Some say Jesus was a prophet of God, others a good man. Some say he was an imposter, a magician. Others say Jesus was an adept of mystery religions. Some say he never existed, he's nothing but a legend.
In His own time Jesus on earth Jesus asked his disciples, "Who do men say that I, the Son of Man am?" They answerered, "Some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets." Apparently some of these people believed in reincarnation, or something like it.
Jesus went on to ask his disciples, "But who do you say that I am?" A question I'd also like to put to YOU also, dear reader, after you consider carefully the evidence.
Simon Peter answered and said, "You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God."
Jesus answered and said to him, "Blessed are you, Simon Bar Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in Heaven."
So Jesus was saying that Peter was right. Jesus definitely saw himself as the promised Messiah (Christ) for the people of God. He saw himself as the Son of God as well.
The Jewish religious leaders rightly understood this to be a claim to be equal with God Himself. The Jews said to Jesus in John 8:33, "For a good work we do not stone you, but for blasphemy, and because you, being a man, make yourself God!". This was the charge upon which the Jewish sanhedrin condemned Jesus to death also. Because he testified that he was the Son of God.
If we've been brought up with the idea that Jesus is the Son of God, it may not sound so strange, but believe me, at the time, this was RADICAL stuff.
For one thing, it means you had BETTER LISTEN UP to what Jesus taught, because if you reject it, one day it will come back to bite you BIG TIME. Jesus himself also said that, read John 12:48:
"He who rejects Me, and does not receive My words, has that which judges him - the word that I have spoken will judge him in the last day."
When you consider this and all the other things Jesus claimed for himself, you cannot consider him as a mere good man, or religious teacher, such as some may consider Gautama 'Buddha', Lao-Tze, Confucius or some of the other 'great religious teachers'. No, a man who claims to be the Son of God must either be an imposter, or he really is the Son of God. And imposters have it coming to them. They certainly cannot be
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