Jesus: God or Fraud?

The claims of Jesus present two possible conclusions: either he was the son of God or he was a mad liar. Which is true? 

Questions for Discussion and Personal Reflection

  1. What do you think—was Jesus bad, mad or God?
  2. Why do you think Jesus still has such a following today?

If what we read in the Bible is, is trustworthy, then you really only have a few alternatives as to who Jesus was. He was either bad, mad or God. In other words, he was either a person that wanted to deceive people deliberately by what he said, because he definitely said that he was God. So either he was trying to deceive people or he was himself deluded or, um, he actually was divine. And um, you can only really have one of those alternatives, and, um, when you look at his life and you look at the results of his life, it's hard to describe him as a bad man. There's not many people who are deeply deluded who will build a following that will outlast the first generation of those followers. I mean, there are cult leaders and crazy people who, who have folks who if you like, drink the Kool Aid and do crazy things, but it generally doesn't last more than one generation. But, I mean, look at Christianity. It's still rolling now, and it's growing faster today than it ever was. So, you, you're kind of forced into really considering, you know, if Jesus said that he was God then you've really got to think about it.