How can we know who Jesus truly is?

Apostle John goes out of his way all throughout his gospel to tell us how people responded to Jesus. He doesn’t only tell us what Jesus says and does, but also what peoples reactions were to the things that He says and does. All throughout his ministry, Jesus said outrageous things that everyone who knew of Christ, met Christ or heard Him teach; had an opinion about him. In John 7, you see multiple different responses to Jesus. Some hated him, some thought he was a criminal, some thought he was brilliant, others though he was a miracle worker, and a select few believed he was God in the flesh. But, how does one know? How do we know the truth about who Jesus really was behind all of the opinions and claims that others has about him?

In John 7:17 Jesus tells us that there is a way to know. "If anyones will is to do Gods will, he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own authority." The way to know whether or not Jesus is truly who he says he is (God in the flesh, sent from heaven, to pay the penalty for sin.) is to have a willingness to do the will of God. In other words, in order to know that Jesus is the truth, it requires you seeking after him as the truth. Not just with your mind, but also with your actions. Jesus is saying that when you seek me with your mind, and your actions, you will find me. If you only seek Jesus with your mind, you'll become at best an Intellectual. If you only seek Jesus with your actions, you'll become at best a Religious Moralist. But when you seek Him with your mind and actions, your eyes will be open to how truly glorious He actually is.

Conversation w/ an Agnostic: Part 6 It's Personal (A Relationship, not a Religion)

Let me stop trying to sound like a scholar and speak to you from my heart. I have had multiple conversations with people that are searching like you and hold similar values and beliefs that you hold. Most recently is my brother-in-law, who like you is brilliant and searching. What struck me as odd is that he was using a logic that you rarely us in your everyday life. In your search for God, you are essentially saying, "Until I can fully grasp and understand this idea of God/Jesus, I will not acknowledge it as true" You and I dont used this logic during our everyday life. When I get in may car, I dont say, I will not drive it until I can understand ever aspect of it. Or you dont wait to get on a plane until you can fully grasp or understand the aerodynamics and deep engineering of the plane, you still get on that plane. Why do you get on that plane? Because it is undeniable that it will fly because you have seen it all your life. But when it comes to God, you feel the need to fully understand him before summiting. However, in your life, you have seen countless people changed, and seen them hold firm to what they believe. Although it is unexplainable when they say it was Jesus who changed them, it is also undeniable that their claim is that a personal relationship with Jesus is what caused the change, on top of the fact that they truly are changed and hold strong to their belief. To be honest with you, I will never claim that I do not have doubts about God or that I fully understand God. I have doubts just like you, but to me that is OK. I believe that you can be a Christian without all of the answers, I assume you feel differently.

Here is what I am trying to say. Having all of the answers is not what makes someone a Christian. What makes someone a Christian is when an adult becomes personal w/ Jesus. Truth be told, there is an answer for every question that you have. Actually if you were to ask me a question, I can almost guaranty that there are endless books out there that were written to answer your question. It is almost comical when people think they they are the first to have questions or doubts. The same questions have been being asked for hundreds of years. However the books that are out there and their answers usually will just arise more questions for us to ponder on. And at the end of they day you will be no closer to God, you will just me more informed. My point is this, I did not become a Christian or find meaning to my life through information, I found it through a personal relationship.

Think of it like this. I can give you all of the reasons why not to get married to a person. Your with 1 person forever, forever is a long time, we dont have enough money, can you really trust each other, what if you get bored with each other, you'll lose your independence, 1 sexual partner forever, the list can go on and on. All of those are good questions as well as true information. However, when I substitute the "hypothetical person" that I would be marrying, and instead put in the mix Beth, it is different. No longer am I just marring a hypothetical person, no, I am marrying Beth. Beth is someone who I love, who I have a relationship with. Although there are still doubts, those doubts are overridden by the relationship. The same is true with Jesus. The reason that me, and billions of others in the world have been able to become Christians as intelligent adults, is not because their questions were answered, but instead God became personal and our doubts became smaller.

The reason that you will never be able to change my mind on Jesus is because I know Jesus. I know him being a reality as much as I know I am married to Beth. It's personal to me. Because Jesus is personal to me, my doubts and questions become smaller because God has become bigger. On the flip side, I also know that I will never be able to convince you that Jesus is who he really says he is because to you it is not personal, instead it is informational. And Theologically, (not philosophically or scientifically) I believe that scripture is clear that until Jesus reveals himself to you and calls you, you will not come to him. (That is another argument for another day) With that being said, maybe through these conversations and your current circumstances, God wants to use this to draw you to him. That is my prayer for you.

Conversation w/ an Agnostic: Part 1 Creator

Over the past week or so I have been having some in depth conversations with a friend of mine who is agnostic. I thought I would add some of my conversation with him because I think that is helpful for all.

I will start first with my logical progression of information which has brought me to where I am today. I will cover Creator, Revelation, Historical Evidence, Prophecy, Manuscripts, Jesus, Personal experience, and personal relationship.

This is Part 1:

Creator:
I assume that you already have read or heard somewhere that the number of atheists are rapidly decreasing http://www.geocities.com/richleebruce/b/atheist.html . As a Christian you need to know that I do not refute science, I refute naturalism. I will agree with people like Lee Strobal, William Dembski, Larry Witham, and many others who think that even scientifically it takes more faith to believe that there is no creator than to believe that there is a creator. To me I struggle to believe that something came of nothing. At no point in the world do we ever look at something and say, that came from nothing, we always assume it came from someone or something. To add to that, the more complicated a design the more intelligent we assume the creator to be. Also, when I have studied about how finely tuned our universe is, along with the fact the human body is also so finely tuned to exist in this environment, it blows my mind. As you already know, the slightest alters in the universe or earth, humans would no longer be able to exist. The other thing that totally confuses me is the fact that people believe that matter can turn to mind. In other words, how can matter turn into a brain that works, thinks, learns, etc. I am sure that there are many arguments against that but to me and my education level, it is hard to get beyond that. A reference for you is Lee Strobal's, The Case for a Creator: A Journalist Investigates Scientific Evidence. This was very helpful for me in forming my beliefs in God as Creator.

Here are some quotes to support what I believe as far as a creator is concerned.
1. The most amazing thing to me is existence itself. How is it that inanimate matter can organize itself to contemplate itself? Can a person be a scientist and a Christian? Yes. As I said before, the world is too complicated in all its parts and interconnections to be due to chance alone. God is the explanation for the miracle of existence.- Allan Sandage, cosmologist and Nobel Prize winner
2. Beer is proof alone that God exists and wants us to be happy. Matt Chewning, a nobody. haha