The argument is out there that Jesus was either Lord, liar,
or lunatic. Rationally, He could only be Lord or lunatic. Most people lie to
improve their lot or the lot of others. It would be irrational for Jesus to
maintain the lie while in front of the High Priests, or even further in the
court of Pilate. At that point, any sane person would hold up their hands and
recant. So, either He was God as He claimed, or He was insane.
Opponents to Christianity like to claim He wasn’t a real
person, but that has been refuted time and again. The next claim is that He
wasn’t God. He was a moral teacher, or a good person, but certainly not God.
But if He wasn’t God, in what sense could He be seen as a moral teacher? If He
was so insane as to go to His death on the claim that He was God (make no
mistake, He made that claim clearly and repeatedly), how could we possibly look
on Him as any source for moral life? He was INSANE! We don’t look to the crazy
people for Truth.
I recently read in a book (Evidence That Demands A Verdict)
about how He could not be a liar because of how consistent He was. I have more
to read on His lunacy, but I imagine the argument could be made equally well as
applied to His insanity. From beginning to end, Jesus was calm, cool, rational,
loving, coherent, and consistent (barring His two clearings of the temple). It
would be extremely difficult for someone concocting this illusion to remain as
consistent as Jesus was during His ministry. It would be nigh impossible for a
lunatic to do what Jesus did. Insane people that believe themselves to be God
do not maintain such an even personality.
