Mark 8:29
Who is Jesus
29 “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”
Peter answered, “You are the Messiah.”
Who do you think Jesus is?...This question (I think) is thought about a lot...Jesus is either a myth, or is real...Some have said He is just a Man...Others say writers have exaggerated and given Him His Divine Powers through the history and have turned Him into a God...So He is either a myth, a real Man, or just a teaching rabbi -that was smart, very smart, and writers about Him have exaggerated His teachings and sayings...
The New Testament is twenty seven books, either almost entirely about Jesus...The New Testament involves this book of books with different authors, either telling us the Truth, about this Man, or it is a documented series of many lies -it can't be both...If you believe the New Testament is true, the largest supporter of the Real Jesus is St. Paul...St. Paul, who wrote thirteen of the books, and many say wrote some (if not all) of His letters before the four gospels....St. Paul knew of the resurrection, His death on the cross and the people that Jesus saw after His death, and the Last Supper...St. Paul met with Jesus' brother James, and Jesus' disciples, in-particularly St. Peter...So you either believe St. Paul was correct in his writings about Jesus or you do not...Then there is St. Luke who was with St. Paul just a few years after Jesus' death...He wrote the Gospel According to St. Luke and the Acts of the Apostles...St. Luke and St. Paul would have shared stories and ideas about Jesus and what He did throughout His life...So you either believe the St. Luke wrote the Truth, or you don't...And by knowing that St. Paul and St. Luke were so close, the non-believer would have to consider that both of them were lying or making up these stories -or were just completely fooled by the research that they did on Jesus...Because they wrote about Him after His death...I think that would be very odd, given the small towns and villages, and the ability to gather information in and around Jerusalem and the areas that Jesus traveled, which was not all that far around Jerusalem...Jesus did most, if not all of His traveling by foot, and St. Paul and St. Luke would have been doing their research with the same travel methods as the One they wrote about...
There is evidence outside the Bible, that states Jesus was a historical figure...Tacitus and Pliny the Younger wrote about Jesus...But Josephus, a Roman historian, writes in Book 20, Chapter 9, 1 of his Antiquities that "the brother of Jesus, who was called Christ, whose name was James"...Josephus is the most credible to historians and scholars than the other writers, but regardless, Jesus is written about outside the Bible...They have even found a grave-site of Joseph Caiaphas in 1990, whom many think was the High Priest in the Gospels, who was the one who led to Jesus arrest and death on the cross...Josephus wrote about the High Priest Caiaphas, Pontius Pilate, as well as John the Baptist...So these were real men that a historian would write about...Are these all coincidence and myth?...
Another interesting thing (at least for me) is that Jesus said things like, "I and the Father are One"...."Before Abraham was born, I AM"...He told the High Priest Caiaphas, that He was the Son of the Blessed One...These are odd things to say for just a man...He stated that He is the way, the Truth, and the life...No one gets to the Father except through Me...And He said many more odd or queer things a "normal man" just would not say...Why?...Because He is not a Normal Man...He is the Truth...God sent Him to teach us, and show us the Truth...And when I ask myself are these just exaggerated statements, they are more about Jesus being Divine than they are exaggerated...So I must ask myself is He Divine and the Messiah...
A fact, that is a fact two thousand years ago, remains a fact, both then and now...Facts do not change...Truth is not a myth or even a state of mind...Truth is not here today and gone tomorrow...Truth is real..All these things when added up make St. Peter's answer the right one...Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of the Living God...