More Than a Carpenter

View in Browser   Key insights from More Than a Carpenter By Josh McDowell, Sean McDowell

What you’ll learn Amid ranks of reformers and revolutionaries, Jesus Christ stands distinct throughout history—his influence is matchless. Jesus stirred joy in the lepers and fear in the Pharisees, provoking a wide range of responses and impacting the trajectories of nations and individual human hearts. The words he professed, the lifestyle he lived, and the promises he embodies for those who believe him compel all people to take a step back to ponder the man set before them—a Savior who offers absolutely everything. Best-selling author Josh McDowell and his son, a professor at Biola University, Sean McDowell travail archaeological findings, accounts of ancient history, and the pages of the Bible to trace the reality of Jesus Christ and the truth of his transcendent life.   Read on for key insights from More Than a Carpenter.

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1. Whether listeners flail, flop, or simply have faith, the divinity of Jesus Christ stirs disparate responses. Though more than 2,000 years have elapsed since Jesus first trekked across desert terrain to scatter his ministry over wanting land, not much has changed for listeners today. The words of Jesus are just as polarizing now as they were then when he first stood before a crowd of weary watchers to give his transformative Sermon on the Mount. The New Testament reveals why this peaceful, nomadic Jesus Christ drew such fiery responses from his listeners. Even throughout the pages of Mark’s Gospel, the most archaic of the four accounts of Jesus, what theological literature calls “the deity of Christ” is clear. The gracious miracles, countercultural parables, and most evidently, the very words of Jesus Christ, display the reality of his status as God. Despite endless questions from Pharisees, high priests, and Romans, Jesus consistently responded with the truth of his divinity and his identity as God enfleshed. And as one might predict, these assertions drove his listeners more-than-a-little-bit crazy. In John 10:30, for instance, various religious leaders entreated Jesus to tell them exactly who he was: Was he really the one who their scriptures spoke of with such promise? Was he truly the Savior who would free them? With shrewd, undeniable clarity, Jesus professed, “The Father and I are one” (John 10:30). Despite this seemingly praise-invoking answer, a poetic prelude to many a prisoner’s freedom, the pious religious leaders wanted nothing to do with the truth that threatened their tightly held power. In the face of this striking statement, the leaders drew their arms back to pelt their so-called Savior with rocks, aiming to shatter a truth they hoped was simply not true. But the Son of God was not mistaken. According to Bible scholar A. T. Robertson, the original Greek version of the word “one” is the most inflammatory ingredient of Jesus’s claim. The variation of the particular Greek word that Jesus employs is genderless and refers to his very “essence or nature” as united with that of God. For Robertson, this revelation dispels any doubt in those who wonder if Jesus actually acknowledged his own divinity throughout the Bible. Jesus didn’t travel from city to city, carrying the truths of his loving ministry unknowingly or even ambiguously—the truth of his being lies in his proclamations and in his very name. The root words of the endlessly compelling name of “Jesus Christ” recognize his divine stature. Just as the Greek “Jeshua,” translates to “the Lord saves,” the term “Messiah” points to “the anointed one.” The words of Jesus, the place of his divinity, and the activity of his humanity, drew those who feared and those who followed. Like the fish Jesus promised his disciples they would one day discover, those who hear the words of Jesus are pulled toward him, flailing, flopping, or simply believing. When he draws near, people can’t help but stare.

2. Jesus Christ wasn’t just a rabbi—he was either a whole lot more, or a whole lot less. Whether or not you take Jesus at his word, he doesn’t conceal his existence as God. Nowadays, though, it’s all-too-common to attribute Jesus’s unearthly wisdom to the sayings of yet another rabbi or ethical genius. But the seemingly level-headed conclusion that Jesus is simply another leader in a lineup of history’s famous do-gooders is entirely impossible. As Jesus openly acknowledges his divinity, he explicitly extinguishes any possibility that he’s a run-of-the-mill religious thinker. In Mark 14:62, for instance, after he’s questioned about his divinity, Jesus answers affirmatively, saying, “I am, and you will see me, the Son of Man, sitting at God’s right hand in the place of power and coming back on the clouds of heaven.” In the wake of his purposeful words, people are left with a handful of identities to explain the personhood of Jesus Christ. As C. S. Lewis cleverly notes in his classic Mere Christianity, “you can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon, or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God.” Those are the avenues down which believers and non-believers must travel in order to discern the being of Jesus Christ. With sharp insight, the author recognizes that if Jesus’s statements are actually wrong, then he would be “an outright lunatic.” And yet, it’s no easy feat to draw leagues of believers, transform multitudes of lives, and sacrifice oneself on a cross for the salvation of others, all as part of some twisted self-image. The behavior of Jesus Christ hardly seems like the workings of a misguided crazy person. Psychologist Gary Collins and psychiatrist J. T. Fisher both agree. These experts purport that the way Jesus maintained serenity amid the chaos of his Galilean life, treating everyone he encountered with kindness and love and expounding lessons deep in wisdom, make the conclusion that he’s neurotic sound similarly crazy. On the other hand, if Jesus wasn’t the Savior he professed himself to be but spread a false message aware of its flaws, then he acted dishonestly. It goes without saying that this trait is completely out of line with the character of a brilliant religious leader. Renowned historians William Lecky and Philip Schaff argue that a tradition as universally beneficial as Christianity and a life as radiant as Jesus Christ’s could never uphold the claim that Jesus was knowingly dishonest. If Jesus sought to spread a false message, there were much better ways of doing so. Rounding up a gang of Jewish fishermen, a tax collector, and other outsiders, appearing to those in need, and proclaiming the forgiveness of sins isn’t exactly the means a power-hungry conman might employ to achieve his purpose. The life of Jesus Christ is a testimony to the fact that his Word is pure truth, not a product of some crazy neurosis or a malicious lie. As Schaff writes, “It would take more than a Jesus to invent a Jesus.” The life of Christ—the way he knelt before the sick, traveled toward the forgotten, and forsook the pain of his own body for the lifeblood of another—is far too wondrous to be the fruit of a mere fabrication. Such a life is more than enough to lead the leeriest of searchers to Christ’s brilliant, enchanting truth.

3. Get yourself an archaic manuscript of the New Testament; there are more than 20,000 copies to go around. The statements of Jesus Christ are soundproof, and the testimony of his life is similarly peerless. Still, many people wonder if the Bible’s accounts are simply exercises in creative writing, or elaborate figments of fiction. For these spiritual enquirers, it may be helpful to look at the facts. The archeological and historical evidence for the life of Jesus Christ is so vast that any kind of unbelief seems completely unfeasible. In fact, by 2009, Bible scholars, archaeologists, and historians numbered the count of New Testament manuscripts to an astounding 20,000 documents. Over time, the validity of these ancient texts was found to be as smooth as the papyri pages which bound them—a prize for history lovers, curious believers, and all others drawn to the material nature of spiritual truth. As noted in historian Chauncey Saunders’s evaluation of historiography, the “bibliographic test” of historical analysis peers closely at the way in which particular manuscripts were prolonged over time. Stacked against similarly impactful and archaic texts of the same time period, the Bible is unparalleled. For instance, the acclaimed works of Thucydides, originally composed around 400 B.C., were discovered in only eight manuscripts written during A.D. 900, and Aristotle’s works are little better. With 49 manuscripts to date, the words of this verbose philosopher, teachings that riddle the worlds of academia and pop culture alike, arrive to us from writings undertaken more than 1,000 years after his first teachings. And so, questions about the Bible’s plethora of manuscripts are simply groundless. In addition to the ample quantity of the biblical manuscripts discovered, the quality of their accounts proves that they are in fact, worthy of belief. In the wake of controversies over when exactly New Testament manuscripts were written, famous archaeologist William F. Albright drew his conclusions. Though many people in the 20th century attempted to invalidate the truth of the manuscripts, claiming that they were written long after Jesus lived, Albright discovered that this was indeed false. Rather, according to archaeological evidence, the manuscripts were written even before A.D. 80. This makes them perfectly believable and accurate to the time they recounted—perhaps even more so than the details of Thucydides’s paradigmatic Peloponnesian War. According to the New Testament expertise of Professor Craig Blomberg at Denver Seminary, the manuscripts that testify to Jesus’s life “have been preserved in far greater number and with much more care than have any other ancient documents.” The history woven throughout their pages is irrefutable; every historian who tried to disprove their contents failed at the foot of undeniable physical evidence. Intellectually compelling and imaginatively fascinating, the archaeological findings of these biblical texts enable people to recognize the meta-historical reality of Jesus Christ.

4. The resurrection of Jesus stopped his followers in their tracks—on a journey to Damascus and at the mouth of a tomb. Whether one is a lifelong believer or an avowed atheist, most people are fascinated by the redemptive tales of Jesus’s New Testament followers. These men and women were people with fretful pasts, lugging their regrets behind them like not-so-precious cargo. Religious extremist turned ardent apostle, traitorous tax collector turned Gospel author, and aimless fishermen turned purposeful leaders: These are the historically-verified tales of those who lived alongside Jesus, and they provide undeniable evidence of Christ’s truth. Before Jesus, the disciples’ prospects were bleak. Peter, Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Thomas, Matthew, James, Thaddaeus, and Simon lived typical, unremarkable lives. But with Jesus, reality became a whole lot different. One might think that Christ’s death would have sealed the deal for these followers, pushing them into self-pity and bereavement, but this wasn’t the case. Why would these followers advance the message of a man lying wrapped inside a cave? Why would 11 of them follow his example, relinquishing their own lives alongside him? According to renowned theologians and historians N. T. Wright, Paul Little, Kenneth Scott Latourette, and various others, the most impactful revelation for these disciples was Christ’s Resurrection. According to 1 Corinthians 15:5, Jesus, “was seen by Peter and then by the Twelve [apostles],” marking a pivotal moment for the followers and shaping what they would do with the truth of the man who came to them brightly, from out of his very death. A similar experience remained crucial to the cultured and religiously pompous Saul of Tarsus, the apostle who would be known as Paul after a divine run-in on his way to Damascus. Paul was admittedly intense in his religious convictions, claiming in his letter to the Galatians that, “I was far ahead of my fellow Jews in my zeal for the traditions of my ancestors” (Galatians 1:14). With a spotless education from one of the foremost Jewish rabbis, Paul was the last person you might expect to drop his scrolls and witness for a man who preferred telling parables in the wilderness to reciting passages in a temple. And yet, Paul did just that. Completing the passage in 1 Corinthians 15:8, Paul writes that, “Last of all, . . . I also saw him,” attributing the remarkable shift in his lifestyle and his very personhood to that one, literally blinding day. The noted historian Schaff writes that this “conversion of Paul marks not only a turning-point in his personal history, but also an important epoch in the history of the apostolic church, and consequently in the history of mankind.” In short, Paul turned many heads at the time, as he continues to do today. Craning their necks and opening their ears, people are rapt with wonder at how the tyrannical Saul could possibly live as the benevolent Paul. And there’s a single conclusion to their question. As the risen Jesus met each of the early believers where they stood, on roads, in homes, and at the gaping entrance of a tomb, he unraveled their present and revealed the reality of his words—he truly did come to save.

5. Jesus Christ walked in the reality of over 300 biblical prophecies, turning wavering hopes into divine truths. Imagine sitting cross-legged at the feet of Jesus, listening to him trace his lineage and note each highly unique detail of the prophecies foretold about him. In Luke 24:27, Jesus tells his followers, who probably leaned forward in their seats, dazed with hope and confusion, that “When I was with you before, I told you that everything written about me in the law of Moses and the prophets and in the Psalms must be fulfilled.” With a thick book full of prophecies, it wouldn’t be difficult for Jesus to satisfy at least a handful of the promises written about him. But in characteristic fashion, Jesus exceeds human expectations, embodying more than 300 Old Testament prophecies of increasing, striking specificity. As the early believers must have marveled at the tale Jesus revealed to them, contemporary followers must also be rapturous at the fulfilled fact of these prophecies—a wonderful, hoped-for dream at last come to be. The fact that Jesus was born in the obscure Bethlehem to the virgin mother Mary is uncontested, known in and out of church and populating the narratives of many elementary school Christmas Eve pageants. But, there’s much more where that came from. In the Old Testament, scholars discovered 60 integral prophecies in addition to 270 others, making the reality of Christ even more unfathomable and vastly remarkable. Authors Peter Stoner and Robert Newman assessed the mathematical probability that Jesus Christ would fulfill a meager eight of these to find that the slim chances of that are “one in 100,000,000,000,000,000.” Not to mention, the Bible, which was written across a span of 1,000 years, foretells of a man to come 400 years after the authors were first compelled to take note of the visions and declarations given to them by God. Of the many gradually unraveled details about the life of Jesus, the first can be traced to Genesis 3:15 in which it is noted that the Son of God will be born solely of a woman. Following this revelation, a sweeping history of Christ’s lineage foretells the people through which he will arrive. From Adam and Eve to Noah, Shem to Abraham, Isaac to Jacob, Judah to Jesse, and finally, all the way to the slingshot-wielding David, the Bible told an incredibly unique, historically verified tale of Christ’s place in the world. A multitude of other verses testify to even more elaborate foretellings of the Messiah’s birth, life, and ultimate purpose, standing as undeniable signposts to the fact of Jesus Christ and the salvation he lavishes on those who believe. If you aren’t satisfied with what you hear at church or in culture, or with what you see in the lives of others or maybe even in yourself, simply search. Believers and non-believers alike can benefit from the renewed understanding and refreshed perspective that arrive with a deeper glance into the essence of Jesus Christ. The evidence is plentiful, bursting along countless avenues of human thought, and its truths are potent. Jesus Christ transcends history to touch the present. Charging through centuries of war, famine, plagues, and pandemics, Jesus brushes everything aside to at last, lovingly arrive to the individual hearts of his waiting people.