Some people doubt whether Jesus even existed. Was he a historical person, or a made-up character? However, early Greek, Roman, and Jewish sources make mention of Jesus. These include Tacitus (Annals), Suetonius (Life of Claudius, Lives of the Caesars), Pliny the Younger (Epistles), and Lucian (On the Death of Peregrine). Additionally, there is a letter from a Syrian, Mara Bar-Serapion, to his son. In it, he compares the deaths of Socrates, Pythagoras, and Jesus. Due to the amount of extra-Biblical evidence, most agree that Jesus at least existed.
Author Josh McDowell was as an agnostic in college when he decided to prepare a paper that would disprove the Christian faith through historical evidence. However, he instead ended up converting to Christianity after he was unable to do so. His writings became the best-selling book, Evidence That Demands a Verdict. Another good book on the subject is The Case For Christ by Lee Strobel.
Some may claim that Jesus was one prophet among many, or simply a great, human teacher. However, Jesus claimed to be Son of God, the prophesied Messiah, and also claimed the power to forgive sins. He was executed for these claims, despite having committed no other crime. If Jesus was not who he said he was, that would make him either a liar, a raving lunatic, or both.
“A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. 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. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a devil, or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us.” - C.S. Lewis
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