Our hope lies not in the man we put
on the moon, but in the Man we put
on the cross.
 
 
 
Here is a Man Who was born in an obscure village, the child of a peasant woman. He grew up in another obscure village. He worked in a carpenter shop until He was 30, & then for three years He was an itinerant preacher.
He never wrote a book. He never held an office. He never owned a home. He never had a family.
He never went to college. He never put His foot inside a big city. He never traveled 200 miles from the place where He was born. He never did one of the things that usually accompanies greatness.
He had no credentials but Himself. He had nothing to do with this World except the naked power of His divine manhood. While still a young man, the tide of popular opinion turned against Him.
His friends ran away. One of them denied Him. He was turned over to His enemies. He went through the mockery of a trial.
He was nailed to a cross between two thieves. His executioners gambled for the only piece of property He had on Earth while He was dying--& that was His coat. When He was dead He was taken down & laid in a borrowed grave through the pity of a friend.
Nineteen wide centuries have come & gone & today he is the centerpiece of the human race & the leader of the column of progress.
I am far within the mark when I say that all the armies that ever marched, & all the navies that ever were built, & all the parliaments that ever sat, & all the kings that ever reigned, put together have not affected the life of man upon this Earth as powerfully as has that One solitary life.

Who is this man, this Jesus?

Do we know that Jesus actually existed as a person?

Yes!--To the unprejudiced historian, the historical facts regarding Jesus are as definite and evident as those of Julius Caesar. Not only do we find an accurate portrait of Him in the documents of the New Testament, but dozens of ancient non-Biblical manuscripts confirm that Jesus was a genuine historical figure who lived in Palestine in the early part of the first century.

Concerning the testimony of the many ancient secular accounts of Jesus, the Encyclopedia Britannica states:

"These independent accounts prove that in ancient times even the opponents of Christianity never doubted the historicity of Jesus, which was disputed for the first time--and on inadequate grounds--by several authors during the 19th and at the beginning of the 20th centuries." read more