Calvary Road Baptist Church
“WHAT IS The Basis Of Your Opinion About The Savior?”
John 18.34
I engaged you in a thought experiment about eight months ago. I would like to engage you in a thought experiment once more. If you were not here then or have forgotten, you might wonder what a thought experiment is. Let me define a thought experiment as a discussion between individuals who rely on logic, reason, and rationality, rather than deception, trickery, lies, or misinformation/disinformation.
If you are prone to suspicion, reflect on what I propose with me for a moment. If you imagine that I am about to engage in trickery or skullduggery, if you think I am so absent of integrity and honesty that I would do such a thing to you, consider the likelihood that I am foolish enough, reckless enough, or stupid enough to engage in such conduct in a public forum and put at risk a reputation that I have spent more than 45 years establishing.
If you do not care what people think of you, please do not project your disposition to me. I care what people think of my honesty, integrity, and commitment to the truth. Grant me once more, then, the benefit of the doubt in this public setting. Let us operate on the assumption that I will interact with you in front of other people truthfully, honestly, and without resorting to tricks or deception.
I have long believed that a person persuaded against his will remains unpersuaded still. I say that to say this. I have no interest in tricking anyone. I have no interest in deceiving anyone. I have no interest in misleading anyone. I am not a liar, a cheat, or a thief. Most of you know people who have known me for a very long time, on the order of forty, thirty, and twenty years. Ask yourself if they would tolerate deception, dishonesty, lack of integrity, and subterfuge in their lives for so long.
Are you with me so far? Good. Next, ask yourself a few questions. Have I ever lied to you? Have I ever tricked you? Have you ever been harmed in any way by interacting with me? Do you reasonably, rationally, or logically have any reason to imagine that I would intentionally do you any harm? Can you point to any individual and credibly insist that I have harmed him in any way, or harmed her in any way?
Here, at the outset, reminding you that I seek to engage you in a thought experiment, allow me to express my goal, at least for the short term. My short-term goal is to challenge, engage, and influence the way you think about something. Actually, the way you think about someone. Not me. Not your mother or your father. Not even a friend or acquaintance. I seek to influence your opinion about the Lord Jesus Christ.
Before you erect walls of resistance in your mind, allow me to head you off at the pass. How about we not engage in a thought experiment? Instead, why don’t we look on as the Lord Jesus Christ engages someone in a thought experiment? He did that the morning of His crucifixion when standing before Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor.
Remember the scene? Not long after dawn, the Savior was brought to Pilate’s Judgment Hall by the Roman soldiers who took Him into custody in the Garden of Gethsemane the night before. After inquiring about the charges brought against the Savior by the Jewish religious leaders outside, Pilate returned to his Judgment Hall, sat in his official seat, the bema, and summoned the prisoner to stand in front of him.
Pilate then asked the Lord Jesus Christ a question that was on his mind. According to John 18.33, Pilate asked Him,
“Art thou the King of the Jews?”
It was then, during His trial by the Roman governor, the Lord Jesus Christ conducted what you and I might recognize to be a thought experiment. John 18.34:
“Jesus answered him, Sayest thou this thing of thyself, or did others tell it thee of me?”
This question posed to the Roman governor is essential because you do not want Jesus as your Savior, and it is in your best interest to consider why is that so. I ask this because no one can stop you from embracing Jesus if you want to, while no one can coerce you to embrace Jesus if you do not want to. So, if you have not trusted Jesus, you do not consider Him to be good for you for some reason. Okay. What about Him causes you to view Him unfavorably, or not favorably enough to trust Him?
The Lord Jesus Christ asked Pilate where he obtained the impressions, the purported facts, that formed his opinion of the Man standing before him, an opinion resulting from him trusting his powers of reason and logic to digest the information he had acquired throughout the Savior’s public ministry.
Shall we consider them in turn? This is the core of our thought experiment.
First, THERE IS THE INFORMATION, EXAMPLE, AND INFLUENCE OF YOUR PARENTS
Of course, you were carried in your mother’s womb from conception until delivery. During that time, you were exposed to the whole range of your mother’s experiences and emotions. You traveled through those experiences with your mother, but without having the information that produced the range of emotions and variations in her metabolism (heartbeat, blood pressure, respiration rate, adrenaline rush, etc.) you and she experienced. Before your birth, was your mother a Christian woman who walked in the Spirit, displayed the fruit of the Spirit, and rejoiced in hope of the glory of God? Or were hers, which is your mother’s, the works of the flesh? Would that not influence you in some way?
After you were born, you observed the conduct of your mother and father through your five senses. As you learned how to communicate with words, you absorbed so much of what went on around you: the sites, the sounds, the mutterings, the facial expressions, and the demeanor, of mostly your mother but also your father. As you grew and observed not only your parents’ conduct and convictions acted out but also their conversations, you formed opinions about the Lord Jesus Christ that were directly or indirectly derived from your parents. Were those opinions favorable or unfavorable? From them, did you conclude the Savior was desirable or undesirable? Did you conclude that Jesus sets the soul at liberty, or that a relationship with Jesus Christ was somehow profoundly onerous and burdensome?
Then, THERE IS THE INFORMATION, EXAMPLE, AND INFLUENCE OF YOUR FRIENDS
I have no memory of Christian friends during my childhood. Perhaps you are different than me in that regard. One of my standout memories during grade school was an afternoon spent in the backyard of a friend who lived several blocks away, someone my parents did not know or know about. Yet I had unrestricted access to him. Would you like to know what we spent an afternoon doing, that I vividly remember? We spent hours ridiculing and mocking God. We took turns giving voice to the most despicable speech and conduct toward God. An Armed Forces veteran would likely have been embarrassed by our conversation. Then we would feign fear of God, mockingly pretending to repent of our sins, before falling on the ground laughing. We thought it was so funny, our blasphemy. This went on for hours.
I also remember going to a Sunday school class on one occasion. Sunday School was a rarity. That Sunday morning, I was the first to arrive in the classroom. In time, several other boys joined me in the room, each carrying his Bible. Want to know what they did before the Sunday school teacher entered the classroom? They showed me the foul words and dirty pictures they had drawn on the pages of their Bibles. Oh, how they giggled with glee. What reverence for holy things they displayed. What concern for glorifying God, they showed me. What do you think I learned about the Savior that day before the Sunday School teacher entered the room? That is why a teacher should always be the first person in the Sunday School room, and why the class must in some way begin upon the arrival of the first student.
My experiences with my friends growing up profoundly influenced my attitude toward parenting my child, and for good reason. My childhood memories of friends concerning spiritual matters are horror-filled.
Third, THERE IS THE INFORMATION, EXAMPLE, AND INFLUENCE OF CULTURE
Of course, when I refer to culture, I am including, in addition to social media, the efforts and activities of Hollywood, because Hollywood is still a significant influencer of culture, and the Internet. Discovering what the dominant culture thinks of the Lord Jesus Christ is easy. Just watch the movies, social media posts, and podcasts about the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will know what the producers, the screenwriters, the director, the actors, and the content creators envision the Lord Jesus Christ as being like. Watch what guests on the late-night shows or podcasts say about God, Christianity, and the Lord Jesus. Let me illustrate with movies what is undoubtedly found in other mediums. In 2004, there was The Passion Of The Christ starring Jim Caviezel. In 1999, we were given Jesus, starring Jeremy Sisto. 1977 gave us Jesus Of Nazareth, starring Robert Powell. In 1965 it was The Greatest Story Ever Told, starring George Stevens. In 1961, it was Jeffrey Hunter in The King Of Kings. Not to mention Jesus Christ Superstar, Godspell, and so many other movies. Each of the movies I have mentioned, along with all the others I did not mention, are profoundly flawed caricatures of the Lord Jesus Christ. And even in movies that attempted to present the Lord Jesus Christ favorably, the results were flawed and ended up doing Him no justice at all.
The rest of the media culture does Him the same kind of injustice: robbing Him of His divinity, shorting His glory, missing His holiness, or abjectly failing to communicate His sovereign control over every circumstance. He is never portrayed as likable.
So, unless someone is consciously and conscientiously arrayed in his mind against the world, its values, and its efforts to indoctrinate and insinuate its values and assumptions, what they think about Jesus will have an impact on what you think about Jesus.
Does culture have its hooks in you? You may not think so, but if you are a committed gamer, a committed movie watcher, a committed sports junkie, or a committed anything having to do with live streaming on the Internet, it is possible (if not likely) your attitude and willingness to accept a favorable view of Jesus has long since been compromised.
Fourth, THERE IS THE INFORMATION, EXAMPLE, AND INFLUENCE OF HISTORY
For two thousand years, history has contained many truths about the Lord Jesus Christ, but without providing a coherent collection of related and verifiable facts. Many historians object to the knowability of history, insisting that history is not directly observable, that history is by its nature fragmentary knowledge, that historical evidence is of necessity selective, that history has been affected by the value judgments of those who recorded history, that historians have been influenced by their era and world view, and that historians mistake the value and importance of different events.[1] This has resulted in the rise of historians committed to an observable anti-Christian bias. The mistake they make is in supposing that the be-all and end-all of truth is science. Imagine historians embracing as the end-all source of knowledge and information scientists![2] The problem with that, of course, is the inherent limitations of science and the scientific method. What is outside the scope of science as topics of inquiry are those events that are not observed and those that are unique and not repeatable. This can be illustrated by pointing out the number of events sciences did not observe, such as the creation of the angelic beings, the creation of the physical universe, the virgin birth of Christ, the resurrection of Christ, and an assortment of other important events. Science cannot weigh in on any event not observed and which does not repeat. Sadly, most scientists are not honest enough to admit that. And when they do offer up opinions about things they have not seen and cannot measure, they are straying from science into philosophy, from expertise to amateur hour. But no one ever calls them on it.
When approached correctly, history weighs much more authority than science concerning one-off events, such as the resurrection.[3] Allow me to remind you that history attests to the crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth by the Romans. History attests to the willingness of early Christians to suffer martyrdom because they were convinced, they had seen the risen Savior. History attests to the conversion of the greatest enemy of the Christian faith to the greatest of all Christians, from Saul of Tarsus to the Apostle Paul, due to his encounter with the risen Savior on the road to Damascus. History attests to the conversion of the greatest skeptic to the most prominent early Christian era pastor as a result of James, the Lord’s half-brother, seeing Him following His resurrection. Then there was the empty tomb, where His dead body had been placed, sealed with a massive stone, and guarded by Roman soldiers until He rose from the dead.[4]
That said, even history, for what it has not shown, but for what it can establish when appropriately used, is still insufficient unless you look for evidence of the Lord Jesus’ appeal. But where would we turn in history for evidence of the Savior’s personality, likeability, kindness, tenderness, mercy, and grace? While history, rightly researched and properly used, is capable of so much more than it is being used for in our highly politicized and agenda-driven world, it is too rough an instrument to effectively impress us with those features of the Savior’s personality that would most influence our decision making about Him.
Fifth, THERE IS THE INFORMATION, EXAMPLE, AND INFLUENCE OF HINDUISM
I mention Hinduism because it is the oldest of the widely held non-Christian religions in the world, and Hinduism has an opinion about the Lord Jesus Christ. If you have been exposed to Hinduism, formally or through the gateway trap used to seduce people into Hinduism, which is yoga,[5] then your perception of Jesus has been influenced by Hinduism.
How so? Hinduism, with its one hundred million gods, has a view of Jesus. With its demon-saturated counterfeit spirituality, Hinduism acknowledges Jesus but does so by selling Him short. How so? By portraying Jesus as one of many rather than the unique, the only, way to God.
Jesus claims uniqueness and exclusivity as the only Savior of sinful souls. Jesus demands and commands sinners to come to Him empty-handed and without any pretense of works righteousness to earn God’s favor. Yet Hinduism not only denies Jesus is who He said He is, but Hinduism and its appendage proselytizing tool of yoga would also place Him on the bookshelf of deities on display with the false gods that represent the demons He created before He fashioned the physical universe.
No, you cannot have a good view of Jesus, a correct view of Jesus, an accurate opinion of Jesus, so long as you are blind to the wickedness of Hinduism’s gross idolatry and the danger to souls posed by its primary propaganda tool in the western world known as yoga.
Sixth, THERE IS THE INFORMATION, EXAMPLE, AND INFLUENCE OF ISLAM
Islam, like Hinduism, is a religion of lies. While Hinduism is an idolatrous religion of one hundred million gods, monotheistic Islam is an undercover religion of idolatry, with Satan adopting the name Allah and posing as the one true God and Creator of all things. He is not!
Islam’s place of origin, said to be Mecca, is a lie.[6] Islam’s founder, said to be Muhammed, is mostly an invention.[7] And Islam’s understanding of Jesus is wholly inadequate, denying He is the unique Son of God, denying that He is the Second Person of the Trinity, denying that He died on the cross, and therefore denying both His substitutionary sacrifice for sins and also His resurrection from the dead.
Meaning? This means Islam is at odds with an elevated view and understanding of Jesus. So much so that to embrace Jesus as your Savior requires a simultaneous repudiation of Islam (the religion of peace?), the so-called prophet Muhammed, and the Quran’s assertion that Allah is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
THAT LEAVES THE INFORMATION, EXAMPLE, AND INFLUENCE OF THE BIBLE
Consider a few things, if you will: Of all the so-called holy books of the various religions known to us, only the Bible and the Quran make the claim to have been authored by God using human instruments. No other religion known to us makes such claims. You would think the true religion would have such a holy book. Thus, either the Bible is true, or the Quran is true. Since they fundamentally disagree, the two books cannot be right. Of all the religions of the world known to us, only the founder of the Christian faith, as recorded in the Bible, claims that He and only He provide access to God.[8]
Buddha never made such a claim. Mohammed does not make such a claim in the Quran. Only Jesus, and only in the Bible. Thus, since science is so frequently wrong about so much, as we have seen throughout the last several years, one would have to be a fool to imagine any view of Jesus based on science would be accurate. And since history, even with its much broader reach than science, has proven to be so unreliable about so many things (despite its frequent usefulness) and is also inadequate for formulating an accurate and useful view of Jesus, you cannot rely on historical evidence to provide a good view of Jesus with anything like finality. That leaves religion, broadly speaking, for us to consider. But which religion?
A religion informed by literature that does not claim to come from God? Thus, all religions except for Islam and Christianity are eliminated from consideration by reasonable people. Would it be the religion that sanctions gays being thrown from buildings to kill them? Or the religion that urges its followers to love and seek to persuade all sinners to embrace the Savior? Would it be the religion founded by a polygamous slave owner and mass murderer? Or would it be the religion founded by the Suffering Servant of God who died on the cross to save sinners from their sins? Would it be what has for its holy book, the Quran, with dozens of books written about its checkered history, inaccuracies, and internal contradictions due to it having been written several centuries after the events it records? That would be Islam.
Or would it be the religion that has for its holy book, the Bible, written by forty men over 1600 years, in three languages, on three continents, but with each New Testament book having been written by men who were either eyewitnesses of the events they recorded, or writers whose material was presented to a community of individuals who themselves both witnessed the events recorded and had the opportunity to endorse or reject the truth of what was written? That would be Christianity.
I assert that the Bible is the only completely reliable source of information about Jesus. Understand that even the right use of historical evidence makes establishing the Savior’s likeability difficult. But from the Bible, we learn that little children flocked to Him,[9] afflicted women sought His help,[10] Gentile women felt safe near Him,[11] lepers sought His help,[12] Roman centurions enlisted His aid,[13] and Temple guards declared, “Never man spake like this man.”[14] So, using the Bible as the only reliable source of information about Jesus, a better source than your parents, your friends, your culture, any history you would have access to, and any religion you might be curious about, is there anything to be found in the Bible that presents Jesus in a bad light? If you think you know of something, I would love to know what you think you have. Having been a Christian and a Bible reader for almost a half-century, what you think you have I am interested in; I assure you. However, until you show me what you have, I don’t think you have anything.
Where does our thought experiment leave us? It leaves us with only one reliable source of information about the most important to you person who has ever lived.
The Bible is a more reliable source of truth about Jesus than your mom or dad, your friends, your culture (whatever it may be), any historical evidence you might have access to or any religion.
Meaning? Whatever you consider about Jesus when deciding to like Him or dislike Him, embrace Him or reject Him, endorse Him or dismiss Him, it is counterproductive to consider any information not found in the Bible. To do so would lead you to a catastrophic conclusion about Him.
All of this understood and agreeing with what I have said every step of the way, you are almost undoubtedly still unpersuaded about Jesus, and you do not desire Him or want Him to be your Savior, despite His love for you and despite your profound need for someone to do for you what you cannot do for yourself.
What does that suggest? What does that illustrate? It illustrates what the Bible reveals about you, as well as what it reveals about Jesus. It reveals that you are dead in trespasses and sins, Ephesians 2.1. It reveals that you have no interest in God because of your sinfulness and lack of goodness, Romans 3.10-23. And it reveals that He is your only hope.
Our thought experiment is over. Your next step should probably be to reach out to me so we can discuss what you should do about the predicament you find yourself in.
__________
[1] Josh D. McDowell, The New Evidence That Demands A Verdict, (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1999), pages 676-677.
[2] Consider just a few books about bad science. William Broad & Nicholas Wade, Betrayers Of The Truth: Fraud and Deceit in the Halls of Science, (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1982), Michael Fumento, Science Under Siege: Balancing Technology and the Environment, (New York: William Morrow and Company, Inc.), Horace Freeland Judson, The Great Betrayal: Fraud In Science, (New York: Harcourt, Inc., 2004)
[3] Extra-biblical references to Jesus are reviewed on this YouTube video https://youtu.be/wUmWsPhllAU?si=38lHzd3ZpF1Wr5vX
[4] Gary R. Habermas and Michael R. Licona, The Case For The Resurrection Of Jesus, (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications, 2004), pages 48-77.
[5] This description of yoga as the gateway to Hinduism is held by three of my friends who have never met. One was born into a Hindu family in Nepal. One was born in Southern India and grew up surrounded by Hinduism. One is an American who was a Hindu guru for thirty years.
[6] https://youtu.be/cD178PXa68M
[7] Robert Spencer, Did Muhammed Exist? - An Inquiry Into Islam’s Obscure Origins, (Wilmington, Delaware: ISI Books, 2012)
[8] John 14.6
[9] Matthew 19.14; Mark 10.14; Luke 18.16
[10] Matthew 9.20; Mark 5.25; Luke 8.43; 13.11
[11] Matthew 15.22; Mark 7.25; John 4.7
[12] Matthew 8.2; Mark 1.40; Luke 17.12
[13] Matthew 8.5; Luke 7.2
[14] John 7.46
Question? Comment?
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