by Terry Wane Benton<\/p>\n
People say, “Jesus was a made-up story for control.” Yet the same people believe Napoleon fought wars, Socrates taught philosophy, and Alexander conquered nations – all without demanding proof.<\/p>\n
So, let’s compare the evidence:<\/p>\n
Yet when it comes to Jesus, we have:<\/p>\n
If we reject Jesus as “fiction,” then by the same logic, we must erase nearly every ancient figure from history.<\/p>\n
The Council of Nicaea (AD 325) didn’t create Jesus or His divinity. Early Christians proclaimed “Jesus is Lord” in the first century, long before any council existed. Philippians 2:6, written around AD 60, refers to Him as “in very nature God<\/em>.”<\/p>\n The idea of Jesus’ deity wasn’t voted on. It was witnessed, lived, and died for.<\/p>\n Christianity spread across the Roman Empire within decades, while eyewitnesses-both believers and critics-were still alive. Paul’s letters (written 20 years after the crucifixion) already mention over 500 witnesses to the resurrection (I Corinthians 15:6). That’s not legend – that’s living memory.<\/p>\n If we accept Julius Caesar crossed the Rubicon (with far less evidence), if we believe in Socrates’ ideas (based on secondhand writings), if we accept Alexander’s empire (from centuries-later accounts), then to deny Jesus of Nazareth – whose life is supported by multiple sources, archaeology, and global impact – isn’t skepticism. It’s selective disbelief.<\/p>\n Even the most critical scholars – atheist or agnostic – agree Jesus existed. Dr. Bart Ehrman (atheist historian) wrote: “The idea that Jesus did not exist is so untenable that it has no place among serious historians.”<\/p>\n If Jesus is a myth, then history itself is a myth.\u00a0The difference? Jesus didn’t just live – He changed the world, and He still changes hearts today.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Terry Wane Benton People say, “Jesus was a made-up story for control.” Yet the same people believe Napoleon fought wars, Socrates taught philosophy, and Alexander conquered nations – all without demanding proof. So, let’s compare the evidence: Historical Double Standard Socrates never wrote a single word. Everything we know comes from Plato, written decades…<\/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":[37,709,279,73],"class_list":["post-91681","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-apologetics","tag-evidence","tag-history","tag-jesus"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":93873,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-we-know-plato-was-a-real-historical-person\/","url_meta":{"origin":91681,"position":0},"title":"How We Know Plato Was a Real Historical Person","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 12, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton Multiple ancient writers refer to Plato as a real person Plato is mentioned by numerous ancient authors-some who knew him personally, others who lived shortly after him. These include: Aristotle, his student, who repeatedly and critically refers to Plato in his own works. Xenophon, a contemporary\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":33447,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-there-any-non-biblical-evidence-that-proves-the-prophecies-in-the-bible\/","url_meta":{"origin":91681,"position":1},"title":"Is there any non-biblical evidence that proves the prophecies in the Bible?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 25, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: A friend and I talked for a little while tonight regarding Bible evidence, and when we talked about prophecy, he raised the argument that prophecies from the Bible verified purely from within the Bible can't be used to prove the Bible. Is that a fair argument? And are there\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":20610,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-there-any-evidence-of-the-rapture-being-written-or-spoken-of-prior-to-1909-and-scofield\/","url_meta":{"origin":91681,"position":2},"title":"Is there any evidence of the rapture being written or spoken of prior to 1909 and Scofield?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 23, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Is there any evidence of the rapture being written or spoken of prior to 1909 and Scofield? Answer: It depends on which version of premillennialism you have in mind. At its root, premillennialism holds to the idea that Jesus reigns over an earthly kingdom. Such an idea originated among\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":84663,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/rational-faith\/","url_meta":{"origin":91681,"position":3},"title":"Rational Faith?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 17, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton The faith we are to have in Jesus is based on testimonial evidence that has stood the test of time since it was first scrutinized in the first century. Each gospel writer (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) was quite aware of the scrutiny they were under\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":62898,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-jesus-seminar\/","url_meta":{"origin":91681,"position":4},"title":"The Jesus Seminar","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 23, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffrey W. Hamilton I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0At the beginning of April, 1996, three major news magazines [Times, Newsweek, and US News and World Report] all carried the same lead story - \u201cthe search for the historical Jesus\u201d \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0This wasn\u2019t a coincidence. A group of self-proclaimed scholars, called \u201cThe Jesus Society\u201d, were behind\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Sermon"","block_context":{"text":"Sermon","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/sermon\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":14214,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-new-testament-was-written-in-hebrew-not-greek\/","url_meta":{"origin":91681,"position":5},"title":"The New Testament was written in Hebrew, not Greek!","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 18, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: You seem to teach that the original New Testament was originally written in Greek. I hate to differ with you. Nowhere is that fact proven. I believe that Luke may have written his manuscript in Greek, since he was of Syrian descent and also perhaps the books of Acts,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/02\/John-Rylands-Fragment-300x169.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91681","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=91681"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91681\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91681"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91681"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91681"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Legends Need Time – Christianity Didn’t Have Any<\/h2>\n
The Evidence Demands Consistency<\/h2>\n
The Verdict of History<\/h2>\n