JFK supporters do not wear bullets on a necklace, nor do Michael Jackson supporters wear excess medications. Why, because those were tragic and sad examples of life taken. The cross was used by Romans for an excruciating death, yet has become the symbol of the answers provided by a life given.

The Truth Claim

The previous blogs focused on the reality “God” exists, not only being far and away the best explanation of the evidence, but exposing fatal flaws in atheist and agnostic beliefs. If such a personal creator exists, the next logical question is: What God is it? There are many different religions or belief systems with different truth claims about different Gods, which is to be expected as people want to believe what they want to believe, and show a penchant for making a God fitting their own likeness.

And, as we learned in the discussion on “truth”, whenever these claims contradict each other, only 1 of these truth claims, at most, can be true. You would be surprised at how effectively and clear you can compare all these different claims to demonstrate which one has a reliable foundation of actually being true, and which have already been invalidated, see the Comparison of Belief Systems/Religions folder. This current blog will focus on that singular truth claim, which stands apart from the others, as no other belief system places its core claim on the examination table to be verified or rejected and provides unprecedented evidence. Therefore, instead of focussing on the dismantling and invalidation of other belief systems, we can focus on the singular worldview with unmatched positive evidential support.

The truth claim is: We all have done things we know we should not have. If someone had a movie screen projecting all our thoughts and actions on it so everyone could see, most of us would want to run from that viewing area. We have not lived up to the standard of being holy, or purely good, and therefore carry something that will be separated from holiness. Part of the nature of God, and the condition of heaven, is holiness, and if God were to simply allow someone like me into heaven, then it would cease to be heaven, as I would bring the same stuff that is here on earth, and God would fail to keep justice if not punishing and keeping the unjust stuff separate from heaven. That is the bad news.

The same Bible that had predicted the beginning and cause of the universe, and a personal designer of the universe, also provided the good news (the word “gospel” means “good news”): the personal cause of the universe did not remain distant, but instead provided a further – personal – disclosure in Jesus. Jesus came to earth, lived as a personal display of how God is, suffered and died to take the cost of our wrong choices and actions on himself, so justice was done with God himself paying for our pardon.

Jesus then returned after death (resurrected) to verify his claims and the reality of our situation: life is where we learn and make our choice regarding God, and an after-life is where this choice is fulfilled. The Easter account is either true, or false, there is no middle-ground, and considering what is at stake, makes the account either unimportant (and pitiful to believe in), or ultimately important (and pitiful to reject) – the one thing it is not is only moderately important.

If this IS TRUE, then this would demonstrate:

• God understands our situation – as he lived through it
• Our position with God is serious – if the cross was what was required to set things right between us and a Holy God
• We have inherent value and we must be loved very much – because value is determined by what one is willing to pay, and Jesus paid the full price
• Jesus’ claims of authority beyond life were validated with the resurrection, therefore, what you do with your relationship with Jesus is as serious and impactful as it gets

If this IS TRUE, then the cross is part of an amazing plan, and displays God going beyond what we expect, to provide definitive answers to life’s biggest questions.

1. Where did it all come from?
2. What is the meaning or purpose to life, my life?
3. Does God exist, and if so, is he distant or uncaring, or does he have a purpose with me in mind?
4. Isn’t being a “good person” good enough? What do I do in life to ensure the best results for me and my loved ones?
5. Is there something after this life? How can I know?

If this claim is NOT TRUE, then:

• The Easter story is incredibly stupid
• Jesus and his early followers were either liars, who pulled-off the most amazing conspiracy ever, or they were lunatics, who willingly sacrificed all they had through constant horrific treatment and eventual executions, or they are legends, just made up from the murky past, or a combination of messy things

If the biblical claim about Jesus is not true: the cross means nothing to us because there is no biblical God, and we should have very different answers to life’s most impactful questions. Therefore, if you want to ensure the best results for you and your loved ones, you would live your life very differently: different priorities, goals, hopes, investments and direction towards what is best, or you would pay the consequences for ignoring or avoiding reality, when reality comes home to you.

The way you answer life’s biggest and most impacting questions, a few of which were mentioned above, will lead to very different impacts on you – depending upon what is true about Jesus. So have you seriously considered this figure?

Are there God-Sized Holes in your education? Wrote a book by this title, which will be available after editing, and demonstrated this point to an actual public high school class, which I never should have been allowed to do. While waiting to teach an after-school Christian group, I was allowed to sit in a world history classroom while waiting. The students had finished the day’s work early, and with ten minutes left the teacher asked if I wanted to promote the after-school class I would be teaching. No doubt I had my trouble-makers-smile, at least on the inside, as I walked to the front desk.

The very cursory and uneducated coverage of Christ leaves a cross-shaped hole in our education, creating not only a void of understanding on an historic scale, when compared to other events and people of history, but also deprives students of essential components of application to their lives, in which, regardless of their beliefs, the historical Jesus plays a significant role.

Asking the high schoolers to open their world history books to the section on Napoleon, I asked how many pages, time in class, and test questions were invested in Napoleon? Then, I did the same for Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King, Jr. Finally, I had them do the same for Jesus. My point became obvious, observing, “Do you see the tremendous quantity and quality of study difference between the former figures and Jesus?” Dramatic difference, yet Napoleon, Lincoln, and MLK all declared Jesus is the most important or unprecedented figure in all history—so why does our education go the opposite direction?

Next big question and corresponding eye-opener: Jesus claimed to be God, with the purpose to demonstrate the seriousness of our situation and personally endure the consequences of our wrong-doing so we can have relationship with him, and then predicted he would validate his claim with an unprecedented event!

Next big question and eye-opener: Jesus claimed to be God, and then predicted he would confirm his claim with an unprecedented event. Don’t you think this is something important to include in our education about this most impactful figure? If Abraham Lincoln made the same claims, a much less pivotal figure in world history, you can be sure we would be analyzing it, and coming to some clear conclusions. If you believe Jesus was just some moral teacher, your understanding is like cramming a square peg into a round hole, just does not fit historically or logically.

We are being undereducated, or miseducated. Jesus is an historical figure with an impact likely the largest in history. This is an academic topic – but it is basically avoided, but not everywhere … Students at Harvard University proved to be good critical thinkers, as their professor, Royall Professor of Law Simon Greenleaf, taught the same undereducated, circumscribed, tame information about Jesus, until the students asked, “Well what about Jesus’ claim?” Great question.

Greenleaf, one of the people responsible for bringing Harvard Law to its prestigious position, and who wrote what was known as “the bible for examining courtroom evidence”, examined the evidence in order to invalidate Jesus’ claim, but instead determined the Easter claim is accurate, ultimately important, and like any good research professor, he wrote about it (Simon Greenleaf, The Testimony of the Evangelists, 1995). When even lawyers are making it to heaven, that’s a miracle itself, and you know the evidence must be extraordinary. In fact, it is so singular, no other claimed “God” comes with comparable support.

It seems the Bible’s claim that Jesus will be a “stumbling block” to many people is accurate. Many trip over the truth of Jesus throughout their life, but simply get back up and keep moving along in the daily grind of life, or from one diversion to another, hardly considering a figure possibly the center point of history in general, and your life in particular.

Maybe people have emotional reasons for wanting to avoid Jesus and his claim, and then grab onto intellectual reasons to try to support the avoidance. Critics could claim that of Christians too, maybe we have emotional reasons for wanting Jesus to be true, a crutch, and we try to find intellectual reasons supporting our belief.

Regardless, supporters and critics have poured over the issue of Jesus’ resurrection from ground zero to today, and many conclusive evidences have been found. In fact, there are multiple trend-lines of evidence available, which point to truth regardless of any emotions, opinions, or distractions, and are available for you to decide for yourself.

Only you can make your decision to accept or reject Jesus’ claim, and you will face any consequences following from your choice. To keep it simple, we will start with a quick approach in the next blog: Five-Minute-Fact-Run.