17 Knowing God Viereck ask Einstein: “ To what extent are you influenced by Christianity?” Einstein answered: “As a child, I received instruction in the Bible and in the Talmud. I am a Jew, but I am enthralled with the luminous figure of the Nazarene.” (Einstein was speaking of Jesus who was called a Nazarene because He was from the town of Nazareth, north of Jerusalem.) Viereck also ask Einstein: “You accept the historical exist- ence of Jesus?” Einstein answered: “Unquestionably. No one can read the Gospels without feeling the actual presence of Jesus. His personality pulsates in every word. No myth is filled with such life.” As a Jew Albert Einstein was trained not to believe in Jesus, but as a good scientist he did his own research. What about you? Do you want to know the truth? Are you simply believing what someone else has told you? Why don’t you obey God’s command and listen to His Son? Don’t let your religious traditions keep you from lis- tening to Jesus. How can you reject Jesus if you haven’t listened to Him? And when you read the words of Jesus don’t make the foolish claim that Jesus is obviously a great moral teacher or a prophet, but you don’t believe He is the Son of God. This option is not open to you. Jesus tells us again and again that He is the eternal Son of God. He says that God the Father sent Him from heaven to the earth to teach us how to know God that we might have eternal life. So if He is not the eternal Son of God, He is either a liar or a lunatic. In either case He cannot be a great moral teacher or a prophet. Jesus said if we reject Him as the Son of God we reject God the Father. “He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father, who sent him. I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.” John 5:23b,24 (NIV84)