Thoughts I Have

A Good Teacher??

Imagine for a moment what your reaction would be if you had heard Gandhi say, "Truly, truly I say to you, unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you have no life in you." 

Keep that image in mind as you read my argument against the 'good teacher' opinion. 

Lots of people in our society today are not Christian, but they say they think Jesus 'was a good teacher.' They do not believe Christ is God, or that He rose from the dead, but they believe He lived as a man (which He did and does: He has two wills, one human and one divine. He still has two wills because He rose from the dead and ascended to the Father. He is one in being with the Father. Anyways...). I personally do not understand this view point. First of all, there are three possible reactions such an individual can have. First, they can claim Jesus is lying, or the apostles are lying, when Jesus says He's God. But He rose again, and the apostles died horrible, torturous deaths bearing witness to His resurrection. So no one was lying, if the Bible is true. Second, they can claim Jesus was simply insane. But once again, who would die for a lie like the resurrection? Who would even expect other people to believe such an inconceivable story? Maybe the apostles were insane, then? No. You only have to read their writing to conclude for yourself they are far from insane, in terms of IQ and in terms of mental health. 

They might claim Jesus simply did a lot of evil- but Jesus rose from the dead and His disciples gave testimony to that with their own lives. Evil can not conquer death. Evil is the cause of death, and you don't need to believe in God to figure that out (drunk driving is sinful and evil, and it has killed millions). 

So, unless you believe what the Bible says is true, that Jesus is God and that He died and rose again, it is a fallacy to say you believe Jesus was a man who lived in the first century AD. 

What makes the least sense to me is when people say they think Jesus was just a good teacher. An article I read recently made the excellent point that if Confucius or Gandhi had said even some of the radical things Jesus did, they would have been denounced as lunatics. 

Go back to imagining Gandhi saying, "Truly, truly I say to you, unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you have no life in you." 

You probably laugh, but Jesus said that. When you read that, you are really only left with three options: believing the Bible was edited (who would even put that in there? It doesn't make any sense unless Jesus actually said it!), believing Jesus is just insane, or believing it is true (It is meant both literally and figuratively, I think. Literally in the sense of Holy Communion, which is God's body and blood, and figuratively in the sense Jesus is life and unless we partake of His life, we are dead, which also ties in to Communion because we are partaking of His life, not just His body). There is no room for disbelieving that statement and thinking Jesus is just a good teacher.