Is Jesus Real?

This question is often asked out of frustration, cynicism, or faith challenges.  As a Christian, I have been through educational “church” bible studies and read numerous books and material and Archaeological treatises on the historical Jesus.

Contrary to popular belief, some are not aware Christ is not his last name. He was known by name as Jesus of Nazareth, as was the custom of his time to name people using the name they were from. However, Christ is what makes him set apart from all of us on earth as the Messiah of the Old Testament and revealed in the New Testament.   It is here where believers acknowledge that he was the Son of God, the Holy Spirit, and God incarnate in human flesh.  Now again, I’m not a Theologian, and I’m barely schooled in the machinations of Christianity. For those of you who are about to click from this post as thinking I’m about to proselytize you into being a Christian, you may find there’s a bit more here. In my opinion, there is as much myth as there is fact-based faith. I am an analytical thinking person.

What I accept as faith comes from an innermost trust in what comes from my heart and as King David was described as a man after His (God’s) own heart. Whatever I learn and experience is governed by this simple truth. In my earlier posts, you may recall that the wisdom from an old rabbi friend told me about the definition of truth is “fidelity to the original.” So I am skeptical and vigorously question(and many times accept) the teachings and accounts of Christianity.  The secular world and so-called scientists are seldom questioned or subjected to the scrutiny needed or the examination of who was and is Jesus.  In today’s world, we accept science as gospel and turn it into a religion unto itself. Man’s true science exploring the amazing things in our world is in our nature. As believers, a part of God’s creation of free will in us not to be as the smug skeptics among us call us “knuckle-dragging mental Neanderthals.”  Excepting some one’s concrete assertion that 1 million,10 million or 5 billion years ago is at best a theory mainly because there was no one around to corroborate those theories. 

Yes, we can make assumptions and calculations based on many theories and extrapolations of the here and now. We really don’t know much about the huge universe we consciously live in, even if we are a spec in the continuum of history or time itself.  Well, I just proved that I’m not much of a scientist either. So, I’m coming around to my experience with Jesus. 

I explained to my Neurologist that I have been having some experiences where I get a tremendous overpowering sense of a struggle with evil accompanied by a bad taste in my mouth and a bad smell.  I’ve of late been prone to having seizures, and all said a collective “Ah Ha, we have the answer! It’s a pre-seizure aura, and it’s in your mind.” They increased the anti-seizure meds, and they have seemed to go away. I told them that the only way the experiences I described subsided is that I said, “in the name of Jesus, Satan Leave Me!” The episodes would, with rare exceptions, immediately subside whether I had a seizure or not.  The Neurologist gave me a “sure whatever ” look, so I went home.  This happened about half-dozen times since then, and If I preemptively pray mostly, they don’t happen. The attacks happen in various instances while I lay sleeping, sitting on the porch, or even once while I was on my mower mowing the grass or outside doing some pruning. These are terrifying beyond my description, and I’m a hardass. Little frightens me since I became an adult (I use that term loosely since others, including my wife, thinks I’m more juvenile than my years). After getting the rope-a-dope from the docs saying we don’t know what’s causing this except a veiled, “it must be all in your head,” I had a thought.  I contacted a retired Episcopal priest and dear friend of mine and asked him to come by and chat out on my back deck.  I’ve known him as an intellectual and spiritual man that I respect for a no-nonsense Christian. In our small talk, describing my reason for calling him, I relayed my experiences.  He listened as he knew just exactly what was going on. He said that this comes from unrepented sin or, in my case (since I pretty much cleaned up the wreckage from at least the top ten) an attack that is very real of evil and demons that wish to envelop you into their realm of reality, which is just as real. They wanted me for my good steadfastness, he said, and saw an opening in my physical health to find my vulnerable state to take me down.  He had the creds because he fought these similar battles when he was a teenager on up to his seminary days. He said the rebuking in the name of Jesus was exactly what he did to fight back. Once in our church (which is an Evangelical church but pretty tame in the supernatural things), I’ve seen him just stand up and say God put it upon his heart to speak to the pastor’s sermon in about a paragraph that complimented the words of the pastor and was uncannily profound.  Sort of like speaking in tongues or healing services in the pentecostal churches. While these are real experiences, there is also fraud and opportunism associated with these spiritual moments because humanity will capitalize on anything.  So I fought back, invoking the name of Jesus with more forcefulness as if we were side by side brothers in arms fighting for my soul.  I say, “Sweet Jesus, stay with me; I’m afraid.”  They say that there are no atheists in foxholes, well these are those moments because I have never been tested like this. My friend prayed over me and anointed me with oil (I’m not one who accepts this seemingly ritualistic thing, but that day it felt comforting).

HE IS REAL. And so is Satan. I know it not because I read about it or saw a movie or studied scripture or listened to some charismatic preacher, but I’ve experienced it.  And know that without the powerful friend and loving son of God and the power he has is made available in a loving way too little insignificant me. I also know that skeptics and questioners may not be worse than hands in the air churchgoers who want a tantalizing “religious experience” singing Hallelujah and leaving the church with a temporary “high”  Church certainly can be genuine but more than not is populated with a large segment of agnostics and posers.  I convict myself as occasionally slipping into that form of hypocrisy but rarely in a time of weakness. I return to my Jewish friend’s statement about truth that I mentioned earlier. My tolerance for BS is low, so when I tell you these things, they are the real deal.  My sinfulness is far greater than the Apostle Paul, who thought of himself as the greatest sinner of all.  This is an ongoing battle I fight as my priest friend told me it would be. I will persevere with God’s powerful personality, Jesus.  I coined a short sentence that kind of sums it all up for me, and I try my best to live by it (and this is only a couple of years old for me)  “The road of conviction leads to God’s grace and is paved with repentance and washed clean of GUILT by the blood of Jesus.” Live life with no regrets.  There is a God. He created us and all of creation with a meticulous exactness that all the best scientists will only be able to explore so far. We are linear and finite. Our days come and go, our projects are great and small, but God transcends all dimensions, time, and space. Scientists don’t need to theorize beyond scratching the thin surface of the knowable in this world and let faith bridge the purposely unknowable gap. You don’t have to “know” it to understand truth.

It just is like God started with nothing and made everything. If you subscribe to the “Big Bang” theory, well ponder this “who lit the fuse” and started this perfectly ordered universe into motion. Call it what you want Dark Matter, Light-matter, what really matters is a creator who put it all together and is perfectly capable and wants you to prevail over the dark matter. We have to have faith and join with him by choice. He wants it that way. Therein lies the love part between creation and the loving creator. When it hits the fan, He’s bigger and more powerful than that boogeyman that attacks us. He transcends death and the suffering as horrible as it can be, especially from man against man. He makes it temporary in favor of a created place where suffering is no more, and the only thing in our way is that pesky old Satan, who again is just as real as Jesus, but we’ve got the power and the glory forever. Amen.