Christians base their faith in Jesus upon the biblical claim that he is the Son of God, our Savior and Lord. But Muslims believe the Koran is the revelation of Allah; Buddhists follow their own sacred writings, as do Hindus and scores of other religions. If every faith has its own "Bible," why should we follow the Christian Scriptures? If we don't, can we find any other evidence that Jesus existed and that we should trust him as our Lord?

In fact, if we had no New Testament we could reconstruct the Christian doctrine that Christ is Lord on the basis of non-Christian writings, nearly all as old as the New Testament books themselves. Here's the story in brief.

Five Roman historians recorded facts which are important to our question. Thallus the Samaritan (A.D. 52) referred to Jesus' existence and death. Mara bar Serapion (writing after A.D. 70) wrote about Jesus as the King executed by the Jews. Suetonius (A.D. 65-135) recorded punishments inflicted on Christians for "professing a new and mischievous religious belief" which threatened the Roman veneration of Caesar.

Tacitus (A.D. 55-120), the greatest ancient Roman historian, wrote that "Christus… suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus, and a most mischievous superstition broke out" (Annals XV.44). Pliny the Younger, a Roman administrator, noted in A.D. 112 that Christians worship sing "a hymn to Christ as to a god." And Flavius Josephus, the noted Jewish historian (AD 37/38—97), recorded the early Christians' belief that Jesus had risen from the grave as Lord (Antiquities 18:3:3).

The earliest Christians believed Jesus to be Lord, as their letters and other writings made clear. For instance, the Didache, written before AD 100, repeatedly called Jesus "the Lord." It ends thus: "The Lord shall come and all his saints with him. Then shall the world 'see the Lord coming on the clouds of Heaven'" (16:7-8). Clement of Rome, writing in AD 95, repeatedly referred to the "Lord Jesus Christ." And he promised a "future resurrection" on the basis of his "raising the Lord Jesus Christ from the dead" (24:1). Ignatius (writing between A.D. 110 and 115) and Justin the Martyr (ca. A.D. 150) consistently called Jesus their "Lord" or "God."

Even without a Bible, we can know that Jesus existed, that he was crucified by Pontius Pilate, and that the first Christians believed him to be raised from the dead and worshiped him as their Lord. The enemies of Christianity tried to denigrate Jesus and his followers, but not a single critic ever claimed that he did not exist. The evidence is just too strong.