Chapter 1: Introduction

To begin, it is acknowledged that there is essentially no argument about the existence of the "Man known in literature as Jesus of Nazareth". The virtues of Christ and his teachings are briefly and appropriately discussed as "supreme among men", divinity aside, but of course the fact of His divinity far surpasses any other characteristic.

I'm reminded here of something C. S. Lewis said in his book Mere Christianity:

I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: 'I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept His claim to be God.' That is the one thing we must not say. A mean who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic-- on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg-- or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronising nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.

There's really not much to add to a statement like that. Lewis hit the nail on the head here.

Other points of note in the first chapter:

1- Perhaps this is too obvious, but let's remind ourselves that we chronicle our history based on it's relation to the birth of Christ. That's pretty huge. Either Jesus truly is the Christ, or this is the greatest fraud perpetuated in the history of mankind. Clearly, I go with the former.

2- I've never thought of it in these terms before, but I thought it interesting that Christ was on this earth for 33 years and His earthly ministry was 3 years long. Three is a very significant and symbolic religious number- was there significance even here? I don't see why not, but my mind is not lending itself to further study of this right now, just simply noting the interest.

3- "Even the profane sinner in the foul sacrilege of his oath acclaims the divine supremacy of Him whose name he desecrates." Because it wouldn't be as powerful an oath if it didn't represent something so pure and beautiful- the most vile things are usually perversions of the most sacred and beautiful.

4- In the final paragraph of the chapter, I noted the continued use of words synonymous with the word "truth". "Verity", "fact", "actuality", "reality", "literalness"... the simple use of these words is in themselves a testimony of Jesus as the Christ. This is not a book dealing with the theory of Jesus as divinity- it is a book discussing the facts and details as are available to us in the scriptures. This is so powerful to me; it is the difference between saying "I believe" and "I know". It is so final, so exact and so, shall we say, unforgiving. Once those words are said, there's no hedging, no backpedaling, no squirming around the statement.