For 2,000 years Christians have proclaimed that Jesus is God. They believe that God exists as three Persons: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Jesus, sometimes spoken of as the Second Person of this "Trinity" [1], came from heaven, lived on earth for about 33 years, was crucified for our sins, rose from the dead, now reigns with his Father in heaven and one day will return to judge the world. The New Testament declares it, the early creeds affirm it and a large portion of the world claims to believe it. Thousands more are coming to believe it daily, especially in Africa, Asia and Latin America. The purpose of this booklet is to examine this claim. Is it reasonable? Does it have a historical foundation that fits the evidence we possess? If it does, do I need to do anything about it?

For the purpose of the discussion I will assume that the New Testament provides an accurate record of what Jesus said and did. There are good historical reasons for accepting this. If you have doubts on that score may I recommend to you two other booklets I have written: Did the Writers of the New Testament Get Their Picture of Jesus Right? which deals with the eyewitness testimony that is embedded in the New Testament, and The Bible: Can We Trust a Book Written 2,000 Years Ago, which deals with the accuracy of the records as they have come down to us today.

A good place to start any exploration about the identity of Jesus, is to examine what he said about himself. After all, it is widely recognised that, whoever he was, he possessed wisdom. It is reasonable, therefore, to find out what he said about himself and his mission.

What follows in the next few pages is a comprehensive list of all the claims that Jesus made about himself. They can be roughly grouped under eight headings. If you find it a bit much to plough through the whole list, then I suggest you pick out one or two claims under each heading. This should be sufficient to convince you that if Jesus knew anything at all about what he was talking about, then we must be dealing here with an individual who is unique in history and different from anyone else about whom we have any record. In the rest of the booklet I will consider the credibility of these claims and their implications.

It is natural in this modern world with its multiplicity of beliefs, and expectations of the ability of science to solve our problems, that many are going to be sceptical of such things. However, if we reject the truths of Christianity it raises an important question: How did such a remarkable collection of writings as the New Testament, which has had such an impact on world history, (and still has), come to be written?

One of the arguments used to discredit the truth that Jesus was God goes something like this. He was only an ordinary human being, though he obviously had some uncommon wisdom and courage, and perhaps some unusual gifts of healing. After his death about AD 30, stories about him were passed down by word of mouth. By the time the New Testament books and letters were written, all sorts of exaggerated stories had arisen about him - such as: the remarkable nature of his healing miracles and his miracles over nature; his claims to have come from heaven and to be the Saviour and Judge of human beings; and his resurrection from the dead. As a result of this distortion of the facts, his followers came to believe these things and have done so ever since.

Obviously such a view must accept that there is a sufficient time gap before things were written down for this to have happened, and must discredit any eyewitness claims in the New Testament.

There are some issues here that I have dealt with more fully in two other booklets, Is Jesus Really God? and Did Jesus Really Rise from the Dead? In this booklet I want to focus on one issue: Is the gap between Jesus and the writers of the New Testament really sufficient to allow these distortions to take place?

[1] If you wish to explore further the Christian view of God as three Persons - Father, Son and Holy Spirit - may I recommend my booklet Understanding the Trinity: A Look at the God Revealed in Jesus Christ.