Jesus of Nazareth: Fact or Fiction Part 2

References:

(1) Douglas Groothuis in his book “Christian Apologetics” states that Islam’s argument for abrogation is rooted in 5 major claims against Christianity. The claims are: first, the Bible has been distorted; second, Jesus was not crucified; third, Jesus is not divine; fourth, God is not triune; and fifth, Jesus was only a prophet of Islam.

(2) Islam DENIES that Jesus is the Messiah, rendering Him a merely human prophet. As such it denies the Christian gospel, the ONLY WAY of salvation.

(3) Given the credentials of the NT and the supremacy of Jesus Himself, NONE of Islam’s 5 major assertions hold up.

(4) Voddie Baucham in a sermon on YouTube chooses to believe the NT because “it is a reliable collection of historical documents written down by eyewitnesses during the lifetime of other eyewitnesses. They report supernatural events that took place in fulfillment of specific PROPHESIES that claimed that their writings are divine rather than human in origin.” This fundamental fact comes out of the exposition of the passage of Scripture in 2 Pet. 1:16-21.

(5) Jesus offered 3 lines of evidence to confirm His claim to be God: first, His fulfillment of prophecy; second, His sinless life and miraculous deeds; and third, His resurrection. That being the case, we can conclude Jesus’ miracles confirm that He is God.

(6) The Gospel of Matthew is especially useful for understanding how the life of Christ was the fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecies. Matthew’s Gospel uses “fulfilled” or “fulfill” 15 times referring to Christ, 13 of those start off saying, “that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by” a prophet.

(7) I gave Matt. 8:17 as one example.

This is episode 162.