Yesterday, Scot McKnight over at jesuscreed.org posted another letter from someone questioning and wrestling with faith issues. This one related to what we know of the historical Jesus and the many theories and ideas offered by those who claim who that Jesus was, did, and did not do. Here is a portion of the letter:
Dr. McKnight
I realize this is complex and in depth topic but I am hoping you can help me with some questions regarding the quest for the Jesus of history. Correct me if I am wrong but there seems to be a lack of consensus among Jesus scholars on a number of issues even on basic and historic tenets of the classic Christian faith. This makes it difficult for people like me to determine exactly what we can know about Jesus with a general degree of certainty. I mean, when scholars of equal ability and with equal credentials disagree:
on the very nature of the resurrection (i.e. was it metaphorical or physical),
on whether or not Jesus even claimed to be the Son of God,
on whether the Kingdom of God has only a present or only a future reality or both
and so onit is hard to distinguish fact from fiction.
I posted a comment in response to his post regarding certainty vs. confidence and thought I would share that here:
I find words like certainty and confidence very important here in this type of discussion. I love what you wrote here: “In other words, ‘certainty’ is the wrong question: We can’t answer historical questions with certainty.” As I have wrestled with non-Christians over the historicity of Scripture and Jesus’ life, I find expressing my CONFIDENCE in God’s desire to communicate to His creation about himself, his desire for relationship with humans, our responsibility to that relationship, and how we are to live in relationship to ourselves and others makes far more sense than bustin’ out “More Evident Demands a Verdict” and gettin’ all Josh-McDowell on them 
I also sense this discussion on the truth of Scripture and the accounts of Jesus’ life is tightly knit to the need to be missional in the world: no longer is the ‘truth’ of scripture self authenticating; the teachings of Jesus and the significance of His life will not be believed and trusted simply because “the Bible says so”. Rather, the world will see and tough and hear and feel and taste that Jesus, His life, teachings, and Way are real and valuable when they are face-to-face with a life that overflows of Jesus himself. It is in the experiencing of Jesus in the life of another that will authenticate the reality of the historical Jesus…
