I Don't Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist (56 page)

On the afternoon of April 24, 1966, Barry was ready to act on what the evidence told him was true. He knelt by his bed and prayed, “Jesus, I believe that you are the promised Messiah for the Jewish people and for the whole world, and so, for me as well, and that you died for my sins and that you are alive from the dead forevermore. So I now receive you into my life as my own personal Lord and Savior. Thank you for dying in my place.” Barry says, “There was no lightning or thunder—only his personal presence and peace as he promised, which has not left me to this very day.”

Since his remarkable discovery, Barry has been reaching the Jewish people with the truth that the Messiah has come. The evidence for this truth is in their own Scriptures! And the examining of the evidence for those Scriptures is a focus of Southern Evangelical Seminary near Charlotte, North Carolina, where Barry currently serves as academic dean and professor.

T
HE
B
OX
T
OP TO
P
ROPHECY

We have seen several Old Testament passages that are clear predictions of the Messiah. These have been fulfilled only by Jesus Christ. However, skeptics are quick to point out that some other prophecies quoted as messianic are taken out of context or do not really predict the future. For example, Psalm 22 says, “they have pierced my hands and my feet.” Many Christians claim that this verse is a reference to Christ’s crucifixion, which was not even a method of punishment in the days of David (the author of the psalm). But skeptics charge that David is speaking only about himself, not Christ, so any messianic application is illegitimate. There are three possibilities here.

First, some Christian scholars agree with the skeptics on verses like this. They say that Psalm 22 is not intended to be predictive. (Of course, even if they are correct, there are plenty of verses that clearly
are
predictive, as we have already seen.)

Second, other Christian scholars point out that some biblical prophecies may apply to two different people at two different times. Both David and Jesus certainly had enemies and difficulties in their lives as expressed in Psalm 22. So why couldn’t the psalm be true of David
and
Jesus?

The third option—which is the one that seems most plausible to us—is that Psalm 22 is solely predictive of Jesus. After all, the psalm contains several direct references to Christ’s crucifixion experience. It begins with his cry from the cross—“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Ps. 22:1, cf. Matt. 27:46)—and then describes other events associated with the crucifixion, including: the scorn, mocking, and insults of his accusers (vv. 6-7); his thirst (v. 15); his pierced hands and feet (v. 16); his unbroken bones (v. 17); his divided garments (v. 18); the fact that his enemies cast lots for his garments (v. 18); his ultimate rescue by the Lord (v. 19), and even his public praise of God to his fellow Israelites after his rescue (v. 22). This goes beyond coincidence, and leads us to believe that Christ is actually the one speaking in the entire psalm. In other words, while David wrote the psalm, Christ is the one speaking. This is not unprecedented. In Psalm 110, God the Father is actually having a conversation with God the Son.

The skeptic may say, “But you’re only interpreting Psalm 22 that way because you now know what happened to Christ. It probably wouldn’t have been apparent to someone living in Old Testament times that Psalm 22 was about Christ.”

To which we reply: even if that is true, so what? It may be true that certain messianic prophecies in the Old Testament become clear only in light of Christ’s life. But that doesn’t mean those prophecies are any less amazing. Look at it this way: If you can’t make sense of the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle without the box top, does that mean that no one made the puzzle? No. Does it mean there’s no design to the puzzle? No. In fact, once you see the box top, you suddenly realize not only how the pieces fit together but how much forethought it took to design the pieces that way. In the same way, Jesus’ life serves as the box top for many pieces of the prophetic puzzle found throughout the Old Testament. In fact, one Bible scholar has identified 71 Old Testament messianic prophecies fulfilled by Christ, some of which are illuminated by the light of Christ’s life.
⁷

Some have summarized it this way: in the Old Testament Christ is concealed; in the New Testament he is revealed. While many prophecies are clear beforehand, some can be seen only in the light of Christ’s life. Those that become clear
after
Christ are no less a product of supernatural design than those that were clear
before
Christ.

I
S
J
ESUS
G
OD
?

As we have seen, the Old Testament predicts the coming of a Messiah who would be born a man but somehow be God as well (Isa. 9:6). Jesus is the only known person who meets the predicted qualifications of the Messiah. But did he claim to be God?

Certainly the New Testament writers claimed on several occasions that Jesus was God. For example, in the opening chapter of his Gospel, John says “the Word was God” and “the Word became flesh” (John 1:1, 14). Paul says that Christ is “God over all” (Rom. 9:5), and “in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form” (Col. 2:9). Peter declares that believers receive righteousness from “our God and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Pet. 1:1). Matthew applies deity to Jesus when he quotes Isaiah 7:14: “The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel”—which means, “God with us” (Matt. 1:23). The writer of Hebrews says, “The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word” (Heb. 1:3). He also quotes Psalm 45:6 in claiming that God says of the Son,
“Your
throne, O God, will last for ever and ever” (Heb. 1:8). These are clear claims of Christ’s deity by the apostles. Even the demons acknowledged that Jesus was God (Matt. 8:29; Luke 4:34, 41)! But did Jesus himself claim to be God?

Direct Claims to Be God

Perhaps no claim is more direct than Jesus’ response to Caiaphas’s pointblank interrogation:

“Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed One?”

“I am,” said Jesus. “And you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven.”

The high priest tore his clothes. “Why do we need any more witnesses?” he asked. “You have heard the blasphemy. What do you think?” They all condemned him as worthy of death (Mark 14:61-64).

Notice that Jesus responded to the direct question with a direct answer: “I am.” Referring to himself as the “Son of Man,” Jesus then added that he would be coming back on the clouds of heaven. Caiaphas and his onlookers knew the implication. This was a reference to the vision the Old Testament prophet Daniel had of the end times: the Messiah—the Son of Man—will come to earth to judge the world on the authority given to him by God the Father (“the Ancient of Days”), and all the world’s people will worship him (Dan. 7:13). Of course, no one is to be worshiped but God himself. Yet here was Christ claiming that he would be the one to judge the world and receive worship from its people. He was claiming to be God, and everyone knew it.

While Matthew, Mark, and Luke all record the “I am” response to Caiaphas, John tells of another occasion where Jesus claims deity by answering, “I am.” This occurs during a tense exchange with some Jews. After several volleys back and forth about the true identity of Jesus, the conversation culminates with Jesus declaring to the Pharisees,

“Your father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day; he saw it and was glad.”

“You are not yet fifty years old,” the Jews said to him, “and you have seen Abraham!”

“I tell you the truth,” Jesus answered, “before Abraham was born, I am!” At this, they picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus hid himself, slipping away from the temple grounds (John 8:56-59).

Skeptics may say, “‘Before Abraham was born, I am!’ is not even good English! It’s the wrong tense.” Exactly. Jesus isn’t worried about grammar because he’s quoting the very name God gave to Moses at the burning bush.

Do you remember the movie
The Ten Commandments?
What did Moses (played by Charlton Heston) do when he encountered the burning bush? He asked God, “Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what shall I tell them?”

God then said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I AM has sent me to you’” (Ex. 3:13-14).

I AM is the self-existent One. He has no past or future because he is eternal. He’s not in time. Jesus was claiming to be that eternal, self-existent One, and that’s why the Jews picked up stones to stone him.

For those who continue to say, “No, Jesus never claimed to be God,” we have a question: If Jesus didn’t claim to be God, then why was he killed? Jesus’ crucifixion, which is probably the most well-attested fact from all of ancient history, is difficult to explain unless he claimed to be God.

The unbelieving Jews certainly knew he claimed to be God. On several occasions they picked up stones to stone him for blasphemy. Why was it obvious to first-century people that Jesus claimed to be God, but it’s not obvious to some present-day skeptics?

Indirect Claims to Be God

In addition to these direct claims to be God, Jesus made several other statements that clearly implied he was God:

Jesus prayed, “And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was” (John 17:5, KJV). But the Old Testament says there is only one God (Deut. 6:4; Isa. 45:5ff.), and God says, “my glory will I not give to another” (Isa. 42:8).

He declared, “I am the first and the last” (Rev. 1:17)—precisely the words used by God of himself in Isaiah 44:6.

He said, “I am the good shepherd” (John 10:11); but the Old Testament says, “The LORD is my shepherd” (Ps. 23:1). Moreover, God says, “As a shepherd looks after his scattered flock when he is with them, so will I look after my sheep” (Ezek. 34:12).

Jesus claimed to be the judge of all people (Matt. 25:31ff.; John 5:27); but Joel quotes God as saying, “for there I will sit to judge all the nations on every side” (Joel 3:12).