Is the evidence for Jesus outdated? I mean, come on, it’s 2023… Can the documentation we have for his life (not to mention his death and resurrection) be trusted after so many centuries? Below are four proofs that he was much more than a “good guy”, but is it enough evidence to have faith in Jesus as the Son of God? You decide…
From very early on in Jesus’ ministry, the religious leaders and prominent Jews were furious with the claims Jesus was making about himself….
… not only was he breaking the laws of the Sabbath (many of which they wrote, by the way… not the ones instituted by God Himself), but this man, Jesus, was also calling the Lord God his “Father”, which would make him the Son of God.
This was a big problem… Throughout the four gospels, people were constantly speculating about who this man, Jesus, could be.
The disciples were saying, “Who is this man?”
The crowds were saying, “Where did he come from?”
The religious leaders were saying, “Who does he think he is?”
Though he is no longer on the earth, the questions haven’t really changed…
This world is still asking, “Who WAS Jesus?”…”Where DID he come from?”… and “WAS he really who he claimed to be?”
Evidence #1: The Witnesses
When researching any historical figure – be it Alexander the Great or Aristotle, King Tut or King Henry VIII, Julius Caesar or George Washington – the biggest evidence of who they were is often gathered from the testimonies of people who knew them (and who also, perhaps, wrote about them, which we will cover as well).
As for Jesus, we have countless witnesses to his life…
One of the most outwardly bold witnesses to Jesus’ life and Messiahship was a man named John (i.e. John the Baptist). He was wild and bold and charismatic and radical, and, for awhile, the Jewish leaders liked him a lot, because he was “preachin’ it”. His sermons were, “Repent! Turn from your wicked ways!” The religious groups loved this… until, they didn’t.
John got TOO crazy. He started doing things, like pointing… literally pointing… to Jesus, exclaiming,
Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world! – John 1:29
“He is the One,” John started saying. “Jesus is the one I’ve been sent to ‘make a way in the wilderness'”; and, at that point, many of the people’s ears shut, their hearts closed, and they said to themselves, “Nope. You are no longer a witness. We no longer believe your testimony.”
Nevertheless, whether they chose to believe him or not, John was a witness; and, there were countless others, too. Not just to Jesus’ life, but to Jesus’ death and the resurrection that came after it.
We have countless witnesses who saw Jesus after he was raised from the dead.
At the end of all four Gospels, as well as the beginning of the book of Acts, we have numerous testimonies of Jesus appearing to… speaking to… eating with… walking with… his followers. Heck, he even cooks fish at one point.
As the apostle Paul wrote to the church in Corinth when they needed a reminder of the testimonies that surrounded them during that time:
…Christ died for our sins… He was buried… He was raised on the third day… He appeared to Cephas (i.e. Peter)… then to the Twelve. After that, He appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at once, most of whom are still living… Then He appeared to James, then to all the apostles. And last of all He appeared to me also… ~ 1 Corinthians 15:3-8
Here’s the thing: We are no longer surrounded by people who were living, who saw him with their own eyes. In this, it seems harder to believe.
However, friends, their testimonies still stand. Their eye-witness accounts are just as applicable now, in our English language, two thousand years later, as they were when they were written down in Greek and Aramaic, so long ago.
Evidence #2: The Works
The testimonies of Jesus, as written in the Gospels, are filled with works that are beyond our human understanding. Blind people received sight. Lepers, cast out of their community, were healed. Paralyzed people began to walk. People’s bodies, and spirits, were restored.
Indeed, even those seeking his demise bore witness to these miracles.
Those plotting against Jesus did not deny that he performed wonders. In fact, after one-such miracle in the Gospel of Matthew, the Pharisees, who avidly sought Jesus’ downfall, are recorded saying, “It is only by Beelzebul, the prince of demons, that this man casts out demons.” (Matthew 12:24) They did not deny that Jesus did these works. They merely attributed them to an evil source, rather than the goodness of the God who sent him.
Even Flavius Josephus, a Roman-Jewish historian (and, one who did not claim the Christian faith) documented the life of Jesus, recording that he was “a wise man, if it be lawful to call him a man; for he was a doer of wonderful works”. (Book 18 Chapter 3, 3)
Here’s the thing: We weren’t there. Though we have the testimony of his miraculous works, which people saw with their own eyes, we live in a world where no human we have seen is able to do the works he supposedly performed. So, it makes us wander… could it be true?
However, though these supernatural phenomena may seem unbelievable, we must remember that the people witnessing them in the 1st century were just as astounded as we would be today.
When we read the words in scripture, like, “…All the people were astonished and said, ‘Could this be the Son of David, [the Messiah]?’” (Matthew 12:22-23), the word seems unimpressive and flat. It’s just a word on a page; but, the meanings of these words, “astonished” and “amazed” in the Greek, imply that the crowd, the witnesses of his works, are “beside themselves”…
They are “flabbergasted”.
They are “completely stupefied”.
They are “out of their minds”.
When Jesus was performing his miracles, it was as if the crowd had gone “mad”. It was not a nonchalant occurrence to them. It left them in utter confusion about who he could be; and, upon hearing these testimonies from so many, crowds traveled on foot from all over Israel in order to see him.
Evidence #3: The Prophecies
From the “Protoevangelium” (i.e. “the first gospel”) of Genesis 3:15, the story of the Lord God has been brimming with prophecies – promises of “a new day”, a “savior”, an “anointed one” (i.e. Messiah), spoken through men and women for thousands of years, many of which have been recorded in the canonized book that we call The Old Testament. Thirty-nine books, almost all painting shadows of “someone to come” who would be the fulfillment of God’s eternal plan of grace.
Even Moses, the writer of most (if not all) of the Torah, prophesied in the book of Numbers…
I see him, but not here and now. I perceive him, but far in the distant future. A star will rise from Jacob; a scepter will emerge from Israel… ~ Numbers 24:17
This prophecy in the book of Numbers is most likely the prophecy that led the astrologers (i.e. those wise men in your nativity scene) to Jesus when he was born. Even the astrologers “from the East”, who were not Jewish and did not have all the scriptures that the Jewish people had… even they were waiting on someone from these prophesies. Even they believed that someone would be sent from God.
Here’s the thing: Prophecies don’t give details, not ‘crystal-clear’ ones anyway. Prophecies don’t give specific names, or dates. With prophecies, it can be hard to know what is literal, what is figurative… what is a metaphor and what will truly be…
The religious leaders of Jesus’ day made it their mission to understand the prophecies, in order to figure out what kind of person this “Messiah” would be. They analyzed the Word of God. They poured over it. They studied it. They debated it. Their whole lives were dedicated to the knowledge of it. They prided themselves on being able to recognize the Savior of the world; and yet, they refused to believe it was Jesus.
However, others knew exactly who he was, before he ever said a word…
Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon… and the Holy Spirit was on him…. When the parents brought in the child, Jesus… Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying: ““Sovereign Lord, as you have promised… my eyes have seen your salvation…” ~ Luke 2:25-30
… and even when he couldn’t say a word…
When the centurion and those with him who were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and all that had happened, they were terrified, and exclaimed, “Surely he was the Son of God!” ~ Matthew 27:54
Evidence #4: The Seen (& the Unseen)
Around A.D. 60, the apostle Paul wrote a letter to the church in Rome. These Romans didn’t have a Jewish upbringing. They hadn’t spent their adolescence studying the Torah, or any of the scriptures, for that matter. They hadn’t met Jesus while he was walking upon the earth. They weren’t privy to his signs and wonders. They were gentiles (i.e. non-Jews), and Paul was writing them, specifically, to encourage them in their faith. Indeed, his letter to the Romans is, to this day, one of the most profound theological writings of the New Testament.
In the first chapter, Paul wrote this…
For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse. ~ Romans 1:20
The “seen” is evidence of him, and, likewise, the “unseen” is evidence of him. All that we see… and all that we don’t see… It all bears witness to the Lord God; and, as Paul continued to write to the Romans…
… the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. ~ Romans 3:21-22
Is that enough evidence?
Throughout the four gospels, people were constantly speculating about who this man, Jesus, could be. They wanted evidence… and, the world still does.
“If there is a God, I need him to prove to me that he exists. I need evidence!” Ok, well…
…what evidence will suffice?
How about the fact that we live on a sphere, spinning at roughly 1,000 miles per hour; and yet, we are not falling off… Is that evidence?
How about the fact that there is this season called “winter”. It happens every year, and, during that time, all kinds of plants lie dormant (or literally die); and then, every year, new life grows. Resurrection comes. … Is that evidence?
Or, take the Bible… Sixty-six books, knit together, written by over forty different authors, over the span of thousands of years. It’s a history book; but, is that all it is?… Is it something bigger, inspired (“breathed” you could say) by an Author far greater than we could imagine?…
What evidence do you need to believe?
Would flaming arrows do it? A huge banner in the sky, perhaps, flashing constantly?…
As for me, I would absolutely call that “evidence”, to see a flaming banner of light in the sky; and yet, to someone unwilling to believe? They would merely shrug, saying, “What, THOSE? Hmmph, those are stars.”…
Indeed, they are; and, evidence of things unseen.
There is a passage in the book of Jeremiah, an Old Testament prophet who lived around 600 BC, and scripture says that the Lord God is speaking through him, saying,
You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. ~ Jeremiah 29:13
The evidence of God… the miracles… creation… the way He works, in and through all things…
It’s right in front of us.
God has revealed himself, from the beginning. He has made himself known. But…
Here’s the thing: The Lord God does not force Himself on us. If you don’t want to find him… if you don’t want to see… if you don’t want to believe… then, nothing will be able to convince you.
You will stay blind to everything He does, casting it aside as “coincidence”… using your own reasoning, your own logic… giving all credit to mere science, ruling that God has no part to play in all of that.
The choice is yours.
I believe that the evidence of God is all around us; and, if we open our eyes… if we truly seek him… if we begin to trace the evidence with truly open hearts…
… then, we will see that every proof of who He is points us to His Son, Jesus, the Christ & the Savior of the world.
Jesus came, claiming to be the Son of God, the Savior of the world, and that caused a big problem. It still does.
It was such a big problem, in fact, in the mind of an atheist named C.S. Lewis, that he himself went after Jesus, from scripture to scripture, with the intent to disprove it all… only to become one of the most profound Christian theologians of the 20th century.
In one of his most famous works, entitled Mere Christianity, he says this…
“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a 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 the level with the man who says he is a poached 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 a 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.”
The most vital question each of us will ever face is, “Who do you believe Jesus to be?”
May you keep seeking. May you pursue the evidence. May you never give up on the journey of discovering who he is. If you seek him, you will find him…
‘Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me.’ ~ Revelation 3:20
Written by Danielle Walker
Get the Live, Move, Be Who You Are Seven-Day Devotional delivered directly to your Inbox! Simply sign up at the bottom of any page on this website.
For more on finding salvation through Jesus, watch The Foolishness of the Cross: Finding Salvation in a Seemingly Ridiculous Plan
For more on historical evidence for Jesus, watch Jesus Died – And THEN What Happened?!
For more on what the Gospel of Jesus actually is (and isn’t), read The Gospel of Jesus: Three Reminders to the Corinthians
