For New Year's I wrote about the importance of researching whether Christianity is true or false - never mind whether it's good for us.  How many historians dispute the fact that a man named Jesus walked the earth 2,000 years ago and was crucified?  Ok, so what do we make of him?  Today, most people will answer one of two ways:  1- "a great moral teacher" or 2 - "the son of God."

On whether it is possible to regard this man as a mere nice guy and good teacher (who also happened to claim to be the son of God!), CS Lewis writes:

The things He says are very different from what any other teachers have said.  Other teachers say, "This is the truth about the Universe.  This is the way you ought to go," but Jesus says, "I am the Truth, and the Way, and the Life."  He says, "No man can reach absolute reality, except through Me.  Try to retain your own life and you will be inevitably ruined.  Give yourself away and you will be saved.  If you are ashamed of Me, when you hear this call you turn the other way, I also will look the other way when I come again as God without disguise.  If anything is keeping you from Me, whatever it is, throw it away.  If you put yourself first, you will be last.  Come to Me everyone who is carrying a heavy load, I will set that right.  Your sins, all of them, are wiped out.  I can do that.  I am re-birth, I am Life.  Eat my body, drink my blood."  And finally, "Do not be afraid, I have overcome the whole Universe."

The idea of a great moral teacher saying what Christ said is out of the question.  The only person who can say that sort of thing is either God or a complete lunatic suffering from a form of delusion which undermines the whole mind of man.  If you think you are a poached egg, when you are looking for a piece of toast to suit you, you may be sane, but if you think you are God, there is no chance for you.  He was never [until recently] regarded as a mere moral teacher.  He did not produce that effect on any of the people who actually met Him.  He produced mainly three effects:  Hatred, Terror, or Adoration.  There was no trace of people expressing mild approval. 

So the real question is... son of God or crazed lunatic?  To me, it all comes down to the event we now celebrate - the resurrection.  It would seem that if this guy really is who he says he is, rising from the dead would be some kind of proof!  So did he really do it, or did His followers steal His body and pull off the biggest hoax in the history of mankind (as some believe)?  Given what's on the line here, are we going to really take a look at this - study it objectively, even scientifically - or are we going to give legitimacy to empty conspiracy theories devoid of factual evidence or even worse, containing gross historical lies (e.g., see The Da Vinci Code).

A hoax... or not?  Let's look at what happened after the alleged hoax or alleged resurrection.  One of my favorite accounts on the events that followed is found in The Christ Commission, by Og Mandino.

...try to imagine that small band of men, crushed by events, leaderless and frightened, hiding here behind locked doors.  They were, every one of them, uneducated and penniless, for all they knew, fugitives in a city where the authorities had already nailed their leader to a cross.  For many months they had followed Jesus back and forth across the land, enduring abuse and privation and threats.  And now, this sorry lot - having lost everything at Gethsemane, including faith in their master and hope of sharing his promised kingdom - were preparing to flee forever from this city of danger and broken dreams.

Can you truly visualize the defeat and despair that hung over this room on that night?  Can you see those frightened men of the earth and the sea, their weary faces streaked with tears of sorrow and disappointment, their shocked minds thinking only of their own safety.

[Yet, in 5 years from this moment, there would be] thousands upon thousands of believers in the risen Jesus.  In ten years, that number will have grown so large that they will begin to create serious disturbances in the city and the Temple.  In twenty or twenty-five years there were Christians in every city and village from Judea to Rome, within forty years they will have begun to undermine the swords and spears of the empire, and in less than three hundred years a Roman emperor will fall to his knees and adopt the teachings of Jesus for all his subjects.

Explain to me, if you can, how those eleven miserable weaklings, instead of fleeing to their homes, were able to leave this room, that night, and bring the word of Jesus to the people with such power and force that within three centuries they and their disciples to follow were able to conquer the Roman Empire!  Tell me!  What happened in this room, before they had a chance to escape into a life of anonymity, that changed them from defeated little men into the greatest force for good the world has ever known?  Tell me, what could possibly have occurred here to create such a change in these men, a change so strong and binding in their characters that eventually they would all lay down their lives for their faith?

What happened?  The answer is in Chapter 20 of John.  We've all heard this story before, but have we really thought about it like this?  Until reading Mandino, I know I hadn't. 

I think most of us agree that Jesus wasn't a lunatic.  But did he really rise from the dead?  It's easy to let empty conspiracy theories creep into our head and cast a shadow of doubt, because putting ourself last isn't exactly an easy way to live.  What a relief it would be if the whole thing was a big hoax.

What happened in that room?  Besides Jesus walking in through that door, what else could have driven the force to change the world for all generations?  A Knute Rockne-esque pep talk by Peter?  Until this moment, he was the biggest chicken of all!

Lunatic?  Hoax?  Truth?  We best decide.  Mild approval is not an option.