Here’s something that always baffled me: even the most mediocre, painful to watch, disgustingly bad movies have that requisite “this is an amazing movie” quote plastered on their DVD case. It seems as though movie studios can dig up a, or if you remember this story from a few years back fabricate a fake, critic who’s more than willing to gush praises all over their not-so great films. Just once I’d like to pick up a movie and see “Wesley Snipes, Martin Short and Sandra Bullock are atrocious…so bad it’s good!” and “watching Mickey Rourke try to act will give you a dull headache…by the time ‘Bullet’ is over you’ll be reaching for the Advil” or “at least you waited for the DVD release and saved a few bucks…Ben Affleck goes through the motions and is forgettable.”
Because I Said So had “lots of heart and plenty of laughs” if by lots of heart and laughs you mean that you wanted to beat Diane Keaton and then yourself over the head with a lead pipe upon seeing the movie.
So often we scan the DVD cases looking for a movie that will interest us, but can we really expect an honest appraisal from the very people who want us to buy what they’re selling? Films routinely promise us mind-boggling entertainment and excitement, citing phrases like “action-packed thrill ride” or “the most memorial film you’ll see this year” but more often than not fail to deliver.
Bold Claims
Another bold claim maker, Jesus Christ, was acutely aware of the inherent skepticism he’d raise. In John 5 he reasons, “If I alone testify about Myself, My testimony is not true.” In that ancient day, a Jewish court wouldn’t even bother calling the defendant to the stand. The reasoning: of course the charged would claim innocence, so why even bother?
However, Jesus did make huge claims, which if true, would profoundly affect the entire human race. Christ said things like “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.” Jesus claimed God had given him the authority and responsibility of guarding the pathway to heaven and according to Christ our entrance into eternity is based solely on our relationship with him. Christ “also was calling God His own Father, making Himself equal with God,” a claim that infuriated the religious leaders of the day and quickly lead to his death.
The statements Christ made are serious and therefore need significant validation for us to consider them. Thankfully, God anticipated this dilemma. He gives us 4 distinct witnesses to the fact the Christ is who he says he is:
John the Baptist is the first witness Jesus calls to the stand on his behalf.
“There is another who testifies of Me, and I know that the testimony which He gives about Me is true…John…has testified to the truth. But the testimony which I receive is not from man, but I say these things so that you may be saved.”
Jesus cites John the Baptist because his “street cred” was extremely high with the people of that day. Most thought of John as highly religious and some even concluded he might be the messiah. However, John deflected these speculations and instead pointed to Christ as the fulfillment of the messianic prophecies and the symbols of substitutionary sacrifice, saying, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”
The next witness Christ cites are the miracles he has performed.
“But the testimony which I have is greater than the testimony of John; for the works which the Father has given Me to accomplish–the very works that I do–testify about Me, that the Father has sent Me.”
Jesus is, of course, referring to the amazing supernatural wonders he executed in order to show he did have the kind of power he was claiming. Jesus often performed these in public so all could see the power of God working through him. At the time, there would have been many witnesses to these wonders; men like the paraplegic he healed would be walking around telling everyone he encountered about the person who had made it so he could walk again.
Yet, Christ doesn’t stop there. He’s also been validated by the Father.
“And the Father who sent Me, He has testified of Me. You have neither heard His voice at any time nor seen His form. You do not have His word abiding in you, for you do not believe Him whom He sent.”
Here Jesus refers to the witness given to Christians when they receive Christ and become believers indwelt by the Holy Spirit. In Romans we read, “The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God…”
This is a significant and power witness and it is more powerful than any external sources Jesus could cite. As Christians, the Holy Spirit, God himself is inside of us, powerfully validating that Jesus’ claims were true.
However, this witness only operates fully after a person receives Christ. A true skeptic would need more evidence than this.
That’s when Jesus pulls out the big guns…
“You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that testify about Me”
Its obvious Jesus wanted us all to listen up regarding this final witness, as his statement feels pretty abrasive.
He’s referring to the Old Testament scriptures, a source all of the day knew well and trusted. Any good Jew could recite miles and piles of scripture; meanwhile, God had been orchestrating a paper trail that big to authenticate his coming messiah. Jesus points to these ancient scriptures, almost sarcastically asking, “It’s me- don’t you realize who I am?”
Amazingly, this authentication of Christ is as convincing and powerful as it was back then.
In Isaiah 42:9 God says, “Behold, the former things have come to pass, Now I declare new things; Before they spring forth I proclaim them to you.”
God is omniscient, all knowing, and has the ability to look at time like a news reporter hovering over a massive interstate traffic jam in a helicopter. God can see the future clearly and he uses this to separate himself from other would-be idols, gods, and deities while at the same time authenticating his son, the messiah.
In Isaiah 44, God puts the challenge on the table:
“Thus says the LORD, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, the LORD of hosts: ‘I am the first and I am the last, And there is no God besides Me. ‘Who is like Me? Let him proclaim and declare it; Yes, let him recount it to Me in order, From the time that I established the ancient nation. And let them declare to them the things that are coming And the events that are going to take place. ‘Do not tremble and do not be afraid; Have I not long since announced it to you and declared it? And you are My witnesses Is there any God besides Me, Or is there any other Rock? I know of none.’”
To predict and declare the future is the unique ability of our creator God. No one else has this dramatic ability because it requires an infinite being to accomplish. God is such a being, saying, “If you’re God, let’s see you do this! How come your God can’t predict the future like I can? That’s right, only I can do this and only I am God!”
In Luke 24, Jesus gives his disciples a thorough bible study: “Now He said to them, ‘These are My words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things which are written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.’ Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures…”
And we complain when the sermon gets close to an hour long? This must have been a long, intense bible study!
“and He said to them, ‘Thus it is written, that the Christ would suffer and rise again from the dead the third day, and that repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in His name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.’”
Jesus took them through the entire Old Testament to show them passage after passage of predictive prophecy that referred to his life. There was no way Jesus could fake all these prophecies. Some scholars estimate there are over 300 distinct messianic predictions in the bible foretelling every aspect of his life and death hundreds of years before his appearance on earth. No one has control over things like where they will be born and how people will react to them.
Scriptures like Isaiah 53 eerily and accurately predict specific details of Christ’s life and demise, down to the fact that “He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities…by His scourging we are healed.”
Two types of pre-authentication are built into the bible regarding Christ:
The type John the Baptist referred to, which were the Old Testament symbols the people practiced in ritual. Ancient people often didn’t have the ability to read, however they could discern the significance of an animal sacrifice. The priest would place his hands on the scapegoat’s head and symbolically transfer the sins of the people to that animal. The symbols acted out as drama in front of the people later pointed to the same person who John pointed to: Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God.
The second type of pre-authentication employed by the bible is direct predictive declaration from God.
As we’ve seen, in effect God says, “You know this is me because I’m telling you what’s going to happen before it happens.”
For a Christian plagued with doubt or a skeptic filled with cynicism, direct predictive declaration is very compelling.
One of the most mind-blowing prophecies is found in Daniel 9 concerning the coming of the messiah. God not only says that Jesus Christ will come, he tells us exactly when.
Daniel 9’s Messianic Prophecy
Imprisoned for 70 years in Babylon, Daniel starts praying to God for Israel’s release. According to Daniel’s calculations, it’s getting to be close to the time that God promised he and his people could finally get out of captivity.
An angel visits Daniel in 9:24-25, telling him,
“Seventy weeks have been decreed for your people and your holy city, to finish the transgression, to make an end of sin, to make atonement for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy place. So you are to know and discern that from the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince there will be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; it will be built again, with plaza and moat, even in times of distress.”
In the context of Daniel 9, the “weeks” the angel refers to in the prophecy are actually years, or more specifically “sevens” or Sabbath years. The prophecy seems complicated, but it’s actually easy to calculate. The time from the decree to rebuild Israel to the coming to the Messiah is, according to angel Gabriel, 7 sevens and 62 sevens until the Messiah’s coming. So, (7×7) + (7×62) = 483 years.
However, in Daniel’s time they used lunar years, which consisted of 360 days per year. We use a slightly different measure, the Solar year, which are comprised of 365.2425 days, or less nerdly – 365 ¼ days. When we convert, 483 lunar years comes to 476 solar years.
So, 476 years from the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah comes. Now, when was that decree exactly?
In Nehemiah 2:1-8, Nehemiah is employed as the King’s cupbearer or wine-taster, a job that’s easy and painless most of the time, but dangerous and necessary because of the possibly a dissenter might try to poison the King. It was Nehemiah’s job to get poisoned first if the wine was poisoned, thus saving the King.
One day, wrapped up in Israel’s plight, Nehemiah looked especially downtrodden. Of course, the King was highly sensitive whenever the person responsible for protecting him from wine-poisoning was looking a little under-the-weather. Therefore, King Artaxerxes asked Nehemiah, “Why is your face sad?”
Nehemiah explained why he was so sad and because God was with him, the Emperor of the biggest Empire in the world at that time granted him his wish that Jerusalem be rebuilt.
This is useful because we know through biblical and extra-biblical sources exactly when King Artaxerxes’ reign began, 465 B.C. We can add 20 years to this in order to find the date when the decree was issued because verse 2:1 tells us all this “came about in the month Nisan, in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes”. The Ancient peoples dated their calendar from the fall, so because the reign began in spring, the decree was issued in the year 444 B.C.
As we previously determined, 476 years later would take us from 444 B.C. to 32 A.D. But wait, because there’s no “year zero” on a timeline, we add one year to date the prediction’s result to be 33 A.D.
This is an astonishing prediction and validation of God’s Messiah, as it corresponds with exactly when Jesus announced himself as the Messiah. Again, remember the Daniel 9 prediction was given over 530 years before its fulfillment, so it pre-dates Christ. It would have been impossible for either Jesus or his followers to fake its fulfillment, especially because they did not keep a precise calendar in that day.
Are there any other possible explanations to brush away the significance of this prophecy? I’ve presented only a quick and dirty run-down of it here. If you’re still skeptical, why don’t you take up God’s challenge and delve further into the details of Daniel 9, or more importantly, ask God in your own heart if he’s really who he says he is.
God’s Challenge
God is waiting to respond to you if you’re seeking him earnestly and he’ll verify himself to you personally if you check him out.
Later in the book of John, “Jesus answered them and said, ‘My teaching is not Mine, but His who sent Me. If anyone is willing to do His will, he will know of the teaching, whether it is of God or whether I speak from Myself’”.
When you have an encounter with the real God, the one who is able to foretell and predict the future and who created you, God himself witnesses to you regarding Christ’s authenticity.
Today, there is no doubt in my mind that Christ is real because I’ve experienced him personally, just like there’s no doubt in my mind that my wife is real. I sit and talk with my wife in the same way that I’m able to have a personal relationship with God because of his Messiah, whom he pre-authenticated and then sent to die for our sins to make that relationship possible.
Healthy skepticism is fine and in fact, God anticipated it and built evidence and validation right into the bible. As Christians, our faith isn’t blind, rather based in part on real, substantiated evidence.
Just as you could only determine whether or not a movie is excellent or a flop by actually watching it yourself, you must make a determination for yourself regarding God. With eternity at stake, why would you leave it up to some other critic’s opinion? While movie tastes vary from person to person, Jesus’ claims are absolute and encompass the entire human race.
If you’re skeptical why don’t you take your search to God? Do you want to know him in a personal way? After all, Jesus makes outrageous claims that if true, will impact us for better or worse, regardless of whether or not we ever believe them. Due to the evidence God provides, these claims are plausible enough that should at least investigate them further!
Adopted from a teaching by Dennis McCallum.
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