You would have to conclude logically that he was a deliberate liar.
This view of Jesus, however, doesn't coincide with what we know either
of him or the results of his life and teachings. Wherever Jesus has
been proclaimed, lives have been changed for the good, nations have
changed for the better, thieves are made honest, alcoholics are cured,
hateful individuals become channels of love, unjust people become just.
Historian Philip Schaff gives convincing argument against Christ being
a liar: "How, in the name of logic, common sense, and experience, could
an imposter - that is a deceitful, selfish, depraved man - have
invented, and consistently maintained from the beginning to end, the
purest and noblest character known in history with the most perfect air
of truth and reality? How could he have conceived and successfully
carried out a plan of unparalleled beneficence, moral magnitude, and
sublimity, and sacrificed his own life for it, in the face of the
strongest prejudices of his people and age?"
Someone who lived as Jesus lived, taught as Jesus taught, and died as
Jesus died could not have been a liar. What other alternatives are
there?
Was He a Lunatic?
If it is inconceivable for Jesus to be a liar, then couldn't he
actually have thought himself to be God, but been mistaken? After all,
it's possible to be both sincere and wrong. But we must remember that
for someone to think himself God, especially in a fiercely monotheistic
culture, and then to tell others that their eternal destiny depended
on believing in him, is no slight flight of fantasy but the thoughts
of a lunatic in the fullest sense. Was Jesus Christ such a person?
Someone who believes he is God sounds like someone today believing
himself Napolean. He would be deluded and self-deceived, and probably
he would be locked up so he woulndn't hurt himself or anyone else. Yet
in Jesus we don't observe the abnormalities and imbalance that usually
go along with being deranged. His poise and composure would certainly
be amazing if he were insane.
Noyes and Kolb, in a medical text, decribed the schizophrenic as a
person who is more autistic than realistic. The schizophrenic desires
to escape from the world of reality. Let's face it; claiming to be God
would certainly be a retreat from reality.
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