Note: I’m a Christian, but for most of this article, I’m setting aside that bias. I’m also aware that, technically speaking, Christ is a religious title. Jesus of Nazareth would be the more neutral title, but Jesus Christ is what nearly everyone calls him, including people who aren’t Christians. Even Wikipedia agrees. The name is so common that people even use it as a swear word. So, that’s what I’ll call him throughout.
True For You and Me
Something’s been on my mind since this past Easter, and I’m only just now getting around to writing about it (still doing better than George R. R. Martin though, we love you GRRM, but finish the books!).
Jesus Christ was a real person.
If you’re reading this right now, that statement is true for me, you, and everyone everywhere. It’s not a religious statement. It’s not a statement of faith.
If I say Julius Caesar was a real person, nobody gets defensive, nobody bats an eye. Which is good, because he totally was. There’s no doubt about it. Saying that Jesus Christ was a real person is the same level of factual. That’s not just like, uhhhh, my opinion, man, and I’m a bit shocked that a good number of people, particularly in the Western world, aren’t aware of that.
The debate surrounding Jesus is about whether the New Testament account of him is true. Did he really perform all those miracles? Was he actually the Son of God? Did he die for our sins? And most importantly, did he rise from the dead? But there’s no credible debate among scholars, including atheists and agnostics, about whether Jesus Christ existed. There are plenty of historical records for Jesus that aren’t the Bible.
His existence is a historical fact.
Not So Common Knowledge
If, in response to this article so far, you’ve been going “duh, everyone knows Jesus was a real person”, I doth protest. Everyone does not know that.
I could offer my own anecdotes as evidence, but we have research. In a nationally representative 2022 survey, 24% of American adults either denied Jesus’s historical existence or were unsure about it.
That’s nearly 1 in 4 Americans. Those who said no, in effect, relegate Jesus to the same category as Zeus, a figure from mythology rather than a person who actually lived.
In response to those numbers, I have only this:
An Aside: This is a deep cut meme. Click here to learn its origins. If you recognized it without help, I’m proud of you. You’re my kind of person. We can be friends.
That level of uncertainty is striking given the broad historical consensus that Jesus was real.
McKenna Grace, Paul Rudd, and Finn Wolfhard
Seeing this clip recently drove home my belief that it is in fact not common knowledge that Jesus Christ was a real person.
While promoting Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, McKenna Grace, Paul Rudd, and Finn Wolfhard were asked which person from history they’d go back in time to spend a day with. Rudd answered, “Jesus Christ”, which immediately provoked a sort of “yeah right lol” laughter from McKenna and Finn.
Rudd responded, “Laugh all you want”, then stated, “He existed. We know”. He continued, “So wouldn’t you want to spend some time with him and go, ‘Hey Jesus, what’s the deal?’” After he explained himself, McKenna and Finn conceded that his response was actually a great answer. Rudd wasn’t making a religious statement. He’s Jewish but doesn’t practice Judaism and has publicly said he isn’t “particularly religious”. Instead, he grounded his answer in the fact that Jesus was a real person and therefore fair game for the question.
Now to be fair, I can’t know why McKenna and Finn laughed, and the clip doesn’t prove that either thought Jesus was fictional. Still, their laughter came across as mocking, and Rudd immediately felt the need to clarify that Jesus existed. That made me wonder whether part of this confusion is generational.
Across Generations
Rudd, born in 1969, is Gen X. McKenna, born in 2006, and Finn, born in 2002, are Gen Z. Technically, so am I, although I can barely claim it, having been born in what is commonly considered the generation’s first year. I’m more of a Zillennial than anything.
My suspicion that younger people are less likely to know Jesus was a real person isn’t based on this clip alone. A 2021 Australian national survey found that only 4 in 10 adults ages 18 to 35 regarded Jesus as a real historical person, with that number rising among older age groups.
How younger people get their information may also matter. The Pew Research Center found that 37% of adults under 30 regularly get news from social media influencers, and 77% of the influencers studied had no affiliation or background with a news organization.
None of this proves that social media causes this generational difference or explains why McKenna and Finn laughed. Still, it makes me wonder what happens to basic historical literacy when we increasingly get our knowledge from algorithmically curated feeds full of influencers.
We can’t have meaningful conversations about important topics without first agreeing on the basic facts. Historical truth exists outside any one of us. It simply is what it is. It’s stuff that’s already happened.
And as much as I like audio and video, when it comes to knowledge, there’s no replacement for reading. For most of human history, literacy was out of reach for huge numbers of ordinary people. Plebeians, like you and me. Now that most of us can read (excluding Floyd Mayweather Jr.), we’re struggling to get people to do it.
There’s never been a better time to leave your social media platform of choice, use Google properly, and read primary sources for yourself. Charles J. Chaput said it best.
If we don’t read, we condemn ourselves to chronic stupidity and a conditioning by mass media that have no sympathy for the things we believe. […] If we fill our heads with poison and junk, we make ourselves angry and dumb.
States of Confusion
Part of the confusion here no doubt comes from the common phrase “I believe in Jesus”.
Spelled out in its entirety, it would more accurately be something like, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God as evidenced by the New Testament account of his life, death, and resurrection”. But…
So instead, people say, “I believe in Jesus”. Somewhere along the way, that shorthand picked up a meaning it was never meant to carry. To say “I believe in Jesus” is not to say “I believe Jesus existed”, because you don’t get a say in that. None of us do.
I don’t get to choose whether Marcus Aurelius, Margaret Thatcher, Mansa Musa, or Mary Slessor (🙌🏾 ❤️) existed. They did. It just is what it is, we don’t get to choose. Likewise, the existence of Jesus Christ isn’t a matter of personal belief.
What we each get to decide is whether we believe the claims Jesus made about himself. Plenty of people who lived during his time didn’t believe what he said, leading ultimately to his crucifixion, which itself was an actual historical event, not merely a matter of Christian belief.
In Conclusion
This is one of those topics where what I have to say doesn’t really matter. Some things just are what they are. The sun is hot, France is a country in Europe, Olusegun Obasanjo (what a great name 😏) was the 12th president of Nigeria, the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell, and Jesus Christ, or Jesus of Nazareth if you prefer, was a real person.
Accepting that simple historical fact opens the door to much bigger questions about who he was. His teachings left such a mark on the world that he’s routinely considered one of the most influential people to have ever lived.
As for whether I believe the claims Jesus made about himself, I do. I am proudly, unambiguously, and devoutly a Christian.
But Christian is an identity nearly 2,000 years old. The term had a clear meaning when it emerged during the Roman Empire, long before the United States existed, and it still has a clear meaning for billions of people across hundreds of countries worldwide. Reducing that ancient, global identity to one American politician or political movement is beyond inaccurate. It’s breathtakingly arrogant. Christianity has never belonged to one country, race, politician, or political party.
Its meaning comes from Christ himself, a real person whose family fled a murderous ruler and took refuge in Egypt (hey Siri, what’s a refugee?), who experienced homelessness, and who told his followers to love their enemies, welcome strangers, and show their love for him through their actions, being rather blunt about that last part, even with his own family.
All that said, wherever you land on these bigger questions, I’m always happy to talk about Jesus. It’s my favorite topic, above even anime, cinnamon rolls, science fiction, fantasy novels, third places, and herbal teas. You can reach me on LinkedIn or through my contact page.
