“O hidden strength! A man hanging on a cross lifts the weight of eternal death; a man fixed on wood frees the world from everlasting death. O hidden power!”
St Anselm (1033-1109)“Jesus was lost in his love for God.”
Rumi, Sufi poet (1207-73)“When I was abandoned by everybody, in my greatest weakness, trembling and afraid of death, when I was persecuted by this wicked world, then I often felt most surely the divine power in this name, Jesus Christ… So, by God’s grace, I will live and die for that name.”
Martin Luther (1483-1546)
Thomas Jefferson“Christ teaches and commands us to learn of him, for he is meek and lowly in heart and so shall we find rest to our souls.”
Schleitheim Confession, 1527“No one else holds or has held the place in the heart of the world which Jesus holds. Other gods have been as devoutly worshipped; no other man has been so devoutly loved.”
John Knox, Scottish reformer (1514-72)“Not only do we not know God except through Jesus Christ;
We do not even know ourselves except through Jesus Christ.”
Blaise Pascal, French mathematician and philosopher (1623-62)“Gentle Jesus, meek and mild…”
Charles Wesley, hymnwriter (1707-88)“Socrates dies with honor, surrounded by his disciples listening to the most tender words -the easiest death that one could wish to die. Jesus dies in pain, dishonor, mockery, the object of universal cursing – the most horrible death that one could fear. At the receipt of the cup of poison, Socrates blesses him who could not give it to him without tears; Jesus, while suffering the sharpest pains, prays for His most bitter enemies. If Socrates lived and died like a philosopher, Jesus lived and died like a god.”
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, French philosopher (1712-78)“The day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the Supreme Being as His father, in the womb of a virgin will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerva in the brain of Jupiter.”
Thomas Jefferson, American founding father (1743-1826)
Fyodor Dostoevsky“I know men and I tell you that Jesus Christ is no mere man. Between him and every other person in the world there is no possible term of comparison. Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne, and I founded empires. But on what did we rest the creations of our genius? Upon force. Jesus Christ founded His empire upon love; and at this hour millions of people would die for Him.”
Napoleon Bonaparte, French emperor (1769-1821)“If Jesus Christ were to come today, people would not crucify him. They would ask him to dinner, hear what he had to say, and make fun of it.”
Thomas Carlyle, British historian (1795-1881)“I believe there is no one deeper, lovelier, more sympathetic and more perfect than Jesus – not only is there no one else like him, there never could be anyone like him.”
Fyodor Dostoevsky, Russian novelist (1821-81)“Jesus died to save men – a small thing for an immortal to do – and didn’t save many, anyway. But if he had been damned for the race, that would have been act of a size proper to a god, and would have saved the whole race.”
Mark Twain, American author (1835-1910)“Jesus died too soon. If he had lived to my age he would have repudiated his doctrine.”
Friedrich Nietzsche, German philosopher (1844-1900)
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Jesus is one of the most argued-over people in history. The question of who Jesus was debated by the Christian church for several centuries, and after 2,000 years the question is still as fresh as ever.
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