Three Areas Of Historical, Prophetic, And Personal Evidence That Prove Jesus Existed - Part One Series

Just a short time after my 11th birthday, my Mom died suddenly. The pain, anguish, and anger I felt made me question everything I had been taught about God, my experience with Him, and even if He existed.

About two years later, I was at a YMCA camp on Catalina Island, just off the California coast, near Los Angeles. One night, sitting around a crackling campfire, gazing into the heavens that were not obscured by the haze of pollution, the stars appeared so bright and seemed so close, that it was as if I just reached out my hand I could grab one. I remember thinking to myself, “There is no way that this could have just happened on its own. It’s just too magnificent to be the result of random chance.”

In that experience, God had shown me just a tiny glimmer of His glory and caused the beginning of an aching hunger in me to pursue knowing the God of all creation intimately. One year later, while I was Babysitting a neighbor’s kids, I was watching Television, flicking through the few channels available very late in the night, and Billy Graham was on. It was just before the end of his crusade, and he had turned towards the camera and said something to the effect “those of you at home watching this can ask Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior.” I was quite taken aback by that and felt a divine presence in the room. I asked Jesus to become my Lord and Savior and to forgive my sins. At the very moment of saying that, I suddenly felt light as a feather and profoundly clean from the inside out. It was a radical experience as I moved instantly from darkness into the light of His glory. I have never looked back since that moment 55+ years ago, and the gnawing hunger to know Him more has never ceased to this day.

I feel pretty confident to say that Born-Again Christians believe Jesus existed and haven’t considered the possibility that He never existed. However, there is a growing number of people who don’t believe and need to be shown the evidence. That is your divine responsibility.

“but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared (ready) to make a defense (GK: ‘apologia’- as in a court of Law) to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect” (1 Peter 3:15 ESV)

In this study, we will look at three areas of evidence: Historical, Prophetic, and Personal. Straight out of the gate, let me address the elephant in the room: there is no absolute proof that Jesus existed. However, the facts confirm that forty to sixty years after the time Jesus was said to have lived, there was a large following of people who believed that He did exist. The movement that began pushing the theory that ‘Jesus is a myth” started a few hundred years after His death and resurrection and continues today, even though it is not based on science or any findings or facts.

Every Born-Again Christian should always be “prepared (ready) to make a defense (GK: ‘apologia’- as in a court of Law) to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect” (1 Peter 3:15 ESV)

Whenever you attempt to dialogue with a rabid Atheist, it is essential to remember you “are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one” who “has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God” (1 John 5:19; 2 Corinthians 4:4 ESV). The enemy is “at work in the sons of disobedience” (Ephesians 2:1-2 ESV). The Greek word translated as “work in” is ‘energeó,’ which means to actively energize them to do work for him. Trying to explain the wisdom of God and the message of salvation through Jesus alone is like trying to explain color to someone who is blind or music to someone who is deaf (1 Corinthians 1:21). It is an act of futility unless their intentions are sincere and their heart is genuinely open to listen objectively.

“Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.” (Romans 2:4-5 ESV)

The historical evidence for Jesus is both long-established and widespread, unlike most historical figures. Within a few decades of His lifetime, Jesus was mentioned by Jewish and Roman historians, as well as in countless Christian writings. No serious person, whether they were pagan or Jew, in the first centuries after the death of Jesus had ever argued that Jesus did not exist.