Greg Koukl - Was Jesus just a great teacher?

Greg Koukl of Stand to Reason answers the question, "Was Jesus a great teacher and not God?" For more visit http://www.str.org.

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[73geneva]

@maryann799 Agreed, their might have been over a milion other gospels about Jesus. John said so in his gospel: John 20: 30-31 and John 21:25. However, the information we have about Jesus is enough to proove He is the Son of God; the messiah and by believing in Him we shall have eternal life. I mean, if someone does not believe the information they already have in the gospel, they won't believe, either, if Jesus Himself comes with a book.

[73geneva]

@maryann799 Cool!

[73geneva]

@maryann799 Cool; if you believe in Jesus as your saviour and lord, then that is great! Indeed, you've passed from death to life.

[73geneva]

@maryann799 The very basis of Jesus' deity is one thing: His death and resurrection. He talked about this repeatedly. And after He rose, He clearly told His disciples that repentance should b preached in His name; the emphasis was on His name: it was no longer about peple just trying to be good. And all through that was what the disciples preached. The Bible says that if rightousness comes by keeping the law, then Christ died in vain.

[73geneva]

@SeenAndNotSeen People keep accusing Paul unjustly, but both John and Peter, who lived with Jesus said the same things as Paul. In 2 Pet1:16, Peter talked about being an eyewitness to the deity of Jesus. John said the same thing in John 21:24. Friend, it's Jesus or nothing. The world wants to accept Jesus on its own standard, but Jesus would not allow it; the reason being that He paid with His life and rose again. Who else could do it? That alone makes it all or nothing. JESUS is the only way.

[73geneva]

@maryann799 No, Jesus emphatically said He is the only way to the father and that any other way apart from Him is false. In John 3:18 Jesus said anyone that does not believe in Him is condemned already. He said so again in Mark 16:16, after He rose from the dead. About being good, He said only the father is good, but He neither said He was bad. His statement was to proove to the man that by calling Him good, He acknowledges im as one with the father.

[philosophy7575]

SeenAndNotSeen-

Can you substantiate your claims? What is your evidence that the title "Son of God" was added later? What evidence do you have for believing the Bible is not reliable? Why does only contemporary secular source count as reliable evidence for Jesus' life rather than the oral tradition which originated with eye witnesses?

[Necktor]

I may ask, where's the proof for the "we only have unclear, unreliable, unsubstantiated accounts of his life and teachings" premise?

This reply relies on the reliability of such premise. And i don't think an argument could be well stated being just a claim.

[SeenAndNotSeen]

This line of thinking is damaging to reverence for Jesus. Basically, if this guy finds out Jesus isn't divine, he'll spit on his grave (if he could find it) and denounce him. People who think like this have no right to blame non-Christians who slander Jesus.

Maybe if Jesus hadn't had this all-or-nothing attitude pushed on him by Paul and church leaders in the years after his death, his teachings would have reached his intended audience, Jews.

[SeenAndNotSeen]

So how can we tell if Jesus was a great teacher? We can't really for sure, because we only have unclear, unreliable, unsubstantiated accounts of his life and teachings, with little to no contemporary secular writings about him.

The golden rule, love thy neighbor, judge not lest ye be judged: these are good teachings, no matter who said them.

We don't know much about Socrates either, but the ideas attributed to him certainly are worthwhile, even if he didn't actually espouse them.