“Faith-Building Fridays | Dastardly, Delusional, Or Divine”

Friday, September 06, 2024

So, now we come right down to it. With the preponderance of evidence in favor of the Gospels, and with the undeniable fact that Jesus existed, we have to face the question that everyone who dealt with him in person had to face: “Who is this man?” (Mt. 8:27, Mk. 6:1-3, Lk. 7:49, Lk. 9:9, Jn. 4:28-29ff, etc.). Especially in light of his claims to be God incarnate—the Lord of Heaven and Earth—every person in all of time must answer the question for ourselves: “Who do I believe that Jesus is?”

Josh McDowell has spent his career writing evidences materials, and he’s been saying for fifty years that, “Jesus claimed to be God. He did not leave any other options. His claim to be God must be either true or false.” Others have insisted that it is foolish to say Jesus was just a great teacher nothing more. Because with the claims that he made about being God, Messiah, and master of other’s lives; he must have been either a blatant liar, a delusional lunatic, or truly the Lord of Creation.

If he was a liar, he was one of the most dastardly liars of all time, because he claimed that others could trust him with their eternal destiny while knowing that he could do nothing for them. Does that fit the Bible and all the evidence?

If he was a lunatic, then was paradoxically the most grounded, rational, and sane lunatic to ever exist. We would need some way to explain how his teachings can be so deep and so perfectly suited to reality if his mind was so broken that he would believe a delusion. Such a paradox is too great to even be considered plausible.

If he is the Lord—God come in the flesh—then he not only demands, but deserves the devotion of our hearts and souls. Obviously, this kind of belief may be long in coming for many people, but it is the only reasonable conclusion about him. And more than that, it’s the only option for a soul-saving conclusion. Peter said that he believed Jesus was “the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Mt. 16:16). What do YOU believe about him?

- Dan Lankford

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