Why Jesus is the Most Controversial Person in History

 

Following are 25 reasons why Jesus was and is considered the most controversial person in history. Jesus didn't become controversial because He was bad, rather, because He went around doing good things that disrupted, rather, burst the seams of the existing status-quo system. Jesus made extraordinary claims and He demonstrated the truth of His claims with extraordinary actions and extraordinary resolve.

Because Jesus was a spiritual light in a world of corruption and darkness, He stood out like a shag on a rock, an Aussie reference to a sea bird alone on a rock in the middle of the ocean. Jesus wasn't politically correct, but He was spiritually correct. I noticed that Greg Laurie prepared a video clip on the same subject with excellent quotes on the controversial figure of Jesus: The Most Controversial Figure in History?

 

List of 25 Reasons Why Jesus is Considered the Most Controversial Person in History

1. Jesus experienced an extraordinary divine conception.
2. He performed extraordinary miracles.
3. Jesus claimed to be divine, as Messiah.
4. Jesus offered an extraordinary sacrificial death.
5. He rose in an extraordinary resurrection.
6. Jesus never sinned.
   
7. Jesus claimed to personally forgive sins.
8. He claimed to offer the only path to eternal life.
9. Jesus claimed to represent the essence of Truth.
10. Jesus chose to live as a homeless sojourner and traveler.
11. He fulfilled many past biblical prophecies.
12. He proclaimed new prophecies of the future.
13. Jesus endorsed traditional marriage between a man and woman.
14. He publicly criticized corrupt, status-quo religious-political leaders.
15. He publicly turned the tables on corrupt status-quo religious businessmen.
16. Jesus was officially uneducated, yet spoke with greatest authority.
17. Jesus challenged the segregation and degradation of the sick and of sinners.
18. He stood for human dignity of outcasts, lepers, prostitutes and women and children in general.
19. The taught servant-based leadership, as opposed to typical elitist, heavy-handed leadership.
20. He offered free choice, as opposed to coercion and forcing His opinion and will on others.
21. Jesus taught the concept of unconditional love, as counter to the standard eye-for-an-eye legalism.
22. Jesus supported literal Old Testament history accounts of creation and the flood.
23. Jesus broke Sabbath Law in demonstrating the superiority of grace.
24. Jesus' miracles, death and resurrection were subject to false conspiracy theories and plots.
25. Beginning with just 12 disciples, His spiritual movement overturned the entire pagan world order.

Extensive subject matter on the above points can be referenced with a simple Google search. If you have any questions or comments regarding any subject presented, simply post a blog comment and it will be addressed. All of the above points, though controversial, actually serve to elevate the understanding of Jesus Christ. If you are a Christian, consider this fact in light of your own faith and identification with Christ. Controversy and rejection is a price of true discipleship with Christ. Jesus admonished believers not to be surprised by persecution in the world. He said,"If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also." (John 15.20)
 

Jesus honored eternal spiritual principles over status-quo norms. The true standard of evaluation is not the trend of the day, but the eternal truth presented by God the Father through Christ Jesus. The alternative to logical moral absolutism is subjective moral relativism, which is logically flawed on all accounts. Despite the good that Theism produces in promoting freedom, creativity, civil rights, moral self control and a just society, many governments, including that of the United States, increasingly wish to legally limit the expression of Christ's values to the confines of the four walls of a church building. Non-official church members are harshly persecuted in countries such as China. In the U.S., the mainstream media denigrates anyone who stands for biblical values. The expression of Christian values is forbidden in public school buildings. Politically-biased tax officials are unjustly permitted to target traditional conservatives for delays, extra scrutiny and above-average penalties.

As Christians today in a hostile world, we are to neither seek out controversy nor avoid it at all costs. Rather, we are to live as salt and light in a morally decaying environment and face the consequences, knowing that Christ is with us and will not leave us. Because Jesus as our example stood for truth and love in a corrupt and cold environment, He was an “activist” in the highest sense of the word. At the time of His ministry, women and children were often treated as lower-class citizens, but Jesus exemplified an attitude of dignity for all people by His words and actions. Jesus stood for the timeless dignity of all people, as spiritual beings created in the image of God. Today in the U.S., Peter Singer at Princeton University teaches that bestiality and infanticide should be considered morally acceptable under certain conditions. We see the basic right to a trial removed in the U.S. in the NDAA bill. We see the U.S. government dismiss its torture of innocent citizens with no more than a passing remark. U.S. torture policies were a result of the Bush administration officially embracing and working "the dark side" as a political-military tact in 2001. We are presently basically witnessing a roll back of civilization to barbaric pre-Greco-Roman standards and, according to prophecies of Christ, we will see Christians who stand for timeless truths “thrown to the lions” again in one form or another on a wide scale. This is according to a prophecy of Christ in Matthew chapter 24  (verse 9) regarding the End Times.

David Bently Hart offered in his book, Atheist Delusions: The Christian Revolution and Its Fashionable Enemies, “our contemporary ‘age of reason’ is in many ways an age of almost perfect unreason, one always precariously poised upon the edge of–and occasionally slipping over into–the purest barbarism.” (Pg. 236)

As the ugly and poisonous fruits of Atheism spread out and become increasingly ripened, many will be unwilling to identify with Christ and scripture and will fall away from faith. Don't be surprised if you are a true believer, but be encouraged that you are considered worthy to be identified with this divine controversial hero, and be willing to suffer as Christ suffered on the earth for His witness of the Father and for obeying the Father's will.

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