Challenge to atheists: I find your lack of faith disturbing!

[xpastor]

This is why I'm puzzled by Christians who are disturbed because some atheists don't believe there was an historical Jesus. This vagueness doesn't prove that the Christian religion is true any more than -

The Jewish View Of Jesus

...

Jews do not believe that Jesus was divine, the Son of God, or the Messiah prophesied in Jewish scriptures. He is seen as a "false messiah," meaning someone who claimed (or whose followers claimed for him) the mantle of the Messiah but who ultimately did not meet the requirements laid out in Jewish beliefs.

....

This still doesn't prove that Jesus actually lived, of course, but I find it plausible enough to be possible. From the Roman point of view he'd have been just one more public nuisance. He didn't lead a revolt against their rule so he wasn't noteworthy enough to record.

I'm pretty sure the bolded words apply. I don't think Jesus himself ever claimed to be the messiah or the apocalyptic judge known as the Son of Man. These claims were written into the gospels decades after his death.

As I pointed out in an earlier post, the gospels do record quite a bit of his authentic moral teaching, some of which is good stuff, and, alas, his apocalyptic prophecies.

Jesus has had a tremendous influence of history for these reasons:

1. his ethical teachings for good or ill
   
2. his followers' delusion that he was a risen savior
   
3. the conviction of many of his modern believers that his failed apocalyptic prophecies apply to their own times