Can We Really Know Jesus?

We have finally begun the final month of 2020. Even though we have faced challenges that we never imagined back in January, I have enjoyed focusing on the life of Jesus with you this year. Although we may take for granted that we can
learn from scripture about who Jesus is, there are many people who are skeptical. How long after these events happened were they recorded? Were the stories embellished?
 
Lee Strobel was that kind of skeptic. As a newspaper writer covering criminal trials, his life revolved around facts and evidence. He assumed the evidence for Jesus would not hold up to scrutiny. In his book, The Case for Christ: A Journalist’s Personal Investigation of the Evidence for Jesus, he details what many would assume to be a process of interviews and research that would prove skeptics right and Christianity wrong. By the end of his investigation he understood what we do: Jesus is exactly who He says He is. One of the early steps in this journey was the realization that the gospel accounts gave an accurate account of Jesus.
 
Strobel thought the gospels were unreliable because of the decades that passed between the events and their writing. In his investigation he learned that it is likely less than 30 years had passed between the events and the writing of the gospel of Mark. By comparison, the first biographies of Alexander the Great were written more than 400 years after his death, and their accuracy is not questioned because of that passage of time. In contrast in the gospels, we learn about Jesus from His contemporaries guided by the Holy Spirit. Because of that, we have been able to spend 2020 getting to know Jesus better. That has been a blessing!
 
Brian

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