Was Jesus a liar?

Jesus, just hours before his arrest, spoke to His disciples and tried to encourage them and answer their questions. Jesus made the following statement to Philip in response to his question -

John 14:7-9 “If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him. 8 Philip saith unto him, Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us. 9 Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father?”

Jesus made numerous statements like that, implying that He truly was God. If He were not God, He would be a liar. But worse than that, He would be a hypocrite because He taught people not to lie!

Even worse than that, He would also be a devil! Only a devil would lie to people about their eternal destiny. He was telling people to trust in Him to get to Heaven, knowing He was lying. He would be nothing more than the first century’s version of Jim Jones!

“It was reserved for Christianity to present to the world an ideal character which through all the changes of eighteen centuries has inspired the hearts of men with an impassioned love; has shown itself capable of acting on all ages, nations, temperaments, and conditions; has been not only the highest pattern of virtue, but the strongest incentive to its practice… the simple record of these three short years of active life has done more to regenerate and soften mankind than all the disquisitions of philosophers and all the exhortations of moralists.”

The above statement was made by historian William Lecky, who was no friend of organized Christianity, yet he had the intellectual honesty to be able to admit that Christ was the world’s most “ideal character.” The strongest evidence comes from hostile witnesses!

Was Jesus a Lunatic?

To quote CS Lewis again, “The historical difficulty of giving for the life, saying and influence of Jesus any explanation that is not harder than the Christian explanation is very great. The discrepancy between the depth and sanity of his moral teaching and the rampant megalomania which must lie behind his theological teaching unless he is indeed God has never been satisfactorily explained. Hence the non-Christian hypotheses succeed one another with the restless fertility of bewilderment.”

Church historian, Philip Schaff wrote, “Is such an intellect - clear as the sky, bracing as the mountain air, sharp and penetrating as a sword, thoroughly healthy and vigorous, always ready and always self-possessed - liable to a radical and most serious delusion concerning his own character and mission? Preposterous imagination!”

“The charge of an extravagant, self-deluding enthusiasm is the last to be fastened on Jesus. Where can we find the traces of it in his history? Do we detect that in the calm authority of His precepts? In the mild, practical and the beneficent spirit of his religion; and the unlabored simplicity of the language with which He unfolds is high powers and sublime truths of religion; or in the good sense, the knowledge of human nature, which He always discovers in his estimate and treatment of the different classes of men with whom He acted? …His benevolence, too, though singularly earnest and deep, was composed and serene. He never lost the possession of himself in his sympathy with others; was never hurried into the impatient and rash enterprises of an enthusiastic philanthropy; but did good with the tranquility and constancy which mark the providence of God.”

The above quote was by Channing, a Unitarian writer, of all things. Yet, he was able to discern that Jesus was anything but a lunatic!

After examining two of the options, we come to the third - that Jesus is Lord. That is, by far, the most reasonable. Jesus’ statement to Philip, “He that hath seen me, hath seen the Father (Jehovah),” makes the most sense of all. I personally take the position of Thomas who said of Christ - “My Lord and my God.” So we have in the person of Christ “the express image of his (Jehovah’s) person.” (Heb. 1:3).

Three options, one choice. Two options are eternally fatal, one brings eternal life. Your choice.