I have doubts and they are kicking my butt.

[Incom]

Resently I have had certain questions come into my mind that I can't answer.
I beleive in Jesus but these questions are eating at my conconfidence.
How do we know that it was the God of Isaic Abraham and Jacob that performed the miracles of Jesus.
How does the whole divine validation of message thing work.
Can a person claim his power comes from God and it not.
I know that Jesus's miracles were designed to validate his claims but can that not be counterfeited.

[Da Lone-Warrior]

Resently I have had certain questions come into my mind that I can't answer.
I beleive in Jesus but these questions are eating at my conconfidence.
How do we know that it was the God of Isaic Abraham and Jacob that performed the miracles of Jesus.

Jesus was a Jew. He accepted the OT as God's word. To understand his teachings well, one needs to try to understand his cultural context. Jesus did not claim to be able to do miracles by any other authority than that of God. And in the monotheistic culture of Jesus' time, there would be no ambiguity as to who he was referring to.

How does the whole divine validation of message thing work.

I'm not sure what you mean, but I'll recommend to you the book, "letters from a skeptic" by Greg Boyd for a book that asks and answers some of the hardest questions about Christianity in a very readable manner.

Can a person claim his power comes from God and it not.
I know that Jesus's miracles were designed to validate his claims but can that not be counterfeited.

Yes. A person can make false claims.

Are you familiar with Liar, Lunatic, Lord argument?

dlw

[Incom]

It s the trilemma thing that bothers me every one stops at the liar part and says, its just to horrible to imagine but then does not go any further and that frustrates me.

[Da Lone-Warrior]

It s the trilemma thing that bothers me every one stops at the liar part and says, its just to horrible to imagine but then does not go any further and that frustrates me.

Well, all the major religions of the lord view Jesus as a great teacher. Why would he lie about himself being divine. In harvard, they often have to write papers that compare socrates and jesus. Typically, socrates comes out better there. Why? Because good people don't claim to be God when they are not.

dlw

[Incom]

Not the Jews, they beleived he was evil.

[Jude3b]

Resently I have had certain questions come into my mind that I can't answer.
I beleive in Jesus but these questions are eating at my conconfidence.
How do we know that it was the God of Isaic Abraham and Jacob that performed the miracles of Jesus.
How does the whole divine validation of message thing work.
Can a person claim his power comes from God and it not.
I know that Jesus's miracles were designed to validate his claims but can that not be counterfeited.

Have you read the entire Bible prayerfully, asking God to reveal to you the truths contained therein?

That was what I did back in my skeptic days and it worked on me. "Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God!"

God bless you!

[nomad7674]

How do we know that it was the God of Isaic Abraham and Jacob that performed the miracles of Jesus.

Christ himself actually faced this issue regarding the casting out of demons.

Matthew 12:24-28

24But when the Pharisees heard this, they said, "It is only by Beelzebub,[4] the prince of demons, that this fellow drives out demons."
25Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them, "Every kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and every city or household divided against itself will not stand. 26If Satan drives out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then can his kingdom stand? 27And if I drive out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your people drive them out? So then, they will be your judges. 28But if I drive out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.

Can a person claim his power comes from God and it not.
I know that Jesus's miracles were designed to validate his claims but can that not be counterfeited.

Of course a person can claim to have God's power, and not have it. Of course miracles can be faked... to a point. It was Arthur C. Clark who said, "Any technology sufficiently advanced can not be differentiated from magic." Star Trek-style science looks awfully magical to me - and yet possible - and some of their medical tools include healings similar to those you might see in scripture.

But there are limits. Prophecy is one limit. Jesus predicted Peter's denial. Jesus predicted the Fall of the Temple, and even the general timeframe. Resurrection is also a limitation. Jesus raised not only himself, but also Lazarus from the dead. These are signs which even our most advanced science and our reasonably speculative science fiction can not touch.

At the same time, faith in Jesus is still just that: Faith. It is reasonable to investigate the facts, examine the history, analyze the philosophy, and look for whatever evidence you need. But in the end, there is still a need for an act of the will to believe. Take your time, and let us know how we can help.

[Incom]

Thank you I just feel like I'm going crazy some times. There are times when I am given a strong enthusiastic faith, only to be crippled by horrible what if thinking things I just can't move on from until its resolved.

[Dee Dee Warren]

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[Calvinist4Him]

Resently I have had certain questions come into my mind that I can't answer. I beleive in Jesus but these questions are eating at my conconfidence.

I think we all have questions which arise at some time or another, and some questions are quite difficult. There comes a time and point, where we may not have an answer and have to trust God and take Him at His word. If your having intellectuall problems, I highly recommend that you study Christian apologetics. Learn more about what you believe, and why you believe. This is one of the problems in Christianity today. So many people really don't know what they believe or why they believe it, they don't have a clue. I would suggest a hardcore worldview analysis. IOW, learn for yourself how Christianity stack up against other worldviews.

You might want to try listening to the following 14+ hour Apologetics course taught by Ronald Nash http://www.biblicaltraining.org/clas...ics/frame.html and I recommend his other courses at the same site http://www.biblicaltraining.org/index.html . Ronald Nash isn't an amature, see for yourself... http://www.biblicaltraining.org/speakers/RonNash.html

How do we know that it was the God of Isaic Abraham and Jacob that performed the miracles of Jesus.

Ok, let's unpack that question. I assume that we would agree that a Creator exists, that takes care of step one. Step two, if that Creator is concerned with mankind (and why wouldn't be?), how has He reavealed Himself to mankind, how does He interact with His creation? To cut to the chase, if the God of Isaic, Abraham, and Jacob, did not peferm the miracles of Jesus, if Jesus is not God, then who or what is He?

C.S. Lewis wrote; "I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: 'I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept His claim to be God.' That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic - on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg - or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronising nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to." - from his book "Mere Christianity"

How does the whole divine validation of message thing work.
Can a person claim his power comes from God and it not.
I know that Jesus's miracles were designed to validate his claims but can that not be counterfeited.

Yes, there are counterfeit miracles, and the false witnesses performing them may be greatly deceived, and deceiving others. The issue of counterfeit miracles is a difficult one, especially the emotive nature of the issue, but I am certain that it's more important not to make miracles the focus of our faith. My faith is in God, the miracle worker, not in the miracles. The Lord is not my slave or puppet, nor am I to put the Lord my God to the test. This issue of counterfit miricals, is an issue where I really prefer not to pass any judgement either way unless it's rather obvious, or unless God the Holy Spirit gives me the discernment. In cases of voo-doo, witch craft, the occult, fortune telling and so on, all one needs to do is go to the Scriptures to find the answer. Some of the stuff that goes on in them is just as fake if not more fake than what goes on in certain Churches with certain people. But just because counterfits exists, that does not exclude the real miracles of God.

[nomad7674]

Thank you I just feel like I'm going crazy some times. There are times when I am given a strong enthusiastic faith, only to be crippled by horrible what if thinking things I just can't move on from until its resolved.

One other thought which a close friend of mine in college felt helpful. Remember also that God's presence or absence or nature is not based on how you feel at any given moment. The fact that you may feel strong faith one moment, and the next be assailed with fears, is not unusual. But it is no indication of what reality is. God is faithful, whether we feel Him there or not.

I know that was not the core of your original question, and the other answers above are more directly on-topic, but I know this is a major problem for many Christians out there. You come out of a time of fiery faith where you felt unshakeable and sensed the presence of God every second, into a time where you have normal doubts and do not feel the presence of God at all. This is a natural stage in your spiritual growth, and everyone goes thru it. It is no challenge to be faithful when everything feels great - just ask anyone in the middle of first love - it is a challenge when you have to keep going when the fires have died down for a time - like when newlywed realizes for the first time that their husband refuses to pick up his socks from the floor.

[Incom]

Actually I think that explains a lot. And that I have a some what naturaly paranoid personality.

[GoBahnsen]

Resently I have had certain questions come into my mind that I can't answer.
I beleive in Jesus but these questions are eating at my conconfidence.
How do we know that it was the God of Isaic Abraham and Jacob that performed the miracles of Jesus.
How does the whole divine validation of message thing work.
Can a person claim his power comes from God and it not.
I know that Jesus's miracles were designed to validate his claims but can that not be counterfeited.

Just jumped over here real quick. I'm pressed for time. One thing to keep in mind...thake a look at your options. If Jesus or the Bible does not qualify for ultimate truth...it's almost like saying, "I like to NBA, but who knows maybe there are some 1st and 2nd graders that are just as good"...Even that would be giving the other choices too much credit. As the disciples said "where else shall we go (Jesus) you alone have the words of eternal life." Amen, GB

[geebob]

It's the ressurection of Jesus that provides his vindication. That's the way it was with Jewish expectations. Jews up until a few hundred years prior to Jesus did not have much confidence in ressurection. It developed primarily out of a concern for for justice. I believe in one of the apocryphal books of the period, there is a story about a lady and her sons who were dismembered and whe proclaimed that God would raise her sons and her enemies again to set this wrong right. So perhaps more than the desire to live forever, the primary concern was justice and vindication. Jesus was crucified and in that he was disproved as a messiah. But God had other plans. God established the messiahship by raising Jesus from the dead to show that he was right all along.

I would highly recomend NT Wright's The challenge of Jesus on this.

Also, William Placher's book Jesus the Savior is also pretty good on this topic. What I said comes more from him.

[Da Lone-Warrior]

Not the Jews, they beleived he was evil.

That's not true. There may have been some Jews who disliked Jesus, but it isn't true that all of them did. As I understand it, Judaism itself was transformed in a different manner by Jesus' life and teachings along with Christianity.

From my personal interactions, they don't seem to believe he was evil as they don't believe that Christians are persay evil.

dlw