John 1:1 begins; In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning

John 1:14 begins 14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

We base our faith on Jesus Christ. The One and Only. Therefore, there are a few questions we need to answer.

The question of whether Jesus the man ever existed is probably the easiest to answer with confidence. There is more historical proof of Jesus the man than there is of George Washington. We have official records of Jesus. The are biblical and non-biblical accounts written by eyewitnesses. There are papers by historians that include Jesus, written less that twenty after his death and resurrection.

One writer Thallus says that on a certain Passover the sun was darkened from noon until 3:00 He claimed it was an eclipse. During Passover there is a full moon so an eclipse is impossible. Also an eclipse would never last 3 hours. (for a better explanation see Matthew 27:45) Thallus wrote only 19 years after Christ rose from the dead.

In the same year a historian named Suetonius wrote concerning the Jews; since the Jews were continually making disturbances at the instigation of Chrestus (Christ), he (Claudius) expelled them from Rome.

So you see accepting that Jesus exists is not hard. Other religions including some Jewish people believe that Jesus the man, even Jesus the Prophet existed. But we place our hope in the fact that Jesus was the Christ.

As seen in the examples above even those who didn’t follow Jesus, called him Christ.

But, what evidence do we have that Jesus was the Christ? A large body of evidence comes from the Old Testament. All through the Old Testaments the Jewish people are told that a Messiah was coming. They were told many things to look for in a man claiming to be the messiah. These were called prophecies and they included where the Christ would be born, when he would be born, how he would live and how he would die. In all there were 60 prophecies. The odds someone fulfilling just 8 of those 60 prophecies by chance would be 10,000,000,000,000,000 to 1. Jesus fulfilled all 60.

A look at Jesus' followers might be one of the best places to look for evidence. Before Jesus died, the apostles were a ragged bunch. They were not really hero material. They were boastful, they argued. When Jesus was betrayed in the garden they all ran away. Peter denied Jesus, Thomas doubted. After Jesus died the apostles hid in an attic! If Jesus was not who he claimed to be these guys would never have stuck to their beliefs! But they did. Seeing their Savior after his death brought a big change over the apostles. These are 12 men, who lived with Jesus for three years, they would know if Jesus was lying. Look how they all died.

These men died because they knew that Jesus was the Christ.

This kind of faith didn't die with the apostles there are historical writing through the ages that have show men who believed enough to die for Jesus.

This is the story of a man named Polycarp. Around AD 150 Polycarp was a leader in the church. The church was being persecuted to the point that anyone who admitted to being a Christian was killed. Caesar was gathering up Christian and throwing them in to the stadium and releasing lions on them and people flocked to these stadium to see the Christians being torn to shreds. On one particular evening the crowd was becoming board with the events and the Christians because of "Their noble conduct." I guess they weren't screaming loud enough. So the crowd demanded that Polycarp be found and brought to the stadium. As the guards searched they couldn't find Polycarp but they found a couple of his servant and under torture one of the servants told the guards where to find Polycarp. Going to the place where Polycarp was they found him in an upper room asleep. The guards were amazed to find that Polycarp was an old man. Polycarp fed the guards and asked that they allow him to pray for an hour. They did and as Polycarp prayed he became so filled with the grace of God that he continued to pray for 2 hours and some of the guards repented. When he had finished they placed Polycarp on a donkey and led him into the city. The sheriff and the sheriff's father took Polycarp from the Guards and placed him in their carriage. And they tried to persuade him, saying, "Now what harm is there in saying 'Lord Caesar' and offering sacrifices and so on and thus saving yourself?" At first Polycarp didn't reply but since they persisted he said, "I have no intention of doing what you advise." Failing to persuade him they began to threaten him, they grabbed Polycarp from the carriage with such force that he cut his leg as he fell. Yet he got up and walked on as if he had suffered no pain. As he was taken into the stadium the commotion was so great that no one could be heard. And there was a voice heard from heaven that said "Be strong, Polycarp, play the man." Though no one saw the speaker all there heard the voice. As Polycarp stood before the judge the judge tried to persuade him saying, "Your and old man, have respect for you age, swear by the genius of Caesar, repent call these Christian atheists!" Polycarp looked to the mob in the stands and waving his hand at them he looked up to heaven and groaned and said, "these are the atheists!" Again the judge urged him and said, "Swear and I will release you, Just curse the Christ." To this Polycarp said, "86 years I have served Jesus and he has done me no wrong, how then can I blaspheme my king who saved me?" again the judge told Polycarp "swear by Caesar." But he answered, "if you vainly imagine that I would swear by Caesar, and you say I would pretend not to know who I am, hear me plainly, I am a Christian. The judge threatened him, saying I will bring out lions! Polycarp answered "send for them."

During his ministry on earth he told those who doubted he was in God and God was in him (John 10:38)…believe the miracles, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me, and I in the Father."

Jesus showed all the characteristics of God in that he controlled nature, he knew the thought and deeds of men, he knew past present and future, he healed and resurrected. He defied physical laws. A historian born only 4 years after Jesus' death calls Jesus a wise man, a doer of wonderful works. This historian was not a Christian. Jesus also forgave sins. Only God can forgive sins.

Another reason why we can believe Jesus was God is by looking a those who claimed he was. His followers called him God. Thomas called Jesus "my Lord and my God." Peter called him the Son of God. And Paul call Jesus God over all.

There are so many today who dispute that Jesus is God they claim that he never made that claim. Yet all one needs to do to see that Jesus did claim to be God is to look at the men who hated him the most.

JOHN 10:31 Again the Jews picked up stones to stone him, 32 but Jesus said to them, "I have shown you many great miracles from the Father. For which of these do you stone me?" 33 "We are not stoning you for any of these," replied the Jews, "but for blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God."

Jesus the man is real, Jesus is the messiah, and Jesus is God.