Jesus Mortal |
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C. S. Lewis In Mere Christianity, C. S. Lewis makes an argument for Jesus being God. Here he is recasting and popularizing an argument that apparently goes back to Pope Innocent III (circa 1200). This argument has been picked up by apologist Lee Strobel, and it has considerable currency in popular apology. Lewis writes:
‘I am trying to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: "I am ready to accept Jesus as the great moral teacher, but I don't accept His claim to be God." That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic - on a level with the man who says he is a boiled egg - or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.’ (emphasis mine)
Indeed, Lewis’s argument is spot on and decisive, but only against those few people who both think Jesus claimed to be God and think he was a wise teacher. The argument, however, doesn’t get off the ground in the case of those of us who don’t think Jesus ever claimed to be God in the first place. The idea that Jesus claimed to be God is a case of projection, in which Christians assume that Jesus said about himself what they say about him. There’s a common sense alternative to the “really foolish thing” that Lewis quotes others as saying: “I am ready to accept Jesus as the great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his nominal followers’ account that he claimed to be God.” As the gospels lack any clear-cut statement that Jesus was God, Lewis and others have taken pains to show that Jesus implied decisively that he was God. These arguments, however, rely on the gospels, especially the gospel of John, and modern people don’t take these accounts as altogether reliable, particularly on the topic of Jesus’ identity. A factual argument with the same logic might be to identify the “really foolish thing” as believing that Jesus was a wise teacher but not an exorcist. If Lewis wanted to deny Jesus to secularists, maybe tarring him as superstitious is enough. Jesus didn’t claim to be God, but he sure did claim to be casting devils out of the possessed. For a lot of modern people, that could be enough to disqualify him from really being a wise teacher.
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contents table of contents you're already looking at it introduction for the inquisitive reader biographical overview who he was and wasn't
afterlife not Jesus' concern animal sacrifice bloodless religion apocalypse did Jesus preach hellfire? baptism sin wash for Jesus and others beatitudes Jesus' words and others' words beloved disciple witness for the un-gospel bible scripture old and new bishop the unjesus body focus on the physical Buddha Jesus' close kin charity key Christian virtue and legacy of Jesus The Da Vinci Code secret (and false) messages divorce women's status dreams convenient literary device Elijah Jewish prophet with his own second coming equality ancient source of modern egalitarianism exorcist Jesus and demons failure reinterpreting Jesus as a failure faith from trust to blind belief father Jesus on titles of honor Francis of Assisi the most Christlike Christian Gandhi the 20th century's most Christly holy man Galilee Jesus' inauspicious homeland gentiles Jesus' inadvertent audience god how Jesus became god golden rule key to Jesus' success gospels competing accounts heaven from sky to spiritual home hell revenge fantasy humanism Jesus' legacy inerrant Christian treatment of scripture Thomas Jefferson ethics of Jesus Jewish guilt Christian libel John's gospel the un-gospel John the baptist, see John the washer John the washer Jesus' apocalyptic mentor Judaism libeled religion of Jesus kingdom of god what Jesus promised Lao Tzu poet of the cosmic way logos jesus as the word of god C. S. Lewis famous, flawed trilemma little drummer boy Luke beats Matthew logos Jesus as the divine word LORD Yahweh transitioning to the one god of all Luke's gospel the all-around best gospel Mark's gospel the gospel that lost its point Mary of Magdala women, visions, and sex massacre of the innocents bloodshed starts early Matthew's gospel best gospel for church reading Mormon, see Joseph Smith Moses Jewish lawgiver Muhammad a prophet who got it right mystery Orpheus and transubstantiation oppression origin of Jesus' compassion The Passion of the Christ Luke as buzzkill Paul revealer of the revealer private and public public Jesus and secret Christ relativism the secret power of the golden rule sacrifice Jesus' death and Christian sacrament Albert Schweitzer Jesus as a failure sheol dark pit of death show Jesus' deeds as put-ons slavery abolished by Jesus' efforts Joseph Smith flesh-and-blood Jesus Socrates secular Jesus son of god on close terms with the man upstairs soul, see body synoptics three gospels that agree temple center of Jewish religion trinity unifying and divisive doctrinre vision, see dreams Yahweh, see LORD Zoroaster Persian dualistic holy man
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