c.400)
Eusebius specifically identified John with the Gospel which bears his name and he classified the gospel without hesitation as being among "the undisputed writings." External evidence leads to the conclusion that what we call "the gospel of John" is the authentic writing of the apostle John. Westcott declared: "All the evidence points in one direction. There is not, with one questionable exception, any positive indication that doubt was anywhere thrown upon the authenticity of this book." (The Gospel According to Saint John, B.C. Westcott, p. xxxii).
Internal Evidence
The information from within the Gospel itself supports the universal tradition of the "early church fathers" who assigned the work to the Apostle John:
The author was a Jew. He understood and quoted from the Old Testament (12:40;13:18; 19:37). He knew and understood Jewish customs (2:1-10; 3:25; 11:55; 11:38,44; 19:40). He knew and understood the Jewish expectation of the coming Messiah (1:19-18). He was aware of the religious differences between Jews and Samaritans (4:9,20). The writer was a Jew. A Jew from Palestine. He knew the pool of Bethesda had five porches (5:2). {Archaeologists have unearthed the five porticoes of the pool of Bethesda by the Sheep Gate. Among many scholars who were not asked to participate in the Jesus Seminar, there is a new consensus of confidence in John due to these recent discoveries. Some have even asserted that John's record is more reliable than the synoptics (Smalley, quoted in THE EVIDENCE FOR JESUS, by France, p.#131)}. But further, he knew that Bethany was only fifteen furlongs away from Jerusalem (11:18). He knew that Ephraim was near the wilderness (11:54). He knew that the Garden of Gethsemane was on the other side of the brook Kidron (18:1). He knew that there was a paved area outside of the praetorium (19:13). He was aware of the region of Samaria and that Jacob's well was located in Sychar (4:5-6), and that it was deep (4:11). Again, archaeologists have found this well. He knew about the sacred mountain of Samaritan worship (4:20-21). He was aware of Galilee (1:44,46; 2:1,2). Another interesting feature of John is that, when compared with the Synoptics, his Gospel consistently gives more references to chronology, geography, topography, and the like. As recently as 1961 an inscription was discovered in Caesarea, providing for the first time extra-biblical corroboration of Pilate as Judea's prefect during the time of Christ.
Also, the writer was an eye-witness of what happened. He does not state his name, but there are traces of his own hand in the gospel. "We beheld his glory," (1:14). He knew the number of pots used at the wedding at Cana (2:6). He knew the value of the anointing perfume (12:5). He was at the crucifixion (19:33-35). He knew the distance from the shore of the apostles boat and the number of fish caught (21:8,11). "This is the disciple who is bearing witness to these things, and who has written these things; and we know that his testimony is true," (21:24).
So the writer was a Jew from Palestine, who was an eye-witness and he was a master of accuracy in chronology,
geography and history. Also, an apostle, "whom Jesus loved." He refers to himself often as the disciple whom Jesus loved (13:23; 19:26; 20:2; 21:7,20). The identity of this "one whom Jesus loved" is narrowed down to be John from the following --
(a) From 21:7, the "disciple" may be identified as one of the seven persons mentioned in 21:2.
- Simon Peter
- Thomas called the Twin
- Nathaniel of Cana in Galilee
- The sons of Zebedee
- Two others
(b) He must be one of the Twelve since only they were with the Lord at the lastsupper (Jno. 13:23-24; cf. Mk. 14:17; Lk. 22:14).
(c) He is not Peter: - He sat next to the Lord at the last supper, and Peter motioned to him (13:23-24). - His future is distinguished from Peter's (21:20ff).
(d) He is closely related to Peter and thus seems to be one of the inner three {James, John, Peter} (20:2-10; cf. Mrk. 5:37-38; 9:2-3;14:33).
(e) James (John's brother) died in AD 44, therefore, he was not the author (Acts 12:2).
(f) Therefore, if it is true that he was an apostle, and one of the inner three, and he was not Peter, or James, then he must have been the Apostle John, the son of Zebedee.
Internal evidence leads to the conclusion that what we call "the gospel of John" is the authentic writing of the apostle John. Luke wrote that "with great power gave the apostles their witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus: and great grace was upon them all," (Acts 4:33). One manifestation of this great power was the gospel of John. In this marvelous work we discover the same Messiah promised by the prophets ... the same King introduced by Matthew ... the same Servant we learn to trust in Mark ... the same Man we long to be like in Luke.
By Warren E. Berkley
The Front Page
From Expository Files 5.7; July 1998
http://www.bible.ca/ef/topical-the-authenticity-of-the-gospel-of-john.htm
Dear Brother IR123-In-Christ,
What a mighty contribution to His Truth! All glory to Jesus and His Kingdom!
Also, thanks to also all other contributors to the Today's Scripture Reading who are trying to share and encourage the Good News of Jesus to fellow Christians...thread writers like GoodNews, Ecclesiastes-the-Teachers, etc.
God Bless
What a mighty contribution to His Truth! All glory to Jesus and His Kingdom!
Also, thanks to also all other contributors to the Today's Scripture Reading who are trying to share and encourage the Good News of Jesus to fellow Christians...thread writers like GoodNews, Ecclesiastes-the-Teachers, etc.
God Bless
The Briton and the Roman
Who was Jesus Cunobeline. who was he?
http://ensignmessage.com/archives/josephofArimathea.html
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IR123,
You do your research and now ready to take on non-beleivers, and those born believers become Athetist. Again you are quoting fro the Bible but where are yor support lines?
"Who was Jesus"? - Through the eyes of St John the Apostle
The following gives you a quick look at the life of Jesus Christ. These are excerpts straight from the Gospel of John, in the Bible. No comments added. They will give you an accurate and fast read of Jesus' life, death, and resurrection...and why his life is significant for you.
John 3
There was a man named Nicodemus, a Jewish religious leader who was a Pharisee. After dark one evening, he came to speak with Jesus. "Rabbi," he said, "we all know that God has sent you to teach us. Your miraculous signs are evidence that God is with you."
Jesus replied, "I tell you the truth, unless you are born again, you cannot see the Kingdom of God."
"What do you mean?" exclaimed Nicodemus. "How can an old man go back into his mother's womb and be born again?"
Jesus replied, "I assure you, no one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit. Humans can reproduce only human life, but the Holy Spirit gives birth to spiritual life. So don't be surprised when I say, 'You must be born again.' The wind blows wherever it wants. Just as you can hear the wind but can't tell where it comes from or where it is going, so you can't explain how people are born of the Spirit."
Jesus was making an assumption only. He is like a tangkee assuming he was spirit sent from heaven.
"How are these things possible?" Nicodemus asked.
Jesus replied, "You are a respected Jewish teacher, and yet you don't understand these things? No one has ever gone to heaven and returned. But the Son of Man has come down from heaven. Everyone who believes in him will have eternal life."
Jesus confirmed to earth human no has has had gone to heaven and retruned. Hypo speaking, one one has gone to heaven, so where were the dead soul kept? If someone has had gone to heaven, hypo speaking, God is afraid heaven (kingdom of heaven) may not be what God promises like mansion in hte sky, luxury eternal living (born again). So believe in Jesus is enough. Simple as that. So if I tell you I came from the dead, just beleive me is enough, would you?
For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.
So man will not perish, that is will not decomposed. But man did decomposed after he died. So again, Jesus assumption is also base on tang kee spirtual talking. In the Bible God says he has more than one Son. Hello, Eh sia boh!
God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him. There is no judgment against anyone who believes in him. But anyone who does not believe in him has already been judged for not believing in God's one and only Son.
John 1
In the beginning the Word [Jesus] already existed.
Where is the support line to claim this statement?
The Word was with God,
and the Word was God.
He existed in the beginning with God.
God created everything through him,
and nothing was created except through him.
The Word gave life to everything that was created,
and his life brought light to everyone.
The light shines in the darkness,
and the darkness can never extinguish it.
If the earth is flat and always faces the sun, then darkness doesn't exist and no man nor God knwe about darkness. Perhaps from the little shadow casted by objects.
He came into the very world he created, but the world didn't recognize him. He came to his own people, and even they rejected him. But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God. They are reborn--not with a physical birth resulting from human passion or plan, but a birth that comes from God.
Sia Baba is known by many who saw him and say he is God, or send by God. No one recognised him before until he make miracles. So are you prepared to be for once go and see Baba to believe he was sent by God?
So the Word became human and made his home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father's one and only Son.
John 5
Crowds of sick people--blind, lame, or paralyzed--lay on the porches. One of the men lying there had been sick for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him and knew he had been ill for a long time.
Jesus told him, "Stand up, pick up your mat, and walk!"
Sia Baba also make the same miracles, he built hospital too. free if you are sick.
Instantly, the man was healed! He rolled up his sleeping mat and began walking! But this miracle happened on the Sabbath, so the Jewish leaders objected. They said to the man who was cured, "You can't work on the Sabbath! The law doesn't allow you to carry that sleeping mat!"
But he replied, "The man who healed me told me, 'Pick up your mat and walk.'"
"Who said such a thing as that?" they demanded. Then the man...told the Jewish leaders that it was Jesus who had healed him.
So the Jewish leaders began harassing Jesus for breaking the Sabbath rules. But Jesus replied, "My Father is always working, and so am I."
So the Jewish leaders tried all the harder to find a way to kill him. For he not only broke the Sabbath, he called God his Father, thereby making himself equal with God.
I believe now that you think Sia Baba, like Jesus, was fake and will alos try to mocked at him too.
John 6
Jesus soon saw a huge crowd of people coming to look for him. Turning to Philip, he asked, "Where can we buy bread to feed all these people?" He was testing Philip, for he already knew what he was going to do.
Philip replied, "Even if we worked for months, we wouldn't have enough money to feed them!"
Then Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, spoke up. "There's a young boy here with five barley loaves and two fish. But what good is that with this huge crowd?"
"Tell everyone to sit down," Jesus said. So they all sat down on the grassy slopes. (The men alone numbered about 5,000.) Then Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks to God, and distributed them to the people. Afterward he did the same with the fish. And they all ate as much as they wanted.
After everyone was full, Jesus told his disciples, "Now gather the leftovers, so that nothing is wasted." So they picked up the pieces and filled twelve baskets with scraps left by the people who had eaten from the five barley loaves.
"I tell you the truth, you want to be with me because I fed you, not because you understood the miraculous signs. But don't be so concerned about perishable things like food. Spend your energy seeking the eternal life that the Son of Man can give you. For God the Father has given me the seal of his approval."
They replied, "We want to perform God's works, too. What should we do?"
Jesus told them, "This is the only work God wants from you: Believe in the one he has sent."
"I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry again. Whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. For it is my Father's will that all who see his Son and believe in him should have eternal life. I will raise them up at the last day."
John 7
On the last day, the climax of the festival, Jesus stood and shouted to the crowds, "Anyone who is thirsty may come to me! Anyone who believes in me may come and drink! For the Scriptures declare, 'Rivers of living water will flow from his heart.'" (When he said "living water," he was speaking of the Spirit, who would be given to everyone believing in him. But the Spirit had not yet been given, because Jesus had not yet entered into his glory.)
When the crowds heard him say this, some of them declared, "Surely this man is the Prophet we've been expecting." Others said, "He is the Messiah."
John 10
"I tell you the truth, anyone who sneaks over the wall of a sheepfold, rather than going through the gate, must surely be a thief and a robber! But the one who enters through the gate is the shepherd of the sheep.
Those who heard Jesus use this illustration didn't understand what he meant, so he explained it to them:
"I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd sacrifices his life for the sheep. A hired hand will run when he sees a wolf coming. He will abandon the sheep because they don't belong to him and he isn't their shepherd. And so the wolf attacks them and scatters the flock. The hired hand runs away because he's working only for the money and doesn't really care about the sheep.
"I am the good shepherd; I know my own sheep, and they know me, just as my Father knows me and I know the Father. So I sacrifice my life for the sheep.
"The Father loves me because I sacrifice my life so I may take it back again. No one can take my life from me. I sacrifice it voluntarily. For I have the authority to lay it down when I want to and also to take it up again.
But if I do his work, believe in the evidence of the miraculous works I have done, even if you don't believe me. Then you will know and understand that the Father is in me, and I am in the Father."
John 11
A man named Lazarus was sick. He lived in Bethany with his sisters, Mary and Martha. So the two sisters sent a message to Jesus telling him, "Lord, your dear friend is very sick."
But when Jesus heard about it...although Jesus loved Martha, Mary, and Lazarus, he stayed where he was for the next two days.
Finally, he said to his disciples, "Let's go back to Judea." But his disciples objected. "Rabbi," they said, "only a few days ago the people in Judea were trying to stone you. Are you going there again?"
Rabbi was mentioned twice, so Jesus was not God but a teacher
Jesus replied..."Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but now I will go and wake him up."
The disciples said, "Lord, if he is sleeping, he will soon get better!" They thought Jesus meant Lazarus was simply sleeping, but Jesus meant Lazarus had died. So he told them plainly, "Lazarus is dead...Come, let's go see him."
My aunty, a tang kee, also can do that. She will write you a 'hu' and you burnt the 'hu' and mixed with a bowl of water and drink it. It's done. Good luck.
When Jesus arrived at Bethany, he was told that Lazarus had already been in his grave for four days. Martha said to Jesus, "Lord, if only you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask."
Jesus told her, "Your brother will rise again."
"Yes," Martha said, "he will rise when everyone else rises, at the last day."
Jesus told her, "I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying. Everyone who lives in me and believes in me will never ever die. Do you believe this, Martha?"
Ineresting, why borught back a dead to live? There is nothing to prove but black magic. Jeus said no one has gone to heaven and return. So Las did not go to heaven, that's confirm. Since he was revived by Jesus, Las has just returned. So why did Las go for the past 4 days he was dead. Apparently Scientology, Ron, believed after a man died it became static (motionless and timeless). For example you saw a dead crocoah in the kitchen but did not remove it. a few days later you saw th same dead crocoach and still at the same spot. To the dead crocoach it carcass is static and therefore it is timeless itself. You only saw the crocoach again in a few day later, it is your time, not the dead carcass. You are alive and that is you have 'the time' but not the daed creature.
Sciencetology is another interesting aspect about God, go read about it.
"Yes, Lord," she told him. "I have always believed you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one who has come into the world from God."
When Mary arrived and saw Jesus, she fell at his feet and said, "Lord, if only you had been here, my brother would not have died."
When Jesus saw her weeping and saw the other people wailing with her, a deep anger welled up within him, and he was deeply troubled. "Where have you put him?" he asked them. They told him, "Lord, come and see."
Then Jesus wept. The people who were standing nearby said, "See how much he loved him!" But some said, "This man healed a blind man. Couldn't he have kept Lazarus from dying?"
Jesus was still angry as he arrived at the tomb, a cave with a stone rolled across its entrance. "Roll the stone aside," Jesus told them.
But Martha, the dead man's sister, protested, "Lord, he has been dead for four days. The smell will be terrible."
Jesus responded, "Didn't I tell you that you would see God's glory if you believe?"
So they rolled the stone aside. Then Jesus looked up to heaven and said, "Father, thank you for hearing me. You always hear me, but I said it out loud for the sake of all these people standing here, so that they will believe you sent me."
Then Jesus shouted, "Lazarus, come out!" And the dead man came out, his hands and feet bound in graveclothes, his face wrapped in a headcloth. Jesus told them, "Unwrap him and let him go!" Many of the people who were with Mary believed in Jesus when they saw this happen.
But some went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. Then the leading priests and Pharisees called the high council together. "What are we going to do?" they asked each other. "This man certainly performs many miraculous signs. If we allow him to go on like this, soon everyone will believe in him." So from that time on, the Jewish leaders began to plot Jesus' death.
John 12
Many people did believe in him, however, including some of the Jewish leaders. But they wouldn't admit it for fear that the Pharisees would expel them from the synagogue. For they loved human praise more than the praise of God.
John 13
Before the Passover celebration, Jesus knew that his hour had come to leave this world and return to his Father. It was time for supper, and the devil had already prompted Judas, son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Jesus.
Now Jesus was deeply troubled, and he exclaimed, "I tell you the truth, one of you will betray me!" Judas left at once, going out into the night.
John 14
[Jesus speaking] "Don't let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in me. There is more than enough room in my Father's home. If this were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am.
Soon the world will no longer see me, but you will see me. Since I live, you also will live. When I am raised to life again, you will know that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. Those who accept my commandments and obey them are the ones who love me. And because they love me, my Father will love them. And I will love them and reveal myself to each of them."
John 15
[Jesus speaking] "I have loved you even as the Father has loved me. Remain in my love. When you obey my commandments, you remain in my love, just as I obey my Father's commandments and remain in his love. I have told you these things so that you will be filled with my joy. Yes, your joy will overflow!"
"This is my commandment: Love each other in the same way I have loved you. There is no greater love than to lay down one's life for one's friends."
"If the world hates you, remember that it hated me first. If I hadn't done such miraculous signs among them that no one else could do, they would not be guilty. But as it is, they have seen everything I did, yet they still hate me and my Father. This fulfills what is written in their Scriptures: 'They hated me without cause.'"
John 16
[Jesus speaking] I tell you the truth, you will weep and mourn over what is going to happen to me, but the world will rejoice. You will grieve, but your grief will suddenly turn to wonderful joy. So you have sorrow now, but I will see you again; then you will rejoice, and no one can rob you of that joy.... the Father himself loves you dearly because you love me and believe that I came from God. Yes, I came from the Father into the world, and now I will leave the world and return to the Father."
John 17
After saying all these things, Jesus looked up to heaven and said:
"Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son so he can give glory back to you. For you have given him authority over everyone. He gives eternal life to each one you have given him. And this is the way to have eternal life--to know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, the one you sent to earth.
I brought glory to you here on earth by completing the work you gave me to do. Now, Father, bring me into the glory we shared before the world began.
I told them many things while I was with them in this world so they would be filled with my joy. I have given them your word. And the world hates them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world.
I am praying not only for these disciples but also for all who will ever believe in me through their message.
O righteous Father, the world doesn't know you, but I do; and these disciples know you sent me. I have revealed you to them, and I will continue to do so. Then your love for me will be in them, and I will be in them."
John 18
After saying these things, Jesus crossed the Kidron Valley with his disciples and entered a grove of olive trees. Judas, the betrayer, knew this place, because Jesus had often gone there with his disciples. The leading priests and Pharisees had given Judas a contingent of Roman soldiers and Temple guards to accompany him. Now with blazing torches, lanterns, and weapons, they arrived at the olive grove.
Jesus fully realized all that was going to happen to him, so he stepped forward to meet them. "Who are you looking for?" he asked.
"Jesus the Nazarene," they replied.
"I Am he," Jesus said. (Judas, who betrayed him, was standing with them.) The soldiers, their commanding officer, and the Temple guards arrested Jesus and tied him up.
Pilate, the governor, asked, "What is your charge against this man?"
"We wouldn't have handed him over to you if he weren't a criminal!" they retorted.
"Then take him away and judge him by your own [Jewish] law," Pilate told them.
"Only the Romans are permitted to execute someone," the Jewish leaders replied. 32 (This fulfilled Jesus' prediction about the way he would die.)
John 19
Pilate had Jesus flogged with a lead-tipped whip. The soldiers wove a crown of thorns and put it on his head, and they put a purple robe on him. "Hail! King of the Jews!" they mocked, as they slapped him across the face.
Pilate went outside again and said to the people, "I am going to bring him out to you now, but understand clearly that I find him not guilty."
Then Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. And Pilate said, "Look, here is the man!" When they saw him, the leading priests and Temple guards began shouting, "Crucify him! Crucify him!"
"Take him yourselves and crucify him," Pilate said. "I find him not guilty."
The Jewish leaders replied, "By our law he ought to die because he called himself the Son of God."
When Pilate heard this, he was more frightened than ever. He took Jesus back into the headquarters again and asked him, "Where are you from?"
But Jesus gave no answer.
"Why don't you talk to me?" Pilate demanded. "Don't you realize that I have the power to release you or crucify you?"
Then Jesus said, "You would have no power over me at all unless it were given to you from above. So the one who handed me over to you has the greater sin."
Then Pilate tried to release him, but the Jewish leaders shouted... "Away with him," they yelled. "Away with him! Crucify him!" Then Pilate turned Jesus over to them to be crucified.
So they took Jesus away. Carrying the cross by himself, he went to the place called Place of the Skull (in Hebrew, Golgotha). There they nailed him to the cross.
Jesus knew that his mission was now finished, and to fulfill Scripture he said, "I am thirsty." A jar of sour wine was sitting there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put it on a hyssop branch, and held it up to his lips. When Jesus had tasted it, he said, "It is finished!" Then he bowed his head and released his spirit.
It was the day of preparation, and the Jewish leaders didn't want the bodies hanging there the next day, which was the Sabbath (and a very special Sabbath, because it was the Passover). So they asked Pilate to hasten their deaths by ordering that their legs be broken. Then their bodies could be taken down.
So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the two men crucified with Jesus. But when they came to Jesus, they saw that he was already dead, so they didn't break his legs. One of the soldiers, however, pierced his side with a spear, and immediately blood and water flowed out.
When Pilate gave permission, Joseph came and took the body away. With him came Nicodemus, the man who had come to Jesus at night. He brought seventy-five pounds of perfumed ointment made from myrrh and aloes. Following Jewish burial custom, they wrapped Jesus' body with the spices in long sheets of linen cloth. The place of crucifixion was near a garden, where there was a new tomb, never used before. And so, because it was the day of preparation for the Jewish Passover and since the tomb was close at hand, they laid Jesus there.
John 20
Early on Sunday morning, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and found that the stone had been rolled away from the entrance. She ran and found Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved. She said, "They have taken the Lord's body out of the tomb, and we don't know where they have put him!"
Peter and the other disciple started out for the tomb. They were both running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He stooped and looked in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he didn't go in.
Then Simon Peter arrived and went inside. He also noticed the linen wrappings lying there, while the cloth that had covered Jesus' head was folded up and lying apart from the other wrappings. Then the disciple who had reached the tomb first also went in, and he saw and believed--for until then they still hadn't understood the Scriptures that said Jesus must rise from the dead. Then they went home.
Mary was standing outside the tomb crying, and as she wept, she stooped and looked in. She saw two white-robed angels, one sitting at the head and the other at the foot of the place where the body of Jesus had been lying.
"Dear woman, why are you crying?" the angels asked her.
"Because they have taken away my Lord," she replied, "and I don't know where they have put him."
She turned to leave and saw someone standing there. It was Jesus, but she didn't recognize him.
"Dear woman, why are you crying?" Jesus asked her. "Who are you looking for?"
She thought he was the gardener. "Sir," she said, "if you have taken him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will go and get him."
"Mary!" Jesus said.
She turned to him and cried out, "Rabboni!" (which is Hebrew for "Teacher").
Rabbi was mentioned the 3rd time.
"Don't cling to me," Jesus said, "for I haven't yet ascended to the Father. But go find my brothers and tell them, 'I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.'"
Mary Magdalene found the disciples and told them, "I have seen the Lord!"
That Sunday evening the disciples were meeting behind locked doors because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders. Suddenly, Jesus was standing there among them! "Peace be with you," he said.
As he spoke, he showed them the wounds in his hands and his side. They were filled with joy when they saw the Lord! Again he said, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you." Then he breathed on them and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit."
One of the twelve disciples, Thomas...was not with the others when Jesus came. They told him, "We have seen the Lord!"
But he replied, "I won't believe it unless I see the nail wounds in his hands, put my fingers into them, and place my hand into the wound in his side."
Eight days later the disciples were together again, and this time Thomas was with them. The doors were locked; but suddenly, as before, Jesus was standing among them. "Peace be with you," he said.
Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here, and look at my hands. Put your hand into the wound in my side. Don't be faithless any longer. Believe!"
"My Lord and my God!" Thomas exclaimed.
Then Jesus told him, "You believe because you have seen me. Blessed are those who believe without seeing me."
http://www.everystudent.com/wires/whowas.html[/quote]
You do your research and now ready to take on non-beleivers, and those born believers become Athetist. Again you are quoting fro the Bible but where are yor support lines?
"Who was Jesus"? - Through the eyes of St John the Apostle
The following gives you a quick look at the life of Jesus Christ. These are excerpts straight from the Gospel of John, in the Bible. No comments added. They will give you an accurate and fast read of Jesus' life, death, and resurrection...and why his life is significant for you.
John 3
There was a man named Nicodemus, a Jewish religious leader who was a Pharisee. After dark one evening, he came to speak with Jesus. "Rabbi," he said, "we all know that God has sent you to teach us. Your miraculous signs are evidence that God is with you."
Jesus replied, "I tell you the truth, unless you are born again, you cannot see the Kingdom of God."
"What do you mean?" exclaimed Nicodemus. "How can an old man go back into his mother's womb and be born again?"
Jesus replied, "I assure you, no one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit. Humans can reproduce only human life, but the Holy Spirit gives birth to spiritual life. So don't be surprised when I say, 'You must be born again.' The wind blows wherever it wants. Just as you can hear the wind but can't tell where it comes from or where it is going, so you can't explain how people are born of the Spirit."
Jesus was making an assumption only. He is like a tangkee assuming he was spirit sent from heaven.
"How are these things possible?" Nicodemus asked.
Jesus replied, "You are a respected Jewish teacher, and yet you don't understand these things? No one has ever gone to heaven and returned. But the Son of Man has come down from heaven. Everyone who believes in him will have eternal life."
Jesus confirmed to earth human no has has had gone to heaven and retruned. Hypo speaking, one one has gone to heaven, so where were the dead soul kept? If someone has had gone to heaven, hypo speaking, God is afraid heaven (kingdom of heaven) may not be what God promises like mansion in hte sky, luxury eternal living (born again). So believe in Jesus is enough. Simple as that. So if I tell you I came from the dead, just beleive me is enough, would you?
For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.
So man will not perish, that is will not decomposed. But man did decomposed after he died. So again, Jesus assumption is also base on tang kee spirtual talking. In the Bible God says he has more than one Son. Hello, Eh sia boh!
God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him. There is no judgment against anyone who believes in him. But anyone who does not believe in him has already been judged for not believing in God's one and only Son.
John 1
In the beginning the Word [Jesus] already existed.
Where is the support line to claim this statement?
The Word was with God,
and the Word was God.
He existed in the beginning with God.
God created everything through him,
and nothing was created except through him.
The Word gave life to everything that was created,
and his life brought light to everyone.
The light shines in the darkness,
and the darkness can never extinguish it.
If the earth is flat and always faces the sun, then darkness doesn't exist and no man nor God knwe about darkness. Perhaps from the little shadow casted by objects.
He came into the very world he created, but the world didn't recognize him. He came to his own people, and even they rejected him. But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God. They are reborn--not with a physical birth resulting from human passion or plan, but a birth that comes from God.
Sia Baba is known by many who saw him and say he is God, or send by God. No one recognised him before until he make miracles. So are you prepared to be for once go and see Baba to believe he was sent by God?
So the Word became human and made his home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father's one and only Son.
John 5
Crowds of sick people--blind, lame, or paralyzed--lay on the porches. One of the men lying there had been sick for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him and knew he had been ill for a long time.
Jesus told him, "Stand up, pick up your mat, and walk!"
Sia Baba also make the same miracles, he built hospital too. free if you are sick.
Instantly, the man was healed! He rolled up his sleeping mat and began walking! But this miracle happened on the Sabbath, so the Jewish leaders objected. They said to the man who was cured, "You can't work on the Sabbath! The law doesn't allow you to carry that sleeping mat!"
But he replied, "The man who healed me told me, 'Pick up your mat and walk.'"
"Who said such a thing as that?" they demanded. Then the man...told the Jewish leaders that it was Jesus who had healed him.
So the Jewish leaders began harassing Jesus for breaking the Sabbath rules. But Jesus replied, "My Father is always working, and so am I."
So the Jewish leaders tried all the harder to find a way to kill him. For he not only broke the Sabbath, he called God his Father, thereby making himself equal with God.
I believe now that you think Sia Baba, like Jesus, was fake and will alos try to mocked at him too.
John 6
Jesus soon saw a huge crowd of people coming to look for him. Turning to Philip, he asked, "Where can we buy bread to feed all these people?" He was testing Philip, for he already knew what he was going to do.
Philip replied, "Even if we worked for months, we wouldn't have enough money to feed them!"
Then Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, spoke up. "There's a young boy here with five barley loaves and two fish. But what good is that with this huge crowd?"
"Tell everyone to sit down," Jesus said. So they all sat down on the grassy slopes. (The men alone numbered about 5,000.) Then Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks to God, and distributed them to the people. Afterward he did the same with the fish. And they all ate as much as they wanted.
After everyone was full, Jesus told his disciples, "Now gather the leftovers, so that nothing is wasted." So they picked up the pieces and filled twelve baskets with scraps left by the people who had eaten from the five barley loaves.
"I tell you the truth, you want to be with me because I fed you, not because you understood the miraculous signs. But don't be so concerned about perishable things like food. Spend your energy seeking the eternal life that the Son of Man can give you. For God the Father has given me the seal of his approval."
They replied, "We want to perform God's works, too. What should we do?"
Jesus told them, "This is the only work God wants from you: Believe in the one he has sent."
"I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry again. Whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. For it is my Father's will that all who see his Son and believe in him should have eternal life. I will raise them up at the last day."
John 7
On the last day, the climax of the festival, Jesus stood and shouted to the crowds, "Anyone who is thirsty may come to me! Anyone who believes in me may come and drink! For the Scriptures declare, 'Rivers of living water will flow from his heart.'" (When he said "living water," he was speaking of the Spirit, who would be given to everyone believing in him. But the Spirit had not yet been given, because Jesus had not yet entered into his glory.)
When the crowds heard him say this, some of them declared, "Surely this man is the Prophet we've been expecting." Others said, "He is the Messiah."
John 10
"I tell you the truth, anyone who sneaks over the wall of a sheepfold, rather than going through the gate, must surely be a thief and a robber! But the one who enters through the gate is the shepherd of the sheep.
Those who heard Jesus use this illustration didn't understand what he meant, so he explained it to them:
"I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd sacrifices his life for the sheep. A hired hand will run when he sees a wolf coming. He will abandon the sheep because they don't belong to him and he isn't their shepherd. And so the wolf attacks them and scatters the flock. The hired hand runs away because he's working only for the money and doesn't really care about the sheep.
"I am the good shepherd; I know my own sheep, and they know me, just as my Father knows me and I know the Father. So I sacrifice my life for the sheep.
"The Father loves me because I sacrifice my life so I may take it back again. No one can take my life from me. I sacrifice it voluntarily. For I have the authority to lay it down when I want to and also to take it up again.
But if I do his work, believe in the evidence of the miraculous works I have done, even if you don't believe me. Then you will know and understand that the Father is in me, and I am in the Father."
John 11
A man named Lazarus was sick. He lived in Bethany with his sisters, Mary and Martha. So the two sisters sent a message to Jesus telling him, "Lord, your dear friend is very sick."
But when Jesus heard about it...although Jesus loved Martha, Mary, and Lazarus, he stayed where he was for the next two days.
Finally, he said to his disciples, "Let's go back to Judea." But his disciples objected. "Rabbi," they said, "only a few days ago the people in Judea were trying to stone you. Are you going there again?"
Rabbi was mentioned twice, so Jesus was not God but a teacher
Jesus replied..."Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but now I will go and wake him up."
The disciples said, "Lord, if he is sleeping, he will soon get better!" They thought Jesus meant Lazarus was simply sleeping, but Jesus meant Lazarus had died. So he told them plainly, "Lazarus is dead...Come, let's go see him."
My aunty, a tang kee, also can do that. She will write you a 'hu' and you burnt the 'hu' and mixed with a bowl of water and drink it. It's done. Good luck.
When Jesus arrived at Bethany, he was told that Lazarus had already been in his grave for four days. Martha said to Jesus, "Lord, if only you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask."
Jesus told her, "Your brother will rise again."
"Yes," Martha said, "he will rise when everyone else rises, at the last day."
Jesus told her, "I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying. Everyone who lives in me and believes in me will never ever die. Do you believe this, Martha?"
Ineresting, why borught back a dead to live? There is nothing to prove but black magic. Jeus said no one has gone to heaven and return. So Las did not go to heaven, that's confirm. Since he was revived by Jesus, Las has just returned. So why did Las go for the past 4 days he was dead. Apparently Scientology, Ron, believed after a man died it became static (motionless and timeless). For example you saw a dead crocoah in the kitchen but did not remove it. a few days later you saw th same dead crocoach and still at the same spot. To the dead crocoach it carcass is static and therefore it is timeless itself. You only saw the crocoach again in a few day later, it is your time, not the dead carcass. You are alive and that is you have 'the time' but not the daed creature.
Sciencetology is another interesting aspect about God, go read about it.
"Yes, Lord," she told him. "I have always believed you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one who has come into the world from God."
When Mary arrived and saw Jesus, she fell at his feet and said, "Lord, if only you had been here, my brother would not have died."
When Jesus saw her weeping and saw the other people wailing with her, a deep anger welled up within him, and he was deeply troubled. "Where have you put him?" he asked them. They told him, "Lord, come and see."
Then Jesus wept. The people who were standing nearby said, "See how much he loved him!" But some said, "This man healed a blind man. Couldn't he have kept Lazarus from dying?"
Jesus was still angry as he arrived at the tomb, a cave with a stone rolled across its entrance. "Roll the stone aside," Jesus told them.
But Martha, the dead man's sister, protested, "Lord, he has been dead for four days. The smell will be terrible."
Jesus responded, "Didn't I tell you that you would see God's glory if you believe?"
So they rolled the stone aside. Then Jesus looked up to heaven and said, "Father, thank you for hearing me. You always hear me, but I said it out loud for the sake of all these people standing here, so that they will believe you sent me."
Then Jesus shouted, "Lazarus, come out!" And the dead man came out, his hands and feet bound in graveclothes, his face wrapped in a headcloth. Jesus told them, "Unwrap him and let him go!" Many of the people who were with Mary believed in Jesus when they saw this happen.
But some went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. Then the leading priests and Pharisees called the high council together. "What are we going to do?" they asked each other. "This man certainly performs many miraculous signs. If we allow him to go on like this, soon everyone will believe in him." So from that time on, the Jewish leaders began to plot Jesus' death.
John 12
Many people did believe in him, however, including some of the Jewish leaders. But they wouldn't admit it for fear that the Pharisees would expel them from the synagogue. For they loved human praise more than the praise of God.
John 13
Before the Passover celebration, Jesus knew that his hour had come to leave this world and return to his Father. It was time for supper, and the devil had already prompted Judas, son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Jesus.
Now Jesus was deeply troubled, and he exclaimed, "I tell you the truth, one of you will betray me!" Judas left at once, going out into the night.
John 14
[Jesus speaking] "Don't let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in me. There is more than enough room in my Father's home. If this were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am.
Soon the world will no longer see me, but you will see me. Since I live, you also will live. When I am raised to life again, you will know that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. Those who accept my commandments and obey them are the ones who love me. And because they love me, my Father will love them. And I will love them and reveal myself to each of them."
John 15
[Jesus speaking] "I have loved you even as the Father has loved me. Remain in my love. When you obey my commandments, you remain in my love, just as I obey my Father's commandments and remain in his love. I have told you these things so that you will be filled with my joy. Yes, your joy will overflow!"
"This is my commandment: Love each other in the same way I have loved you. There is no greater love than to lay down one's life for one's friends."
"If the world hates you, remember that it hated me first. If I hadn't done such miraculous signs among them that no one else could do, they would not be guilty. But as it is, they have seen everything I did, yet they still hate me and my Father. This fulfills what is written in their Scriptures: 'They hated me without cause.'"
John 16
[Jesus speaking] I tell you the truth, you will weep and mourn over what is going to happen to me, but the world will rejoice. You will grieve, but your grief will suddenly turn to wonderful joy. So you have sorrow now, but I will see you again; then you will rejoice, and no one can rob you of that joy.... the Father himself loves you dearly because you love me and believe that I came from God. Yes, I came from the Father into the world, and now I will leave the world and return to the Father."
John 17
After saying all these things, Jesus looked up to heaven and said:
"Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son so he can give glory back to you. For you have given him authority over everyone. He gives eternal life to each one you have given him. And this is the way to have eternal life--to know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, the one you sent to earth.
I brought glory to you here on earth by completing the work you gave me to do. Now, Father, bring me into the glory we shared before the world began.
I told them many things while I was with them in this world so they would be filled with my joy. I have given them your word. And the world hates them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world.
I am praying not only for these disciples but also for all who will ever believe in me through their message.
O righteous Father, the world doesn't know you, but I do; and these disciples know you sent me. I have revealed you to them, and I will continue to do so. Then your love for me will be in them, and I will be in them."
John 18
After saying these things, Jesus crossed the Kidron Valley with his disciples and entered a grove of olive trees. Judas, the betrayer, knew this place, because Jesus had often gone there with his disciples. The leading priests and Pharisees had given Judas a contingent of Roman soldiers and Temple guards to accompany him. Now with blazing torches, lanterns, and weapons, they arrived at the olive grove.
Jesus fully realized all that was going to happen to him, so he stepped forward to meet them. "Who are you looking for?" he asked.
"Jesus the Nazarene," they replied.
"I Am he," Jesus said. (Judas, who betrayed him, was standing with them.) The soldiers, their commanding officer, and the Temple guards arrested Jesus and tied him up.
Pilate, the governor, asked, "What is your charge against this man?"
"We wouldn't have handed him over to you if he weren't a criminal!" they retorted.
"Then take him away and judge him by your own [Jewish] law," Pilate told them.
"Only the Romans are permitted to execute someone," the Jewish leaders replied. 32 (This fulfilled Jesus' prediction about the way he would die.)
John 19
Pilate had Jesus flogged with a lead-tipped whip. The soldiers wove a crown of thorns and put it on his head, and they put a purple robe on him. "Hail! King of the Jews!" they mocked, as they slapped him across the face.
Pilate went outside again and said to the people, "I am going to bring him out to you now, but understand clearly that I find him not guilty."
Then Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. And Pilate said, "Look, here is the man!" When they saw him, the leading priests and Temple guards began shouting, "Crucify him! Crucify him!"
"Take him yourselves and crucify him," Pilate said. "I find him not guilty."
The Jewish leaders replied, "By our law he ought to die because he called himself the Son of God."
When Pilate heard this, he was more frightened than ever. He took Jesus back into the headquarters again and asked him, "Where are you from?"
But Jesus gave no answer.
"Why don't you talk to me?" Pilate demanded. "Don't you realize that I have the power to release you or crucify you?"
Then Jesus said, "You would have no power over me at all unless it were given to you from above. So the one who handed me over to you has the greater sin."
Then Pilate tried to release him, but the Jewish leaders shouted... "Away with him," they yelled. "Away with him! Crucify him!" Then Pilate turned Jesus over to them to be crucified.
So they took Jesus away. Carrying the cross by himself, he went to the place called Place of the Skull (in Hebrew, Golgotha). There they nailed him to the cross.
Jesus knew that his mission was now finished, and to fulfill Scripture he said, "I am thirsty." A jar of sour wine was sitting there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put it on a hyssop branch, and held it up to his lips. When Jesus had tasted it, he said, "It is finished!" Then he bowed his head and released his spirit.
It was the day of preparation, and the Jewish leaders didn't want the bodies hanging there the next day, which was the Sabbath (and a very special Sabbath, because it was the Passover). So they asked Pilate to hasten their deaths by ordering that their legs be broken. Then their bodies could be taken down.
So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the two men crucified with Jesus. But when they came to Jesus, they saw that he was already dead, so they didn't break his legs. One of the soldiers, however, pierced his side with a spear, and immediately blood and water flowed out.
When Pilate gave permission, Joseph came and took the body away. With him came Nicodemus, the man who had come to Jesus at night. He brought seventy-five pounds of perfumed ointment made from myrrh and aloes. Following Jewish burial custom, they wrapped Jesus' body with the spices in long sheets of linen cloth. The place of crucifixion was near a garden, where there was a new tomb, never used before. And so, because it was the day of preparation for the Jewish Passover and since the tomb was close at hand, they laid Jesus there.
John 20
Early on Sunday morning, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and found that the stone had been rolled away from the entrance. She ran and found Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved. She said, "They have taken the Lord's body out of the tomb, and we don't know where they have put him!"
Peter and the other disciple started out for the tomb. They were both running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He stooped and looked in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he didn't go in.
Then Simon Peter arrived and went inside. He also noticed the linen wrappings lying there, while the cloth that had covered Jesus' head was folded up and lying apart from the other wrappings. Then the disciple who had reached the tomb first also went in, and he saw and believed--for until then they still hadn't understood the Scriptures that said Jesus must rise from the dead. Then they went home.
Mary was standing outside the tomb crying, and as she wept, she stooped and looked in. She saw two white-robed angels, one sitting at the head and the other at the foot of the place where the body of Jesus had been lying.
"Dear woman, why are you crying?" the angels asked her.
"Because they have taken away my Lord," she replied, "and I don't know where they have put him."
She turned to leave and saw someone standing there. It was Jesus, but she didn't recognize him.
"Dear woman, why are you crying?" Jesus asked her. "Who are you looking for?"
She thought he was the gardener. "Sir," she said, "if you have taken him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will go and get him."
"Mary!" Jesus said.
She turned to him and cried out, "Rabboni!" (which is Hebrew for "Teacher").
Rabbi was mentioned the 3rd time.
"Don't cling to me," Jesus said, "for I haven't yet ascended to the Father. But go find my brothers and tell them, 'I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.'"
Mary Magdalene found the disciples and told them, "I have seen the Lord!"
That Sunday evening the disciples were meeting behind locked doors because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders. Suddenly, Jesus was standing there among them! "Peace be with you," he said.
As he spoke, he showed them the wounds in his hands and his side. They were filled with joy when they saw the Lord! Again he said, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you." Then he breathed on them and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit."
One of the twelve disciples, Thomas...was not with the others when Jesus came. They told him, "We have seen the Lord!"
But he replied, "I won't believe it unless I see the nail wounds in his hands, put my fingers into them, and place my hand into the wound in his side."
Eight days later the disciples were together again, and this time Thomas was with them. The doors were locked; but suddenly, as before, Jesus was standing among them. "Peace be with you," he said.
Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here, and look at my hands. Put your hand into the wound in my side. Don't be faithless any longer. Believe!"
"My Lord and my God!" Thomas exclaimed.
Then Jesus told him, "You believe because you have seen me. Blessed are those who believe without seeing me."
http://www.everystudent.com/wires/whowas.html[/quote]
Who is Warren E Berkley?
I am a gospel preacher, and have been for about 26 years. I'm currently with the Laurel Heights church of Christ in McAllen, Texas. We live in nearby Pharr, Texas. My wife is Paula, who has been a tremendous help in all phases of EF. She has had extensive experience in desktop publishing and computer use. If you have seen some of our advertisements in THE PRECEPTOR or HIS SERVANT (publication for Mac Users), you have noticed the name PAULA'S PRESS. This is an actual business, registered here in Texas, and this is the organ we use to sell EF Bound Volumns. I also write a regular column for a printed publication called THE PRECEPTOR, and have published several tracts. ... more
Another Ang moh who like to hear the voices of himself as he preached the Bible. Anything coming out from USA you gotta be careful nowadays. He is a book publisher, he sells book for a living.
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it is okay, i am not giving him my tithes
Jesus, a man, a prophet
Ye men of Israel, hear these words; Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know. ( THE ACTS 2:22)
All power is Given unto me in heaven and in earth (MATT 28:18)
I cast out devils BY THE SPIRIT OF GOD, then the Kingdom of God is come unto you (MATT 12:28)
I can of mine OWN SELF do nothing….(JOHN 5:30)
I with the FINGER OF GOD cast out devils… (LUKE11:20)
Father, I thank thee that whou hast heard me, And I know that thous hearest me always: be because of the people which stand by I said it, that they may believe that thous hast sent me. (JOHN 11:41-42)
“And they gave him(Jesus) a piece of broiled fish, and of an honeycomb.
And he (Jesus) took it, and did eat before them.” (Luke24:42-43)
"I can of Myself do nothing. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is righteous, because I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me." [John 5:30]
"For I have not spoken on my own initiative; but the Father Himself who sent me, has given me commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak." [John 12: 49]
"And when he was gone forth into the way, there came one running, and kneeled to him, and asked him, Good Master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life? And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God." [Mark 10:18]
Son of God? I say God have tons and tons of it.
"...Adam, which was the SON OF GOD." (Luke 3:38)
"...Israel is MY SON, even my firstborn." (Exodus 4:22)
"....for I (GOD) am a FATHER to Israel, and Ephraim is my FIRST BORN." (Jeremiah 31:9)
"For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the SONS OF GOD." (Romans 8:14)
Ye men of Israel, hear these words; Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know. ( THE ACTS 2:22)
All power is Given unto me in heaven and in earth (MATT 28:18)
I cast out devils BY THE SPIRIT OF GOD, then the Kingdom of God is come unto you (MATT 12:28)
I can of mine OWN SELF do nothing….(JOHN 5:30)
I with the FINGER OF GOD cast out devils… (LUKE11:20)
Father, I thank thee that whou hast heard me, And I know that thous hearest me always: be because of the people which stand by I said it, that they may believe that thous hast sent me. (JOHN 11:41-42)
“And they gave him(Jesus) a piece of broiled fish, and of an honeycomb.
And he (Jesus) took it, and did eat before them.” (Luke24:42-43)
"I can of Myself do nothing. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is righteous, because I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me." [John 5:30]
"For I have not spoken on my own initiative; but the Father Himself who sent me, has given me commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak." [John 12: 49]
"And when he was gone forth into the way, there came one running, and kneeled to him, and asked him, Good Master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life? And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God." [Mark 10:18]
Son of God? I say God have tons and tons of it.
"...Adam, which was the SON OF GOD." (Luke 3:38)
"...Israel is MY SON, even my firstborn." (Exodus 4:22)
"....for I (GOD) am a FATHER to Israel, and Ephraim is my FIRST BORN." (Jeremiah 31:9)
"For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the SONS OF GOD." (Romans 8:14)
whoareyou,
Me thinks you believe in Jesus the Son of MaRY.
Me thinks you believe in Jesus the Son of MaRY.
you dont have to give anyone tithes
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wrcboi and tanwahtiu,
i hope you will ponder over the posts; i am not asking you to believe but to reflect on the possibility that Jesus is God reaching out himself to the world
if you have questions, jot it all down and bring them to Jesus. Ask Him to send you the answers. Attend the Alpha course, a course which is offered by catholic and protestant churches because it is about the basic issues of the faith in which the entire christian church is in agreement. In the course you are free to explore with your questions and find your own answers
forget about the arguments where detractors say that Christ is just a man because their underlying motivation is to reduce Christ to a prophet and then say that there was a greater prophet; unless you belong to that category, such arguments are meaningless to you
what is of importance to you is whether Christ is God; if you can experience the truth of this statement, it will bring a tremendous positive change to your personal life; you will find happiness and in this life, happiness and contentment are precious gifts
walking with God each day of your life is a wonderful and fulfilling experience; and it is my hope that both of you can do so.
i hope you will ponder over the posts; i am not asking you to believe but to reflect on the possibility that Jesus is God reaching out himself to the world
if you have questions, jot it all down and bring them to Jesus. Ask Him to send you the answers. Attend the Alpha course, a course which is offered by catholic and protestant churches because it is about the basic issues of the faith in which the entire christian church is in agreement. In the course you are free to explore with your questions and find your own answers
forget about the arguments where detractors say that Christ is just a man because their underlying motivation is to reduce Christ to a prophet and then say that there was a greater prophet; unless you belong to that category, such arguments are meaningless to you
what is of importance to you is whether Christ is God; if you can experience the truth of this statement, it will bring a tremendous positive change to your personal life; you will find happiness and in this life, happiness and contentment are precious gifts
walking with God each day of your life is a wonderful and fulfilling experience; and it is my hope that both of you can do so.
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Dear IR123,
Alpha course I have attended and at the end of the day it's all about 3 things churches want you to do.
1) obedience to church (God is just their carrier).
2) More you give more you receive (again God is just their carrier)
3) recruitment for new members so 2) will profit more.
It is the system of beleive that counts, not so much about knowing God and believe in ONe God or Jesus and receive peace and happiness in your life.
Every religion will ask you to pray/seek for peace. Peace is ver important to human sustainability. With peace prosperity follows and with money you can buy short happiness (like bring family to dinner) and leisures.
The problem with Bible is not so on God, spirit and son. It is the concept of the story that provoke oneslef to gain dominance over other religions. Messages like I'm the Only ONe God. You go across another country with your Jesus theory and try to change the local native beleive in their own God and spirit. Goodnews, tried to mocked at my aunty tang kee is one of the problem in Christainity.
Bible, supposedly the Word of God, so you say. But there are many chapters and messages in the Bible the Pastors and the church tried to avoid because it does not profit them.
If you beleive in a few short verses here and there in the Bible to be Jesus make miracles and make a dead man alive (Las) then you have to examine your head properly. Where is the relevant important of making a dead man (died 4 days ago) to alive? Question yourself why does Jesus want to bring a dead man alive? It does not prove God exists, agree? It just make fairly tales for children to beleive in case they are naughty their dead father willl come alive and canned them. As adult it is hock-wash' ridiculous fairly tale fit for children consumption. Perhaps good for father who want to use it to teach their chidlren about behaviour and not be naughty.
have you ever ask questions about the author of the book, how it was written and why it was written that way. What happend during Jesus time? and what happend after Jesus dead (supposedely killed is also ???). Any countires captured by their neighbours( in the case Romans) will want to fight to their last men to free their country. Jews wanted to free from the Romans and that was the time where any one can be a hero, or hail as a heor, if they can free the country from Roman. You think what is Jihad to the Muslim for? 患世出英雄 if you know what this Chinese proverb means.
Jesus is not God, if he is the Jews will tell you so. You are gentiles, has no say in who is God and Jesus (a jew) is not God to the Jews. Look, just pray to your dear ancetor will do just fine. Pray only for on thing. Peace on earth among Man.
Gods born of Miracle birth - by Virgin girl
Miraculous births are a motif known from historical literature and religious texts. The motif of miraculous births often include miraculous conceptions and features such as intervention by a deity, supernatural elements, astronomical signs, hardship or in the case of some mythologies complex plots related to creation.
This is the list of them - plenty on the plate. Enjoy. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miraculous_births
