DaVinci Code: The Truth Behind the Fiction - Part 15

DaVinci Code Part 15 - Liar, Lunatic, or Son of God

In blog 14 in this series, I promised we’d answer the question, “What does all this have to do with any of us in 2006?” If you are reading my blogs as a person who is investigating Christianity, you probably want to know why Christians see Jesus’ divinity as essential to our faith. You may ask, “Why can’t we just follow his teachings, seeing him as a good teacher and a good man?”

The fundamental problem with this question lies in the fact that neither Jesus, his disciples, or the church leave the option open. He cannot be seen as a good teacher and a great man. C.S. Lewis sums the issue up better than most in the following explanation:
'I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: 'I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept His claim to be God.' That is one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of thing Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic—on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg—or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.'
So, we are left with a choice – dismiss Jesus as a liar, conclude he was a lunatic, or accept him as God in the flesh. He claimed to be God in the flesh. A man who would claim to be God and knew he wasn’t is a liar and cannot be called good or moral. A man who would claim to be God and believe it, but not really be God, is a crazy man (many of whom are in hospitals today). A crazy man should not be followed under any circumstances. The only other option is that he claimed to be God and was in fact God! Then he would be both a good teacher, perfectly trustworthy, and worthy of our submission. We must all decide who we say that Jesus is. There are three choices. Have you decided? I have.

Carpe Deum! (Seize God!)
Todd Phillips
www.toddphillips.net