I seldom come to this thread, but today I was intrigued by Kingspeed's question. The simple answer to "Was Jesus a real person?" is Yes and No. Yes he was a real preson and no because he still is a real person. Most of you do not seem to be answering the question and just following rabbit trails or so it seems to me anyway. I am a Bible believing Christian and so I do believe the Biblical record. Coincidentally, you all either believe in the Biblical record or you believe in something else. Maybe just in your "self" as Maris said. You accept your own thinking and evidences and believe them. You still believe, because if the question was reversed you would have difficulty supporting your belief with valid facts. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08375a.htm This is a link to a Catholic Site I believe, that deals with some sources of early writers concerning Jesus of Nazareth. I am not of the Catholic faith but it does a fair job of presenting the sources and some of their quotes. Most, if not all of you, seem to dismiss the best sources of eye witness accounts. The Apostles. John says that "these things are written that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, and that believing you might have life thru His name." ". The four witnesses agree that he existed and that he was the promised Messiah/Christ. You may choose to believe or not, certainly up to you but you will believe something. I hope you can validate your position. If I am correct and my sources are correct, you all will bow before him one day and acknowledge Him as Lord and King. If i am wrong then I shall not be any the worse off than you all. To Kingspeed, if you asked this seriously, then I urge you to follow the evidence and choose Him. Gods Speed! gatorpops
as far as whether the man jesus existed, some of us don't pretend to know things we can't. only in the sense you would have a difficult time supporting your belief that the FSM doesn't exist. all secular and the even the majority of theistic scholars agree the gospels weren't eyewitness accounts, or all even intended to be meant as eyewitness accounts. that notion of the gospels as 4 separate eyewitness accounts didn't emerge until the 2nd century. unless of course you have picked the wrong religion and end up in hell anyway, or god rewards evidence-based atheism and punishes faith-based belief, or you're just dirt after you die and your life ends up being less than it could have been because you spend all your efforts following a primitive superstitious belief (etc.)
i always find it interesting when christians resort to pascal's wager, since it's so clearly an excuse made for the fact that they aren't confident in their belief on some level. obviously a confident believer would be telling people non-believers WILL be punished, not 'will be punished IF you're wrong'. it's like they are really subconsciously aware of the irrationality of their belief, no matter what they convince themselves of consciously.
Sometimes, folks call others (even themselves) Christians, when in fact they very well may not be. Only God knows the heart. As for what I believe? Oh, yeah, those who the Lord doesn't know (non-believers) WILL be eternally punished. No doubt in my mind about that. The Bible declares it, I believe it. End of story.
