As Christmas approaches, newspapers, magazines and blogs will spend considerable time discussing the facts of the Christmas Story. In November, US News and World Report published a book on The Real Jesus. Fox News says: Jesus was part of a blended family. CNN reports: Pope's book on Jesus debunks Christmas myths.
The people, places, exact dates and details will be dissected and discussed. Every Christmas and Easter Jesus gets time and attention in very public ways in the media and discussions. Some see this as an attack on Jesus and Christianity – maybe it is. I think there is another interesting side to all the talk about Jesus.
I find it interesting that after more than 2000 years Jesus is the only figure in history that gets regular press. Who else gets the press that Jesus gets? Who even comes in a close second?
In the Encyclopedia Britannica, Jesus gets over 21,000 words dedicated to him. There are over 17,000 books about Jesus in the Library of Congress. No subject has even half that number of books dedicated to it in the Library of Congress.
In 1978 Michael H. Hart wrote a book entitled: The 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History. The book sold 500,000 copies and has been translated into 15 languages. The book was very controversial because it listed Muhammad as the most influential person in history. Jesus was actually listed as number three by him. In the introduction of the book he defended his choice of Muhammad saying: “… my ranking of Muhammad higher than Jesus, is in large part because of my belief that Muhammad had a much greater influence on the foundation of the Moslem religion than Jesus had on the formulation of the Christian religion. This does not imply, of course, that I think that Muhammad was greater than Jesus.” (Emphasis mine.)
Notice the last line by Michael Hart: “This does not imply, of course, that I think that Muhammad was greater than Jesus.” Since, for most people, the obvious choice for the most influential person of all time would be Jesus, he has to take time to defend why he would list Muhammad as number one. He has to defend the reason for Jesus not being listed as number one. It is interesting that his book is translated into 15 languages and the Bible has been translated into over 2,200 languages.
Who is there in all of history that compares with Jesus who was called Immanuel God with us! Don’t you want to know more about Jesus?
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