It happens every year about this time, as predictable as the rising of the sun.
No, it is not Christmas; I am actually thinking of the effort by atheist groups in America to discredit the very existence of Jesus Christ. Each year there are a good number of them who purchase billboards and newspaper ads saying such charming things as, “Keep the merry (Santa) lose the myth (Jesus)!” One I saw this year says, “Dear Santa, all I want for Christmas is to skip church. I’m too old for fairy tales!”
These groups are using their billboards and ads as giant erasers to get rid of the literal, historical Jesus. But I have some bad news for them: They are going to need a bigger eraser.
To begin with, I am certain you have heard of a very old source document containing a great deal of background and information about Jesus. It is called the Bible. Portions of the New Testament that are still extant, especially portions in the Syrian language, date back to almost the first century A.D. Portions in other languages still exist that are nearly as old.
The books of the New Testament were copied and widely circulated while people who knew Jesus and the apostles were still alive. How then was it regarded as factual? How did it become so widely circulated and trusted if the central character in it never existed? Such an idea is poppycock, the rabid ravings of hateful, dishonest minds.
Jesus is also mentioned many times in another old source document, this one dating from the seventh century, the Koran. Yes, it denies his deity, but it certainly does not deny his existence.
But it was not just religious texts that called attention to Jesus. In the second century A.D., 1.800 years before there ever was an atheist billboard, there was a Roman writer named Celsus. He was not a Christian. In fact, he was very much anti-Christian. But read what he wrote: “Jesus, on account of his poverty, was hired out to go to Egypt. While there he acquired certain [magical] powers … He returned home highly elated at possessing these powers, and on the strength of them gave himself out to be a god … It was by means of sorcery that he was able to accomplish the wonders which he performed … Let us believe that these cures, or the resurrection, or the feeding of a multitude with a few loaves … These are nothing more than the tricks of jugglers … It is by the names of certain demons, and by the use of incantations, that the Christians appear to be possessed of powers.”
Celsus, a hater of Jesus, nevertheless acknowledged his existence and also his miracle-working power.
I could give you a list of multiple more sources that did the same. Jesus, a myth? Rubbish. Jesus is more real than the brains of the people producing the billboards against him.
To go further, though, you might want to ask the billboard-producing atheists how someone who never existed somehow managed to have the entire world’s calendar dated from the time of his existence. You might also want to ask how someone who never existed founded a religion without possessing any military power or wealth or influence and yet somehow that religion managed to sweep across the entire world.
You might also want to inquire how this person who never existed continues to answer very specific prayers even today. I have silently, without any other soul knowing what I was doing, prayed for some ultra-specific things and seen those things, against all odds, come to be.
Jesus, a myth? No, Jesus is the Son of God and God the Son.
A moment ago, I told you that you were going to need a bigger eraser. Scratch that. There simply is no eraser big enough, so you are wasting your time anyway.
Bo Wagner is pastor of the Cornerstone Baptist Church of Mooresboro, N.C., and the author of several books, available at wordofhismouth.com.
Contact him at 2knowhim@cbc-web.org.