Dear Visitor,

In this world of turmoil and terror, talk often comes round to "the meaning of life" or "How can one have peace in times like these?"  I want to take the opportunity to introduce you to a friend of mine.  Below are some claims made about my friend but I will also show you evidence of the truth about Him.

I would prefer to discuss this serious matter with you face to face, but may never have that occasion.  That fact that you have found this page among the vast number of web addresses on the global Internet was not a chance occurrence.  

You may never have another opportunity like this again... and to miss it would be the worst missed opportunity of you existence!  Please take the time to ponder my personal message to you below.

--Grady Ward Partin

PRESENTING
FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION:
THE CLAIMS OF JESUS OF NAZARETH

The following has been compiled from the written testimony of those who said that they were eyewitnesses of these things. These same writers also said that God empowered them so that they could receive from Him the many truths concerning the nature and work of this One called Jesus of Nazareth. Please keep in mind that these claims were made by and for One who was an Israelite and who grew up in the city of Nazareth, a poor, insignificant place which was looked down upon and ridiculed by outsiders. He was reared by a young couple, Mary and Joseph. Joseph, whom the local people believed to be the father of this boy they called Jesus, or Joshua in the Hebrew tongue, was a carpenter by trade.

HIS NATURE, IDENTITY, AND CHARACTERISTICS

When this Nazarene reached the age of approximately thirty years, He began to make some amazing claims about Himself. Those who said they were with Him and empowered by Him record that He was in the beginning with One they called ”God”, that this Nazarene was God (that is, He was divine), and that this Jesus had created all things in the universe! As to His being in the form of a man, (i.e. taking upon Himself a fleshly body, and living and breathing as a man), the following explanation is given. The written testimony says that this One was sent to this world by God (later to be referred to as the ”Father”); and that God prepared a body for Him by sending His Spirit to a young virgin named Mary and causing her to conceive without a man. The resulting child would be both man and God because divinity had taken residence in the child’s body. Therefore, this person would be called ”the Son of God”. Mary was told to call His name Jesus.

HIS PURPOSE AND WORK UPON THIS EARTH

According to the written testimony we have, there was a man named John who did a lot of preaching in the area where Jesus of Nazareth lived and traveled. One day, while John was preaching to the people out in the countryside, he saw Jesus passing by and said, ”Look, there goes the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world!” The writers we are quoting say that Jesus of Nazareth said that He came into the world to seek and save the lost. One need not read a great deal of this testimony in order to determine that these ”lost” people were not lost at sea or in the wilderness, etc., but men were said to be ”lost” in that they were separated from God by their sins. According to this testimony, sin is far, far worse and a much greater and more terrible problem than most people think today. Today, people often make fun of and laugh about such sins as adultery, fornication, lying, cheating, stealing, drunkenness, etc. Our nation is being pressed on many sides to accept such evils as the killing of unborn babies, homosexuality, sex before marriage, and divorce and remarriage without any God-given excuse. But those who said that God spoke through them have recorded that those who die in their sins have no hope of going to a place of rest and peace with God. Rather, it is written that they shall forever and ever suffer in the fires of Hell, a place originally prepared for Satan, the father of sin and evil, and his angels! It was to spare the people of this world from this horrible fate that Jesus of Nazareth said He came into this world. Leaving His glory which He had had from all eternity, He came here and became flesh that He might live a perfect life and then offer that life as a sacrifice for the sins of the whole world; so write those who say they saw and heard him.

THE CRITICAL ISSUE

As one reads the testimony concerning Jesus of Nazareth, it becomes clear that the most critical issue dealt with is the question of who this Jesus is. I almost wrote who this Jesus was, but that is incorrect. The question is not who He was, but who He is. Because those who testified of Him say He is from everlasting to everlasting, there was no time when He was not, or will there be any time when He is not! If the reader wishes to examine some of this testimony, one may read ”The gospel according to John” and take note of how much space is given to the question of who this Jesus of Nazareth is. One thing discussed in this record is the Messiah or Christ (the anointed One promised to Israel and anxiously awaited for by that nation). John wrote that Jesus did many great and wonderful miracles such as giving sight to the blind, healing all manner of diseases, and even raising a man to life after the man had been dead for four days! All the while Jesus kept telling the people that He had come from God, He was the Son of God, and He was the Messiah. In support of His claims He cited the prophetic writings of their nation and the miracles which He did. Many people of His day did believe Him, but the majority did not. The civil and religious leaders of His nation were especially opposed to Jesus because in his public teaching He condemned their evil doctrines and practices. Furthermore, they hated Jesus because He violated the doctrines and traditions which they themselves had invented and instituted. In doing so, Jesus was setting in motion forces which could take away the coveted positions which these rulers held and cause them to lose the praise of men and the financial gain they received from their false systems of religion.

THE ONLY WAY TO GOD

This brings us to what is one of, if not the most controversial claim made by those who wrote their testimony concerning Jesus of Nazareth. They quote Him as saying, ”I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life; no man cometh unto the Father but by me.” It is written that Jesus told the people of His day, ”Except ye believe that I am he, ye shall die in your sins.” This brought about all the controversy surrounding Him while He dwelt upon this earth! Was He the son of a poor carpenter or the Son of God? Was He an imposter or the promised Messiah? Was He the Savior of the world or a liar and a cheat? Not only so, but when He told the people that the only way they could be forgiven of their sins and go to be with the Father was through Him, there was no room left for compromise! He laid it out plainly; one was either for Him or against Him; it was His way or no way! There was no in-between. So it is not surprising that the rulers of His nation dragged Him before their Roman conquerors and demanded that He be put to death by the cruel method of crucifixion.

HIS DEATH PLANNED

Even so they carried out the very plan of God to allow His son to be given as a sacrifice for the sins of all those who believe and obey Him. So reads the testimony.

HE WAS RAISED FROM THE DEAD!

These witnesses say that three days after His crucifixion and burial, Jesus was raised from the dead, that they saw Him on several occasions (He was seen by over 500 people on one occasion.), that He talked with them, and they touched Him and He even ate before them.

HE RETURNED TO THE FATHER

The testimony we have says that after His death, burial, and resurrection, Jesus of Nazareth took several disciples up on a mountain and told them to begin in the land where they lived and go out into all the world and tell everyone this good news about Jesus of Nazareth and the salvation He had brought to all mankind. At this same time these witnesses say Jesus told them certain conditions which all people were to comply with in order to benefit from the sacrifice which He had made for them. Those who heard the good news were required to believe it. Those who flatly rejected the message and refused to accept it were ”damned” (ie. condemned to be lost in all eternity). However, those who did believe the message were required to have a living, active faith. In other words, it was not enough according to these witnesses to simply and only give mental asset to the facts of the message. That is, one could not stand and listen to the message and say within himself, ”I believe for certain that this message is true, but I love my money, my power, or my immoral life so much that I will not give it up,” and turn and walk away a saved person. Those who testify of Jesus (I dislike repeating this phrase, but that is all I have to present to the reader; all I can do is direct one to that testimony) say that He commanded all who believed the message about Him to be willing to confess this to those around them; not only so, but believers were told to do something which the witnesses called repent Repentance was described as a change of mind or attitude which produced a change in one’s life. It was a willingness to submit one’s self and life unto the authority of this Jesus of Nazareth as one’s Lord and Master. If one were a thief, a liar, an immoral person, a lover of money, or whatever, and that one learned from the testimony of those who witnessed for Jesus that these things were wrong, then that one was required to make an honest commitment to stop doing these things that were condemned. Thus, those who believed in Jesus always showed it by a change in their daily life. Not only were those who accepted the message as being true told to confess their faith (by the way, such a confession often in that day meant certain, terrible persecutions and even death for those who made the confession) and repent of their past way of life, but they were also commanded to be baptized (i.e. immersed in water) in order to receive the remission of their sins. Finally, it was at this point that such people were said to be beginning a new life. It was sometimes described as being born again. Thus such individuals were described as being babes, and they were taught and encouraged to spend the remainder of their lives seeking to come to a better knowledge of the will of Jesus for them, obeying that will, and encouraging others to do so. After giving His disciples the commission which we have tired to describe briefly above, the witnesses say that this Jesus began to rise up into the air. As the disciples watched, He went up into a cloud and out of their sight. At this point they were just standing there gazing up into the sky when an angel appeared unto them and said, ”Why are you men just standing here looking up into the sky? This same Jesus that you have seen going up into Heaven will someday come back just like you saw Him leave.” Upon hearing this, these disciples returned to Jerusalem where they claimed they received wonderful powers which enabled them to remember what Jesus had taught them while upon the earth and also to receive new revelations concerning His will. They were also empowered to perform signs and wonders such as healing the sick, raising the dead, etc., in order to prove that the new message was true.

THE CHOSEN WITNESSES BEGIN TO TESTIFY

A doctor by the name of Luke, who traveled with a man named Paul, who was one of the chosen witnesses, has left us a written record of many of the things, which these witnesses of Jesus of Nazareth both did and taught. In his record Dr. Luke says that these witnesses (sometimes called ”apostles” -meaning one sent out on a special mission) began to testify in the city of Jerusalem and then carry their message into all the known world. They proclaimed the message both by word of mouth and upon the written page.

THE REACTION TO THE TESTIMONY

Multitudes of people gladly received the message. Sometimes several thousand believed and obeyed the word on a single occasion. However, there were almost at every proclamation of the message, those who reacted violently. There were often riots, the witnesses were beaten and imprisoned, and plots were made to kill those who testified. One man named James was killed just a short time after they began their testimony. This pattern continued until almost all of them were killed as the years went by. Not only so, but multitudes of those who accepted the message and publicly confessed their faith in Jesus of Nazareth were persecuted beyond measure and slain in the most horrible ways! The reader may wonder why such harm came to those who went forth with the testimony concerning Jesus of Nazareth. The reason is that they clearly stated that those who had put Jesus to death were guilty of murdering the Son of God and their own promised Messiah! Furthermore, the witnesses stressed the point that this Jesus of Nazareth is the one and only way through which men can receive the remission of their sins, come into fellowship with the one and only true God, and thus inherit eternal life after physical death! Not only so, but these witnesses proclaimed that God has appointed a day in which all people who have ever lived, are now living, or shall ever live upon this earth, shall someday be judged according to the way they dealt with the testimony of Jesus of Nazareth and the manner in which they have lived upon this planet. Now here is the crunch. They claimed that the judge of all people of all the earth on that occasion shall be none other than Jesus of Nazareth !

JESUS OF NAZARETH TO RETURN TO EARTH AT THE END OF TIME AND THE DAY OF JUDGMENT

The testimony we have concerning Jesus of Nazareth speaks not only of things which He has done and is doing, but what He will do some time in the future. The witnesses have written that suddenly there will be heard upon this earth a sound like a great trumpet and at that moment all the dead will be resurrected! At this same time, time will be no more; it will be THE END OF TIME and Jesus of Nazareth shall appear in the sight of all people – "every eye shall see him!" He will not come this time in humility as a lamb to be taken and slaughtered, but He will appear in all His divine glory and power, receiving unto Himself those who have accepted the testimony concerning Him and taking vengeance upon all who have rejected it! The earth and all its works shall be burned up. Only the spiritual will remain. Then comes the great Day of Judgment. Spirits of men in spiritual bodies will be gathered before the throne of Jesus of Nazareth. During this process every person who ever lived will kneel before Jesus and confess that He is Lord; but for multitudes it will be too late! Those who have confessed Jesus before men (i.e. those who have placed faith in Him and let this be known by word and deed) shall be confessed (i.e. owned by Jesus as one of His) before His Father in Heaven. Those who have denied Jesus (i.e. refused the testimony and lived in rebellion to its teaching) shall be denied (i.e. disowned) by Jesus before His Father. One group will enter into the joys prepared for them by Jesus, but the other group having rejected the one and only means of escape from the curse of their sins shall be cast into Hell ”where their worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched.” At least that is what the witnesses claim to be the truth about Jesus of Nazareth! In view of this, do you not think it would be worth one’s time and effort to examine this testimony, to consider the evidences, which support their claims and try to arrive at some logical conclusion about the matter? Please remember; a refusal to accept the testimony is an automatic rejection of Him whom they say shall judge us in that great day.

WHAT EVIDENCE IS THERE TO SUPPORT THIS TESTIMONY?

The first point I would mention is that these writings appear to be authentic (i.e. there is a large body of evidence which indicates that these records were written at the time and place and by the authors assigned to them). Details such as dates and geographical locations, customs and ceremonies, names of kings and nations, etc. are accurately recorded. Such things do not usually appear in forgeries. Secondly, I would ask, ”What would these writers have gained by making up such a story?” When a man proclaims that God has told him that people should sell all they have and turn the money over to said individual, or when a man comes in one day and announces to his wife that he has received a revelation from God saying that said husband should take unto himself several young women as wives, or if the literature of a certain religious system promises that those who live upon this earth faithful to said system shall live eternally with the dark- eyed virgins of paradise, one can readily see the origin of such claims! But one does not find such things in the testimony concerning Jesus of Nazareth. Study the writing and practices of the so-called ”Great Religions” of the world and take note of what is revered in and through those systems. Over and over we see the glorification of those things, which encourage the fulfillment of the evil desires of men. On the contrary, those who went forth with testimony concerning Jesus of Nazareth rebuked a world given over to such gross evils. These writers pled for such things as showing mercy, purity of life, fidelity in marriage, peace, sobriety, commitment to family and neighbors, etc. It just doesn’t seem logical to me that a group of men would have conspired to invent such a story as that of Jesus of Nazareth and then teach as they taught! You think about it please. Your decision upon this matter will be the greatest choice you will ever make.

If I can be of any assistance in pointing you to specific points of the testimony or other evidences, which uphold their word, I would be happy to do so.

--Grady Ward Partin

  Last Updated on
Sunday, May 04, 2003 09:01:01 AM