|
Only Jesus Claims to be God
by Rob Vandeweghe Jesus was not confused about His own identity; He unabashedly claimed to be God. But He also supported it by facts. Jesus performed many miracles; 35 are recorded in the gospels, including various nature miracles. These miracles show His divine powers beyond any laws of nature. Their results are immediate and lasting. One of the most impressive, the feeding of the five thousand, is attested to in all four gospels. And Jesus fulfilled each of the hundreds of prophecies about the Messiah from the Old Testament with remarkable accuracy, all but a few outside his own control, and well beyond any statistical probability of chance. These prophecies were written hundreds of years before He was born and predicted His family line, His birth and birthplace, His ministry and in much detail His suffering and crucifixion. When it seemed that Jesus was defeated, that evil had won by crucifying and killing the Messiah, God revealed His greatest miracle of all: The resurrection of Christ. The greatest moment of victory for the Evil One turned out to be the moment of his complete defeat. By the crucifixion, with His blood, Jesus purchased salvation for man. By His resurrection He proclaimed in a most glorious way possible that He was the Son of God beyond the grip of death. The resurrection is one of the best proved in event in man's history: the Bible testifies to it including a creed of as early as a few years after the resurrection and there are multiple confirmations from dramatically changed lives from the disciples, Paul and James (His brother). The explosive growth of the early Christian movement can only be explained by a conviction based on personal observation (not hearsay) that Jesus died on the cross and was alive again thee day later on the first Easter. Hinduism had no founder, so there are no claims of deity. Gandhi was a humble man of integrity and had great care for other people. Yet he never claimed to be God. Siddhartha Gautama (Lord Buddha) did not claim to be God, nor are there serious claims that he performed miracles during his lifetime or that there was a resurrection. "The original accounts of Buddha never ascribe to him any such thing as a resurrection; in fact, in the earliest accounts of his death, namely, the Mahaparinibbana Sutta, we read that when Buddha died it was 'with that utter passing away in which nothing whatever remains behind.'" The prophet Mohammed expressly claimed merely to be the prophet of Allah. Mohammed, also, fulfilled no prophecies nor is there even a single credible account of a miracle he performed. Many Muslims protest that the writing of the Qur'an is the greatest miracle of all. Others argue for some miraculous accounts about Mohammed deeply rooted in tradition, but these are not supported by history or reliable scriptures. But even if this was evidence for Mohammed's divine inspiration these claims look pale next to the miracles and prophecies fulfilled by Jesus. Mohammed died June 8, 632 AD at the age of 61 in Medina, where his tomb is annually visited by thousands of devout Muslims. Later legends claim that he did not die but ascended to heaven in Jerusalem (at the location of the modern day Dome of the Rock). However, no credible evidence for this claim has been presented. Whatever Mohammed's destiny, nobody has ever claimed he rose from the dead. Christ alone claimed to be God. Christ alone provided evidence to support His claims! Rob VandeWeghe is a skeptic turned Christian by studying the evidence for Christianity. More articles like this by Rob are available at www.WindmillMinistries.org Article Source: http://www.faithwriters.com |