{"id":83072,"date":"2025-01-09T14:02:17","date_gmt":"2025-01-09T20:02:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/?p=83072"},"modified":"2025-01-09T14:02:17","modified_gmt":"2025-01-09T20:02:17","slug":"the-credibility-of-jesus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-credibility-of-jesus\/","title":{"rendered":"The Credibility of Jesus"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\t

by Terry Wane Benton<\/p>\nFriends and enemies saw the miracles of Jesus. The enemies had to explain them. Their go-to argument was that He worked by the power of Satan. But the fact that they even had to explain them in such a way means that such testimony was credible from the start. Furthermore, the credibility of Jesus is seen in His prediction of His death and resurrection. If that had not been credible, his disciples would have quickly died out, and the church of Christ would have been as dead as the body of Jesus, which would have been still in the tomb.\nBut, one other thing that made Jesus credible and His Jewish enemies incredible was the fact that Jesus predicted that this very generation would see the permanent fall of the center of Judaism, the temple in Jerusalem. He said, “Not one stone would be left upon another<\/em>,” and that very generation would see it (Matthew 24:1-36). To this day, the Lord’s church has stood up despite all kinds of persecution. His church spread without the use of carnal weapons or threatening people to submit to Jesus or have their heads cut off.\nThe gospel of Jesus has always been a message of life, hope, love, and goodwill. It explains how people can remit their sins and prepare to meet God in good standing when they die. People have always been free to reject those benefits and die unprepared, but no force has been used to make them believe in and serve Jesus. Serving Jesus is on a volunteer basis, and people have always volunteered because Jesus’ credibility has always stood on its own merits.\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Terry Wane Benton Friends and enemies saw the miracles of Jesus. The enemies had to explain them. Their go-to argument was that He worked by the power of Satan. But the fact that they even had to explain them in such a way means that such testimony was credible from the start. Furthermore, the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[139],"class_list":["post-83072","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-belief"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":63125,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/no-man-ever-spoke-like-this-man\/","url_meta":{"origin":83072,"position":0},"title":"No Man Ever Spoke Like This Man","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 6, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton On one most revealing occasion, some soldiers were sent to capture Jesus and came back empty-handed exclaiming, \"No man ever spoke like this man\" (John 7:46). What seems most impressive to me about the whole episode of Jesus is that He was feared, not because He\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":89856,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/external-evidence-of-jesus-miracles\/","url_meta":{"origin":83072,"position":1},"title":"External Evidence of Jesus’ Miracles","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 29, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton Do secular and Jewish writings mention or explain the miracles and powers of Jesus? Secular and Jewish sources from antiquity do not mention or explain Jesus' miracles in a manner that supports them. Still, they do provide external acknowledgment that he had a reputation as a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":42837,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/are-the-gospel-writers-credible\/","url_meta":{"origin":83072,"position":2},"title":"Are the Gospel Writers Credible?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 5, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"by Wayne Jackson The writers of the Gospel accounts - Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John - quite definitely affirm that Jesus Christ claimed to be the Son of God and that he performed miracles to authenticate that affirmation. Further, they allege that even though Jesus was put to death on\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":89080,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/johns-proposition-and-proof\/","url_meta":{"origin":83072,"position":3},"title":"John’s Proposition and Proof","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 4, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton The gospel of John is very unique in that it sets forth a proposition as in a debate, and then seeks to present evidence to prove the proposition is true. The proposition is stated in the first 18 verses that Jesus was actually God with God\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":24647,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-didnt-jesus-let-the-unclean-spirits-say-who-he-was\/","url_meta":{"origin":83072,"position":4},"title":"Why didn’t Jesus let the unclean spirits say who he was?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 25, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: There are some parts in the Bible, where it says \"Jesus cast out demons, but did not let them talk, because they knew who He was.\" Why would He do that? I mean, if people heard demons saying that Jesus is Lord, they'd believe, and it'd be good, wouldn't\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":89611,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/skeptic-blunders-about-jesus-and-bethlehem\/","url_meta":{"origin":83072,"position":5},"title":"Skeptic: Blunders About Jesus and Bethlehem","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 21, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton \"Further, other claimed 'fulfilled prophecies' falter under scrutiny: Micah 5:2 (\"born in Bethlehem\") addresses a contemporary Davidic ruler from the 8th century BCE, whereas Matthew appears to adapt the narrative to make Jesus' origin fit this prophecy, despite other Gospel accounts indicating his roots in Nazareth.\"\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83072","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83072"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83072\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83072"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83072"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83072"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}