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Jesus is a Liar a Lunatic or He is Lord. The doctrine of Christ’s divinity is the central Christian doctrine. For if He is divine, He can be trusted to be infallible in everything He said. The argument that if Jesus’ claim of divinity is false, then He must be either a liar or a lunatic was popularized by C.S. Lewis. Based on the historical record, the alternative views of Jesus Christ are surely untenable.
The argument as stated by C.S. Lewis
The renowned Christian apologist, C.S. Lewis, popularized the argument for the deity and Lordship of Jesus Christ in his book, Mere Christianity. After providing reasons for his conversion to theism, Lewis explains various conceptions of God. Pantheism, he argues, is incoherent, and atheism is too simple. Eventually, he arrives at Jesus Christ, and invokes a well-known argument now known as Lewis’s trilemma.
Lewis, arguing that Jesus was claiming to be God, uses logic to advance three possibilities: either He really was God, was deliberately lying, or was not God but thought Himself to be (which would make Him delusional and likely insane). The book goes on to say that the latter two possibilities are not consistent with Jesus’ character and it was most likely that He was being truthful.
C. S. Lewis, speaking in 1942 (and published in Mere Christianity in 1952), gave the argument its most memorable formulation:
I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic—on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg—or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to. . . . Now it seems to me obvious that He was neither a lunatic nor a fiend: and consequently, however strange or terrifying or unlikely it may seem, I have to accept the view that He was and is God.
(Mere Christianity, 55-56)
Josh McDowell’s defense of the argument
Was he a liar? If Jesus made his claims knowing he wasn’t God, then he was lying to his followers. If he was a liar, he was also a hypocrite–a guy who told others to be honest even while he taught and lived a colossal lie.
This view of Jesus, however, doesn’t jive with what we know of Jesus or the results of his life and teachings. Whenever Jesus has been proclaimed, lives have been changed. Nations have repented. Thieves have gone straight. Alcoholics have tossed their bottles. Hateful individuals have become channels of love. Someone whose life had results like that couldn’t have been a phony.
Was he a lunatic? If someone told you he was God, you would believe him about as much as if said he was Santa Clause. You would call him one deluded and self-deceived dude. Yet Jesus didn’t display the abnormalities and imbalances that usually go hand in hand with being crazy, Jesus was a guy who spoke some of the most profound words ever recorded–words that have set free many individuals, even some in mental bondage. Jesus Christ was no lunatic.
Was he Lord? If Christ isn’t a liar or a lunatic, you only have one option. He is who he claimed to be–the Son of God.
(See Liar, Lunatic, or Lord? for the full version of Josh McDowell’s devotion on this topic)
Earlier versions of the argument
The earliest known use of this approach was by the Scottish preacher John Duncan (1796-1870) who was quoted in 1870 saying: “Christ either deceived mankind by conscious fraud, or He was Himself deluded and self-deceived, or He was Divine. There is no getting out of this trilemma. It is inexorable.“
Watchman Nee (1903-1972) made a similar argument in his book, Normal Christian Faith. He frames his argument as follows:
A person who claims to be God must belong to one of three categories:
First, if he claims to be God and yet in fact is not, he has to be a madman or a lunatic.
Second, if he is neither a God nor a lunatic, he has to be a liar, deceiving others by his lie.
Third, if he is neither of these, he must be God.
You can only choose one of the three possibilities.
If you do not believe that he is God, you have to consider him a madman.
If you cannot take him for either of the two, you have to take him for a liar.
There is no need for us to prove if Jesus of Nazareth is God or not. All we have to do is find out if He is a lunatic or liar. If He is neither, He must be the Son of God.
Critical attacks on the logical formulation of the argument
Critics have argued that Lewis’ trilemma presents too few options for consideration. For example, the logical syllogism limits the possibilities to three; He either lied, He was delusional, or He was telling the truth. But some have argued that there are other possibilities, such as the following:
- Jesus never existed. (see the following article that refutes this claim)
- He never said what He is claimed to have said. (See this article)
- His life has evolved into a legend and is not historically accurate. (see this article) C.S. Lewis rebutted the idea that Jesus’ followers exaggerated the story and the legend grew that he really said these things. He noted how unlikely it would be for the Jews to invent God becoming man since they were convinced there was only one God. Lewis also noted that he was perfectly convinced that whatever the Gospels are they are not legends. He then goes on to discuss the major differences between known legendary works and the Gospels.
- He was simply a great moral teacher. This is the explanation that C.S. Lewis insisted that you should not conclude since Jesus’ reported sayings would then be those of megalomaniac, not a great moral teacher, if they were accurate. Lewis said, “We may note in passing that He was never regarded as a mere moral teacher. He produced mainly three effects — Hatred — Terror — Adoration. There was no trace of people expressing mild approval.”
However, If you affirm the historical accuracy of the biblical record, you may reasonably accept the logical soundness of Lewis’ argument.
The Lordship of Jesus demands our love
Jesus came to earth to give His life as a ransom for many. He traded His life for our release from the curse of the law, our bondage to sin, and the condemnation that goes with it. In return, God requires that we love His Son by believing in Him, trusting Him, and obeying His commands. If you haven’t already done so, you can change your eternal destiny right now. By faith, turn from your sinful way of life to follow Jesus as your Lord and Savior.
Ask yourself two very important questions. First, are you sure that you’ll go to heaven when you die? Secondly, are you certain why God should let you into heaven? If you don’t know for sure, you can settle that matter today. Visit my post, How to Begin Your Life Over Again and you’ll know where and how you’ll spend eternity.
And for crystal clear YouTube presentations of the gospel message from several trusted sources, click here.
