Once when Jesus was praying in private and his disciples were with him, he asked them, “Who do the crowds say I am?” They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, that one of the prophets of long ago has come back to life.” “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?” (Luke 9:18–20, NIV 1984).
My Musings – The headline of the internet article asks, “Who Was Jesus Christ, Really?” The answer in the article? “John the Baptist…Elijah…one of the prophets of long ago?” No. “Jesus Christ is one of the central figures of Christianity. For Christian atheists, Jesus was not the son of an all-powerful god, but a philosopher and humanitarian.”
Not “one of the central figures of Christianity.” He is “the” central figure of Christianity. His birth divided time. And I am still scratching my head on how an individual could be a “Christian atheist.” I don’t believe what I believe? The headline, of course, was meant to draw attention. Click-bait, if you will. As if some profound revelation was forthcoming. Yet the question is as old as the Gospel.
Spoiler alert. “Peter answered, ‘The Christ of God.'” (Luke 9:20, NIV 1984). He was right. “The [Samaritan] woman said, ‘I know that Messiah’ (called Christ) ‘is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.’ Then Jesus declared, ‘I who speak to you am He.'” (John 4:25–26, NIV 1984).
My Advice – “I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him [that is, Christ]: ‘I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept His claim to be God.’ That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic–on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg–or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse…. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come up with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.” –C.S. Lewis in Mere Christianity.
“Who Was Jesus Christ, Really?” “You must make your choice.”
The Brew Is A Musing 