Since all of Christianity is built around the person of Jesus, we need to know something about him. Many claimed He was a prophet, healer, spiritual teacher, revolutionary, and lunatic, but what do we really know about Jesus? Let’s look at the verifiable facts we know about Jesus.

Facts about the person named Jesus

• He was an actual man who lived in Israel during the first century AD.
• He was known in the area as a great teacher and spiritual leader.
• His teachings caused great controversy in this heavily Jewish area.
• He claimed to be God! Some would argue these claims were invented by the Christian church. Although historical evidence can never provide absolute certainty, the evidence is strong that Jesus actually made these claims. The earliest Christians who were Jews worshipped Jesus. Since they were well aware that worship was reserved only for God, what would lead committed Jews to worship Jesus? The only reasonable answer is that Jesus claimed to be divine and they understood and believed those claims when He rose from the dead and appeared to them.
• He was executed by the Romans because of His teachings and came back to life three days after His death. (for evidence of this see the question, Did Jesus Really Come Back to Life?)