A lot of people who have heard of Jesus don’t really know Jesus. What it means to really know Jesus, for those who do, most have without ever meeting him face-to-face. see “eternity in their hearts” by Don Richardson… here’s a post I did on that back in 2008…
this too, from 2006:
more specific to your point… a tad more recent, but still over a decade ago:
but here’s one (more) thing Jesus said…
“The one who is not against us is on our side. You must not stop them. No one who exerts power in my name would readily say anything against me.”
His name is what he represents …his essence. Here’s a relevant CS Lewis quote:
Then I fell at his feet and thought, Surely this is the hour of death, for the Lion (who is worthy of all honour) will know that I have served Tash all my days and not him. Nevertheless, it is better to see the Lion and die than to be Tisroc of the world and live and not to have seen him. But the Glorious One bent down his golden head and touched my forehead with his tongue and said, Son, thou art welcome. But I said, Alas Lord, I am no son of thine but the servant of Tash. He answered, Child, all the service thou hast done to Tash, I account as service done to me. Then by reasons of my great desire for wisdom and understanding, I overcame my fear and questioned the Glorious One and said, Lord, is it then true, as the Ape said, that thou and Tash are one? The Lion growled so that the earth shook (but his wrath was not against me) and said, It is false. Not because he and I are one, but because we are opposites, I take to me the services which thou hast done to him. For I and he are of such different kinds that no service which is vile can be done to me, and none which is not vile can be done to him. Therefore if any man swear by Tash and keep his oath for the oath’s sake, it is by me that he has truly sworn, though he know it not, and it is I who reward him. And if any man do a cruelty in my name, then, though he says the name Aslan, it is Tash whom he serves and by Tash his deed is accepted. Dost thou understand, Child? I said, Lord, though knowest how much I understand. But I said also (for the truth constrained me), Yet I have been seeking Tash all my days. Beloved, said the Glorious One, unless thy desire had been for me thou wouldst not have sought so long and so truly. For all find what they truly seek.
C.S. Lewis, The Last Battle (Chronicles of Narnia, #7)
If your soul remains satisfied in what you conceive of as a “no God” world, you haven’t really confronted the conclusion you have settled for.
but if your soul bothers you… that’s rather strange in a “no God” world, isn’t it?
but even closer to your point, the Greeks who were talking about logos, or the Good, or the three transcendentals, were talking about Jesus (& the Trinity) before he was in the flesh… no different than the Jews who prophesied the Messiah. Richardson‘s book barely scratched the surface on the Greeks.