Larry King Show: Who Was Jesus?

I was pleasantly surprised at the quality of the conversation on Larry King's show tonight about "Who Was Jesus?"

I have to give props to all the guests and to the Larry King booking people as they chose people who have a point of view but who make them without acrimony. So often these kind of panels descend into shouting matches.

As a Christian, I accept the accounts of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John about the life of Jesus. I acknowledge there is an element of faith in believing the Gospel books of the Christian Scriptures.

However, it is a belief not without some basis in reason.

Why would one believe something written nearly 2000 years ago?

On what rational basis would confidence in something written so long ago not be foolish?

We can have confidence in these ancient texts because:
(1) they were written relatively close to the time of the actual events. Mark is generally believed to have been written soon after Jesus' resurrection and is the "bare bones" account of the life, deeds and words of Jesus as it is the shortest of the four Gospels. Matthew and Luke was written after Mark and analysts say they emphasize certain aspects of Jesus life. Matthew highlights the very Jewish aspects of Jesus while Luke's account is regarded at the more straightforward logical historical account to appeal to the Greek mind set. John is generally said to be the last of the Gospels to be written and the most different of the four because it probably was written to address questions about the divinity of Jesus.
(2) numerous copies that are consistent with each other exist. I have heard the number of old manuscripts of the gospels is in the thousands which indicates a serious effort was made by early Christians to preserve the words and deeds of Jesus.
(3) the lives of early Christians were transformed by these writings. Today, we think of Christianity as a mainstream religion. However, at the very beginning is was just a small group of people and persecuted at that. Yet, their faith persevered and grew. These ordinary disciples became people who preached the message of Jesus dying for our sin and raising from the dead to give life. The disciples of the disciples kept living it and preaching it and that message turned the world upside down.

So on this Christmas Eve and Christmas holiday time. Dust off that old Bible and read the Christmas story as described in Matthew and Luke. Read from all four Gospels about the amazing life, deeds and works of one called Jesus. I hope you will choose to believe him like the disciples of old and the disciples of today. But even if not, I think you will nonetheless find inspiration for life in His life described in that good old book.

Merry Christmas!