Was Jesus a prophet ? (for non-son of God Christians and other religions/personal beliefs )?

Question

For the sake of this question (and don't try to convince me otherwise) say Jesus is not the son of God, that whole side of Jesus was modeled after Pagan beliefs and Paul told of Jesus incorrectly.

First of all, what evidence (other than biblical) do we have of Jesus' existance?

Was he the son of God in the sense that he became one with the Divine (in his religion Yahweh) through a metaphysical experience that revealed the concept of Unity to him? Are many people capable of this?

I mean, all the things he did were to carry out the prophecy, right? So he purposely carried out the prophecy (like John baptising him, etc). Could that mean he just felt like a dude who could show people how to connect with the Divine and so he claimed he was the messiah?

I mean, aren't people always the ones that make prophecies come true? We've been shown to have self fulfilling prophecies. We are the ones that say "this tornado fits this prophecy. It is fulfilled"
It's not really such a crazy concept.

Answer 1

There is a school of thought that Jesus did exist, and he was inspired by traveling Buddhists at the time.

Answer 2

I don't even know if Jesus actually existed or how much of what is in the Bible is actually Jesus' words and not Paul;s. It's hard to tell. Regardless, I'm Pagan. There are several Pagan Gods who have similar stories to Jesus, which makes me think more and more that Biblical accuracy is not close to the truth.

I'd like to think that Jesus was a good man, if he existed, but I really don't know. The Principles that he preached are largely borrowed from other religions.

I think that Constantine devised the Bible to be the most convincing control device to mold his Empire. That was the main reason for the Council of Nicea any ways.

Answer 3

The best argumant for the historical existance of Jesus gets laid out by the historian Will Durant;

"That a few simple men should in one generation have invented so powerful and appealing a personality, so lofty an ethic and so inspiring a vision of human brotherhood, would be a miracle far more incredible than any recorded in the Gospels. After two centuries of Higher Criticism the outlines of the life, character, and teaching of Christ, remain reasonably clear, and constitute the most fascinating feature in the history of Western man."

Answer 4

Jesus prophecied many things that would happen when he returns, including the stars will fall from heaven, and then he said "This generation will not pass until all these things be fulfilled." And in another place "There will be some standing here who will still be alive when the Son of Man returns with his Kingdom" Well, it didn't happen in their lilfe time and it's been many many generations....

So, no he wasn't a prophet. His predictions did not come true.

Answer 5

Good questions. I'll try my best to answer them all without sounding "preachy". Here goes....

1) Following your supposition, I would have no basis for my faith in Jesus. For the true Christian, our faith is based on Christ's atoning sacrifice for our sins, for the debt He paid in our place in order to reconcile us to God the Father. If Jesus had been just an ordinary man, sinful in nature like the rest of us, then I would remain guilty because a mere man could not have atoned for the sins of the world. Also, because under OT law God established a blood covenant relationship between Himself and us, Christians would still have to continue to offer animals to high priests to sacrifice for our sins. The reason we no longer adhere to this OT law is because Christ fulfilled the law as the final and perfect sacrifice.

For the record though, I believe Jesus was both fully God and fully man, that He is God incarnate (God in the flesh), 2nd in the Trinity (One God but triune in nature). Scripture supports this, but I will respect your wishes and not post them to try and convince you otherwise.

2) This is an excellent question! Even though there is overwhelming evidence that the New Testament is an accurate and trustworthy historical document, there should also be some independent, non-biblical accounts that corroborate Jesus's existence. And there is! From both hostile and neutral sources. To keep from copying and pasting all that information, here is a link for you to pursue at your leisure: http://www.probe.org/content/view/18/77/

Also, I would recommend a book called, "The Case for Christ: A Journalist's Personal Investigation of the Evidence for Jesus" by Lee Strobel. Lee Strobel attended Yale Law School, is an award-winning former legal editor of the Chicago Tribune, and was an atheist before this investigation. Summaries and reviews can be found here: http://www.amazon.com/Case-Christ-Journalists-Personal-Investigation/dp/0310209307/sr=1-1/qid=1170663044/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/002-8446737-0096055?ie=UTF8&s=books

3) As part of the triune God (God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit), Jesus was divine in nature from the beginning. He didn't start out as merely human and then become divine. I'll admit, the Trinity is a difficult concept for our finite minds to grasp. It would be kind of like trying to explain ourselves to an ant. The best analogy I've read is water (not that God can be summed up by this analogy, mind you). It has three properties: liquid (water), solid (ice), and gas (steam). One substance; three different properties - One God, three different distinctions. Someone else might be able to explain this concept better than I can though.

For the second part of your question, all believers in Christ are united with God in spirit (1 Corinthians 6:17) and in purpose. Once you accept God's gift of salvation, you undergo a spiritual rebirth (John 3:3) and are sealed with the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 1:13-14), who lives inside each believer.

4) John (sinful man) did not feel worthy enough to baptize Jesus (sinless Lord), and who could blame him, so Jesus had to convince him by telling him that it was proper in order to fulfill all righteousness. This is the only instance I can think of where skeptics might be able to say that Jesus "purposely" fulfilled prophecy.

Other fulfillments such as the circumstances regarding His birth, His miracles, the details of His death - right down to the Roman soldiers casting lots for His clothing, and His resurrection are fulfillments of prophecy that could not have been manipulated by some ordinary man who falsely claimed to be the Messiah. Jesus was the real deal.

Also, the Dead Sea Scrolls, which comprise the oldest group of Old Testament manuscripts ever found, date back to 100--200 B.C. This is dramatic, because we now have absolute evidence that Messianic prophecies contained in today’s Old Testament (both Jewish and Christian) are the same Messianic prophecies that existed prior to the time Jesus walked on this earth.

And Jesus fulfilled those prophecies, thus proving He is the promised Messiah!

I hope this was helpful!

Answer 6

According to Islam, Jesus son of Mary was a Prophet and Messenger of God. He was one of the 5 mightiest Messengers of God including: Abraham, Moses, David, Jesus and Muhammad (peace be upon them all).

Answer 7

Your proof of mother earth, Jesus is the Son of God.

Answer 8

Possibly, but there is a lot of PROFIT to be had selling his stories and myths!

Answer 9

no, not a prophet.