I believe Jesus is nothing more than a hoax cobbled out of some 18 different Gods that themselves were representations of the human soul, the sun, or both. And when I mention Jehovah, it is always that he is some type of tyrant that wants us in absolute enslavement.
That's quite a cynical approach to religion. Many believe that Jesus and Jehovah are one and the same, and that the Father is not Jehovah. Why do you feel that as a historical figure, Jesus is a hoax...a myth? Do you believe the seven churches are fiction, too, or that the author of Revelation wasn't John of Patmos? A lot of people thought Troy and Mycenae were complete fiction, but when there is as much written about someone like Jesus, it's difficult to believe he was mere myth. I'm also impressed by the conversion of Paul, who saw a light and heard a voice. We do know that many of Christ's apostles, save John, died horrible deaths rather than renounce him, including Paul. Peter, Jesus' chief apostle, was condemned to death for not renouncing him and even requested being crucified upside down, as he didn't feel worthy to be crucified right side up, as Jesus had been.
When people so readily give their lives for their beliefs, it impresses me. Not the kooks who strap bombs to themselves, but people who preach as the apostles did, were persecuted and died bravely. The Christians also escaped the destruction of Jerusalem because Jesus had prophesied it, and they had been told by revelation to flee the city. Many of them went to Pella and other cities to the north and were saved from the city's destruction. Jesus also prophesied the destruction of the temple, and even though Titus gave strict orders that it be saved, one soldier threw a firebrand into one of the windows. Both the Jews and the Romans then ceased fighting there and together they tried to put out the flames. But it burned anyway. Jesus also foretold the dispersion of Judah from their land and also their restoration to that land in the latter days.
