INTRODUCTION

Just who was Jesus?

Just over two thousand years ago a Jewish baby was born in an insignificant town. Called Yeshua by his parents, he grew up to have a massive impact on our world. His teachings have changed individual lives. He has been claimed by whole civilisations. People have suffered and been killed because they followed him. Bitter and bloody wars have been fought in his name – a name we now call Jesus.

Today the name, Jesus Christ, is known all around the world, and is claimed by many hundreds of different ‘Christian’ churches. However, while sharing the same teacher, they differ widely in what they teach. Even within the same church there may be very different opinions about who this person was and what he taught.

How is it possible to know what anyone taught 2,000 years ago? Is it even relevant in our more rational and scientific modern world? Why should we care about the teachings of a 33 year-old Jew who was executed by the Romans because he couldn’t persuade the leaders of his own people to believe him?

And what is the ‘Holy Bible’ all about? It begins with an amazing story about God creating the heavens and the earth in just six days. It then describes people who lived for over 900 years before they died in a flood that covered the entire earth. Modern science and archaeology raise all kinds of questions about that?

We read about a God who claimed to love his people, and then had them slaughtered because they didn’t love him back. We read about amazing miracles, and prophets who got so upset at being ignored that they wrote down detailed predictions of all the terrible things that would happen as a result.

Then along came this person we now call Jesus, who taught love and forgiveness. He claimed to be the ‘Son of God’ and got himself killed. His disciples regrouped after he was executed and began teaching that he had been raised from the dead. They promoted that message so effectively that, two thousand years later, we have many millions of people who still believe in this Jewish teacher.

Is this what the Bible is really about? Many authors of the Old and New Testaments claimed that they were writing under the inspiration of the only true God. That is a pretty big claim - which, if false, should be rejected as yet more religious superstition. But what if it’s true? Before we can decide that, we must first find out what was written in these books.

So what do these books have to say? Over the past 2000 years they have been studied by many very intelligent and knowledgeable scholars, and yet we can only find argument and disagreement. No common understanding has come from this.

Why is there so much confusion? Why are there so many different Christian religions today? They cannot all be right? If this Jesus really was who he claimed to be, then why has this happened? Is Jesus for real – or is he an imposter?

The answers to these questions are in your own Bible.  It’s all part of the message that Yeshua brought for us - the message taught by his disciples and recorded for us to read. He called this message ‘the Good News of the Kingdom of God’.