This is the first in a series of five essays titled:
A Historical and Methodical Approach to Finding Faith in Jesus
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People say different things about Jesus. Lots of different things.
About one out of every three people on the planet today identify with Jesus. That is, they call themselves Christians. That’s saying a lot about Jesus. For one thing, it’s saying a lot of people see him as their way to God. But even if billions believe in him, billions more don’t. Thus there is currently no worldwide consensus about Jesus.
Organized Christianity
Even within organized Christianity, people say a wide variety of things about Jesus. Up until the 11th century, there was but one official view of Jesus – those published by ecumenical church councils. These met, on average, every century or so. In 1054, however, the organized church split into eastern and western factions – generally known as the Greek Orthodox Church (covering what had been the eastern Roman Empire) and the Roman Catholic Church (covering what had been the western Roman Empire). In the 16th century, the western faction itself split into Catholic and Protestant versions. Those three main branches – Orthodox, Catholic, and Protestant – still exist today but there’s no guarantee there won’t be more such splits in the future. In fact, there are already splits within each of those existing branches – many such splits. I’m speaking of the many Christian denominations, which are actually counted in the tens of thousands! They all have a favorable view of Jesus, but that agreement often breaks down when they try to discuss him or his teaching in more detail.
As just one example of how self-identifying Christians can differ in their views of Jesus, consider the question of his divinity. Some of them will object that I have not capitalized personal pronouns referring to him in this chapter; others will not be bothered by that in the least, and still others would have objected if I had capitalized them. (I myself sometimes capitalize those pronouns and sometimes don’t, simply because sometimes his humanity is in view and other times it’s His divinity that’s more relevant.)
The Broader Culture
Leaving aside organized Christianity and turning to the broader culture, we find that, as we would expect, views of Jesus diverge even more – especially over time. Consider, for example that our country’s Declaration of Independence justified its separation from Great Britain with multiple references to God, and the final article of our Constitution – the one that comes just before the signatures – reads in part (italics added):
Done in Convention by the Unanimous Consent of the States present the Seventeenth Day of September in the Year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and Eighty seven and of the Independence of the United States of America the Twelfth.
U.S. National Archives
As I write this, we are in the year of our Lord two thousand and twenty-five and of the independence of the United States of America the two hundred and forty-ninth – but do our public officials still think and talk this way? No. Hardly anyone talks about Jesus in the public square anymore. Secularism has spread like kudzu over the trees and shrubs.
The calendar (with its BC-AD structure) suggests that Jesus is the pivot on which human civilization turns – but do the world history courses in our public schools reflect this? Labeling Jesus as “religious” seems to have become an excuse for removing otherwise appropriate descriptions of his life and influence from general history books. Even if you don’t like him, he has affected nations. There are many people included in history books who’ve had far less impact on the human race than he has had.
Oddly, though we’re not supposed to mention Jesus’ name in the public square, cursing with it seems increasingly acceptable. The names “Jesus” and “Jesus Christ” can be heard in movies and television shows more frequently as expletives than as spoken in reverence. Huh? The current year is counted from the year of his presumed birth and yet his name is cursed more than praised on the public airwaves? What can account for such contradictions in a society’s worldview?
It’s not as if people are constantly saying bad things about Jesus – it’s more that they don’t want to talk about him at all. If, for example, I express my curiosity about Jesus at a dinner party, seeking information the way I might about any other historical figure, who will continue conversing with me for long? People with good manners do not talk about such things in polite company. To do that, you’re expected to go to some place on the fringes of societal discourse – like a church. So…when it comes to Jesus, there is confused noise from the church world…and then there is this eerie and unexplained silence about him (except for the cursing) in the secular world.
What Do I Say about Jesus?
All the different things that people say – and don’t say – about Jesus causes some people just to throw up their hands and give up trying to learn anything about him. That was the case with me. I decided there were too many opinions about Jesus for me to ever reconcile them, so I might as well be agnostic on the subject. I assumed that the Bible was “subject to interpretation,” such that I would not be able to find a straight answer about Jesus in it. I only realized I was wrong about this when I finally began reading it for myself. And now, because I have read and studied it, I can report things that it has to say about Jesus. The purpose of this book is to tell you the most important things I’ve learned from that process.
Even so, that just makes me one more voice in the world…saying things about Jesus…adding to the noise. As you read the essays, books, and other material I have written, you will be the judge of whether what I say is worth the time you take to read it. My goal is to be worth your time, and to help you come to your own conviction about Jesus -the most important man who ever lived.
What Do You Say about Jesus?
In the end, this will be the question…but I won’t be the one asking it.
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The next essay in this series: Where Can the Best Historical Information about Jesus Be Found? (5 min)
11/13/25
The Duty of a Man 