I don’t believe it can be contested that Jesus Christ is the most influential person in all of human history.
As Christians, what we believe is Jesus Christ is our Lord and we should follow his teachings and example. And it is through the Bible that we primarily get our knowledge of his life and instructions.
The Bible is authoritative because it contains the collection of the earliest and best records that we have about Jesus Christ. Other non-canonical works exist, such as the Epistle of Barnabas, The Shepherd of Hermas, Gospel of Thomas, Gospel of Judas, Acts of Peter, Apocalypse of Peter, Gospel of the Egyptians, Acts of Paul and Thecla, Infancy Gospel of Thomas, Gospel of James, and much more. If anyone wishes, they can read these other works for themselves and decide on their value. Some are good, some are not so good. I personally believe the Didache is worthy of being in the Bible.
From a secular perspective, Jesus Christ also has had the most impact in human history. Our timeline is split relative to his life. In ancient times, time was relative to kings. Now, our time is relative to Jesus Christ, whether you use AD/BC or CE/BCE.
Currently, we are in Christmas season, the biggest holiday season of the year for Americans and for many around the world. This is all based on the birth of Christ. Of course, Easter season is also a major holiday.
There also has been no other single person in human history that has been more influential in books, music, arts, movies, poetry, culture, ethics, etc.
If you look at his life, it was quite unremarkable in the sense that he never wrote a book, was not was a king, was not a military ruler, did not start any institution, was not rich, was not powerful, did not build an empire, didn’t travel to distant lands, and had a rag tag group of followers.
What can account for such a mundane life to result in him being the single most influential person in human history?
If we discount him being divine, he somehow had figured out something that we all don’t know. He had knowledge of something that is not obvious to any of us to become so unique. We all think to be influential, you have to be famous, powerful, or rich. Isn’t these things what practically everyone seeks? Jesus never sought any of these, and yet turned out to be on top of everyone else in human history.
Skeptics might argue Jesus is the product of a legend that developed over time, like Santa Claus. He was just a lucky person to be the recipient of everyone else mythologizing him. But, there was not enough time to have elapsed for that to happen. The “legend” of Jesus appeared pretty much immediately. The books of the New Testament were written shortly after the life of Jesus. And it would’ve been easy for people to falsify any claims that were not true.
For Jesus to have had such a quick and monumental impact in the minds of people, something must’ve happened. For those that accept the miraculous, resurrection from the dead would be the only thing that could account for his uniqueness and historical impact. For those that do not, it would be difficult to pinpoint any other reason for his legacy.
https://debatingchristianity.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=1060915#p1060915