What facts or ideas outside of the Bible support the claim that Jesus is an incanation of God?

Question

I have been raised Christian, and I am starting to doubt whether or not Christ was a an incarnation of God. I do not believe that the Bible is divinely inspired, although it has some good advice. I still believe in God very much, but the more I learn about the prophets of other religions, the more I see that all of them seem to be a lot alike. Are there any arguments in favor of Christ being an incarnation of God that are not based on the Bible or faith? And please do not quote a bunch of Bible passages or explain what "faith" is. I have already explored these ideas and made my decisions about them. Thanks for any new theories that might help me understand Christ better!

Oops...sorry about the typo. I meant "incarnation".

Answer 1

Yes, there are several references to Jesus Christ being the Son of God outside the Bible. The Early Church Fathers who brought the church up in it's infancy didn't have a New Testament as we know it to be. They relayed on the oral accounts given by those who were eyewitnesses to Jesus Christ Himself. They were even challenged by the non-Christians of their time on the same issue you have. Fortunately, all of these books, papers, letters, treaties', are still around today. I encourage you to take a look at them.

http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/

Answer 2

I have never seen any facts IN the Bible or elsewhere that state that Jesus is an incarnation of God. What the Bible says is Jesus is the son of God and a part of the Holy Trinity which is God, His son Jesus and the Holy Spirit. Jesus is often referred to as a great prophet and many religions who do not believe he is the Savior referred to in the old Testament of the Bible still believe he was an awesome prophet from God. The real question then is do you believe that Jesus is the Son of God and therefor the Savior spoken of by the prophets who came before him, or do you believe he was just a really awesome prophet? Either way, does it matter if what He taught is a way of life that you believe in? God, the Trinity, the Prophets..... it's all a huge mystery and it is not necessary to have an absolute belief in how they came to be, other than that they were sent by God to aid the human race. The rest will be made clear in the afterlife. Or, at least that is what we have been taught ! Again, as long as it is good and it is, does it matter so much?

Answer 3

Personal experience is the only thing, and it doesn't really prove it directly, but many people have experienced changed lives after believing in Jesus.
If there was direct, indusputable proof of everything in the Bible, then surely everyone would be a Christian, but some things must be taken on faith. Not blind faith; there are reasons to believe. Early Christians were tortured and killed because they believed in the resurrection of Jesus; they would not recant when they were given the chance; why would they refuse to recant in the face of torture and death for something they made up?
Perhaps you are not familiar with the reality of receiving the Holy Spirit; I suggest that you visit a church that really believes in the Holy Spirit that you can feel, and that gives you joy and peace. Read Acts chapters 2, 8, 10, and 11.

Answer 4

Well, the Bible is self-verifiable, but it is also verifiable by history. Science may not verify it out of hand, but scientific evidence suggests that what is said in the Bible concerning areas of science is true (go to www.answersingenesis.org). Much of the history of the Bible can be historically verified by sources outside the Bible.

Have you ever heard of Josephus? He was an ex-Jewish zealot who was hired by the Roman civil authorities of his time to record the history of the Jews from an objective point of view. Many of the things that he wrote confirm that Jesus existed & the facts surrounding Jesus' death & resurrection as written in the Bible, among many other things.

Also, as archeology develops, many other events in the Bible are also being verified. Have you ever heard of Paul Maier? He's a Christian, but also an intellectually trustworthy & thorough historian & author (Ph.D. teaches at a University) who would be helpful to you in this area. His contact information is at: http://www.wmich.edu/history/facultystaff/facultyprofiles/maier.html . He will be able to help you far better than I could.

Also consider the books of former agnostic & aithiests such as Josh McDowell (Evidence That Demands a Verdict) & Lee Stroebel (Case for Christ) who were out to prove Christianity wrong & in the process were moved by the Holy Spirit through the evidence to no longer reject the truth claims in the Bible.

Jesus' death & resurrection are historical facts. Check it out. Don't let someone convince you by shallow arguments that God does not exist or that Jesus is not God. If He indeed rose from the dead & that is historical fact, He is God, just as He claims in the Bible. The only part of Jesus' death & resurrection that is the matter of whether or not His death was for YOUR forgiveness. Are you a sinner in need of forgiveness?

Answer 5

Christ is not an incarnation of God simply because He is one with God. That is the mystery of the Divine Trinity. If your pertaining to the fact that He rose from the dead, that on the other hands is just resurrection or when your soul goes out of your body and comes back to it.

Answer 6

I can tell you in brief, but I don't have all the footnotes and references in my head. See below --

What I can tell you is that there are contemporary secular accounts (yes, in the first century) of what Christians believed even very early and what their practices were. Not only did they worship Him as God, ALL of the apostles and many of his followers were willing to be executed for teaching and believing that He was himself God and that they had seen Him alive after his death. If that were not the case, someone would have broken down and told "the truth" in order to escape execution.

Another thing to bear in mind -- claiming that He was God in human flesh was exactly what he was executed for! He was tried and convicted for blasphemy... that is, claiming to be God. He accepted worship as God, and never said to anyone (as Peter and John did in Acts) "no, I am a man just as you are." When Thomas says to him "My Lord and my God!" Jesus praises him for having figured it out. I know you didn't want Scripture references, but the Gospel accounts are all early enough (written within the lifetime of people who witnessed the events -- this is KNOWN from textual evidence) not to be mythical or legendary.

My suggestion to you is that you lay hands on these specific books:

1)Evidence That Demands a Verdict, by Josh McDowell (all is it is references to primary sources and other documents-- that is, evidences)

2) The Case for Christ, Lee Strobel

3) The Case for Easter, Lee Strobel (a smaller book, excerpted from The Case for Christ)

4) The Case for Faith, Lee Strobel

5) Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis

All of these authors were former atheists who found the evidence sufficient for belief.

Answer 7

If you listen to the world, of course you are going to start to doubt God. I do not know what to tell you since you are requiring that I leave out the first hand accounts that describe the life and works of Jesus. New theories are not going to help you understand Christ better. You will either hear that he never existed, was not from God, came from God but was only a prophet, crazy jewish guy, nice guy who said nice things and married and had kids. Anything other than the fact that Jesus is GOD who came to earth to saves us from ourselves. Can I recommend a book for you? It is free. You can find it online, actually I will find it for you. It is called the desire of ages. Read this if you want to get to know the real Jesus better.

Answer 8

I love history, and as such have studied it for years and intend to do so for many more...

In my studies I have not seen where there are any FACTS that support that Jesus was an incarnation or son of God.

However there are several viable things that do seem to prove that as a man he did live and breath and die.

When it comes to religion... any religion... there are not many FACTS written in stone that can support religions... because to be honest, religion is a BELIEF in something MORE!... a MORE That can not often be proved... such is the nature of belief... you BELIEVE in it.

There are scientific carbon dating on some items that have been found throughout history that have been linked to Jesus, but insofar that I know of... not FACTS to prove Jesus' claim to being the Son of God...

Answer 9

Dear Madam/ Sir,
You sound like I felt momentarily last evening when I thought ," how is it that all knowing God does not know the eventual out come of man against the devil.
Is the devil stronger than God etc. were my thoughts.
I cooled off in few minutes and realized that the devil is nothing but a representation of free willed lower desires of a human unlike the total expression of animals which are all manifestations of instincts.
The God had made this as a covenant with Adam and Eve with a warning that humans in future will bear the fruits of their thinking, deeds and consequences of their desires.
********** ******** ****** *****
Now coming to your question of questionable reincarnation of God.
As far as we know, the God has never "appeared for humans in the past. People have felt the presence of God, and they have been inspired by Him but no human has seen God face to face except through His reincarnations..
Please read the Gospel of Shree Ramakrishna Parmhansa and the his disciple Shree Vivekananda who declared openly that Jesus was an incarnation of God.
In the New Testament, Jesus was described to be a Son of the almighty God and as we all know the Son is an incarnation of his father in our world.

An incarnation is that entity which represents the original in its total manifestation for the purpose of human understanding of the original. Reincarnation means that God has appeared as a person many times before in the history of the mankind.

We cannot understand God with our human mind, but we can understand his sons like Moses and Jesus, in the West and Krishna and Rama in the East.

The argument is not who is or is not the reincarnation of God, but, it is to understand the God Himself by our human minds.
It all starts from understanding our parents, their love and the love of God that they teach us.
From our parents we learn and understand the reincarnations of God.
Finally it is the knowing of truth that matters in our journey of life, no matter how it is learned.


Ramesh-
Sounds of the heart group.
http://groups.msn.com/Soundsoftheheart

Answer 10

The short answer is that there is not only no evidence that Jesus was the son of God, but a majority of historians would tell you that he probably never even said he was (see any work by Dominic Crossan, fore example).

I am currently in the process of converting to Judaism and it sounds to me like that's something you might want to look into as well if you like Christian ethics (which are largely Jewish in origin) but are uncomfortable with the idea that Jesus was really the son of God.