Was he really God’s Son? Did he manage to set anyone free? And in our age of permissiveness and equal rights, is it OK if Jesus is just one of the gods you believe in?

Three major arguments against Christianity today are that :
(a) Christianity’s beliefs about Jesus were copied from pagan religions,
(b) Jesus did not fulfill the Old Testament prophesies that predicted the Messiah, and
(c) that all religions are true and people can pick and choose what they want to believe about Jesus.

Argument 1:
Christianity’s beliefs about Jesus were copied from pagan religions

A famous line in The Da Vinci Code claims “nothing in Christianity is original,” and many people today accept that Christianity is just a “copycat” religion. This premise usually stems from the fact that Christian celebrations like Easter and Christmas fall on the same day as ancient pagan festivals. But this is simply because of the first Roman Emperor to embrace Christianity – Constantine. Before becoming a Christian, Constantine worshipped Sol Invictus. So instead of changing all the official holidays when he converted, Constantine simply changed them into holidays that celebrated Christian commemorations.

Another argument is that many pagan religions have dying and rising gods. Yet it is important to realise that these pagan religions were based on myths – their gods were mythological beings and no one could pinpoint when they existed. There is however historical evidence of Jesus’ life, his death and resurrection. Some of the historical accounts were even written by non-believers.

It is also crucial to know that scholars have studied and dated many of these pagan religions, and have concluded that they in fact came into existence after the establishment of the Christian faith. The only dying and rising gods that people believed in before the 1st century were fertility gods who continued to die and rise in relation to seasonal cycles and the life and death cycle of vegetation. After extensive research, scholar and professor T.N.D. Mettinger concludes, “The death and resurrection of Jesus retains its unique character in the history of religions.”

An additional argument relating to pagan religions is that there were many virgin births before Jesus’. The god Mithras, Alexander the Great and Buddha are said to have been born of virgins. But when looked into closely, records show that Mithras was believed to have been born (already full-grown) from a rock. Alexander the Great’s own mother Olympias explicitly rejected the story of his virgin birth. And stories of Buddha’s life were first written about 500 years after his death, so they’re not reliable historically. But according to the legend, Buddha’s mother dreamed that he entered her in the form of a white elephant. At that time she had been married for many years and almost certainly wasn’t a virgin.
Scholars are surprised when these arguments appear on websites claiming to be true. They say that these arguments have long been put to rest as unfounded, and that those that still claim them as true have clearly done very superficial research.

The apostle Paul was very direct in his testimony of Jesus. “ We did not follow cleverly invented stories when we told you about the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ,” he declared, “but we were eyewitnesses of His majesty.” (2 Peter 1:16)

Argument 2:
Jesus was an imposter who failed to fulfill the Messianic prophesies.

The word “Christ” is derived from the Greek word for Messiah, “Christos”. This This means “the anointed one”, so by calling
Jesus the Christ, is to make a theological claim – that He is the Messiah long expected by the Jews. But many Jews, as well as many others, do not accept Jesus as the Christ. They claim that the Messiah will bring political freedom to Israel, which Jesus did not do. They also use a text from Isaiah that says the Messiah will not falter until he brings justice to the earth. Yet Jesus was humiliated and scourged like a common man, and the world we are living in is not a very just place.

Yet Jesus Himself, when a Samaritan woman spoke of the coming Messiah, said “I whom you speak of am he.” If he then is not the Messiah, it would mean that Jesus is an imposter worthy of rejection and disdain. So it is a critical issue.

One conviction that unites many Jewish and Christian scholars is that the Tanakh, known by Christians as the Old Testament, does foretell the coming of the Messiah, and speaks of the Jews as God’s chosen people. But according to Michael L. Brown, a Jew who became a Christian and an exceptionally well-read pastor, professor and author, “it is important to understand that when God chose Abraham and his descendants, there was a divine purpose. It was not just to have a separated people who would be loyal to him: it was so that through Israel the entire world would be blessed and come to know the one true God.”

Brown goes on to explain that Isaiah 52:13 – 53:12 predict a Messiah that will be highly exalted but will first suffer terribly – even to the point of disfigurement. “But the people of Israel didn’t get it. They thought he was suffering for his own sins and wickedness, they didn’t realise he was bearing their sins, suffering on their behalf. Then it speaks of his death and his continued life after that.”

In an even more specific portion of Scripture, 2 Chronicles 7, God says if Israel’s sin reaches a certain level, he’ll destroy the temple, exile the people, and leave them in a state of judgment. This does come to pass. Then in Daniel 9, God tells Daniel He will have mercy and the temple will be rebuilt. And before this second temple is destroyed, God says several things are going to take place, including the bringing of everlasting atonement – the final dealing with sin. The prophet Malachi adds that the Lord God himself will come to his temple.

This second temple was destroyed in AD 70. Atonement for sin had to be made and the divine visitation had to take place before the destruction. There are even rabbinic traditions that put the Messiah’s coming around two thousand years ago – right when Jesus came. “So it’s not a matter of maybe there’s another one who’s the Messiah. If it’s not Jesus, then throw out the Bible, because nobody except him accomplished what needed to be done prior to AD 70,” says Brown.

But what about some of the prophesies that have not yet been fulfilled? Christians believe Jesus will fulfill these at His second coming, yet many scoff at the idea of a second coming, claiming it’s something Christians use to explain away why Jesus didn’t fulfill all the prophesies. “In short, Jesus fulfilled the essential prophecies that had a definite time frame and which had to be completed before the second temple was destroyed. This is not a matter of speculation; it’s historical fact
earth.”

Argument 3:
People should be free to pick and choose what to believe about Jesus”

It’s not uncommon to hear people say “I’m a Zen Christian” or a “Presbyterian Buddhist”. There is a tendency to mix elements of different traditions and religions into new forms that suit the individual. In this age when “you have your truth and I have mine,” the important issue seems to become what “works” for each individual life, and people feel that it’s judgmental to look down on anyone else’s beliefs.

This suspicion of one truth is called relativism. To the relativist, no fact is true in all times and all places, so religious relativism says one religion can be true for one person or culture but not for another. No religion is exclusively true.

Yet relativism falls flat under scrutiny, as Paul Copan, a professor and author with a masters in philosophy of religion, demonstrates. “We can ask a relativist ‘Is relativism absolutely true for everyone?’ If he says yes, then he contradicts himself by holding to an absolute relativism, which would be a contradiction. To be consistent, the relativist must say, ‘Nothing is objectively true, including my own relativistic position, so you’re free to accept my view or reject it.’ So there’s no reason to take seriously the claim that every belief is as good as every other belief, since this belief itself would be no better than any other. If we do take it seriously, it becomes self-refuting, because it claims to be the one belief that everyone should hold to.”

So then if there is truth, what is it? It is something that corresponds to reality. If you believe that the earth is flat, as some people did, it obviously isn’t true, because in reality the earth is round. Even if you don’t believe it, the earth is going to stay round.

So when Jesus said, in John 14:6, that He’s the truth, there was a correspondence with reality. He was faithfully and authentically representing to us who God is. He was the revelation of God, and He genuinely lived out what human beings are supposed to be before God. We have excellent historical data concerning Jesus and that He really existed. And Christianity is not about subscribing to doctrines, but about having a relationship with the person Jesus. We shouldn’t be trying to create our own Jesus, because then we are denying reality. Jesus reflects reality, so we need to align ourselves with him.

But what if Christianity “feels wrong”? What if we don’t like the feel of some of the things Jesus requires of us? Feelings play an important role in humans, but following our feelings wherever they go doesn’t change who we are as humans or how we were designed to function, and it doesn’t make certain things right or true. We may have preferences about what doctrines we like and don’t like. But our preferences can’t change the reality that Jesus is God’s unique
revelation to humankind. And as the unique Son of God, we can rely on His teachings to be true. So when we add or subtract things from his teachings, we’re in error, because we’d be believing something that doesn’t correspond with reality.

So as Christians we can hold our convictions firmly, yet treat people with dignity and respect even though they disagree with us. We can be humble while at the same time explaining why we believe someone is wrong. Our goal should be Ephesians 4:15 – speaking the truth in love. Martin Luther said when Christians are evangelising, they’re like one beggar simply telling another beggar where to find bread.

(Source: Lee Strobel, The Case for the Real Jesus – Zondervan publishers 2007)