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The Christological argument for the
existence of God
The existence of God (or more generally, the existence of deities) is a subject of debate in theology, philosophy of religion and popular culture. A wide variety of arguments for and against the existence of God or deities can be categorize ...
, which exists in several forms, holds that if certain claims about Jesus are valid, one should accept that God exists. There are three main threads; the argument from the wisdom of Jesus, the argument from the claims of Jesus as son of God and the argument from the
resurrection
Resurrection or anastasis is the concept of coming back to life after death. In a number of religions, a dying-and-rising god is a deity which dies and is resurrected. Reincarnation is a similar process hypothesized by other religions, whic ...
.
Argument from the wisdom of Jesus
The essential structure of this argument is as follows:
# The character and wisdom of Jesus is such that his views about reality are (or are likely to be) correct.
# One of Jesus' views about reality was that God exists.
# Therefore, the view that God exists is (or is likely to be) correct.
Some forms of
evangelism take this approach. Potential
converts are introduced to Jesus as a historical character and the merits of Jesus' teachings are discussed. In such a context, the
historicity of Jesus of Nazareth is a crucial factor in assessing the argument.
The principal objections to (1) are the suggestions that:
# The reports of Jesus' character in the Bible are not reliable.
# Jesus' views about reality are not (or not likely to be) necessarily correct.
Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, (18 May 1872 – 2 February 1970) was a British mathematician, philosopher, logician, and public intellectual. He had a considerable influence on mathematics, logic, set theory, linguistics, ...
, in his essay "
Why I Am Not a Christian
''Why I Am Not a Christian'' is an essay by the British people, British philosophy, philosopher Bertrand Russell. Originally a talk given 6 March 1927 at Battersea Town Hall, under the auspices of the South London Branch of the National Secular ...
", criticized Jesus' personal character and philosophical positions on various grounds.
# Even supposing that Jesus was correct, wise, and knowledgeable about a great many things does not imply that he was knowledgeable about everything. A deep knowledge of moral philosophy and the iniquities of the human condition, for example, do not necessarily imply any valid expertise on astrophysics, Phoenician literature, or the literal existence of God.
Argument from the claims of Jesus to divinity
Lewis's trilemma is an
apologetic
Apologetics (from Greek , "speaking in defense") is the religious discipline of defending religious doctrines through systematic argumentation and discourse. Early Christian writers (c. 120–220) who defended their beliefs against critics and ...
argument traditionally used to argue for the
divinity of Jesus by arguing that the only alternatives were that he was evil or
deluded.
[Lewis, C. S., ''God in the Dock'' (Eerdmans, 2014), pages 100–101.] One version was popularised by
University of Oxford
, mottoeng = The Lord is my light
, established =
, endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019)
, budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20)
, chancellor ...
literary scholar and writer
C. S. Lewis
Clive Staples Lewis (29 November 1898 – 22 November 1963) was a British writer and Anglican lay theologian. He held academic positions in English literature at both Oxford University (Magdalen College, 1925–1954) and Cambridge Univers ...
in a
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
radio talk and in his writings. It is sometimes described as the "Lunatic, Liar, or Lord", or "Mad, Bad, or God" argument. It takes the form of a
trilemma
A trilemma is a difficult choice from three options, each of which is (or appears) unacceptable or unfavourable. There are two logically equivalent ways in which to express a trilemma: it can be expressed as a choice among three unfavourable option ...
— a choice among three options, each of which is in some way difficult to accept.
This argument is very popular with Christian apologists, although some theologians and biblical scholars
[Davis (2006), page 151] do not view Jesus as having claimed to be God.
Some argue that he identified himself as a divine agent, with a unique relationship to
Israel's God. Others see him as wanting to direct attention to the divine kingdom he proclaimed.
The argument relies on the premise that Jesus was a great moral teacher. The structure of the argument is as follows:
# Jesus claimed to be God
# Jesus was a wise moral teacher
# By the trilemma, Jesus was dishonest, deluded or God
# No wise moral teacher is dishonest
# No wise moral teacher is deluded
# By 2 and 4, Jesus was not dishonest
# By 2 and 5, Jesus was not deluded
# By 3, 6 and 7, Jesus was God
# By 8, God exists
Those who dispute these premises suggest that:
# Disputing premise 1: Jesus was indeed a wise moral teacher, but his reported teachings have been distorted or misrepresented. For instance, he may not have actually claimed to be divine; this claim may have been added by later writers. Many modern New Testament scholars argue that Jesus did not, in fact, claim to be God.
# Disputing premise 2:
C.S. Lewis
CS, C-S, C.S., Cs, cs, or cs. may refer to:
Job titles
* Chief Secretary (Hong Kong)
* Chief superintendent, a rank in the British and several other police forces
* Company secretary, a senior position in a private sector company or public se ...
expressed the opinion that any mere man who claimed to be God could not, by definition, be a wise moral teacher (and that, conversely, any wise moral teacher would not claim to be God).
Christopher Hitchens
Christopher Eric Hitchens (13 April 1949 – 15 December 2011) was a British-American author and journalist who wrote or edited over 30 books (including five essay collections) on culture, politics, and literature. Born and educated in England, ...
argued that Jesus was not a wise moral teacher by arguing against several of his teachings. For example, of Jesus' teaching "Let him who is without sin cast the first stone", Hitchens wrote: "if only the non-sinners have the right to punish, then how could an imperfect society ever determine how to prosecute offenders?"
# Disputing premise 4: A person can be a wise moral teacher despite lying. Jesus could have believed (as some later philosophers have held) that religion is false but beneficial to society, and that by establishing a new religion (or a reform of Judaism) he was doing a good deed nonetheless.
# Disputing premise 5: A person can be a wise moral teacher despite being delusional. Granting credence to some, or even most, of someone's claims does not require that we give credence to all of them. Someone can believe Socrates' philosophical claims about justice without also believing Socrates' theological speculations about the Greek gods, or accept Aristotle's views on poetry without also accepting his claim that heavier objects fall faster than lighter ones.
Philosopher John Beversluis described Lewis's arguments as "textually careless and theologically unreliable", and this particular argument as logically unsound and an example of
false dilemma. New Testament scholar
N. T. Wright
Nicholas Thomas Wright (born 1 December 1948), known as N. T. Wright or Tom Wright, is an English New Testament scholar, Pauline theologian and Anglican bishop. He was the bishop of Durham from 2003 to 2010. He then became research profe ...
criticises Lewis for failing to recognise the significance of Jesus' Jewish identity and setting – an oversight which "at best, drastically short-circuits the argument" and which lays Lewis open to criticism that his argument "doesn't work as history, and it backfires dangerously when historical critics question his reading of the gospels", although he believes this "doesn't undermine the eventual claim".
Argument from the resurrection
Another argument is that the
resurrection of Jesus
The resurrection of Jesus ( grc-x-biblical, ἀνάστασις τοῦ Ἰησοῦ) is the Christian belief that God raised Jesus on the third day after his crucifixion, starting – or restoring – his exalted life as Christ and Lo ...
occurred and was an act of God, hence God must exist. Some versions of this argument have been presented, such as
N. T. Wright
Nicholas Thomas Wright (born 1 December 1948), known as N. T. Wright or Tom Wright, is an English New Testament scholar, Pauline theologian and Anglican bishop. He was the bishop of Durham from 2003 to 2010. He then became research profe ...
's argument from the nature of the claim of resurrection to its occurrence and the "minimal facts argument", defended by scholars such as
Gary Habermas
Gary Robert Habermas (born 1950) is an American New Testament scholar and theologian who frequently writes and lectures on the resurrection of Jesus. He has specialized in cataloging and communicating trends among scholars in the field of histo ...
and
Mike Licona, which defend that God raising Jesus from the dead is "the best explanation for a set of claimed historical facts about Jesus and his disciples".
William Lane Craig
William Lane Craig (born August 23, 1949) is an American analytic philosopher, Christian apologist, author and Wesleyan theologian who upholds the view of Molinism and neo-Apollinarianism. He is Professor of Philosophy at Houston Baptist ...
, another advocate of this last argument, includes in the list of facts:
# After his crucifixion, Jesus was buried in a tomb by
Joseph of Arimathea
Joseph of Arimathea was, according to all four canonical gospels, the man who assumed responsibility for the burial of Jesus after his crucifixion. The historical location of Arimathea is uncertain, although it has been identified with several ...
# On the Sunday following the crucifixion, Jesus’ tomb was found empty by a group of his women followers
# On multiple occasions and under various circumstances, different individuals and groups of people experienced appearances of Jesus alive from the dead
# The original disciples believed that Jesus was risen from the dead despite their having every predisposition to the contrary.
In light of these, he goes on to say the best explanation is that God raised Jesus from the dead.
Such arguments have had many responses which depends on the version in question. The "minimal facts argument", for instance, have been criticized both regarding the actual veracity of the claimed historical facts as well as the inference to the best explanation being that God rose Jesus from the dead. In the second case, people such as
Gerd Lüdemann
Gerd Lüdemann (July 5, 1946–May 23, 2021) was a German biblical scholar and historian. He taught first Jewish Christianity and Gnosticism at McMaster University, Canada (1977–1979) and then New Testament at Vanderbilt Divinity School, U.S. ...
justify their rejection based on philosophical reasons while others, such as
Bart D. Ehrman
Bart Denton Ehrman (born 1955) is an American New Testament scholar focusing on textual criticism of the New Testament, the historical Jesus, and the origins and development of early Christianity. He has written and edited 30 books, including t ...
, do by more methodological reasons. Regarding the claimed facts, Ehrman and others defend that the sources used in their defense (normally the Gospels) are not trustworthy and so the facts can't be credibly established, while others have provided positive reasons to attest them as false.
This is the major position in Islam, which rejects that Jesus ever was crucified. Islamic texts categorically deny the crucifixion and death of Jesus at the hands of the Jews.
["Isa", Encyclopedia of Islam] The Qur'an states that the Jews sought to kill Jesus, but they did not kill or crucify him, although a likeness of it was shown to them. Traditionalists believe that Jesus was not crucified but instead was raised
alive into heaven. This raising is understood by them to mean bodily ascension, while some Qur'anic scholars, such as
Muhammad Asad
Muhammad Asad, ( ar, محمد أسد , ur, , born Leopold Weiss; 2 July 1900 – 20 February 1992) was an Austro-Hungarian-born Pakistani journalist, traveler, writer, linguist, political theorist and diplomat. He was a Jew but, later conve ...
, while cross referencing the text consider it to mean being raised in honour:
[Neal Robinson, Crucifixion, Encyclopedia of the Qur'an]
According to some Muslim traditions, Jesus was replaced by a double; others suggest it was
Simon of Cyrene
Simon of Cyrene (, Standard Hebrew ''Šimʿon'', Tiberian Hebrew ''Šimʿôn''; , ''Simōn Kyrēnaios''; ) was the man compelled by the Romans to carry the cross of Jesus of Nazareth as Jesus was taken to his crucifixion, according to all three ...
, or one of the disciples such as
Judas Iscariot
Judas Iscariot (; grc-x-biblical, Ἰούδας Ἰσκαριώτης; syc, ܝܗܘܕܐ ܣܟܪܝܘܛܐ; died AD) was a disciple and one of the original Twelve Apostles of Jesus Christ. According to all four canonical gospels, Judas betraye ...
. Some others view it as Jesus surviving the crucifixion. A minority of commentaries of
Ismaili or rationalist (''falāsifa'') leaning affirmed the crucifixion by arguing that Jesus' body had been crucified, but his spirit had ascended. However, this interpretation was generally rejected, and according to the ''Encyclopedia of Islam'', there was unanimous agreement among the scholars in denying the crucifixion, despite famous Muslim apologist
Shabir Ally have demonstrated that it is possible that Jesus was not crucified at all.
[See Shabir's debate with William Lane Craig, where he demonstrated to be open to the possibility of a real crucifixion without death.] Modern commentators such as M. Hayek interpret the verse to say that the crucifixion "seemed thus to them"
.e. the Jews
See also
*
Criticism of Jesus
*
Mental health of Jesus
The question of whether the historical Jesus was in good mental health has been explored by multiple psychologists, philosophers, historians, and writers. The first person to openly question Jesus' sanity was French psychologist Charles Binet-San ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Christological Argument
Arguments for the existence of God
Christology