<<If a person pronounces the Lord Jesus Christ as Deluded or a Liar or a
Lunatic, then there is nothing furthur that can be said. The person has made
their decision about the matter, and have pronounced Christ to not only not
be God, but to be less than themselves. One can not win an agument with an
individual who claims to be greater than God, and is unwilling to yield any
point since that would confirm that they are not superior to Christ.>>
You bring up a point that I found yesterday being dealt with in Kreeft and
Tacelli, "Handbook of Christian Apologetics." In their section on the
quintilemma (liar, lunatic, Lord, myth, sage/guru?), after laying out the
arguments, they write:
"Why, then, are many not compelled?
1. Not for rational reasons. No reason has ever been brought forth against
Christianity which has not been refuted. The vast majority of those who
disbelieve in Christ's divinity disbelieve for other reasons, not because they
have confronted the arguments.
2. Often, the thing hated and rejected is not Christ but Christians.
Chesterton said, 'the only good argument against Christianity is Christians.'
3. Often, it is fear of the church and its teachings and authority that scares
people away. The church is a concrete, visible, present institution that makes
demands on our intellect to believe and on our will to practice a whole way of
life that conflicts with our natural inclinations. Exactly like Jesus, who did
the very same thing....
4. The reluctance is usually moral. To admit that Jesus is divine is to admit
his absolute authority over your life, including your private life, including
your sex life....The old self in us is no fool. It sees that Christ comes to
kill it. It knows Christianity is not a harmless theory, but something alive
and dangerous.
5. Some people are afraid of the supernatural because it is mysterious and
uncontrollable.
6. There may also be simple pride, refusal to loose control of the reins of
our lives.
7. It is also not at all intellectually fashionable to believe in Christ as
anything more than a human teacher.
8. Finally, Americans' deepest religion is often equality. The notion that
Christ alone is God--superior, authoritative, supernatural--is scandalous. The
notion that all religions are NOT equal offends our real religion of equality.
None of these eight causes of unbelief is a reason, only a motive; that is,
they are subjective, not objective; psychological, not logical."
Jim