The Jesus of American Christianity is meek, gentle, safe, and fun, always ready to be your best friend. When we dig more deeply into the Bible, we discover a very different picture. Wherever Jesus went in his life, from the day he was born until the day he died, scandal and controversy followed him. Be warned. If you investigate Jesus beyond the superficial glance most give him today you will be challenged and confronted. Jesus creates in each person who encounters him a crisis of faith, forcing us to a point of decision. In The Problem of Jesus, author and pastor Mark Clark looks beyond the superficial understandings of Jesus to examine his hard-hitting claims and teachings, including: The reliable evidence that Jesus was a real, historical figure, the oft-unexamined cost of following Jesus, his claim to be God, the Creator of all, worthy of worship, his teachings and stories, which have always offended religious people and his miracles and actions, what they meant in the ancient world, and today.