He would either be a lunatic-on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg-or else he would be the devil of hell. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. вЂњI am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about him: IвЂ™m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I donвЂ™t accept his claim to be God. No one can lay out the argument as well as Lewis himself, so here is the pertinent excerpt from Mere Christianity: We must accept the fact that he claimed to be God and approach the question from there. As for JesusвЂ™ historical existence, the evidence is far too great to deny it. We could easily end any historical conversation by saying, вЂњPerhaps the matter in question never happened.вЂќ Think about it: one could ask whether or not the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were morally justifiable and be shut down by someone saying, вЂњIt never happened, so the question is irrelevant.вЂќ This contributes nothing to the conversation. This option is usually not included in the conversation, as it sort of defeats the purpose and undermines the question. Here we consider the possibility that the Bible is not historically reliable, so we cannot know for sure that Jesus (if he really even existed) ever actually claimed to be God, so the accounts would be simply legendary.

While this is typically called the trilemma, some have presented a fourth option: legend. The question is: is he Lord, lunatic, or liar? LewisвЂ™s trilemma is a sort of deductive demonstration: there are three options, two of which do not make sense, so the correct answer must be the third. PascalвЂ™s Wager comes to mind: while not a proof for the existence of God, it is a demonstration of the reasonableness of such faith. It is more like an argument in favor of believing the divinity of Jesus. It does not demonstrate the truth of this claim by appealing to any authority, or by logically and systematically laying out the reasons for believing Jesus was God. The trilemma is not really an airtight argument for the divinity of Jesus. What LewisвЂ™s trilemma does is work through the possibilities and make a case for which one makes the most sense to believe. Logically considered, there are a finite number of possibilities, all of which are mutually exclusive and one of which must be true. How are we to interpret JesusвЂ™ claims to be divine, and what implications does that have? Lewis in his book Mere Christianity, and has been called the trilemma. This argument has been made before, most famously by C.S. When it comes down to it, there are only three options: 1) he was who he said he was 2) he was out of his mind 3) he was knowingly lying. please click on the image for greater detail Is it possible to deny this claim and still admire the man? If he is not God, is it possible to still look up to someone who claims such a thing for himself? This is a man who, when faced with torture and execution, doubled down and assured his inquisitors that yes, in fact, he is the Son of God (see. This is a man who clearly claimed divinity for himself (see Luke 22:69 John 10:30, 10:38, 14:7-10). The problem is, if you deny his divinity, you run into a pretty thorny problem. вЂњHe was a great moral teacher,вЂќ they say, or вЂњWe can follow his example of togetherness and acceptance of everyone.вЂќ But they strenuously deny that he was God-in other words, they deny that he was what he claimed to be.

There are many people around the world who profess no religious belief in Jesus. WeвЂ™ve all heard it many times before: Jesus was just a great moral teacher, someone who told us all to be nice to each other, and we can all learn from his example of niceness. So they must find some other reason to admire him. They try to downplay his importance, but they know he is important. People seem reluctant to abandon him or throw him by the wayside. Even those who deny his divinity-deny the thing that Christians claim makes him important and influential in the first place-seem to seek any reason to be able to recognize him as important or influential, stopping short of acknowledging his divinity. вЂњThere is a magnetism about Jesus Christ. please click on the image for greater detail

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