Is Christ a liar?

[greybeta]

WARNING #1: This post is longer than three paragraphs. Skip it now and save yourself fifteen minutes of your time.

WARNING #2: If you are easily offended, do not read any further. If you have any beliefs whatsoever, they will be called into question and if you don’t like your beliefs being called into question, I would highly recommend not reading past this sentence.

WARNING #3: When you get the feeling that this post is about you, it’s about you. The Lord works in mysterious ways.

So, in my investigation of spiritual matters, a friend of mine posed a question to me. The question was a familiar one.

Is Jesus a madman, liar, or the Son of God?

Given these three choices, you must make a choice. If you believe that Jesus was simply insane, then you cannot believe he is the other two. If you believe that Jesus was simply a liar, then you cannot believe he is the other two. If you believe that Jesus is simply the Son of God, then you cannot believe he is the other two.

Sounds like a foolproof argument, doesn’t it? Ah, but there are ways of beating this line of questioning that are basic concepts in rhetoric. I’ll choose something I learned in Debate 101.

The question posed to me is the logical fallacy known as the “false dilemma” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_dilemma). There’s no reason I can’t choose to believe that Jesus was all three.

Wait, wait, hold onto your horses. Hold onto that “That’s completely contradictory, D2!” thought. Allow me to tell you a story from the Bible, and then you can voice your dissent.

In the Book of Matthew, we find a story where the Pharisees intend to trap Jesus by asking him a question. Should they pay taxes to Caesar or should they not? I find it fascinating that this story is recorded by Matthew because Matthew had been a reviled tax collector for the Roman government.

Matthew 22:15-21
15 Then the Pharisees went and plotted how they might entangle Him in His talk. 16 And they sent to Him their disciples with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that You are true, and teach the way of God in truth; nor do You care about anyone, for You do not regard the person of men. 17 Tell us, therefore, what do You think? Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?”
18 But Jesus perceived their wickedness, and said, “Why do you test Me, you hypocrites? 19 Show Me the tax money.”
So they brought Him a denarius.
20 And He said to them, “Whose image and inscription is this?”
21 They said to Him, “Caesar’s.”
And He said to them, “Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” 22 When they had heard these words, they marveled, and left Him and went their way.

Man, it must have been amazing to hear Jesus talk live in person. Sure, I wouldn’t understand a lick of what he was saying since he would be speaking Aramaic, but I believe his limitless charisma would show through. In the Bible we constantly find stories where Jesus astonished the people he was speaking to. Even in the Koran he is considered to be a wise teacher.

And so, I learned rhetoric from the Master himself, Jesus Christ. My response to the question of “Is Jesus a madman, liar, or the Son of God?” would be this: Ask Him yourself.

If you ask me, I would say he isn’t a madman or liar. Why? Because of the things he has done for me. And what has he done for me? Every second of my life, he reminds me of a brutal fact of life. People will hate me for following Him, even those closest to me. Christ said so in the Book of Luke.

Luke 14:25-33
25 Now great multitudes went with Him. And He turned and said to them,
26 “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple.
27 And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.
28 For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it—
29 lest, after he has laid the foundation, and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him,
30 saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish’?
31 Or what king, going to make war against another king, does not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand?
32 Or else, while the other is still a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks conditions of peace.
33 So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple.

This is what I hear, I hear that if I am to follow him, I must be willing to sacrifice everything. Only when I am dead to myself can I ever truly follow him. And as I forge the connections I need to make for the future, I will break quite a few of the bonds that I’ve formed in my past. As a broken bone heals and becomes stronger, so my relationships must be broken and redefined into how they truly are. That’s why I changed my religious views on Facebook to match a warning found in the Book of Mark.

Mark 8:34
34Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.”

It wasn’t just one person who helped me realize this. It was a lot of people talking to me, and a lot of people praying for me. A few people challenged me directly on my terms. That means they matched wits with me, which is no easy task. Some have both decided to stay with me on my journey while others have decided to leave me on my journey. The Book of John reminds me that I am nothing without Jesus, for he has put these people into my life.

John 15:5
5 I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.

It doesn’t matter who wants to remain my friend or not. I believe in the freedom of choice. If at any time you feel like terminating our friendship, then you are free to do so. See, I’m an unusual person in that I consider anybody I meet to be important. I use Facebook for more than just a social network.

To me, Facebook is an extension of who I am. It tells me who I am close to, and who I am merely an acquaintance to. But they’re all equally important because God has put them into my life. Under “Family Members” of my Facebook friends, you’ll find long stories of the people closest to me. Only one type of person comprises “R2 was cool, but I’ll take D2 anyday”, my Facebook Fan Club: a brave soul who is unafraid to admit to being a fan of mine, even if they’ve never met me in person before.

That’s the power of choice. Remove me from your friends list if I’m not a nice person, if I Facebook too much, if it feels like I’m stalking you, or whatever you want. You’re free to do as you please. Nowadays, I am unafraid of walking alone if that is what God has called me to do.

After all, isn’t it said that we walk by faith, not by sight?

Comments

[hummingwolf.livejournal.com]

In case you're at all interested, there's some talk of the trilemma here and (more briefly) here.

[greybeta.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the links! I read through them and I think that guy puts it much better than I did. ^_^

[renough.livejournal.com]

**XPOSTED from Facebook** (might as well see what reaction comes this way) ;)

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Can't say I agree entirely. You can call Him the Son of God, but if you do so, you lose both the 'liar' and 'madman' options. If you think Him a liar, you could think Him a madman as well. Or, especially if you think Him a madman, you'd probably think Him a liar as well. I don't see those as entirely contradictory in nature.

I believe the point is that you cannot believe Him to be the Son of God while believing that He was either a liar or a madman.

Also, I think your warnings before the main body of the text seem to warn against something that never comes. It just looked like you thought that there could be more than one option, yet chose the one that wouldn't offend the people that might be offended by the question asked by the title. Not that I wished you to pick an option that would have offended me, it just seemed to be a tack to get people to read on to potentially get up in arms that would ascribe to mainstream Christianity.

Thoughts?

[greybeta.livejournal.com]

You should know by now that I'm fond of using misdirection. I usually go through the back door, but if you're watching the back door, the front door is the better choice! ^_^

[purplkat.livejournal.com]

I think some of the warnings at the top might have been directed at me. We got into a pretty heated debate over on my journal, and one of the people who posted (who watches my journal because we know each other in real life) lost his temper and said some stuff that I personally wouldn't say and don't believe. My friend and I talked about it privately afterward, because I wanted to make sure he understood where I stand with regards to anyone on my friend's list.

Anyway, D2 might have gotten the impression that I was mad at him or I couldn't handle the dissent. But as I told my friend, I knew what I'd signed up for when I friended him, and that's why I did it. I need people to argue with me to keep me honest, so that I can be sure I really understand and can back up my beliefs.

The three options thing was a direct reference to what D2 saw as a pivotal point in our debate.

[nathreee.livejournal.com]

I believe that the bible was written by humans. Their stories sometimes contain small flaws, they sometimes contradict each other, sometimes they embellish things. Perfectly normal. Jesus must have been an extraordinary man, since he left such an impression. What else is there to say about it? We will never know the truth, since the man lived more than 2000 years ago. And that's the whole point of faith, right? Believing in something without proof.

[greybeta.livejournal.com]

Faith isn't necessarily believing in something without proof. It can just be believing because your reason has led you to believe there is no other viable choice.

[purplkat.livejournal.com]

He who attacks the false dilemma must be very, very careful not to fall into logical fallacies himself. Like, say, the appeal to authority.

S'all I'm saying.

[greybeta.livejournal.com]

The best way to step through a logical fallacy is to use one yourself. The best way to handle a logical fallacy is simply to ignore it...but that would make the world a boring place now, wouldn't it? ^_^

[besideserato.livejournal.com]

I was going to argue all of the above but you beat me to it. Great minds, man.

[greybeta.livejournal.com]

What can I say, we're peas in a pod! ^_^