One of the Proud 77%

Of the many things I began to write about over the last several months but never finished was something on a poll Rasmussen released around Easter Week reporting that 86 percent of respondents believe Jesus was an actual historical figure, with 77% believing he resurrected. One of the big claims that the new atheists try to push is the idea that Jesus never really lived; he was a myth created by the early Church, and possibly by St. Paul.  The numbers seem to indicate that they are not making great inroads, if we take into account that the non Christian population in the US is growing, a group that would be disinclined to believe in the Resurrection to begin with.

But what of this idea that Jesus never existed?  It is true that he never wrote anything that we know about, outside of those mysterious scribblings he made on the ground with his finger when he confronted those who accused the woman caught in adultery.  The very claim that he rose from the dead discounts skeletal remains.  There is no birth certificate or obituary we can look at, even if such things existed back in the first century.  We don't seem to have any contemporary accounts of Jesus' life, outside of the Jewish historian Flavious Josephus.  But the brief passages referring to Jesus are suspected of being a later incursion into to text, and are so unreliable (though there does seem to be scholars who take varying positions on the topic).

When it comes to the historical reality of Jesus we have are two things we can hang our hat on, as I see it.

One is that we do have the New Testament cannon that is unjustly discounted because of their standing as Sacred Scripture.  Yes, they tell stories of the miraculous, and so what?  Even if you don't believe Jesus was a worker of wonders, all it proves is that his followers liked to guild the rose a bit (a position I do not take, of course).  The Evangelists, especially Luke goes to great lengths to place Jesus' life in an historical context, unlike the ancient myths, and in John there is constant harping about how all that was described was being communicated by a witness to the events; a witness whose testimony is true.  The Evangelists name the names of people who were at the cross or on the road to Emmaus, as if to say, "if you don't believe me, go ask them. They're still alive (at the time of this writing), they can set you straight."

Beyond the four canonical Gospels, we have the letters of Paul, as well as the others.  They were written before the Gospel accounts and attest to Jesus' death and resurrection.  Along with "Jesus Birthers" there are those who question Jesus' divinity, or his self understanding of his divine nature.  They will go as far as to claim that the Evangelists made it up, or that the Gospels really don't say that he's God.  Well, if the Gospels don't convince you, then go to the letters, written twenty to thirty years before the Gospels.  Here we see a firm profession of the divinity of Jesus and the bodily resurrection.  These were what the early Christians believed going back to the first generation, attested to by witnesses (Peter) and by those who consulted with those who knew the Lord during his earthy ministry (Paul).

The second point is that so many, including ten of the surviving 12 Apostles died as martyrs.  Judas committed suicide and John died as an old man, but endured exiles and torture for the faith.  Unlike our own time and place, in the Mediterranean of the first century everybody was religious, and it was a very public thing.  Most people were polytheistic.  One of the popular God's was Sol Invictus - the Unconquered  Sun, and while he was very popular, as Pope Francis writes in his first Encyclical, quoting Justin Martyr, no one was know to be willing to die for his belief in the sun god.  Yet thousands gave their lives for their belief in the Son of God, Jesus Christ.  It's possible for a few fanatics to give their lives for a myth maybe, but only if they were also insane; but thousands over centuries starting right from the beginning?  I doubt it.  Someone would have cracked.  Sure, some ran away to save their hides, but none said it was a scam.


And so yes, I believe in Jesus the historical person and Resurrected Savior.  I believe because it's reasonable to me, as well as being a matter of faith.  In the end, I wouldn't put my faith in something that didn't make sense.