Challenges to the historical existence of Jesus Christ arise regularly. Consider the best-selling fiction book The Da Vinci Code. Author Dan Brown claims that Jesus married and had children by one of His followers, Mary Magdalene, and that her body is the actual "Holy Grail."

Critic Sandra Miesel incisively targets the substance and style of Brown's book: "It would be too easy to criticize him for characters thin as plastic wrap, undistinguished prose, and improbable action. But Brown isn't so much writing badly as writing in a particular way best calculated to attract a female audience. (Women, after all, buy most of the nation's books.) He has married a thriller plot to a romance-novel technique" ("Dismantling The Da Vinci Code," www.crisismagazine.com/september2003/feature1.htm).

The bulk of Brown's cited sources are other speculative books, all too typically oriented toward modern feminism, which attempt to deride and degrade the existence and deity of Jesus. The Da Vinci Code is not a book of historical fact.

Even so, such dubious books about Jesus Christ mesmerize some people. It almost seems such folks would consider Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and Monty Python's The Holy Grail to be factual documentaries! People with mind-sets like that certainly aren't vertical thinkers. But the biblical account of Jesus is real, and you can prove it. Following are four powerful proofs of His existence.

Proof #1: His Book

Here's a quick lesson on the transmission of ancient history down to our day. With the exception of rock inscriptions, very few original, historical documents now exist because they disintegrated or were burned or otherwise destroyed in the past. Handmade copies of old documents, some of which are ancient or near ancient themselves, are our key windows to ancient history.

Additionally, historians of centuries ago whose writings exist today often quoted historians of centuries before them whose writings no longer exist, and they in turn had cited the writings of original authors. The study of history consists of piecing together historical documents to learn the story of man—and in this case, God.

The bottom line is that when we have large numbers of historical documents or fragments on a particular topic dating from or faithfully transcribed from ancient times, then we can consider the history gleaned from them remarkably accurate.

For instance, no one—especially your literature teacher—questions the authenticity of the epic poem The Iliad by the ancient Greek poet Homer. In fact, it is the second most well-documented historical writing in existence, with 643 manuscripts still surviving, the oldest complete text dating from the 13th century. Quite impressive!

Now consider the ancient text that is the most well-documented.

By a late 20th-century reckoning, there are over 5,300 surviving ancient Greek manuscripts, 10,000 in Latin and over 9,300 other early-language versions for a grand total of 24,633 manuscripts of this document—the one we call the New Testament of the Bible! This amounts to phenomenal historical validity. This ancient text, by far the most reliably preserved of any, thus validates Jesus Christ's historical existence (Josh McDowell, Evidence That Demands a Verdict, Vol. 1, pp. 39-40).

Proof #2: His biblical biography

This is the internal, biblical proof that Jesus historically existed. The New Testament presents a collection of 27 different historical (and divinely inspired) documents written in the first century. From Jesus' birth to about A.D. 100, these books and letters record the life and times of Jesus Christ plus the existence and work of His group of followers—the Church of God. With three exceptions, the authors were His immediate disciples and two of His half-brothers (James and Jude)—all men who knew Him well.

The first of the three exceptions was Mark, who appears to have recorded the eyewitness account of the apostle Peter. Second is Paul, an apostle to whom Jesus personally appeared (1 Corinthians 15:8). Third is Luke, the physician who traveled with Paul (Colossians 4:14).

Luke's systematically thorough, historical approach sparkles in the introduction to his biography of Christ: "Inasmuch as many have taken in hand to set in order a narrative of those things which have been fulfilled among us, just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word delivered them to us, it seemed good to me also, having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first, to write to you an orderly account, most excellent Theophilus, that you may know the certainty of those things in which you were instructed" (Luke 1:1-4).

You will find in the book of Luke detailed research based on interviews with eyewitnesses who themselves personally knew, heard and saw Jesus during His human lifetime and ministry. Historically, Luke's work is typical of the rest of the New Testament's detailed and true-to-life presentation of Jesus.

Theophilus, in case you're interested, was a true believer who either commissioned Luke's research and writing, or to whom it was simply dedicated. Luke also wrote the book of Acts (Acts 1:1), the Church history that spanned its first three decades.

The New Testament thus provides solid, testimonial proof, replete with amazing detail, of the literal, historical existence of Jesus.

Proof #3: His reputation in secular history

Proverbs 11:14 says, "In the multitude of counselors there is safety." An important part of evaluating historicity is multiple references to the event and/or person in various historical sources. The logic is, if Jesus existed with the societal impact the Bible says He had, then He should be mentioned in other ancient histories. And so He was. Here are a few:

• Flavius Josephus (A.D. 37-100) wrote a monumental history, Antiquities of the Jews, in which he referred to Jesus twice. In section 18.3.3 he called Jesus "the Christ" and wrote of His "marvelous deeds." In section 20.9.1 he referred to the trial of James and identified him as the "the brother of Jesus, the so-called Christ."

• Pliny the Younger, governor of Bithynia (in northern Turkey), wrote a letter (Epistle X.96) to Roman Emperor Trajan (c. A.D. 112) seeking counsel on how to deal with Christians whose practice it was to meet on appointed days to sing a hymn "to Christ as if to God."

• Cornelius Tacitus was a Roman historian who, in his Annals (XV.44, c. A.D. 115), wrote of "Christus" (from Christos, Greek for "Christ") who "was executed at the hands of the procurator Pontius Pilate in the reign of Tiberius."

• Suetonius, the popular Roman writer, about A.D. 120 described how the Emperor Claudius commanded the Jews to depart from Rome for "continually making disturbances at the instigation of Chrestus" (Vita Claudii XXV.4). "Chrestus" is again a corrupted form of Christos (Christ). Luke made reference to this situation in Rome in Acts 18:2.

During the later part of the second through the fifth centuries, many more historical references to Jesus were made in Jewish rabbinical literature, especially the Talmud. Several prominent pagan philosophers—Celsus, Lucian of Samosata and Porphyry of Tyre—wrote attacks on Jesus, His teachings and followers. Early Christian writers and church leaders—Polycarp (c. A.D. 69-155), Irenaeus (c. A.D. 130-200) and others—wrote extensively about Jesus Christ as well.

Archaeology has also contributed tremendously to our knowledge of the historicity of Christ through excavations on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem and elsewhere in Israel, Turkey, Greece and Rome. These excavations have confirmed the Bible's amazing historical accuracy.

The Good News magazine, a sister publication also produced by the United Church of God, ran a 24-part series of articles on the Bible and archaeology proving this point. You may read or download these at www.gnmagazine.org/archaeology.

From these secular and biblical references and archaeology combined, we know more about the life of Jesus than we do about virtually any other person in the ancient world!

Proof #4: His followers

As a supertanker creates a massive wake and as an elephant impresses huge and unmistakable tracks in the soil, so a great religious leader leaves a path of followers behind him. Buddhism came from Buddha, Confucianism came from Confucius, Islam from Muhammad.

By founding His true Church, Jesus Christ spawned a massive religious movement through the centuries. Today Christianity is the largest religious movement on earth, with well over two billion followers. Sadly, the vast majority of these traditional Christians know little of the actual truth and gospel of the Kingdom of God that Jesus preached, but they do profess to follow Him. The very existence of such a vast following throughout history validates the historicity of Jesus of Nazareth!

Jesus' book, the Bible, is historically sound, therefore His biblical biography is historically sound. The secular references to Him in history are readily located, and the existence of a massive following through the centuries points directly to His historical existence. The proofs of Christ's historicity stand firm and sound. But all this begs an answer to one more question: What will you do with what you now know?

There's no running away from the truth that Jesus Christ existed as a man and continues to exist as the Son of God soon to come again to an earth near you. He wants you as one of His true followers preparing for His return. He wants you to be living proof of His existence!

For more information about the importance of Christ's life and what He expects of us, be sure to read our free booklet Jesus Christ: The Real Story. You can request or download a copy, or read it online, at www.gnmagazine.org. VT

Why People Challenge Christ's Existence

We seldom hear of anyone challenging the historicity of Muhammad, Confucius or Buddha. But many, especially of the evolutionary, atheistic orientation, challenge the historical existence of Christ. Why is that?

It is because the true Jesus Christ of the Bible and history makes people feel uncomfortable—even guilty. That's because not only is He something, He stands for something—the great moral and spiritual authority of God's divine law.

Those who want to freely live immoral lives, particularly sexually immoral, don't want to be reminded that their behavior is sinful. Their reaction is to "kill the messenger"—Jesus Christ Himself— in a futile effort to destroy the law of love. In other words, if Christ didn't really exist, then there would be no divine law and no reason to feel guilty for one's sins.

It doesn't work, by the way. They still feel guilty. There's only one solution for that guilt—repentance! (Mark 1:14-15)