Followers of my blogs will know that I have already written at great length of the problematic notion of subjectivity in regards to “truth” that has become so systemic in our postmodern age. Whilst I do not wish to rake over old ground here, I nevertheless feel the need to re-emphasise a particularly important point concerning the person of Jesus Christ. And before you switch off, this is something which concerns those of any faith or, indeed, those who profess no faith at all.
A lot has been said about Jesus Christ and much of it, it must be concluded, is utter fiction. I am becoming increasingly weary of those who wish to maintain a form of diluted admiration and deference to this person of Christ whilst simultaneously rejecting outright His claims to be God. I speak, so it would appear, not of any one sector, class or religious group within society but of a much wider and more endemic adoption of this skewed pseudo-doctrine that is so apparently content to continue in this profoundly illogically and, quite frankly, ludicrous assertion that is it reasonable to accept Christ as nothing more than “a good man” or “a prophet” or a “wise teacher.” In, what way, I find myself questioning, was Christ any of these things, while ever you also maintain He was also not the Son of God? No, quite the opposite in fact. If we are so convinced that Christ was not the incarnation of the Divine then, to put it bluntly, He was an out and out liar. A confidence trickster. A fraud. Or, if we take a more sympathetic approach we have to conclude He was mentally deranged. He was possessed or psychologically unwell or however we might choose to phrase it. But there can certainly be nothing “good” about Him.
Jesus Christ claimed to have the power to universally forgive sins; something which, as the Pharisees quite correctly pointed out, only God has the power to do (Mark 2:6, Matthew 9:2, Luke 5:20). He claimed that all authority on heaven and earth had been given to Him (Matthew 28:18). And He claimed to be omnipotent (John 8:58).
We simply cannot, in the face of such bold statements, continue in this ridiculous belief that somehow Christ, whilst not being God, was nevertheless a generally decent fellow! Not a bit of it! I am awfully sorry to have to convey this inconvenience to you, but the fact is, either we believe Jesus’ claims in their entirety and we accept Him as Lord or else we denounce and reject Him as a dangerous, deranged and deceiving heretic. And, I’m afraid to say it really is that serious. Either Christ is Lord or He is a heretic whom we should pay no credence or deference to whatsoever. That is the choice we face. To give validity to Christ as a human moral teacher but to deny His divinity is to places one’s trust in a lunatic at best and a liar at worst. I, for one, have no intention of paying even an iota of attention to the claims of man who falls into either of these two categories, let alone to base my life upon His teachings.
C.S. Lewis perhaps put it most succinctly and eloquently in his book Mere Christianity where He famously outlines the choice we face between Christ the liar, the lunatic or the Lord:
“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 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 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.”
And to follow such articulate brilliance I will say only this: The divinity of Christ is THE central, defining, pivotal matter of truth that outweighs all others and is of primary importance and significance for the human race. Either He is the Way Everlasting; the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, the Alpha and the Omega, the Saviour, the Redeemer, the Messiah, or else He is a fraudulent, wicked, heretic. Accept Him or reject Him but please, please, please, don’t attempt to occupy some cosy, non-commital, middle ground here. It doesn’t exist.
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Hello there.
ReplyDeleteWhat about those who would say that the Gospels were written by the early church and as they dealt with the death of their hopeful messiah they developed Jesus prophetic teachings into something quite different?
Purely for the fun of the debate you must understand!
Peas out.
Interesting comment. However, I would have to ask: for what purpose? Given that Jesus of Nazareth had been crucified by the Roman authorities and his would-be disciples were therefore the subject of much suspicion and scrutiny, I fail to see how it would be in their interest to propagate a lie which not only makes them look like gullible idiots but furthermore places them in greater danger with the ruling authorities than they already were! No, the safer option by far would have been to admit they were wrong, that they'd be deceived and that the whole enterprise was a glorious hoax.
ReplyDeleteThere is no merit whatsoever in editing or somehow re-writing history to give Christ a Messianic status. Quite the opposite, in fact, it would serve only in validating the already dominant view that these people were demon possessed, lunatics!
The Gospel of Christ is so fantastical and so controversial that I feel one would need to be pretty convinced of its authenticity to risk so much for the sake of it's propagation. The alternative is that the four gospel writers were moronic, fool-hardy nut-jobs - which is not the impression one gets when reading their accounts!