by Guest » January 4th, 2005, 7:28 pm
Hello,
You have to keep in mind what Lewis is talking about here. He is talking about someone who says "I accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but not as God." He is making the point that you have to make a choice with Jesus because his very person drives you to.
He says He's God. (Now, I understand the author questions wheather he even said this, but he should go and reaserch the evidence for the Gospels. It is really overwhemly. Yes, you can close your eyes about any historical book and say "well, how do I really know that's what happened," if that's what you want to do, but that's another topic for another day.) And remember, the person in question here, accepts Jesus as a moral teacher, so he bases that believe on something...
You part from there, because it is an accepted historical fact. Jesus says He's God. Now, this can be either a true or a false statement. If He is God, he tells the truth; if He's not, he's lying. Right? So, if you believe that he is not God, then you have to come to the conclusion that he was lying when he said this, or that he believed it but it is not true, so he's a lunatic.
Yes, I know the author wants to put it another way and say he could've been just mistaken in his believe, but that's it. If I go around saying that I am Superman, am either lying if I know the truth, or a lunatic who really thinks he is Superman. I can be a great guy, and even go around saving people from crime, but that doesn't change the fact that I am not Superman. Same here, there are those who don't want to dare and say Jesus was a liar, yet don't believe Him. You have a problem then...
What they do is ignore or question when He says He is God, and accept other things they like about what he said (because remember that they accept him as a moral teacher, so they believe he said something).
Lewis will argue that if you look at the evidence, you will come to the conclusion that he was who he said he was: God.
