What are the Crucial Facts about the One and Only Jesus Christ?

Christ of Saint John of the Cross is a painting by Salvador Dalí made in 1951

Many New Agers are ignorant of the Savior's credentials.  Their idea of "the Christ is dim and dull, based on childhood images, sentimental distortions, occult clichés and misinterpretations of Scripture.  Yet Christians have great opportunity to boast in their Lord.  Among other things, Christians can highlight these crucial facts about the one and only Christ:

1. He fulfilled a score of Old Testament prophecies concerning his life, death and resurrection.

The Presentation at the Temple is painting by the Italian Renaissance artist Andrea Mantegna dating to c. 1455.

These predictions fit only one person, Jesus Christ -- as the early church saw so clearly.  No other religious leader can rightly claim to fulfill them.  Jesus was and is "the Mighty God" of Isaiah 9:6, the personal revelation of God.  In view of some New Agers' interest in vague, ancient, pagan prophecies -- whether Mayan, Aztec, Hopi or Hindu -- they should be willing to consider the reality of specific, fulfilled biblical prophecy concerning Jesus Christ.

Consider the confidence in Christ shown by Pascal, who viewed fulfilled prophecy as a strong reason to believe:

Blaise Pascal (19 June 1623 – 19 August 1662) was a French mathematician, physicist, inventor, writer and Christian philosopher.

I hold out my arms to my Redeemer, who, having been foretold for four thousand years, has come to suffer and die for me on earth, at the time and under all the circumstances foretold.  By His grace, I await death in peace, in the hope of being eternally united to Him.  Yet I live with joy, whether in the prosperity which it pleases Him to bestow upon me, or in the adversity which He sends for my good, and which He has taught me to bear by His example.

2. Jesus predicted his own death and resurrection and rose from the dead.

Crucifixion (Corpus Hypercubus) is a 1954 oil-on-canvas painting by Salvador Dalí which depicts the Crucifixion of Jesus, though it deviates from traditional portrayals of the Crucifixion by depicting Christ on the polyhedron net of a hypercube and adding elements of Surrealism.

Few others have predicted their resurrection from the dead, let alone actually done it!  Christ actually rose again on the third day, thus vindicating his claims (Romans 1:4).  The evangelistic vigor of the early church is inexplicable apart from Christ's actual physical resurrection.  Without this his disciples would have remained (literally) dispirited.  They would have known he predicted his resurrection to no avail.  They would have no gospel to preach.  But preach they did -- because of the resurrection.

Although the New Age claims we are gods, I know of no New Ager who has died for the karma of the world or has risen from the dead.  And none seem forthcoming.  (It is said that Swami Yogananda, founder of the Seal-Realization Fellowship, decayed quite slowly after his death, but whatever significance that has pales in comparison with the risen Christ.)

3. Jesus cannot be forced into the New Age mold of just another "enlightened master" if we accept what the Bible says about him.

The Incredulity of Saint Thomas by Caravaggio

Either he was who he said he was -- uniquely God incarnate -- or he wasn't.  He never made general claims about the divinity of all people, but singled himself out as the Incarnation of God.  To some of his detractors he declared, "I tell you the truth ... before Abraham was born, I am!" (John 8:58).  At this they tried to stone him because he called himself what God had called himself in the revelation to Moses in the burning bush (Exodus 3:14).  Jesus also said to a paralytic he was about to heal, "Son, your sins are forgiven," thus disturbing some of the religious leaders there who thought, "Why does this fellow talk like that?  He's blaspheming!  Who can forgive sins but God alone?"  Jesus didn't shrink back, but knowing their thoughts he revealed that "The Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins" (Mark 2:10), after which he demonstrated his divine power by healing a crippled boy (verses 5-12).  Jesus also received the worship of Thomas who -- after his doubts about Jesus' resurrection melted in the presence of the risen Christ -- cried out, "My Lord and My God" (John 20:28).  Jesus did not correct him but rather blessed him (v. 29).

If Jesus thought he was uniquely God incarnate but he wasn't, he was far less than "an enlightened master" -- he didn't even know who he was!  If he knew he was not uniquely God incarnate, but said he was, he was a flaming fraud, and in no sense was he an "enlightened master."  Rose yet, h e would have been a deceiver, leading a multitude astray.  IF he though he was uniquely God incarnate and was -- as the record relates -- let us throw off this nonsense of placing him in the pantheistic pantheon.  Let us worship and serve him instead.

Christians may want to challenge New Agers imply to read thought the Gospels themselves, rather than relying on secondhand interpretations given by New Age writers and teachers.  Confronted with the uncensored Word of God, they might "believer that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing ... have life in his name" (John 20:31).

Source: Groothuis, Doug. Confronting the New Age. Eugene, Oregon: Wipf and Stock Publishers, 1988, pages 119-121.