C.S. Lewis said Jesus was either crazy, a liar, or God. Which is it?

Answer 1

I'll let Josh McDowell answer that question:

WAS HE A LIAR?



If, when Jesus made His claims, He knew that He was not God, then He was lying and deliberately deceiving His followers. And if He was a liar, then He was also a hypocrite because He told others to be honest, whatever the cost, while He Himself taught and lived a colossal lie.

This view of Jesus, however, doesn't coincide with what we know either of Him or the results of His life and teachings. Whenever Jesus has been proclaimed, lives have been changed for the good, nations have been changed for the better. Thieves have been made honest, alcoholics have been cured, hateful individuals have become channels of love, unjust persons have become just.

William Lecky, one of Great Britain's most noted historians and a dedicated opponent of organized Christianity wrote, about Jesus' ministry: 'The simple record of these three short years of active life has done more to regenerate and soften mankind than all the discourses of philosophers and all the exhortations of moralists."5

Someone who lived as Jesus lived, taught as Jesus taught, and died as Jesus died could not have been a liar. What other alternatives are there?



WAS HE A LUNATIC?



If it is inconceivable for Jesus to be a liar, then couldn't He actually have thought Himself to be God, but been mistaken? After all, it's possible to be sincere and wrong.



Someone who believes he is God sounds like someone today believing himself to be Napoleon. He would be deluded and self-deceived, and probably would be locked up so he wouldn't hurt himself or anyone else. Yet in Jesus we don't observe the abnormalities and imbalance that usually go along with being deranged. His poise and composure when confronted by His enemies would certainly be amazing if He were insane.

Here is a man who spoke some of the most profound sayings ever recorded. His instructions have liberated many individuals in mental bondage.

A student at a California university told me that his psychology professor had said in class that "all he has to do is pick up the Bible and read portions of Christ's teachings to many of his patients. That's all the counseling they need."

Psychiatrist J. T. Fisher, speaking of Jesus’ popular “Sermon on the Mount” (Matthew 5-7), says this: "For nearly two thousand years the Christian world has been holding in its hands the complete answer to its restlessness and fruitless yearnings. Here…rests the blueprint for successful human life with optimism, mental health, and contentment."6



WAS HE LORD?



I cannot personally conclude that Jesus was a liar or a lunatic. The only other alternative is that He is the Christ – the Son of God – as He claimed to be.

When I discuss this with many people, it's interesting how they respond. I share with them the claims Jesus made about Himself and then the material about Jesus being a liar, lunatic, or Lord. When I ask if they believe Jesus was a liar, there is usually a sharp, “No!”

Then I ask, "Do you believe He was a lunatic?”

The reply is, "Of course not."

Then, "Do you believe He is God?"

But before I can get a breath in edgewise, there is a resounding, "Absolutely not."

Yet, one has only so many choices. One of these options must be true. The issue with these three alternatives is not Which is possible? for it is obvious that any of the three could have been possible. But, rather the question: Which is more probable?

Who you decide Jesus Christ is must not be an idle intellectual exercise. You cannot put Him on the shelf while calling Him a great moral teacher. That is not a valid option, because if He was so great and moral, what are you going to do with His claim to be God?

If He was a liar or lunatic, then He can't qualify as a great moral teacher. And if He was a great moral teacher, then He is much more as well. He is either a liar, a lunatic, or the Lord God. I had to make a choice.
THE COMPELLING CONCLUSION


Finally, after gathering the evidence, I was compelled to conclude that my arguments against Christianity wouldn't stand up. Jesus Christ is exactly who He claimed to be, the Son of God.

At that time, though, I had quite a problem. My mind told me all this was true, but my will was pulling me in another direction. I discovered that becoming a Christian was rather ego-shattering. Jesus Christ made a direct challenge to my will to trust him. Let me paraphrase Him: "Look! I have been standing at the door and I am constantly knocking. If anyone hears me calling him and opens the door, I will come in" (Revelation 3:20). I didn't care if He did walk on water or turn water into wine. I didn't want any party pooper around. I couldn't think of a faster way to ruin a good time. So here was my mind telling me Christianity was true, and my will was somewhere else.

Every time I was around those enthusiastic Christians, the conflict would begin. If you've ever been around happy people when you're miserable, you understand how they can bug you. They would be so happy and I would be so miserable that I'd literally get up and run right out of the student union. It came to the point where I'd go to bed at ten at night and I wouldn't get to sleep until four in the morning. I knew I had to get it off my mind before I went out of my mind!



In my second year at the university – on December 19, 1959, at 8:30 P.M. – I became a Christian. That night I prayed four things to establish a relationship with the resurrected, living Christ which has since transformed my life.



First, I said, "Lord Jesus, thank you for dying on the cross for me." Second, I said, "I confess those things in my life that aren't pleasing to you and ask you to forgive me and cleanse me." (The Bible says, “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.") Third, I said, "Right now, in the best way I know how, I open the door of my heart and life and trust you as my Savior and Lord. Take over the control of my life. Change me from the inside out. Make me the type of person you created me to be." The last thing I prayed was, "Thank you for coming into my life by faith." It was a faith based not upon ignorance but upon evidence and facts of history and God's Word.



THE CONSEQUENCES



You've probably heard religious people talk about their "bolt of lightning." Well, nothing so dramatic happened to me, but in time there were some very observable changes.

Mental Peace. I had been a person who always had to be occupied. I had to be over at my girl's place or somewhere in a rap session. I'd walk across campus, and my mind would be a whirlwind of conflicts. I'd sit down and try to study or think, and I couldn't.

But in a few months after I made the decision to trust Christ, a kind of mental peace began to develop. Don't misunderstand, I'm not talking about the absence of conflict What I found in this relationship with Jesus wasn't so much the absence of conflict as it was the ability to cope with it I wouldn't trade this for anything in the world.

Control of Temper. Another area that started to change was my bad temper. I used to “blow my stack" if somebody just looked at me cross-eyed. I still have the scars from almost killing a man my first year in the university. My temper was such an integral part of me, I didn't consciously seek to change it.

Then one day after my decision to put my faith in Christ, I arrived at a crisis, only to find that my temper was gone!

Freedom from Resentment. I had a lot of hatred in my life. It wasn't something outwardly manifested, but there was a kind of inward grinding. I was ticked off with people, things, issues.

The one person I hated more than anyone else in the world was my father. I despised him. He was the town alcoholic. And if you're from a small town and one of your parents is an alcoholic, you know what I'm talking about.

Everybody knew. My friends would come to high school and make jokes about my father. They didn't think it bothered me. I was laughing on the outside, but let me tell you I was crying on the inside. I'd go out in the barn and find my mother lying in the manure behind the cows. She'd been knocked down by my father and couldn't get up.



About five months after I made my decision for Christ, love for my father – a love from God through Jesus Christ – inundated my life. It took that resentment and turned it upside down. It was so strong, I was able to look my father squarely in the eye and say, "Dad, I love you." I really meant it.



When I transferred to a private university, I was in a serious car accident. With my neck in traction, I was taken home. I’ll never forget my father coming into my room and asking, "Son, how can you love a father like me?"

I said, "Dad, six months ago I despised you." Then I shared with him my conclusions about Jesus Christ and how He had changed me.

Forty-five minutes later one of the greatest thrills of my life occurred. Somebody in my own family, someone who knew me so well I couldn't pull the wool over his eyes, my own father, said to me, "Son, if God can do in my life what I've seen Him do in yours, then I want to give Him the opportunity."

Usually changes take place over several days, weeks, or even years. But my father was changed right before my eyes. It was as though somebody reached in and turned on a light bulb. I've never seen such a rapid change before or since. My father touched alcohol only once after that He got it as far as his lips, and that was it He didn't need it any more.



I've come to one conclusion: a relationship with Jesus Christ changes lives. You can ignore Him; you can mock or ridicule Christianity. It's your decision. And yet, when all else is said and done, we must face the fact that Peter pointed out: “Jesus [is] the Messiah…There is salvation in no one else! Under all heaven there is no other name for men to call upon to save them" (Acts 4:11-12).

If you ask Him to take control of your life; start watching your attitudes and actions – because the Christ of the New Testament is in the business of forgiving sin, removing guilt, changing lives, and building new relationships.

Most important of all, we can experience the power of the risen Christ in our life today.



First, we can know the freedom of having our sins forgiven.

Second, we can be assured of eternal life and our own resurrection from the grave.

Third, we can be released from a meaningless and empty life and be transformed into a new creature in Jesus Christ.



WHERE DO YOU STAND?



When I was confronted with the overwhelming evidence for Christ's resurrection, I had to ask the logical question: "What difference does all this evidence make to me? What difference does it make whether or not I believe Christ rose again and died on the cross for my sins?"



What do you think of Christ?



The answer was put best by something Jesus said to a man who doubted – Thomas. He told him, "I am the Way – yes, and the Truth, and the Life. No one can get to the Father except by means of me" (John 14:6).

Considering the fact that Jesus offers forgiveness of sin and an eternal relationship with God, who would be so foolhardy as to reject Him? Christ is alive! He is living today.

You can trust God right now by' faith through prayer. Prayer is talking with God. God knows your heart and is not so concerned with your words as He is with the attitude of your heart. If you have never trusted Christ, you can do so right now.

Answer 2

In his arguments he put Jesus as a crazy nut case, a liar and a God. He continues to argue that Jesus couldn't have been a crazy nut case or a liar but could only be God. Read his books for more information.

Answer 3

God.
C.S. Lewis gives a great argument behind the statement also.

Answer 4

to assert C.S. Lewis' good judgment is somewhat fuzzy is like asserting that Mt Everest is somewhat tall. that's like claiming that Hercules became the two a liar, a lunatic, or rather became a demigod. because of the fact C.S. Lewis had the preconception the Jesus became genuine and the Bible became a correct checklist then he felt the liar/lunatic/deity strategies have been valid. yet how did he manage different holy texts? What approximately Vishnu in Hindu texts? etc. properly, because of the fact he became a Christian he ought to easily pass them off as mythology. considering that became his preconception. yet no Christian has been in a position to grant me with any reason to think of that jointly as Greek memories of gods, or Hindu memories of gods, or chinese language memories of gods are mythology - however the Christian memories of God are actual. there is merely as lots actuality contained in the Iliad and the Odyssey as there is contained in the bible. there is greater than a number of prophecy in those books that gets fulfilled in those books as there is contained in the bible. And merely like the bible there is 0 self sufficient info that the events occurred, or that the prophecies have been made first. you're lacking this too. You anticipate that John became written by John. It became no longer. and because it became first written that's been altered. study the fashionable version to the Codex Sinaiticus - the oldest prevalent bible - and clearly that's been replaced. And that does no longer account for the era the place there have been few copies and a great style of variations could have been made, or while it became merely oral custom for some years. you're lacking a rather good HUGER possibility right here. That John is merely mythology. the greater desirable of existence memories from a prior era, made even greater desirable and greater grandiose to grant desire to a human beings being critically oppressed by the Roman military for ambitious to insurrection against Roman rule. To me that's no ask your self that the middle NT books come from this era. It became a time that Jews mandatory heroes, and memories of heroes. yet all the genuine Jewish heroes at that element have been the two working away or loss of existence near to Roman swords. so as that they made up the outstanding Jewish hero - the messiah.

Answer 5

And di you read further where CS Lewis explains why Jesus was not crazy or a liar but God.

You are quoting like the Devil quoting scrtiptures.

Answer 6

A crazy lying God?

You can easily be all three. C.S. Lewis is full of it.

Answer 7

What if he was crazy and thought he was God? What if he was a liar but a very wise man? What if he was God?

Do you think anyone on Yahoo! answers is capable of a definitive answer?

Answer 8

C.S. Lewis was crazy himself.

Answer 9

the first 2.

Answer 10

well, if he was a lunatic, how did he do all those miracles ? how come we still see people doing miracles using hs name ? either he was a liar or he was what He said He was but does anyone know anyone who both did miracles and claimed he was a god ? usually its either one or the other, usually the latter

Answer 11

Jesus was neither crazy, nor a liar, neither was he a God.