If Christ Be Not Real, Our Religion Is in Vain

If Christ was not a real person, Christianity is founded on a lie. If there is no historical person of Jesus of Nazareth, then there is no redeemer, no salvation, and the Catholic Church is a fraud. As such, when modernists attack Our Lord and blasphemously suggest He was not a real, historical person, they attack the very lynchpin of Christianity. Consequently, St. Pius X, in the Oath against Modernism, proclaims:

“…Thirdly, I believe with equally firm faith that the Church, the guardian and teacher of the revealed word, was personally instituted by the real and historical Christ when He lived among us, and that the Church was built upon Peter, the prince of the apostolic hierarchy, and his successors for the duration of time…”

Ancient Sources Prove That Jesus Christ Walked This Earth

How can we prove to someone that Jesus was a historical person?[1] For this, we have ample evidence from ancient Roman, Jewish, and Christian sources. In fact, the presence of His life documented through non-Christian sources is further testimony of the verifiability of His life since even non-believers saw it necessary to document His impact. One such example is the ancient Roman historian Publius Cornelius Tacitus, who lived from c. 56 – c. 120 AD, in his account of Nero’s persecution of the Christians of that era:

“Neither human aid, nor imperial munificence, nor all the modes of placating heaven, could stifle scandal or dispel the belief that the fire had been started by order. Therefore, to scotch the rumor, Nero substituted as culprits, and punished with the utmost refinements of cruelty, a class of men, loathed for their vices, whom the crowd called Christians. Christus, the founder of the name, had undergone the death penalty during the reign of Tiberius, by sentence of the procurator, Pontius Pilatus, and the pernicious superstition was checked for a moment, only to break out once more, not merely in Judea, the home of the disease, but also in the capital itself, where all things horrible or disgraceful in the world collect and find a vogue.

“First, then, the Confessed members of the sect were arrested; next, on their disclosures, vast numbers were convicted, not so much on account of arson as for hatred of the human race. And derision accompanied their end: they were covered with the skins of wild beasts and torn to pieces by dogs; or they were fastened on crosses, and, when daylight failed, were burned to serve as torches by night. Nero had offered his gardens for the spectacle, and gave an exhibition in his circus, mixing with the crowd in the attire of a charioteer, or mounted on his car. Hence in spite of a guilt which had earned the most exemplary punishment, there arose a sentiment of pity, due to the impression that they were being sacrificed not for the welfare of the state but to the ferocity of a single man.”

Ancient Jewish sources further illustrate the historical reality of Christ’s life on earth. The great 20^th century apologetic, Monsignor Fenton, refers to Flavius Josephus, a contemporary of the Apostles, in an example of such evidence:

“The first Jewish source is the paragraph from the Antiquities of Flavius Josephus, a writer who was born in A.D. 37 and died in the year 94: ‘At that time there existed Jesus, a wise man, if indeed it is proper to call Him a man at all. For He was a worker of wonderful deeds, the Master of those men who receive the true with pleasure: and He attracted many Jews and also many gentiles to Himself. He was the Christ. Those who had first loved Him did not cease to love Him when Pilate condemned Him to the punishment of the cross after He had been accused by the leaders of our men. He appeared to them again on the third day, revivified, the divine prophets having told these and a thousand other wonderful things about Him. And the nation of the Christians, named for Him, endures even until this day.”

And we have many ancient Christian sources as well documenting Our Lord’s admirable life on earth. We have the Gospels and the books that are in the Holy Bible. We also have the ancient testimonies of Pantaenus, St. Justin Martyr, Tatian, St. Irenaeus, Origen, and Tertullian all supporting the historical reality of Christ’s life on earth.

Jesus’ Existence Is Challenged

As time went on, the Jewish leaders introduced vile blasphemies against Our Lord, some of which are recorded in the Jewish Talmud. Why does it matter? Father Fenton insightfully remarks:

“They hated Him and His works far too fiercely to be content with the obviously ridiculous charge that He was only a myth. It remained for the clouded minds and the flaccid wills of men in later times to attempt the historically absurd hypothesis that there had never been a man named Jesus of Nazareth.”

While the books of the New Testament can serve as historical evidence on Our Lord’s life, the alleged “other Gospels” (e.g., the Gospel of Thomas, the Gospel of Mary Magdalene, etc.) serve no such purpose as they were rejected since the time of their creation.

Apocryphal works, for instance, were the basis of the novel, The DaVinci Code, which is a work of fiction. This novel teaches that St. Mary Magdalene was the wife of Jesus, the mother of Jesus’ child, a participant at the Last Supper, His prophetic successor, and a priestess. These claims have absolutely no support in Catholic Church Tradition or Holy Scripture. The novel referenced “gnostic gospels,” which were rejected from the official canon of Sacred Scripture because they were heretical and lacked apostolic authorship. Those apocryphal works were also rejected because they lacked historical basis.

When individuals assert claims based on such apocryphal writings, the arguments should be rejected not only because of the heretical implications but also due to the lack of historically accepted evidence in support of such false works.

Discerning Truthfulness

Why then do we accept the four canonical Gospels and the other books in the New Testament to the exclusion of apocryphal ones? The point is particularly important, as Monsignor Fenton teaches in Laying the Foundation: A Handbook of Catholic Apologetics and Fundamental Theology:

“It is quite evident, from a critical point of view, that the four gospels and the other canonical books of the New Testament can be used in the demonstration of apologetics as documents naturally acceptable from the historical point of view… In order to prove this point, we must first point out the evidence that these books were actually written by the authors to whom they are ascribed. The evidence which can be adduced in support of this conclusion is either extrinsic or intrinsic.

“The extrinsic evidence is formed from the testimony of reliable early writers to the effect that these four books were actually written by SS. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. The intrinsic evidence consists in the manifest indication in the text itself that it was produced during the first century by men who were cognizant of conditions in Palestine before the destruction of Jerusalem and were anxious to tell the truth about the life and the sayings of Jesus.

“Obviously, the extrinsic evidence is of prime importance. The four gospels were not written secretly, to be distributed among the initiates of some esoteric sect. They were the public books of the Christians, and as such they have been recognized in the earliest Christian writings as authentic and truthful documents, actually produced by the men to whom they are commonly ascribed. We have [the] written and recognizably reliable testimony about the human authorship of the four gospels from apostolic times themselves.”

The Inspired Word of God

While the historicity of the Gospels is essential, we know not every piece of ancient historical Christian writing is included in Sacred Scripture. For example, the Letters of Pope Clement to the Corinthians and the Letters of St. Ignatius of Antioch are true historical documents and present the true Faith but are not part of the New Testament. Historicity and apostolic authorship have always been two necessary criteria for writings to be accepted as part of the New Testament.

Yet the ultimate reason we rely on the canonical books of Sacred Scripture is because we know, with the absolute certainty of faith, that they are the inspired and inerrant word of God. We know this because the Catholic Church infallibly teaches it so. Moreover, it is correct to state that the Holy Ghost Himself is the primary author of Scripture – and God can neither deceive nor be deceived.[2]

Conclusion

Jesus Christ is an unquestionably real, historical person Who walked this earth. To reject this conclusion is to reject the manifestly obvious historical evidence.

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ENDNOTES:

[1] It is telling to note that the historicity of many historical figures is never questioned, even though we have far less evidence for their existence than we do for Christ. For example, who raises the challenge, “Was Hannibal a real historical person?” Or wonders about the existence of Pharoah Menes, Numa Pompilius, Hammurabi, Confucius, or Socrates? Clearly, the objections against Jesus Christ are not based on historical evidence. Rather, those who object to His ‘historicity’ are actually rejecting the reality that Jesus is the only Savior (cf. Acts 4:12 and 1 Timothy 2:5) and that He alone is the Way, the Truth and the Life (cf. John 14:6).

[2] The First Vatican Council taught that the Church holds the Scriptures “to be sacred and canonical not because she subsequently approved them by her authority after they had been composed by unaided human skill, nor simply because they contain revelation without error, but because, being written under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, they have God as their author, and were as such committed to the Church” (Dogmatic Constitution on the Catholic Faith, Session III, Chapter 2, 24 April 1870). Pope Leo XIII reiterated this teaching in Providentissimus Deus (1893), as did Pope Pius XII in Divino Afflante Spiritu (1943). This teaching had already been established dogmatically at the Council of Trent. It has been the constant teaching (perennial) of the universal and ordinary magisterium. Thus, it is without a doubt an infallible teaching.

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