by Andrea Vigil-Ruiz
It’s hard to believe that the school year is coming to an end, which means the Youth Group’s Sunday School is also coming to an end. The Youth Group is continuing through Nathan Busenitz’s book Reasons We Believe for Sunday School and is scheduled to finish going through the entire book when this Sunday School term ends. As mentioned in the article in January, Reasons We Believe was chosen with the hope of showing the youth that there are tangible, reasonable, and intelligent reasons in support of the Christian faith. In January, we had discussed reasons why Christians believe in God and the Bible. During this past month, we went over the fifth section of Busenitz’s book that explains the reasons why Christians believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and the Savior of the World. This article will be about three of the ten reasons Busenitz gives for why Christians can have confidence in their belief in Christ.
Busenitz opens the section explaining the fact that for the most part, most people would acknowledge that Christ was “a moral teacher, a social visionary, and an inspiring example of selflessness” (p. 155). Even people of other religions acknowledge that Christ was an influential man. For example, Buddhists such as the Dalai Lama (Tenzin Gyatso) regard Jesus as a being who reached a high state of enlightenment. Hindu leaders also regard Jesus as a great prophet or teacher, and even some atheists and agnostics applaud Jesus as a social reformer. The problem with these views, as Busenitz points out, is that they all fall short and do not acknowledge who Christ truly is — that He is the Messiah, the Son of God, and the Savior of the World.
One of the first reasons Busenitz gives for why Christians believe in Jesus is He perfectly met the requirements of the messianic prophecies that are in the Old Testament. The promised Messiah couldn’t be just anyone because the Old Testament had certain criteria for the Messiah: He had to be a Jew (a descendant of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob), from the tribe of Judah (Genesis 49:10), of the family of Jesse (Isaiah 11:1) through David (Jeremiah 23:5). The Messiah also had to be born in Bethlehem (Micah 5:2). Aside from these criteria, Busenitz gives even more narrowing criteria that point to the fact that Jesus is the Messiah. One of the more specific criteria is about the curse of Jeconiah (also called Jehoiachin), who was an Old Testament king and a descendant of David. Unlike David, Jeconiah was cursed by God for his wickedness and as a result, would not have an heir of his own to sit on the throne as king of Israel (Jeremiah 22:30).
So if Jeconiah, who was a part of the royal line of David, was cursed to never have physical offspring to ever rule as king of Israel, how could the promised Messiah also come from the royal line of David? The answer can be found in the virgin birth of Christ. Since Joseph was a direct descendant of Jeconiah (Matthew 1:11), he too was subject to the same curse as Jeconiah of not having physical offspring be Israel’s king. With the virgin birth of Christ, it meant that Jesus was not the physical offspring of Joseph. Since Christ was miraculously conceived by the Holy Spirit (Matthew 1:20-25), He avoided the curse that was placed on Jeconiah’s bloodline. In addition, Mary was also related to David, but not through the royal line of Solomon (or Jeconiah). This means that as Joseph’s legal son, Jesus was able to have the rights and privileges of Joseph’s royal ancestry, as well as being a true descendant of David through Mary. Therefore, Jesus was able to meet the requirement of coming from David’s royal line despite the line having a curse placed upon it because of Jeconiah. No mere man would have been able to overcome that curse while fulfilling other prophecies, but Jesus was able to.
Another reason why Christians believe in Jesus is because the Old Testament predicted the nature of His life and death. Similar to the previous reason, Busenitz argues that messianic prophecies are actually broader than just Jesus’ ancestry and the timing of His coming. The coming of a future deliverer was first predicted in Genesis 3:14-15 and was repeatedly confirmed throughout the Old Testament (Genesis 49:10, Numbers 24:17, Isaiah 9:6-7, Zechariah 9:9, and many, many other passages). What is important to understand is that early Christians were not the only ones who understood the implication of these messianic prophecies, but Old Testament Jews also did. Busenitz then quotes from Targum Pseudo Jonathan and the Babylonian Talmud to show that ancient Jews did understand that scriptures found in Genesis, the Psalms, and Isaiah point to the coming of the Messiah. Since Busenitz also has limited space in his book, he then focuses on Isaiah 53 to explain how Christ fulfilled many prophecies during His Passion week. Some of the prophecies Jesus fulfilled were:
- The Messiah would be despised and rejected by men, such that men would hide their faces from Him (v. 3; cf. Luke 23:35; Mark 14:50; John 1:10-11)
- He would be smitten by God (v. 4; cf. Matthew 27:46)
- He would be wounded and tortured (v. 5; cf. John 19:34)
- Through is suffering, He would bear the punishment that sinners deserved (vv. 4-6, 8, 10, 12; cf. 2 Corinthians 5:21; 1 Peter 3:18)
- He would justify many by bearing their guilt (v. 11; cf. Hebrews 9:28)
These are just five of the 20 prophecies that Jesus fulfilled. What is even more amazing is that this one chapter, along with the book of Isaiah, was written 700 years before the events it describes. In addition, if one were to look at the many other prophecies from the Old Testament and even see what ancient Jews believed, it is clear that only one person was able to fulfill these prophecies: Jesus Christ.
We can also have confidence in believing in Jesus Christ because of the testimony of His friends and followers. Throughout the New Testament, it can be seen that those closest to Jesus indeed understood Him to be the Messiah, Son of God, and the Savior of the world. They knew He was God in human flesh and was their only hope for salvation. In Matthew 16:15-16, Jesus asks Peter, “Who do you say I am?,” and Peter correctly responds, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Later, Peter would go on to write of “our God and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 1:1), who “was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God” (1 Peter 1:20-21). Along with Peter, other individuals such as John, Matthew, Philip, and Mary Magdalene all provide evidence of their understanding of who exactly Jesus was. The rest of the New Testament affirms these understandings of who Christ was through the written testimony of individuals such as Paul, James and Jude (who were Jesus’ half-brothers), and the author of Hebrews.
One illustration that was given during our Sunday school really helped the youth understand how having the testimony of close friends and followers affirms who Christ is. The youth were asked, “What if you want to get to know someone without speaking to that person directly? Who or where would you go to to find out more information about him/her?” The youth actually all responded that they would go to the person’s family members and close friends, which is the same idea when it comes to relying on the testimonies of Jesus’ close friends and followers. Moreover, these close friends and followers also endured great consequences for their belief and following Christ. Busenitz quotes John MacArthur to show just what kind of consequences Jesus’ close friends had to face:
A brief survey of ancient Christian tradition reveals that Peter, Andrew, Philip, and James the son of Alphaeus were all crucified; Bartholomew was whipped to death and then crucified; James the son of Zebedee was beheaded, as was Paul; Thomas was stabbed with spears; Mark was dragged to death through the streets of Alexandria; and James, the half brother of Jesus, was stoned by order of the Sanhedrin. Philip was also stoned to death. Others, including Matthew, Simon the Zealot, Thaddeus, Timothy, and Stephen were also killed for their unwavering commitment to the Lord. (p.180)
So the question begs, why would all of these men die for their belief in Jesus? It is because these men, as well as other of Jesus’ followers, truly believed that Jesus was all that He claimed to be: the Son of God, the Messiah, and the Savior of the world.
However, if the testimonies of close friends and followers are not enough to affirm who Jesus is, Busenitz also explains that there is even evidence for who Christ is from people who hated Him, from people outside of Israel, and even from “neutral” third-party observers. One group that hated Jesus was the Jewish leaders who tried denying certain key aspects of the Christian story by inventing alternative explanations. For example, in an attempt to deny the empty tomb on the third day, the Jewish leaders paid soldiers to say that the disciples stole Jesus’ body from the tomb (Matthew 27:57-66; 28:11-15). Other important Jewish documents, such as the Babylonian Talmud, have many parallels to the New Testament and Christ’s life. Busenitz notes that although the Talmud says that Jesus was hanged, he explains that since crucifixion was a part of the Roman punishment system rather than the Jewish system, only few Jewish scholars knew about crucifixion and that form of punishment was not as well-known to other Jews. This difference in word choice for how Christ was put to death still points to a common story: that Jesus died on the cross.
Josephus, a Jewish historian, who lived from about 37 A.D. until sometime after the turn of the century, wrote in a particular passage called the Testimonium about Jesus and the miracles He had performed, as well as His crucifixion and His resurrection. Then Busenitz lists other Roman sources that were written by individuals who were adversarial toward Christians, such as Cornelius Tacitus, Celsus, and Lucian of Samosata. The sources that these men wrote affirmed that Jesus claimed to be God, that He demonstrated supernatural power, and influenced many. One other writer Busenitz mentions is Thallus, a secular historian who wrote a history of the ancient eastern Mediterranean world around 52 A.D. Thallus attempted to explain away the darkness that covered the land during the late afternoon hours when Jesus died on the cross (Mark 15:33; Luke 23:44-45). With these sources that were written by those outside of Jesus’ close circle of friends and followers, the existence of Jesus and the claims that He makes about who He was is only supported even more.
By going through these three reasons and many others in Busenitz’s book, the goal is to show the youth of our church that Christianity is not a blind faith. Yes, Christianity does require faith in what is not seen (Hebrews 11:1), but there is historical evidence and tangible reasons that support the existence of Christ and therefore Christianity. Although this Sunday School class is for our youth, I actually find myself growing in more confidence in my own faith and belief in Christ. Reasons We Believe is not just for youth-aged church attendees, but for unbelievers who are seeking out answers to their questions and for believers who would like to grow more in their own understanding of their faith.
