02/26/2008: "Biblical Reliability Of Jesus"

So we all know there are those who believe God exists, and there are those who don't. What confuses some of us even further though, are the people who claim that Jesus did not even exist.

So why do some people choose to believe that the central character of the Bible, the person whom even our calendar revolves around was a work of fiction? These same people who claim that Jesus never lived do however believe in the existence of other famous figures such as Alexander the Great, who despite living centuries before Jesus, was not actually written about until a few centuries after Alexander's death. There is a whole host of figures whom would not have been written about until long after their death and with only a minimal amount of sources, yet still we believe in their existence.

Why? I think the reason is simple. Figures such as Alexander, while the information we are provided with was written long after his death, was just a hero of legend. There was no talk of the divine about him. The reason people are so quick to dismiss Jesus is simply the fact that the Bible speaks of miracles and God. If you removed all mention of God from the Bible, the Bible would be a widely accepted historical document.

And yet, even now, the Bible is indeed held by the majority of historians as being the most accurate historical document in existence. I spoke to a man who once lived in Jerusalem running a hostel for travellers. He mentioned how he met a group of people who all carried Bibles, so naturally he asked them if they were Christian. They replied no, but that they were historical scholars who were using the Bible so they could pinpoint where many sites were.

So the question here is, if the Bible has been proven to be the most historically accurate document ever written, why are some people so quick to conclude that due to it's reference to the divine, it is meaningless and outdated? It seems ludicrous to dismiss an entire book of history due to what some people refuse to believe in.

So is it likely that Jesus was just a work of fiction, or can we trust that as the Bible has been proven historically reliable time and time again, that Jesus did indeed live, and die upon the cross?