Bono and C.S. Lewis

It seems that U2's Bono is familiar with the work of his fellow Irishman and author C.S. Lewis, particularly with Lewis's book Mere Christianity. They both have basically the same take on Jesus either being the Messiah, as he said he was, or being a complete lunatic that millions upon millions have been fooled by for two-thousand years. I think that they've both made an excellent argument for there being no in-between. I'd add the question - What are the odds that a man would go to these lengths and coincidentally have a following that was philosophically ripe and creative enough to keep the gospel spreading thousands of years after their deaths (most of them having been killed because of their allegiance to Jesus)? It seems highly improbable when you look at this historically that things would fall so perfectly into place for a lunatic. It shows me that there is something tangible and real about both Jesus and his follower's claims. 

Why would the original crew die for a lunatic or for someone that they had lied about or made up? If you'd made up some fantastical stories about your buddy that brought you some fame and fortune would you not say that you'd made it up if your life depended on it? To do otherwise must mean that you are convinced that you've told the truth, have seen what you've claimed to have seen, and are eager to see this friend after your death because you believe what he promised.

BONO: So what you’re left with is: either Christ was who He said He was - the Messiah -or a complete nutcase. I mean, we’re talking nutcase on the level of Charles Manson. This man was like some of the people we’ve been talking about earlier. This man was strapping himself to a bomb, and had “King of the Jews” on his head, and, as they were putting him up on the Cross, was going: OK, martyrdom, here we go. Bring on the pain! I can take it. I’m not joking here. The idea that the entire course of civilization for over half of the globe could have its fate changed and turned upside-down by a nutcase, for me, that’s farfetched.

CS LEWIS: 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.