The Light of the World, The Light of the Life, The Logos of the Deity

The Logos

Jesus Christ is the Logos of the Deity in human form. This Logos, spoken to us by the Messiah, gives us an introduction to the Logic of the Father Deity: His Rationale, His Reasoning, the Way He Thinks: His Logic. It soon becomes apparent that the Logic of the Deity is completely opposite to Human Logic. As we become doers of this Divine Rationale, we prove its efficacy and everything begins to change for us: our thinking, our attitudes, our actions and ultimately our abilities.

Written Historical Evidence

Written Historical Evidence is dealt with here in three ways.
1. — the non-biblical references to the existence of Jesus in ancient manuscripts.
2. — the shear volume of manuscript support for the NT compared to the Great Works of Antiquity.
3. — the internal evidence inherent in the NT manuscripts themselves.

1. Non-Biblical Sources


Many consider the words of the NT to be concocted to support what some people call the myth of Jesus Christ. If this were true we would have no records of this so called myth in non-christian sources but in actual fact we do.
Dr Gary Habermas has written two books: The Historical Jesus -Ancient Evidence for the Life of Christ and The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus. Chapter 9 of his first book lists some 17 non-biblical sources relating to the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. This chapter can be read HERE. The sources include writings by Tacitus, Suetonius, Josephus, Thallus, Pliny the Younger, Emperor Trajan, Emperor Hadrian, The Talmud, Toledoth Jesu, Lucian, Mara Bar Serapion, The Gospel of Truth, The Apocryphon of John, The Gospel of Thomas, The Treatise on Resurrection, Acts of Pontius Pilate and Phlegon.
Dr Habermas concludes his chapter saying:
This chapter has shown that ancient extra biblical sources do present a surprisingly large amount of detail concerning both the life of Jesus and the nature of early Christianity. While many of these facts are quite well known, we must remember that they have been documented here without referencing any New Testament manuscripts. When viewed in that light, we should realise that it is quite extraordinary that we could provide a broad outline of most of the major facts of Jesus’ life from “secular” history alone. Such is surely significant.
Using only the information gleaned from these ancient extra biblical sources, what can we conclude concerning the death and resurrection of Jesus? Can these events be historically established on these sources alone? Of the seventeen documents examined in this chapter, eleven different works speak of the death of Jesus in varying amounts of detail, with five of these specifying crucifixion as the mode. When these sources are examined by normal historical procedures used with other ancient documents, the result is conclusive. It is this author’s view that the death of Jesus by crucifixion can be asserted as a historical fact from this data. This conclusion is strengthened by the variety of details which are related by good sources. As mentioned often, a few of the documents may be contested, but the entire bulk of evidence points quite probably to the historicity of Jesus’ death due to the rigors of crucifixion.

2. Volume of NT Manuscripts


Here we look at the number of manuscripts that are currently available and the ages of the manuscripts relative to when they were written. For example: It is an amazing thing that scholars think nothing of accepting as true, the history portrayed in the Gallic Wars writings of Julius Caesar, or the Histories and Annals writings of Tacitus or the Natural History writings of Pliny Secundus or The Illiad writings of Homer, yet they have great trouble accepting as true the history portrayed in the manuscripts which compose the New Testament. There is the obvious bias, of course, but there is more to it than that. The number of manuscripts which attest to these secular writings and the time frame of these manuscripts in relation to the lifetime of the writers when compared with the NT manuscripts, shows a significant and overwhelming difference. The authenticity of Gallic Wars is attested to by just 10 manuscripts and these written some 850 years after Julius Caesar. Histories and Annals is attested to by just 2 manuscripts written some 800-1000 years after Tacitus, while Natural History is attested by 7 manuscripts written some 750 years after Pliny Secundus, and The Illiad by some 643 manuscripts written 400 years after Homer. The authenticity of the New Testament manuscripts, on the other hand, are attested to by more than 5,700 Greek manuscripts and over 19,000 copies in the Syriac, Latin, Coptic and Aramaic languages, giving a total of some 24,000 references. Some of these are written as little as 25-100 years after the writers. The consistency of so many manuscripts and references provides undeniable evidence as to the accuracy of what they say.
The first of the following videos is by Dr Daniel Wallace and is an excellent summary of this section.

3. Internal Evidence


The following excerpt is taken from J. Warner Wallace's book titled, Cold Case Christianity. Jim writes: The tools used by Cold Case Investigators can be applied to the New Testament gospels to determine if the facts they represent are a true record of the life of Jesus.
Cold-Case Christianity will help you understand the power of circumstantial evidence, drawing on nearly 25 years of law enforcement experience (15 years spent working Cold Case Homicides). As a seasoned detective, J. Warner Wallace will share his personal journey from atheism to Christian certainty while describing the essential components of eyewitness reliability, abductive reasoning and the rules of evidence. You’ll come away with fresh insight and the ability to articulate what you already intuitively understand from your cultural familiarity with homicide investigations. You’ll also be able to apply this renewed understanding to the case for Christianity.

Lee Strobel, an Investigative Journalist, Speaker and author of The Case for Christ, comments on Wallace’s book.
“In his savvy and captivating book, J. Warner Wallace will introduce you to the kinds of tools and techniques that he routinely uses to crack unsolved murders that have long baffled other cops. He will show you how this same analytical thinking can be used to crack the case of a long-ago killing on a cross – and the incredible resurrection that followed. It’s a fascinating process, with Jim drawing on his quarter century of police experience to explain how and why the evidence of history decisively tips the scales in favour of Christianity.”

Gregory Koukl, President of Stand to Reason, Speaker and author also comments:
“What happens when an atheist cop takes the same forensic skills he uses to solve the toughest crimes—homicides with a trail that’s been cold for decades—and applies them to the eyewitness testimony and circumstantial evidence for the life of Jesus of Nazareth? A fascinating new approach to the question of Gospel credibility, that’s what. Cold Case Christianity is simply the most clever and compelling defence I’ve ever read for the reliability of the New Testament record. Case closed.”

The following videos speak to the same issues discussed above. The first video is Dr Daniel Wallace, followed in the second video by J. Warner Wallace. In the third video, Lee Strobel (mentioned above) presents the summary of his life as expressed in his book, The Case for Christ. The remaining videos augment the material already presented above.

Wisdom is a tree of Life to all who take hold of her; and blessed are they that hold her fast.
(Proverbs 3:18)

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