Ear Witness Account

I was introduced to Jesus as soon as my parents could get me through the church doors as an infant, and I accepted him as my Savior when I was in middle school at a church camp.  I never really questioned his existence.  But there are people all over the world that have never even heard of Him, and there are others who have heard of Him but don't believe that He was the Son of God or that He even existed.  The most detailed accounts of Jesus' life, death and resurrection are in the New Testament, but those that don't believe those accounts say that they could have been made up by fanatic followers of the day.  I recently learned that one of the first non-biblical accounts of Jesus was written by Flavius Josephus just a few decades after Jesus' death.  Josephus was a Jewish historian and military leader, and was not a follower of Jesus.   While all of the details do not match exactly with the accounts in Scripture, scholars believe that fact actually contributes to the authenticity.  If the writings were by someone promoting a supposedly concocted Jesus story, they probably would have made the details match.  Here is the text from Book 18, Chapter 3.3 of Josephus' "The Antiquities of the Jews":

Now there was about this time Jesus, a wise man, if it be lawful to call him a man; for he was a doer of wonderful works, a teacher of such men as receive the truth with pleasure. He drew over to him both many of the Jews and many of the Gentiles. He was [the] Christ. And when Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men amongst us, had condemned him to the cross,^[9] those that loved him at the first did not forsake him; for he appeared to them alive again the third day;^[10] as the divine prophets had foretold these and ten thousand other wonderful things concerning him. And the tribe of Christians, so named from him, are not extinct at this day.

If we choose to accept that Jesus is the Son of God, then we have no choice but to fall on our knees and worship Him.  And that begins a lifetime of trying to know Him more and live according to His instructions.  If you aren't a believer, I would love to talk to you about what He has done for me.