Mauro Fittipaldi

Call to conversion
Question #1 "Who do you say that I am?"

The passage from C. S. Lewis' Mere Christianity presents an interesting

argument regarding the identity of Jesus Christ. The author plays with the idea that
by accepting Jesus as a great moral leader we are also accepting Him to be God.
Lewis states that it is not possible to partially accept this without coming to an
absurd conclusion, or to the conclusion that Jesus was indeed God. Jesus claimed
multiple times to be the Son of God, to be equal with the Father and to be able to
forgive sins (something only God can do) [John 5:17, John 8:58, Mark 2:5]. But, how
can somebody claim to be God? Somebody that claims such a thing is either a
lunatic, a liar or is actually telling the truth. The first option leaves us no choice but
to realize the absurd of calling a lunatic person a great moral leader. If someone has
an unsound mind, what kind of judgment can they impose over ethical and
unethical behavior? The second option leads to the same conclusion, we cannot call
a liar a great moral leader. What kind of morals does a liar have? Which teachings
can we accept and which ones are made up? If we are to accept Jesus as a great
moral leader we are left with the final option: He was God.

The scriptures have multiple accounts of all the divine miracles that Jesus
performed during his stay on Earth. In the gospel according to Mark, Christ brought
a little girl back from the dead [Mark 5:21], He was able to calm the sea upon his
will [Mark 4:35] and he was acknowledge by evil spirits as Gods Holy One [Mark
1:24]. There are multiple instances of Jesus proving his claim over and over again
and there is a vast amount of literature available that analyzes and presents

Mauro Fittipaldi
compelling arguments in favor of the claim that Jesus Christ was Lord and God. I am
not sufficiently experienced with the scriptures to be able to make a strong
argument regarding who Jesus was.
To be able to answer the question posed by Jesus, Who do you say that I
am? I have to rely on my faith and my personal experience with Him. I believe He
is the only begotten Son of God, I think of Him as a great moral leader and I accept
His claim to be God. I started getting close to my faith about a year ago, when I was
going through a very rough night. It was 3 oclock in the morning, I knew that
somebody I hold very dear was in danger and I had no news from that person. I did
not know if that person was still alive. I was in desperation and left with no other
resource but prayer. It was very strange at the beginning, because I was asking for
something knowing that I had done nothing to deserve any help. Why would He
listen to me when I had no relationship with Him? I still had no other option so I
thought I could give it a try and pray to see if somebody or something would listen. I
do not know for how long I was in prayer, it could have been 30 seconds or it could
have been 30 minutes, all I know is that I was pouring my heart out asking for help.
Once I had finished praying less than two minutes went by and I had a phone call. I
was not expecting anyone to call me at 3 in the morning, but I received a call from a
stranger telling me that the person I was worried for was alive and that they were
going to take care of my beloved one. Up until that moment I did not believe that
Angels could exist and I was sure that God was not present in our lives. Some
people might say that it was just a coincidence, but I cannot accept that it was all
just a coincidence. I am sure that Jesus was listening and he was inviting me to have
a relationship with him, I prefer to think that he is capable of loving unconditionally
and he was helping me instead of thinking it was all just a coincidence.

Mauro Fittipaldi