Hold Fast Apologetics

Jesus, a Jew (monotheistic), accepted worship.

Jesus received worship because he was and is more than a mere model of faith — He was and is the author and object of our faith!

✔️Claimed pre-existence before Abraham (John 8),

✔️Claimed the authority to forgive sin (Mark 2),

✔️Claimed that His words were/are equal with the Ten Commandments (Matthew 19:16-22),

✔️Displayed authority over the weather (Mark 4),

✔️Claimed to be the divine Son of Man prophesied by Daniel (Mark 14).

Early, Eyewitness Documentation:

“Then Jesus said to him, ‘Be gone, Satan! For it is written, “You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.” Matthew 4:10 (~AD 30-33) 📕

“And they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy,” Luke 24:52📕

“Thomas answered him, ‘My Lord and my God!’” John 20:28📕

Early, Non-Christian Attestation:

“The Christians, you know, worship a man to this day,–the distinguished personage who introduced their novel rites, and was crucified on that account…” — Lucian of Samosata, Greek satirist (AD 166). [1]

Logical Conclusion:

“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 demon 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. He did not intend to.” — C.S. Lewis [2]

1. The Death of Peregrine, 11-13. Online: http://lucianofsamosata.info/wiki/doku.php?id=home:texts_and_library:essays:peregrine
2. Mere Christianity https://a.co/d/01F0Hdug

Recommended resources:

1.) ESV Study Bible https://a.co/d/03VRC0pg
2.) The Incarnate Christ and His Critics: A Biblical Defense; Bowman & Komoszewski https://a.co/d/07iHDqif
3.) Did Jesus Really Say He Was God? Making Sense of His Historical Claims; Mikel Del Rosario https://a.co/d/027Yj88N
4.) Top Ten Historical References to Jesus Outside of the Bible https://biblearchaeologyreport.com/2022/11/18/top-ten-historical-references-to-jesus-outside-of-the-bible/