Jesus Christ

Jesus Christ was crucified on 30 A.D.

This is believed by many to have occurred in 33 AD although this date is nowhere mentioned in the Bible as the dating system we have now was not invented yet. Another explaination is that if in fact Jesus of Nazareth was crucified, then the time period can only be narrowed down to between 29 and 35 ACE

ANOTHER ANSWER:

Jesus reveals only ONE SIGN to us that proves He is the Messiah, and that is that He would be in the tomb for "three days and three nights AS JONAH WAS THREE DAYS AND THREE NIGHTS IN THE BELLY OF THE GREAT FISH."

Since He was murdered on THE PASSOVER that week... figuring backwards from the day of His resurrection [which has to have been the evening of THE SABBATH DAY; the EXACT same time of day that He was buried three days earlier] the Passover HAD TO FALL ON THE DAY OF THE WEEK WE CALL WEDNESDAY, today.

The false circumstances of Jesus' death and resurrection that this world has accepted [Friday evening and Sunday morning] FAILS to comply with the narrow scope of Jesus' SIGN OF PROOF that He is the Messiah. The modern apostate professing Christian world has swallowed the "excuse offered by scholars" that Jesus spoke in a "Greek idiom" to explain away the fact that the time frame the world accepts as His "actual time in the tomb" [believed by the world, to this day, as being only a 'day-and-a-half'] doesn't comply with Jesus' concise SIGN.

But the REAL TRUTH is that THE BOOK OF JONAH WASN'T WRITTEN IN GREEK!

Also... the Bible DOESN'T SAY that Jesus ROSE FROM THE TOMB ON SUNDAY. For one thing the word "Sunday" isn't in the Scriptures. And, most importantly, as the women got to the tomb on the morning of the FIRST DAY OF THE WEEK [the day we call SUNDAY, today]... JESUS WAS ALREADY GONE! The angel told them HE ISris-EN-- [PAST TENSE] -- not -- He is ris-ING [PRESENT TENSE].

Of course He was already gone by the time the women got to the tomb just before sunrise on "our" Sunday morning. It's because He had risen from the tomb the evening BEFORE... on the SABBATH DAY [the day of the week we call SATURDAY, today]; at the SAME TIME OF DAY HE WAS BURIED THREE DAYS AND THREE NIGHTS PREVIOUSLY.

So, the fact of the matter is that the ONLY YEARwithin the "range of years" mentioned [and commonly disputed over by scholars over the ensuing centuries] in the answer above [29-35 ad] that Jesus COULD HAVE BEEN CRUCIFIED on the [correct] PASSOVER was the ONE YEAR when it fell on the day of the week we call today WEDNESDAY [exactly three days and three nights before the following Saturday... or Sabbath... AFTERNOON; at the same time of day He was buried]! And strangely enough, it's the ONE YEAR that the scholars keep MISSING in their erroneous calculations. The year 31 A.D.!

31a.d. is the ONLY YEAR on which the Passover fell on the correct day of the week for Jesus' SIGN OF PROOF THAT HE IS THE MESSIAH to ring true. Any time frame other than the one Jesus named PROVES HE IS NOT THE MESSIAH -- and anyone who accepts the notion that Jesus "made a mistake in His calculation" ACCEPTS THAT JESUS IS FALLIBLE... NOT THE MESSIAH... and is being deceived by Satan into worshipping a "false Christ."

The death and resurrection of Jesus, gave humanity a choice.

Adam 'sold mankind into sin', that is, all his yet-unborn children. He'd had no children before he sinned. They all came AFTER his sin, when he was imperfect, so because of his rebellion, all his descendants (us) are damaged and 'miss the mark' of perfection. Without Jesus' sacrifice, we would all have nothing but death and nothingness to look forward to. (Ecclesiastes 9:5&10)(Ezekiel 18:4)

God sent his only son to pay the 'ransom price' and 'buy us back' from sin and death. Anyone among mankind now has the opportunity to fulfill God's original purpose and live forever, by following Jesus' example, learning about and obeying God. (John 17:3)(John 3:16)(Matthew 7:21-23)

God's will was for a perfect human society to live on a perfect earth forever.

(Isaiah 45:18 & Acts 17:26)

Adam was a perfect man, a 'son of God'(Luke 3:38) created with the wonderful prospect of filling the earth with a perfect human family. (Genesis 1:28)

As long as he remained faithful to God, his creator, Adam would be perfect and would live forever. If he choose to rebel against God, he would lose perfection, and like a lamp unplugged from it's source of energy, he would die.(Genesis 2:16&17)

He chose to listen to Satan, and live independently of God.(Genesis 2:17, Genesis 3:4) and so lost his position as God's son, as God said he would if he disobeyed. He then suffered the consequences. He became imperfect, grew old, and eventually died.(Genesis 2:15-17; 3:17-19; Revelation 12:9).

No longer perfect, he could no longer have perfect children(Job 14:4)(Romans 5:12) Sadly, we who are all Adam's children, inherited sin from our forefather Adam, along with its dire consequences, namely aging and death.(Job 14:4; Romans 3:23). Like a dented pie tin…every pie coming from that tin, would have a dent in it….and so we are all 'dented', so to speak, with sin.

Unless God stepped in, there would be no hope, and all humans would just continue to get sick and die, and that would be it.

BUT, Immediately after the first sin, God gave the first prophesy in the Bible, pointing forward to someone who would conquer Satan and rescue mankind . (Genesis 3:15)

IN fulfillment of this prophecy, God sent his son, Jesus, who willingly left his heavenly life with his father,(John 3:13) (John 8:23,57&58)(John 6:38) to become a perfect man, equal to Adam, (1 Corinthians 15:45) to die as a sacrifice and 'buy back' those humans who want to be faithful.(1 Timothy 2:5&6) "An eye for an eye, tooth for tooth"(Exodus 21:23&24) perfect life for perfect life. He 'paid a ransom' and 'bought us back' from sin and the enemy, death. (1 Corinthians 15:26)

The perfect man who remained faithful to death(John 5:30), replaced the perfect man who chose to rebel.

Thanks to Jesus, despite our imperfection, if we are obedient to God and faithfully follow Jesus' life example, we have access to a relationship with God, and death does not have to be the end. We have the hope of living forever someday soon, and the promise of the 'resurrection' if we should die.(Revelation 21:3&4)

The resurrection of Jesus proved that God was in control.(Acts 17:31) He brought Jesus back to life and gave him the position of King of his Kingdom.(Daniel 7:13&14)(Revelation 11:15) "Death", that had ruled as king over mankind since Eden, no longer had the power it once had. (1 Corinthians 15:55). God has power over death, and Jesus, as his appointed king, can and will also resurrect those he chooses to (Acts 24:15)(John 5:28&29). He proved he could do this several times, when he was on earth (Luke 7:12-15)

Then, when all things have reached perfection, Jesus will hand the Kingdom back over to his father, and all things will be as was originally purposed. (1 Corinthians 15:20-28)

It is a profession of faith. It gives some of the key components of the faith of those that say it.

It is not a prayer, it is a statement of an agreed to orthodox dogma at the common core of the Christian Religion (regardless of sect). When you say it, it reminds you of those core dogma. It is not addressed to God as a prayer is, but to yourself and the other members of the church. It is more like an oath that you agree with and will be held to all aspects of that common dogma.

Short answer: yes

Mar 14:1 After two days was the feast of the passover, and of unleavened bread: and the chief priests and the scribes sought how they might take him by craft, and put him to death.

Mat 26:2-4 KJV Ye know that after two days is the feast of the passover, and the Son of man is betrayed to be crucified. [v. 3] Then assembled together the chief priests, and the scribes, and the elders of the people, unto the palace of the high priest, who was called Caiaphas, [v. 4] And consulted that they might take Jesus by subtilty, and kill him.

Joh 13:1 Now before the feast of the passover, when Jesus knew that his hour was come that he should depart out of this world unto the Father [ie die] ...

Joh 18:28 Then led they Jesus from Caiaphas unto the hall of judgment: and it was early; and they themselves went not into the judgment hall, lest they should be defiled; but that they might eat the passover.

Joh 18:39 But ye have a custom, that I should release unto you one at the passover: will ye therefore that I release unto you the King of the Jews?

Joh 18:40 Then cried they all again, saying, Not this man, but Barabbas. Now Barabbas was a robber.

Saul / Paul believed Jesus is the Son of God:

2Corinthians 1:19 For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us..............

Saul/Paul believed that one day Jesus will return to earth to judge all of mankind:

2Timothy 4:1 I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom:

Saul/Paul believed that a person is saved/put right with God through faith in Jesus:

Galatians 2:16 knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified.

1Thessalonians 5:9 For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ,

Matthew 27 Three

Then Judas, which had betrayed him, when he saw that he was condemned, repented himself, and brought again the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders

We know more about the star from Ignatius of Antioch (died around 110 CE), who wrote (Letter to the Ephesians, XIX), "A star shone in the heaven beyond all the stars, and its light was unspeakable and its newness caused astonishment, and all the other stars, with the sun and the moon gathered in chorus around this star, and it far exceeded them all in its light." With a star brighter than the sun, moon and all other stars combined, it would of course not have been possible to look directly at it, so it would also have been hard to use any instrument to observe it.

Nevertheless, Pope Leo I tells us that the star was entirely invisible to the Jews because of their blindness. This begins to place the star in the realms of myth rather than fact. You can not use an instrument to observe a mythical star. Ian Wilson (Jesus: The Evidence) says that the hard reality is that Matthew's nativity story offers insufficient historicity for anyone to be confident that there was a star at all. This is echoed by John Shelby Spong, who says (Born of a Woman: A Bishop Rethinks the Birth of Jesus) that neither birth story contains any historical truth. He reports that among people he knows in New Testament circles, the universal assumption is that the magi were not actual people, and that Matthew was simply writing Christian midrash. If there were no wise men, we can not tell what instrument they would have used to follow an imaginary star.

John Shelby Spong, the retired Episcopal bishop of Newark, is one of the most 'liberal' Christians you could find, who still regards himself as a Christian. I read a number of his books to observe how his beliefs evolved over time. He did not start out to challenge some of the Christian beliefs, but his curiosity and intellectual honesty caused him to investigate the facts he had learnt as a young man. He describes the nativity story of Matthew as "Christian midrash" and is equally dismissive of Luke's account. Spong also believes that there have been some changes to the original gospel nativity accounts. He says that when Matthew 1:18 said that Mary was with child of the Holy Ghost, there is "some suspicion" that the reference to the Holy Ghost was a gloss added by an early copier, as these words do not appear in the earliest documents we possess.

Father Raymond E. Brown, a member of the Vatican's Roman Pontifical Biblical Commission, professor of theology and author of a number of scholarly books, is cautiously dismissive of the gospel nativity stories. He says that Matthew shaped Joseph, the son of Jacob, in the image of the patriarch Joseph, another son of Jacob/Israel, because both interpret dreams and save the family by going to Egypt. He goes on to describe the improbable parallels between the Old Testament accounts of Joseph and Moses, and Matthew's account of Joseph and Jesus. Brown says there never was a census of the whole Empire under Augustus (but a number of local censuses) and the census of Judea (not of Galilee) under Quirinius, the governor of Syria, took place in 6-7 CE, probably at least ten years too late for the birth of Jesus. In his view, the best explanation is that, although Luke likes to set his Christian drama in the context of well-known events from antiquity, sometimes he does so inaccurately. For Brown, inspiration does not guarantee historicity or reconcilability; otherwise God should have inspired the two evangelists to give us the same record. He adds that while Luke's genealogy may be less classically monarchical than Matthew's, there is little likelihood that either is strictly historical.

First off Jesus was nailed to a stake not a cross, the cross was not used to torture people till later centuries to come. so in Jesus time period they used a stake or upright poll. the reason he was hung on the stake was because he was preaching about god and the Jewish religious leaders at that time didn't like that at all, and they wanted him killed. so through there connections with the roman government were able to get him killed.

Answer (and correction)

Contrary to the above, there is a huge amount of evidence that Jesus was indeed nailed to a cross and not a stake. The only group that refuses to believe that a cross was used as the method of Jesus' crucifixion is the group known as the Jehovah's Witnesses, because one of their leaders (erroneously) believed that a cross symbol was originally a pagan symbol. The confusion arose from a misinterpretation of stauros (cross) and monos stauros (stake)in the gospels and Paul's letters, but as none of the group's leaders have even been Greek experts, these words were interpreted very incorrectly. All Christian denominations, all Christian churches, Bible historians, Bible scholars, secular historians, theologians, archaeologists and members of other religions such as Islam and Judaism, almost without exception, affirm that Jesus died on a cross rather than a stake. The belief that the cross was not used at the time of Jesus flies in the face of all archaeological evidence. Even the catacombs in Rome - dating from the 1st century AD - depict Jesus (and others) being crucified on a cross-shaped cross.

The reason why he was executed in the first place is theological. Christians believe that the sacrifice of Jesus Christ by execution was a necessity for the salvation of the whole of humanity past, present and future. There are various theories as to why this had to be so, including Jesus paying the ultimate price for our sin by substituting himself for us on the Cross. But, suffice it to say, that if we accept Jesus is God incarnate, then on the Cross God himself suffered and died as a result of our sin - so that God himself knows what it is to be human, to suffer and to die. And only by this act can a relationship be reinstated between God and humanity - a relationship broken when humanity rebelled against God by its sinful nature. Christians see that the resurrection of Jesus Christ after the crucifixion was the inevitable conclusion; that by dying for our own sins, he conquered death finally and absolutely and by rising again restored that relationship between God and humanity and pointed the way to our own resurrection at the end of the world.

As to why crucifixion was used as the means of execution there is a much simpler reason. The Romans had two main methods of execution; firstly for Roman citizens there was the option of a swift beheading by sword that was a quick death. This was the means by which Paul - a Jew but also a Roman citizen was executed. Secondly for foreigners there was crucifixion which was regarded as the most brutal of all forms of execution both past and present. It was reserved for those foreigners who were regarded as the 'scum' of society. Therefore, the Jewish authorities, wishing to impart on Jesus a painful and humiliating death, called for crucifixion.

Although the death of Jesus is highly symbolic, there is nothing theologically symbolic about crucifixion itself. Had Jesus been alive bodily on earth today, say, in the USA, he would have been executed by lethal injection or electric chair; and Christians of the future would wear needles or chairs round their necks rather than crosses.

To pay the sin debt for all humanity. God had required a spotless sacrifice to cancel sin. Jesus was that sacrifice, so all mankind would be reconciled to God.

No description of Jesus appears in surviving texts of Josephus.

Image on the Shroud of Turin would make him 5' 11" according to documentary on TV. However, there is great doubt that the Shroud of Turin is anything other than a 14th-century fake, so that isn't especially conclusive.

According to the Bible... Jesus was "average" in appearance:

"...He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to Him, nothing in His appearance that we should desire Him..." (Isa.53:2 NIV).

Additionally:

We're told in scripture that Jesus was able to hide Himself in the midst of a crowd [that was usually trying to kill Him].

"...all they in the synagogue [church]... were filled with wrath, and rose up, and thrust Him out of the city [of Nazareth, Jesus' hometown], and led Him unto the brow of the hill whereon their city was built, that they might cast Him down headlong. But He passing through the midst of them went His way." (Luke 4:28-30)

"Then took they up stones to cast at Him [a group of Jews at another time in the Temple at Jerusalem who 'believed' on Jesus - John 8:30]: but Jesus hid Himself, and went out of the Temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by." (John 8:59)

Even Judas had to identify Him to those who arrested Him with a kiss, because they weren't sure which one was Him.

"...he that betrayed Him had given them a token, saying, Whomsoever I shall kiss, that same is He; take Him, and lead Him away safely." (Mark 14:44)

These scriptures lend credence to the above statement of Jesus' "average" height and appearance.

Certainly, the modern image the world has of the "tall, thin, lanky, hippy-like flower child Jesus" depicted by the Renaissance painters would never have been able to hide himself in a crowd of Jews, anciently [or in a modern sports stadium filled with thousands of people, for that matter].

No. 'Immortal' means having a physical body that cannot die. Superman, as an example, is immortal.

If God couldn't die, then the Cross coul not have happened. However, Jesus, as God incarnate, died for us on the Cross for our salvation.

God is eternal, which is very different. 'Eternal' means 'existing outside of time'. We, as humans exist within the constraints of time, but God is eternal and is outside that constraint. However, he can still interact with us intime.

Much like Einstein showed that a light ray has no concept of time but can interact with us, God is eternal but can interact with us in prayer.

When one speaks of God, it is generally the Father who is referred to; that is, Elohim. All mankind are his children. The personage known as Jehovah in Old Testament times, and who is usually identified in the Old Testament as LORD (in capital letters), is the Son, known as Jesus Christ, and who is also a God. Jesus works under the direction of the Father and is in complete harmony with him. All mankind are his brethren and sisters, he being the eldest of the spirit children of Elohim. Many of the things that the scripture says were done by God were actually done by the LORD (Jesus). Thus the scripture says that "God created the heaven and the earth" (Gen. 1:1), but we know that it was actually the LORD (Jesus) who was the creator (John 1:3, 10), or as Paul said, God created all things by Christ Jesus (Eph. 3:9). The Holy Ghost is also a God and is variously called the Holy Spirit, the Spirit, the Spirit of God, etc