Is Jesus really real? Is it all a myth?

*16*For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ,
2 Peter 1:16.

This verse can sometimes reflect how I feel when people question christianity. I sometimes feel like saying, a bit like Peter did, ‘Hey, I’m not making this stuff up! It’s not a fairytale!’. Do you?
It’s similar to what Peter is saying in this verse, he’s confronting those with closed ears to his message, to the doubters and questioners. To those who don’t believe, and actually think what you believe is make believe. This is who Peter seems to be directing this thought to. I am not sure why, but it seems easy for non-christians to think that christians are; uneducated, unintelligent, deceived or a bit crazy. This is far from the truth. There are many educated, intelligent, enlightened and perfectly sane people who know who Jesus is. How do we know? Well for one thing, because christianity is not some made up fairytale with a happily-ever-after ending, it’s not a myth or a legend told and adapted through the generations. There is, in fact, historical evidence of many of the events in the Bible. In particular, historical documents detailing the life of Jesus, documents not in the Bible, but  recorded,  trusted and confirmed accounts from other credible sources.

One such source is a person named Josephus who was employed by several emperors of Jesus’ time to record key events and key people of the era. He records events that involve Jesus. His account tells how Jesus was a good and wise man who performed ‘surprising deeds’, was crucified by Pilate and that the disciples claimed to have seen him alive days later. Josephus had no agenda, other than to record the significant events happening around him. He was employed to do so, he must of been pretty good at it, trusted and valued as several rulers paid him to do it.  He was employed by those not of Christian or Jewish faith and he faithfully recorded relevant events and key people of the time. He also made an account of the significance of a holy man called Jesus. A man who performed unusual wonders, a man who had disciples, who people believed in him as God, and who was reported to of risen from the dead. This event Josephus even records, so there must of been significant evidence at the time otherwise why would he of written it down?

So, even without the Bible there is evidence that Jesus lived and was an incredible man. Josephus, a non-christian, but a Jew, recognised the significance of the life of Jesus to the extent that he recorded it as a matter of historical importance. If Jesus was just an ordinary person, then Josephus would unlikely of mentioned him. He recorded key events and people of significance. For example, he also records the lives of Herod, Pilate and the high priest Caiaphas. These were also key people that existed at the time of Jesus (we can also read about  them in the Bible). Strangely, though, people do not seem to question if these people existed, just Jesus.

The Bible is not merely a collection of stories, those who follow the Bible’s teaching are not just moralists, good people or uneducated fools following a bunch of myths, they have based their faith on historical events - the reality of the life and death of Jesus, the man who is God.
The life and death of Jesus are documented facts in the history of the world. What you think about it and how it effects your life are up to you.