Jesus’ birth wasn’t supernatural; His conception was.

³¹ You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. ³² He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, ³³ and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”
³⁴ “How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?”
³⁵ The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. Luke 1:31-35

Many people say that Jesus was just a myth, that his character and reputation are based upon the myths of old. As we continue our investigation of Jesus and His imprint on the world, J. Warner Wallace, in his book, “Person of Interest,” pages 26-39, performed an investigation of the 16 top mythological deities of history. They are:

1. Osiris
2. Tammuz
3. Shangdi
4. Marduk
5. Ind Ra
6. Attis
7. Thakur Jiu
8. Adonis
9. Dionysus
10. Zoroaster
11. Heracles
12. Krishna
13. Zalmoxis
14. Mythras
15. Buddha
16. Serapis

All of these gods shared certain characteristics. These characteristics are:

1. Inevitable- prophesied
2. Imperial- from a royal heritage
3. Inexplicable- born of unnatural means
4. Insulated- protected as a child
5. Inveigled- tempted
6. Identified- associated with shepherds
7. Incredible- possessed supernatural power
8. Interactor- engaged humans directly
9. Instructive- taught human followers
10. Indemnifier- recognized the need for sacrifice
11. Indicted- faced a judicial trial of sorts
12. Inviter- established a divine meal
13. Immortal- had the power to defeat death
14. Intercessor- offered eternal life
15. Indicter- would judge the living and the dead

J. Warner Wallace concludes:

As I finished my investigation of the mythologies, I recognized that there were similarities between Jesus and the mythological deities. The list of the most common attributes of these ancient deities sounded a lot like the Christian description of Jesus…At first glance, these common descriptions seemed surprisingly similar to characteristics of Jesus. But a closer examination revealed something entirely different. None of the ancient mythologies possessed all the attributes described on the list. At best, a handful of deities displayed ten of the shared characteristics. Most had far fewer (from five to nine)…When you examine the details related to each similarity between Jesus and the ancient mythologies, the resemblances begin to vanish. Jesus isn’t much like the other gods after all.

Jesus fulfilled ALL FIFTEEN attributes–and then some! We can trust Jesus. There is an ancient poem (possibly a song) in Philippians 2:5-10 that describes Jesus,

⁶ Who, being in very nature God,
    did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
⁷ rather, he made himself nothing
    by taking the very nature of a servant,
    being made in human likeness.
⁸ And being found in appearance as a man,
    he humbled himself
    by becoming obedient to death—
        even death on a cross!
⁹ Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
    and gave him the name that is above every name,
¹⁰ that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
    in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
¹¹ and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,
    to the glory of God the Father.

The greatest difference between myth and truth is in the fact that the events of Jesus are verified–they really happened! History has proven over and over again that Jesus is a historical figure, that the events of His life were real, and that He was crucified, buried, and rose again (verified by over 500 witnesses).

May we confess Jesus Christ as our Lord today!

Abba, You are my Lord. Jesus lives in my heart and guides my life by the Person of the Holy Spirit. I have sweet communion with You each day. THAT is all the proof I need! Amen.