God Is
When asked by Phillip to "show us the Father", Jesus said "He who has seen Me has seen the Father" (Jo. 14:8-9). No finer argument for God's existence has ever been made than this one: God has been seen, therefore God is. This is an historical argument, based upon empirical (physically verifiable) evidence. And, besides the fact that Jesus used it, its strength is that the best evidence for the existence for anything is that it has been seen. Thus, if it can be established that Jesus is God, we have demonstrated that God is.
Jesus was God: The evidence from His claims
The God-like claims are numerous: He said He was equal with God (Jo. 5:17-18,23; 14:9; 10:30-38), sinless (Jo. 8:46) and eternal (Jo. 8:58). He claimed the ability to perform miracles (Matt. 11:26; Jo. 5:36; 10:25) and forgive sins (Mk. 2:5,10-11) and said all must come to the Father by Him (Jo. 14:6) in order to have eternal life (Jo. 3:15; 6:51). He alleged that He could answer prayer (Jo. 14:14; 15:7), would raise and judge the dead (Jo. 5:25,29) and that His word was equal to God's (Matt. 24:35; 5:18). No one but a liar or a fool would make these claims if they were not true. What evidence do we have that He was justified in doing so?
Jesus was God: The evidence from His miracles and resurrection
Extraordinary claims require extraordinary deeds to back them up and Jesus understood this: "If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not" (Jo. 10:37). John's gospel, designed to give evidences for His deity (20:30-31), chronicles seven "mighty works and wonders and signs" (Acts 2:22) that validate these claims: Jesus (1) turned water to wine (2:1-11), (2) healed a nobleman's son (4:46-54) and (3) a lame man (5:1-9), (4) fed 5,000 with five loaves and two fishes (6:1-14), (5) walked on a stormy sea (6:16-21), (6) restored a blind man's vision (9:1-12) and (7) raised the dead, 11:39-44.
But the greatest sign (Matt. 12:38-40; Jo. 2:18-22) is His resurrection from the dead. After numerous claims that He would do so, (Matt. 12:38-40; 16:21; 17:9, 23; 20:19; 26:32; Mk. 8:31; 9:9, 31; 10:34; 14:28; Lk. 9:22; 18:33; Jo. 2:18-22; 10:18), He claimed He had arisen (Lk. 24:66; Jo. 20:27; Rev. 1:18; 2:8) and the evidence is strong that He did:
First there is the indisputable fact that Jesus died (Jo. 19:33-35) and was buried (Jo. 19:38-42). Secondly, there is the empty tomb (Lk. 24:2-3) for which no plausible explanation has ever been given. In the third place, the apostles and others believed and preached that a resurrection had taken place. [After Jesus' arrest and subsequent death these men ran and hid as cowards (Mk. 14:50; Jo. 20:19). But six weeks later (Acts 2:14) they were preaching bravely in the presence of those they had been hiding from. Only the empty tomb accounts for this change!] Fourth, on Pentecost (Acts 2) there was no argument with Peter's claim that a resurrection had occurred and no attempt to find the tomb and show the body was still there---only an attempted cover-up to explain the empty tomb (Matt. 28:11-15). In the fifth place, we have His appearances to a large number of people for over a month following His resurrection (1 Cor. 15:5-8). And lastly, there is what some consider to be the strongest argument in favor of the resurrection: the conversion of Saul.
But the strength of this historical apologetic depends upon two things:
Was Jesus an actual historical character?
In addition to the four gospels, there are a number of secular sources which establish Him as an historical figure. One example will suffice. Writing of the fire in Rome during Nero's reign, the Roman Historian Cornelius Tacitus said, "Hence to suppress the rumor, he falsely charged with the guilt, and punished with the most exquisite tortures, the persons commonly called Christians, who were hated for their enormities. Christus, the founder of the name, was put to death by Pontius Pilate, procurator of Judea in the reign of Tiberius: but the pernicious superstition, repressed for a time broke out again, not only through Judea, where the mischief originated, but through the city of Rome also." (Annals XV 44).
Are the NT documents reliable and their authors dependable?
Even though they contain extraordinary claims and deeds, extraordinary evidence is not required for the gospels; validate these documents as you would any others of an historical nature and you've validated both: "...no historian can legitimately rule out documentary evidence simply on the ground that it records remarkable events; if the documents are sufficiently reliable, the remarkable events must be accepted even if they cannot be successfully explained by analogy with other events or by an a priori scheme of natural causation." John Warwick Montgomery, History & Christianity, p. 21. And as yet no one has presented evidence (true discrepancies, historical inaccuracies, etc.) that seriously challenges the reliability of the NT text.
Conclusion: Jesus is God and God is
The apostle John, writing many years after Jesus' ascension to heaven, stated: "That which was from the beginning, that which we have heard, that which we have seen with our eyes, that which we beheld, and our hands handled, concerning the Word of life." (1 John 1:1). Jesus was heard, seen, closely examined and physically touched ("The four statements are cumulative, the evidence is piled up mountain-high. Each added verb says more than the one that precedes it; the four progress, form a climax. To see is more than to hear; to behold more than to see, to handle more than to behold." Lenski, p. 373.).
God has been seen in human history in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. His life has been recorded by credible biographers in documents whose reliability are impeccable. There is no reason other than obdurate prejudice to reject the evidence. Truly, "The fool hath said in his heart, 'There is no God.'" (Ps. 14:1).
David Smitherman