About this episode
The third reason we believe Jesus is God and one of the most dramatic differences between Jesus and any other religious founder, is that Jesus said He was God. That’s right. The thirty-something carpenter’s son from a small town in Nazareth said he was the Eternal Creator of the Universe. He actually said, “Before Abraham was, I AM” (thus giving himself the name of the eternal, all-powerful creator of everything visible and invisible). This is the main reason the Jewish leaders wanted to Jesus put to death: “He made himself God’s equal.” John 5:18. Now what can you do with that? First of all, that’s radically unlike what any religious founder would have said. CS Lewis imagines what other religious founders would have said if you’d asked them, “Are you the creator of the universe?” Socrates would have laughed at you. Buddha would have urged you to seek enlightenment. Confucius would have said something like, “Jokes which are in bad taste should not be made.” And Mohammed would have cut off your head for blasphemy.I once talked to a nonbeliever who said that Jesus was a good guy, had some good insights, but was a little neurotic. But calling yourself the creator of the universe doesn’t qualify you as neurotic: it means you’re a full-blown psychotic. If somebody says “I’m the eternal, all-powerful creator of the universe,” you don’t say, “Well, I disagree with you about that. But I’d still like to hear your views on marriage, family, social justice, and morality in general.” Somebody who thinks they’re God (with a capital G!) is not someone who’s going to give you good moral insights. But everyone agrees that Jesus had some of the most beautiful moral insights the world has ever known. Which means He isn’t a psychotic (and remember, thinking you’re God isn’t the sort of honest mistake a sane person can make). But if He’s not psychotic, then when He says that He’s God, He must be speaking truthfully. Which means He really is God.To give in to the lie that Jesus was a great moral leader but not God is the key to the deception of the Anti-Christ. Here are the 12 deceptions of the Anti-Christ according to Venerable Fulton Sheen: 1) He will come disguised as the Great Humanitarian; he will talk of peace and prosperity, not as means to lead us to God, but as ends in themselves. 2) He will write books on the new idea of God to suit the way people live. 3) He will induce faith in astrology so as to make not the will but the stars responsible for our sins. 4) He will explain guilt away psychologically as repressed sex, make men shrink in shame if their fellowmen say they are not broadminded and liberal. 5) He will identify tolerance with indifference to right and wrong. 6) He will foster more divorces under the disguise that another partner is “vital for happiness.” 7) He will increase love for love and decrease love for persons. 8) He will invoke religion to destroy religion. 9) He will even speak of Christ and say that he was the greatest man who ever lived. 10) The mission of Christ, he will say, will be to liberate men from the servitudes of superstition and Fascism, which he will never define. 11) In the midst of all his seeming love for humanity and his glib talk of freedom and equality, he will have one great secret which he will tell to no one; he will not believe in God. And because his religion will be brotherhood without the fatherhood of God, he will deceive even the elect. 12) He will set up a counter-Church, which will be the ape of the Church because, he the devil, is the ape of God…In desperate need for God, he will induce modern man, in his loneliness and frustration, to hunger more and more for membership in his community that will give man purpose, without any need of personal amendment and without the admission of personal guilt. These are days in which the devil has been given a particularly long rope. Why is it so important that Jesus is God? Because you and I are weak. But Christ can fix the mess.