Jesus’ Historical Validity

Christian History “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.” Hosea 4:6

Does HISTORY really validate the New Testament Gospels to be true about Jesus: His first coming, His crucifixion, His resurrection, His coming again?

Non-Christian ancient sources confirmed details of Christ’s passion and some His resurrection. Dr. Gary Habermas catalogued over 3,400 sources, many of which are skeptical or even critical of Christians, adding to their veracity. Here are only 7 of the 3,400:

1. Josephus 37-100 AD
2. Suetonius 70-160 AD
3. Pliny the Younger 61-113 AD
4. Tacitus 56-120 AD
5. Mara Bar-Serapion 72 AD
6. Lucian 125-180 AD
7. Babylonian Talmud.

Piecing together these sources, they all confirm key points of the gospel, such as: Jesus died by crucifixion; he was buried; His death caused the disciples to despair and lose hope, believing that his life was ended. The tomb being empty three days later (I personally have witnessed Jesus’ empty tomb).

After Jesus’ resurrection, in amazement, all Jesus’ disciples then saw Him and had many literal experiences with Jesus, “for over 40 days” (Acts 1:3) – eating with Jesus in different places, and lastly watching Jesus literally ascend off the earth – “as they were looking on, He was lifted up, and a cloud took Him out of their sight” (Acts 1:9).

Historians recorded, even Rome’s most prominent Jewish historian, Flavius Josephus (37-100 AD) – regarding the resurrection of Jesus and Jesus’ 12 the apostles and 100’s of Jesus’ disciples (1Cor. 15:1-9), that all went to their deaths, most as martyries, for continually claiming Jesus’ resurrection (1John 1:1-4).

Some people have died for what was a lie – but no one, much less hundreds, will die for what they ALL KNOW is a lie! And they all claimed up to being put to death – Jesus’ resurrection.

Even today – anyone can find out if Jesus is alive! After Jesus resurrected, He promised to send His Spirit back to enter everyone who prays and calls on Him to be saved. Now today, I and billions of other followers of Jesus all claim they have received the Spirit of Christ when they called on Jesus to save them. And even today, it is recorded that every year thousands of Christians all over the world are martyred for claiming Jesus is alive and His Spirit is living in them!

There need be no question, historically or personally, about the resurrection of Jesus. It has always only been a matter if someone is WILLING to receive Him as their own personal Lord and Savior.

HISTORICAL PROPHECY PROOFS

God had one third of the Bible to be filled with prophecies for the Bible to be its own empirical proof of itself. One of the greatest proof evidences that the Bible is God’s supernatural Word, is the over 300 detailed prophecies from the Old Testament to identify Jesus as the Messiah when He came to the earth the first time. All these prophecies were written hundreds of years prior to Jesus’ first coming! The empirical evidence was the finding of the Dead Sea Scrolls, discovered next to the Dead Sea in 1947. They were carbon dated to have been written at least 300 years prior to the time of Christ. Presently they are in the Museum in Jerusalem.

Virtually every word in the Old Testament that you have today is exactly as it was written hundreds of years prior to Jesus coming! Here are only 9 of the over 300 prophecies:

1. He would be born in Bethlehem. (Micah 5:2)
2. He would be born of a virgin. (Isaiah 7:14)
3. He would be a descendant of David (Isaiah 9:7)
4. He would be betrayed for 30 pieces of silver. (Zechariah 11:12)
5. He would be mocked. (Psalm 22:7,8)
6. He would be crucified. (John 3:14)
7. He would be pierced. (Psalms 22:16)
8. He would die with the wicked yet be buried with the rich. (Isaiah 53:9)
9. He would rise from the dead. (Psalm 16:10)

That one person, by random chance, could fulfill in the first 8 of these prophecies is considered a statistical impossibility.

Professor Peter W. Stoner, Chairman of the Departments of Mathematics and Astronomy at Pasadena City College wrote:

“We find that the chance that any man might have lived down to the present time and fulfilled all eight [of the above] prophecies is 1 in 10 to the 17^th power. (1 in 100,000,000,000,000,000. That is one with 17 zeros behind it.)

Robert Morris Page (1903-1992) was a physicist known as the “father of U.S. Radar for inventing pulsation radar used for the detection of aircraft. He served with the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C., held 37 patents, and received the U.S. Navy Distinguished Civilian Service Award, and the Presidential Certificate of Merit. Robert Morris Page wrote concerning the hundreds of Old Testament prophecies Jesus fulfilled:

“The authenticity of the writings of the prophets, though the men themselves are human, is established by such things as the prediction of highly significant events far in the future that could be accomplished only through a knowledge obtained from a realm which is not subject to the laws of time as we know them.

One of the great evidences is the long series of prophecies concerning Jesus the Messiah. These prophecies extend hundreds of years prior to the birth of Christ. They include a vast amount of detail concerning Christ himself, His nature and the things He would do when He came–things which to the natural world, or the scientific world, remain to this day completely inexplicable.”

The date of Jesus’ resurrection (Easter) even changed our calendar. In 45 BC, Julius Caesar wanted a common calendar used in all the countries conquered by Romans. He switched their various lunar calendars, based on the monthly cycles of the moon, to a solar calendar of 365 days with a leap day every four years.

In the 4^th century, Emperor Constantine stopped the persecution of the Christians and made Christianity the de facto state religion. He wanted a common date to celebrate Easter throughout the Roman Empire and he wanted it on a Sunday. This would settle the “Quarto-deciman Controversy.

Prophecies of Jesus 2^nd Coming

Now what about the Bible prophecies that declare Jesus is going to come back to earth a second time? Did you know there are more than twice as many prophecies, over 600, declaring Jesus is coming back to the earth a second time?

The first time Jesus came, He came as John the Baptist declared: “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29). Jesus came to die on the cross to pay for all our sin and then be able to forgive all who will receive Him, believer in who He is and what He did.

When Jesus comes back again, He will not come as a lamb but as the Lion of Judea, to rule and judge the world and condemn all those who have rejected Him, not having received Him and believed in Him. He will then reign on earth with all those who have received Him.

God’s Bible prophets were right over 300 times about Jesus’ first coming, I would not bet against them this time – prophesying over 600 times Jesus’ second coming! And Jesus’ last words Himself in the Bible – “Surly I will come back again soon!”

Whether everyone realizes it or not, with their very birth date, they are historically declaring – Jesus is LORD! B.C. = Before Christ. A.D. = Anno Domini (Lain for, “In the year of the LORD”).