I have been doing some reading and wonder if anyone can come up with the period when people first started denying Jesus existed(not Jesus the Christ, but Jesus the man)? I have come up with near the eighteenth century , It seems like (non christian)historians up to this point aknowledged and wrote about the man named Jesus.

I wonder if anyone else has a different answer?


Id like to do more reading about the era to figure out WHY this denial started to occur....

According to the Bible it started at Mathew 28:17.

That is a good reference but I was referring more to when people started to deny JESUS ever existed. In Matthew , they refused to believe he was risen, but they knew he had existed.

Although I do believe it's a valid question, I don't choose to overly concern myself with it.
I believe that God's love is supernatural and that Jusus came to display that higher love in terms we can understand, if we seek to understand...
I realize that as a Christian, it's my responsibilty to "be a light unto the world" but at the same time, it's not my responsibility to focus on the trickery and lies of the enemy...

btw Msharmony. I have not yet formally said hello and introduced myself to you. Hello, I'm Allen and I've always enjoyed reading your posts and responses. I admire the way that you stand up for your principles and it does give me hope and strength to know folks like you are out there .


Hey ya Rainbow! Hope you're doing well my friend .


(edited for spelling errors)

Doing great, Allen. Hope you are to my friend.
Roy

Yo Roy, doing well thanks and glad you are too...

arrrg.... can't believe I misspelled the Lord's name...

Jesus, not "Jusus"... (have another cup of coffee & wake-up already Allen!)

Thank you Allen

Its not like you took the name of the Lord in vain, Allen. I get a lot of typos. I was just thinking of how one has to ask Jesus in their life before he can come in. The same is of a vampire and how a vampire has to be asked in. But Jesus was different than cannibals and vampires because he said this is my flesh and this is my blood at the Lord's supper. I don't think there could ever be a holy vampire or cannibal. What do you think?

That's funny Roy, thanks for the chuckle.

I can see why Msharmony would be curious about the origin of doubts about whether or not Jesus (the man) existed. I guess I answered that question for myself at my grandmother's knee because she believed he did exist, and since I never once witnessed her tell even a white lie, that was enough for me...

Before I invited the Lord Jesus into my heart and accepted his message and sacrifice as a completely real and living testimony, I thought like a lot of others and wondered why I should believe anything based on what someone else said(anyone besides grandma, that is...).

My "wonder" was sincere and because it was and still remains sincere, I'm blessed with a supernatural "knowing" in my heart that far outweighs any supposedly logical arguements to the contrary...

I'm comforted by the scripture that states that "every knee shall bow" but of course I am concerned for the lost among us.

Jesus said " I am the way, the light and the life". To me it's plainly obvious that his teachings were supernatural and far above what anyone else in history, living or dead has ever proclaimed.

The enemy knows full well and for certain that he has already been defeated so in his childish spite, he seeks to drag as many as possible down with him.

Arguements about whether Jesus even existed as a real person or was just an amalgom of other supposed prophets seem to me as just another way for the enemy to spread his lies so while they're interesting in-so-much as that they do inspire dialog, to me they're like arguing whether or not anything is "real".

I applaud Msharmony and others on this site and everywhere that they have been blessed with insight and the articulate skill to share them in those debates but I don't feel particularly called to engage in them myself.

(edited for spelling errors again) (ugh)

Good points, Allen. In Mark 6 and verse 6 even Jesus marvelled at their unbelief. I like what the father of the boy said in Mark 9 and 24. And straightway the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief. Or how about Saul who name was changed to Paul. I mean he was even struck dumb on the road to Damascus. There is always doubting Thomas and he had to stick his hand in Jesus's side. It is like if God doesn't reveal it to you then how can you believe. Like you say it has to be supernatural. Paul used rhetoric a lot because after all he was a learned man. I can't help but think of my sponsor in AA when he would say, " I haven't heard of anyone too dumb to get it but I have seen people who were too smart."

Good day Roy & everyone

I'm not so sure about the sincerity of the folks who keep spouting that Jesus didn't exist. I'm not really educated on the subject, but my gut feeling is that a number of folks who consistantly post their objections to Christianity in particular, are mainly concerned with justifying their own lack of ability to love, which seems fruitless to me...

At least that's my take...

Maybe I shouldn't have said "inability". After thinking about it, I believe it may be more of an unwillingness...

Love requires sacrifice of self, responsibility and empathy. It requires faith, self examination, compassion...

In other words, love is work...

I think that maybe the nay-sayers are lazy to the degree that when they consider the message of Christ, they're looking at the work involved without really taking into account the pay off...

Some folks work so hard to avoid a little work...

imho

So far from what I've read, you're right about it becoming prevalent in 18th century. Unfortunately, the Roman Catholic church had disenfranchised so many that by the time Voltaire & his ilk appeared, it was easy to deny & disagree. I think the seeds were planted probably around Da Vinci & Michelangelo era during the Renaissance period.

Thats an interesting answer. Do you think the Roman Catholic church meant for people to 'lose' of have their faith 'tested' during those times of disenfranchment? I would think with the power of the Roman Catholic church that they would make sure text and literature were availabe in abundance about the life of Jesus, ,,I guess we will never know the why though,,,