The Story of Reality by Gregory Koukl

Author:Gregory Koukl [Koukl, Gregory]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Zondervan
Published: 2017-01-10T05:00:00+00:00

The recycled-redeemer crowd asks why we should consider the stories of Mithras, Horus, Attis, and other pagan mystery saviors as fables, yet treat as factual (what they think is) a similar story told of a Jewish carpenter. The answer is simple: There is no good historical evidence for any of the ancient mythological characters and their deeds, but there is an abundance of reliable historical evidence for Jesus. And if the primary source documentation for the man from Nazareth is compelling, then it does not matter how many ancient myths share similarities.

Show me any other person who appears in the historical record with such regularity who turned out, in the final analysis, to be a fiction. Almost no one got his “fifteen minutes of fame” in the ancient world. Why so many mentions regarding Jesus from such a wide variety of sources (Pliny, Tacitus, Lucian, Josephus, to name a few)? Here is why. Jesus of Nazareth was a man of history, who made a profound impact on history.

So, as it turns out, there is no good reason for any doubt that Jesus was a true man of history or to think the real Jesus was completely different from the one depicted in the Story. According to their own testimony, the Gospel writers were not telling tales, but were reporting their personal encounters8 with Jesus: “What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands concerning the Word of Life [Jesus] . . . what we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also . . . .” The writers were not testifying to myths, but to “sober truth” about events that had “not been done in a corner.”9

People who think Jesus never existed are simply not acquainted with the ample research done even by secular historians that provide abundant evidence for his life. The idea that Jesus did not exist at all is drivel, and real historians know it.

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