Abstract: If God became incarnate in order to provide atonement for human sins, to identify with our suffering, and to reveal truth, he would need to live a certain sort of life. He would need to live a perfectly good life (culminated perhaps by a perfect death), provide moral and theological guidance, show that he believed himself to be God Incarnate, teach that that life (with his death) provided a means of atonement, and found a church to continue his work. God would need also to put his signature on that life by culminating it with a super-miracle. Of no prophet in human history, with the possible exception of Jesus, is there good evidence that he led the requisite sort of life culminated in the right way.

Keywords: atonement, incarnation, miracle, perfection, revelation,