QUESTIONS AND STATEMENTS ON JESUS

From the Evidence Bible, Compiled by Ray Comfort

(Comments by Harold M. Lind)

Below are a number of questions, statements, and objections. Some of them are from non-believers that pose questions to prove in their mind that the Bible is not true. They think that by “stumping” a Christian, they somehow have disproved the Bible. What they don’t understand is that the Bible stands by itself. It doesn’t need to be proved true. It is the inspired Word of God. If someone chooses to not believe in it, he will find out later, when it is probably too late, that it is true. And God will have to judge his sins because he hasn’t been washed clean in the blood of Jesus. There are other questions about what the Bible says, and other topics such as how to tell others about Jesus Christ, why we can’t just lead a “good” life to go to heaven, and why God must judge sin.

On the cross, Jesus cried, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” This proves He was a fake; God forsook Him.

Jesus’ words recorded in Matthew 27:46 and Mark 15:34 were the fulfillment of David’s prophesy in Psalm 22:1. Verse 3 of this psalm gives us insight into why God forsook Jesus on the cross: “But You are holy…” A holy creator cannot have fellowship with sin. When Jesus was on the cross, the sin of the entire world was laid upon Him (Isaiah 53:6; 2 Corinthians 5:21), but Scripture says God is “of purer eyes than to behold evil, and cannot look on iniquity” (Habakkuk 1:13).

What did Jesus say in the “Sermon on the Mount?”

The sermon, which starts in Matthew chapter 5, not only reveals God’s divine nature, it puts into our hands the most powerful of evangelistic weapons. It is the greatest evangelistic sermon ever preached by the greatest evangelist who ever lived. The straightedge of God’s Law reveals how crooked we are: v. 3: The unregenerate heart isn’t poor in spirit. It is proud, self-righteous, and boastful (every man is pure in his own eyes – Proverbs 16:2). v. 4: The unsaved don’t mourn over their sin; they love the darkness and hate the light (John 3:19). v. 5: The ungodly are not meek and lowly of heart. Their sinful condition is described in Romans 3:13-18. v. 6: Sinners don’t hunger and thirst after righteousness. Instead, they dring iniquity like water (Job 15:16). v. 7: The world is shallow in its ability to show true mercy. It is by nature cruel and vindictive (Genesis 6:5). v. 8: The heart of the unregenerate is not pure; it is desperately wicked (Jeremiah 17:9).

Those who are born again manifest the fruit of the Spirit, live godly in Christ Jesus (Matthew 5:3-9), and therefore suffer persecution (Matthew 5:10-12). However, their purpose on earth is to be salt and light: to be a moral influence, and to bring the light to those who sit in the shadow of death (Matthew 5:13-16).

Look now at how the Messiah expounds the Law and makes it “honorable” (Isaiah 42:21). He establishes that He didn’t come to destroy the Law (Matthew 5:17); not even the smallest part of it will pass away (Matthew 5:18). It will be the divine standard of judgment (James 2:12; Romans 2:12; Acts 17:31). Those who teach it “shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:19). The Law should be taught to sinners because it was made for them (1 Timothy 1:8-10), and is a “schoolmaster” that brings the “knowledge of sin” (Romans 3:19-20, 7:7). Its function is to destroy self-righteousness and bring sinners to the cross (Galatians 3:24).

The righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees was merely outward, but God requires truth in the inward parts (Psalm 51:6). Jesus shows this by unveiling the Law’s spiritual nature (Romans 7:14). The Sixth Commandment forbids murder. However, Jesus shows that it also condemns anger “without cause,” and even evil-speaking (Matthew 5:21:26): “Every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give an account thereof in the day of judgment” (Matthew 12:36). The Seventh Commandment forbids adultery, but Jesus revealed that this also includes lust, and it even condemns divorce, except in the case of sexual sin of the spouse (Matthew 5:27-32).

Jesus opens up the Ninth Commandment (Matthew 5:33-37), and then shows that love is the spirit of the Law – “The end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart…” (1 Timothy 1:5). This is summarized in what is commonly called the Golden Rule: “All things whatsoever you would that men should do to you, do you even so to them: for this is the Law and the prophets” (Matthew 7:12). “Owe no man anything, but to love one another: for he that loves another has fulfilled the law. For this, You shall not commit adultery, You shall not kill, You shall not steal, You shall not bear false witness, You shall not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, mainly, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Love works no ill to his neighbor: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law” (Romans 13:8-10).

When a sinner is born again he is able to do this (Matthew 5:38-47). He now possesses “the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4). In Christ he is made perfect and thus satisfies the demands of a “perfect” Law (Psalm 19:7; James 1:25). Without the righteousness of Christ he cannot be perfect as his Father in heaven is perfect (Matthew 5:44). The Law annihilated his self-righteousness leaving him undone and condemned. His only hope was in the cross of Jesus Christ. After his conversion, knowledge of the Law that brought him there keeps him at the foot of the cross.

John Wesley said, “Therefore I cannot spare the Law one moment, no more than I can spare Christ, seeing I now want it as much to keep me to Christ, as I ever wanted it to bring me to Him. Otherwise this ‘evil heart of unbelief’ would immediately ‘depart from the living God’. Indeed each s continually sending me to the other – the Law to Christ, and Christ to the Law.”

How long was Jesus in the tomb?

To first-century Jews, any part of a day could be counted as if it were a full day, just as a child born on December 31 at 11:59 p.m. is deductible for income tax purposes for the full year. “Three days and three nights” may simply refer to three twenty-four-hour days (sunset-to-sunset periods), and Jesus was in fact in the tomb during part of three different days.

You shouldn’t talk about sin because Jesus didn’t condemn anybody. He was always loving and kind.

Jesus did indeed condemn some people for their sin. In Matthew 23 He called the religious leaders “hypocrites” seven times. He told them that they were “blind fools,” children of hell, full of hypocrisy and sin. He climaxed His sermon by saying, “You serpents, you generation of vipers, how shall you escape the damnation of hell?” (v. 33). He then warned that He would say to the wicked, “Depart from Me, you cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels” (Matthew 25:41).

Jesus wasn’t sinless – He became angry when He cleared the temple.

The temple of God was filled with the Day’s equivalent of money-grabbing televangelists. Jesus called it a “den of thieves” (Mark 11:15), because the moneychangers were not interested in God but in taking financial advantage of those who came to worship. Anger at hypocrisy isn’t a sin – it’s a virtue.

Jesus taught hatred by saying that a Christian should “hate” his father and mother.

This is called “hyperbole” – a statement of extremes, contracting love with hate for emphasis’ sake. The Bible often does this (Proverbs 13:24; 29:24). Jesus tells us that the first and greatest Commandment is to love God with all of our heart, soul, and mind (Matthew 22:37-38). As much as we treasure our spouse and family, and even our own life, there should be no one whom we love and value more than God, no one who takes precedence in our life. To place love for another (including yourself) above God is idolatry.

Jesus didn’t condemn the woman caught in the act of adultery, but condemned those who judged her. Therefore, you shouldn’t judge others.

The Christian is not “judging others” but simply telling the world of God’s judgment – that God (not the Christian) has judged all the world as being guilty before Him (Romans 3:19,23). Jesus was able to offer that woman forgiveness for her sin, because He was on His way to die on the cross for her. She acknowledged Him as “Lord,” but He still told her, “Go, and sin no more.” If she didn’t repent, she would perish.

It’s intolerant to say that Jesus is the only way to God!

Jesus is the One who said that He is the only way to the Father. For Christians to say that there are other ways to find peace with God is to bear false testimony. In one sweeping statement, Jesus discards all other religions as a means of finding forgiveness of sins. This agrees with other Scriptures: “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is no other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:12), and “For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man is Christ Jesus” (1 Timothy 2:5).

Is it possible that Jesus simply fainted on the cross, and revived while He was in the tomb?

Jesus had been whipped and beaten, and was bleeding from His head, back, hands, and feet for at least six hours. While he was on the cross, a soldier pierced His side with a spear and blood and water gushed out. Professional soldiers would certainly have completed their assigned task and ensured his death.

“It is impossible that a being who had stolen half-dead out of the sepulcher, who crept about weak and ill, wanting medical treatment, who required bandaging, strengthening, and indulgence, and who still at last yielded to his sufferings, could have given to the disciples the impression that he was a conqueror over death and the grave, the Prince of Life: an impression which lay at the bottom of their future ministry. Such a resuscitation could only have weakened the impression which he had made upon them in life and in death, at the most could only have given it an elegiac voice, but could by no possibility have changed their sorrow into enthusiasm, have elevated their reverence into worship.” (Strauss, New Life of Jesus, quoted in Who Moved the Stone? By Frank Morison).

Because Jesus died on the cross, we are all forgiven of every sin.

The forgiveness that is in Jesus Christ is conditional upon “repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ” (Acts 20:21). It is a gift that God offers to everyone, but individuals must receive it by repenting and trusting in Christ, or they will remain dead in their sins.

No one has biblical grounds to continue in sin, assuming that they are safe just because Jesus died on the cross.