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It's the sort-of classic bifurcation fallacy about how so many people think that Jesus is God, except it's got four options rather than two so really it's more like a, what, quadfurcation fallacy? Well that's certainly a stupid sounding word, but whatevah. Anyway, the choices are approximately as follows:
Lord: Jesus is Lord, meaning that he's God or an aspect of God or the son of God or however you want to explain the whole trinity business. This option sort of covers the Muslim belief that Jesus wasn't God (or part of God etc.) but was instead a prophet.
Liar: Jesus lied about being divine or at the very least exaggerated his divine-ness.
Lunatic: Jesus honestly believed that he was divine, but really he was just a nutter.
Legend: Jesus's degree of divinity and the extent of his miracles etc. were (intentionally or unintentionally) exaggerated by his followers and/or by later generations.
Note that the first and last options come pre-packaged with explanations about all of the miracles attributed to Jesus, while the middle two do not. Also note that these options aren't necessarily mutually exclusive (e.g. maybe he was both a liar and a legend or, in the case that he was a prophet, then he'd be a lord and lunatic or lord lunatic and legend, etc.). Also included is comedy option number five in case Jesus was actually a space alien or something.
Lord: Jesus is Lord, meaning that he's God or an aspect of God or the son of God or however you want to explain the whole trinity business. This option sort of covers the Muslim belief that Jesus wasn't God (or part of God etc.) but was instead a prophet.
Liar: Jesus lied about being divine or at the very least exaggerated his divine-ness.
Lunatic: Jesus honestly believed that he was divine, but really he was just a nutter.
Legend: Jesus's degree of divinity and the extent of his miracles etc. were (intentionally or unintentionally) exaggerated by his followers and/or by later generations.
Note that the first and last options come pre-packaged with explanations about all of the miracles attributed to Jesus, while the middle two do not. Also note that these options aren't necessarily mutually exclusive (e.g. maybe he was both a liar and a legend or, in the case that he was a prophet, then he'd be a lord and lunatic or lord lunatic and legend, etc.). Also included is comedy option number five in case Jesus was actually a space alien or something.
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