Who Is Jesus, Really? Beyond the Cultural Misconceptions

Across different worldviews, cultures, and religions, there is a baseline agreement that Jesus of Nazareth remains one of the most uniquely influential figures in human history. Yet, that agreement quickly splinters when it comes to his identity. Depending on who you ask, Jesus is shoehorned into various conflicting categories: a respected prophet in Islam, a wise and holy teacher in Buddhist or Hindu traditions, or a safe, anti-hypocrisy icon for secular individuals who admire his message of love but reject his divinity. Culture constantly tries to reshape him into something non-threatening and approachable.

To pull back the curtain on these misconceptions, we sat down with Josh Newell, the Executive Director of the Jesus Film Project, which has broadcast the story of Jesus in more than 2,000 languages to billions of viewers. Both Sightline and the Jesus Film Project are part of the Cru family of ministries, attacking the same mission from two distinct angles: removing the intellectual obstacles to faith and accurately proclaiming Christ to a confused world.

Here is our conversation on what the world gets wrong about Jesus, the danger of a “safe” savior, and how the true gospel continues to transform entire communities from the inside out.

The Danger of a “Safe” Jesus: Confronting Cultural Misconceptions

Brock Anderson: The world rarely ignores or dismisses Jesus—it talks about him constantly. The issue is that the world desperately tries to reshape him into a comfortable figure. But if Jesus is exactly who he claimed to be—God himself—that changes absolutely everything. He never left his identity up for debate in the ambient culture; he made it deeply personal when he asked his disciples, “Who do you say that I am?” Josh, given your global perspective, where do you see people reshaping Him?

Josh Newell: That is the ultimate question. To understand why people rewrite Jesus’s narrative, we have to look at the human heart. Fundamentally, humans are idol makers. Whatever we prioritize sits on the throne of our lives, and we naturally try to order our existence around that thing.

Jesus comes in and makes a radical claim to supreme Lordship over that throne. Because surrendering our lives is incredibly difficult, our fickle hearts naturally try to adjust Jesus to fit our pre-existing lifestyles rather than letting him change us. It’s a reality Jesus explained perfectly in the Parable of the Sower—the condition of the soil determines how the truth is received or rejected.

Shifting the Narrative: How the Jesus Film Project Reveals His Real Identity

Shelley Komoszewski: For those who might not be familiar with the scope of your organization, how does the Jesus Film specifically push back against this human tendency to create a self-styled, safe version of Christ?

Josh Newell: The film itself is simple, but its global impact over the last five decades has been entirely a work of God. Its effectiveness hinges on three core principles:

• The Pure Word of God: a biblically accurate depiction of Christ, taken directly from the Gospel of Luke.
• Heart Languages: It is officially the most translated movie in history, breaking down barriers across thousands of tongues.
• Kingdom Partnership: It belongs to the global body of Christ and serves as a primary tool for individual believers, local churches, and distinct mission agencies worldwide.

When you lift Jesus up clearly in a language a person can natively understand, they are forced into a direct encounter with his real identity. They can no longer hide behind cultural interpretations.

Proof of Transformation: Why Jesus Is More Than a Good Teacher

Shelley Komoszewski: When the Holy Spirit works through Scripture, people move past a partial, distorted view of Jesus and see him for who he is—God in the flesh. What actually happens to a community when they experience that realization?

Josh Newell: The short answer is that everything changes—perspectives, habits, and entire realities. Years ago, an independent foundation wanted to fact-check our tracking data to see if the stories of life change were actually true. They conducted a rigorous scientific survey across various remote villages, tracking roughly 20 different markers of societal health before and after a Jesus Film screening.

The metrics they evaluated were raw and tangible: domestic abuse, public drunkenness, harassment, and sexual violence.

The results were astonishing. In every single category, those negative societal markers plummeted—not just immediately following the event, but over the medium and longer term. This didn’t happen because an American movie team showed up; it happened because an entire village had a collective encounter with the living Christ and began structurally executing his truth.

Is Jesus Lord, Liar, or Lunatic?

Shelley Komoszewski: That is so profound because it destroys the option of treating Jesus as just a “good teacher”. Our ministry, Sightline (formerly the Josh McDowell Ministry), has championed this truth for decades through the book More Than a Carpenter. If Jesus explicitly claimed to be the Son of God, he cannot logically be reduced to a mere moral example.

Brock Anderson: Exactly. He is either telling the truth, which means he is Lord over all, or he is a liar, or he is completely delusional. There is zero room for a comfortable middle ground.

Overcoming Cultural Conditioning in Islamic Traditions

Josh Newell: I can testify directly to how crucial that specific apologetic is in the global field. When I oversaw our evangelism strategies across North Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia, we deliberately paired the Jesus Film with Sightline’s apologetic resources by distributing millions of copies of Evidence That Demands a Verdict by Josh McDowell.

In Islamic traditions, Jesus is deeply revered but strictly categorized as a prophet. Utilizing those intellectual, evidence-based apologetics alongside the visual gospel was uniquely effective. It directly challenged centuries of cultural conditioning and contextualized his claims of divinity for a Muslim audience from Egypt to Kazakhstan.

Contextualizing the Gospel: Overcoming Cultural and Linguistic Barriers

Shelley Komoszewski: It seems that ensuring the message lands cleanly requires clearing away cultural noise, trauma, and linguistic confusion. How do you navigate situations where the picture of Jesus gets distorted by external cultural factors?

Josh Newell: True contextualization provides immense dignity to the listener; it’s an extra layer of love. A striking example occurred in Rwanda shortly after the tragic genocide of the 1990s. Our teams screened the film in the primary Rwandan language, assuming it would hit home. Instead, the crowd reacted with visible, physical repulsion.

We discovered that the specific audio dialect utilized in that version was the exact dialect spoken by the perpetrators of the genocide. These survivors were hearing the words of Christ through the literal mother tongue of their tormentors. Once our teams recognized this and re-recorded the film into the appropriate local dialect, everything shifted. The emotional wall crumbled, and they leaned in to receive his healing.

Breaking Barriers: Presenting Christ to the Deaf Community

Josh Newell: We saw the same breakthrough recently with the Deaf community. For years, deaf individuals had to watch the film with a tiny interpreter box isolated in the bottom corner of the screen. But recently, deaf actors and producers created a dedicated Jesus Film where Jesus signs directly. Seeing Jesus communicate natively without a medium changed their entire understanding. They realized Jesus wasn’t a distant figure for someone else—he was speaking directly to them.

Sharing Faith Locally: Evangelism in a Post-Church Culture

Brock Anderson: You are cutting directly through trauma and cultural static with the reality of Christ. Josh, as the United States shifts more into a post-church culture where people have pre-formed, highly distorted views of Jesus, how do we apply these lessons locally?

Josh Newell: My family and I spent years serving in France, which is a thoroughly post-church culture where Jesus is viewed mostly as an outdated myth. If you lead an interaction there with bold, absolute statements like “Jesus is the only way,” you will instantly face intellectual repulsion and rejection. When we returned to the States a few years ago, we noticed those same post-church arguments and seeds of truth-rejection landing heavily on American shores.

But the missional muscles we built overseas apply perfectly here. The most vital methodology is simple: everyone has a story, and we must learn to listen well. When you take a genuine interest in someone’s journey, they will naturally reveal their motivations, worldviews, and the specific idols sitting on the throne of their life. Through deep listening, you can gently show them the painful gap between the rules they claim to live by and the reality of their human limitations—a gap they cannot close without a Savior.

Moving Past Caricatures: The “Jesus You Don’t Believe In” Strategy

Shelley Komoszewski: That perfectly echoes a story I heard from a pastor who was talking about faith at a restaurant. His waitress overheard and mentioned she didn’t believe in Jesus. The pastor simply looked at her and said, “Tell me about the Jesus you don’t believe in. I’m pretty sure I don’t believe in him either.” It is an incredible template for moving past cultural caricatures to reach the real heart. Looking forward, what is the next step for the Jesus Film?

Reaching Gen Alpha: The Future of the Visual Gospel

Josh Newell: We are looking ahead to Gen Alpha and future generations. Studies describe them as an incredibly “open generation” spiritually, yet they are navigating an AI-driven landscape where they can entirely manufacture and isolate their own version of “truth”. Demographically, the global population is astonishingly young—the median age across Africa is just 30, and in some nations, it drops to 14.

To reach them, we are currently producing a state-of-the-art, high-end animated version of the Jesus Film. Animation operates as the visual heart language of the next generation. We’ve partnered with Sunrise Animation in South Africa to match world-class visuals with our vast library of over 2,000 spoken languages. We are trusting that when a young generation sees Jesus signing, speaking, and meeting them in their native visual medium, they will see past cultural distortions and encounter the authentic Savior.

3 Steps to Align Your Life with the Real Identity of Jesus Christ

The version of Jesus you believe in dictates the path of the life you follow. If you want to break away from comfortable, culturally compromised versions of Christ, challenge yourself with these three action steps this week:

• Get Honest with Yourself: Examine your habits and motivations. Pinpoint exactly where you have subtly reshaped Jesus to accommodate your comfort, political leanings, or lifestyle preferences rather than letting his word reshape you.
• Return Directly to the Text: Avoid relying entirely on modern cultural consensus or spiritual summaries. Open the Gospels directly and let Jesus define his own identity, terms, and Lordship through Scripture.
• Start a Conversational Listening Experiment: Initiate a spiritual dialogue with a friend, coworker, or family member. Ask them one simple question: “Who do you think Jesus really is?” Commit to listening fully to their answer without correcting, interrupting, or jumping in to defend a point. Listen intently to discover the exact cultural script they’ve been handed.

Want to dive deeper into the real Jesus?

• Listen to the FULL In & For Podcast Episode: The “Safe” Jesus vs. The Real Jesus with Josh Newell
• Check out the entire FREE Gospel Streaming Library over at The Jesus Film Project