Comments against Jesus being the Messiah

[StickOfRock]

I have been watching biblical documentaries recently in my discovery into faith and learning about Christianity. I am becoming more convinced of the Christian faith, at the same time I don’t want to be decieved if it’s not true. Reading the comments on these videos where people debate the truth of Christianity they made a few points that I was hoping someone here would be able to help and resolve for me.
Firstly one point was that in translating the Bible they changed what Christ said from ‘I am A son of God’ to ‘I am THE son of God’. They say about his words as a prophet of God being changed to be a messiah that died for our sins. Would someone please be able to relate to me any proofs that he was who modern Christians think he is and that he died for our sins so that we can be forgiven?
Another argument I see often in the comment section to Biblical (is it right to capitalize that?) videos is that because all religious work being written by human prophets, is man made. They make the point that anyone could say they are being guided by God and claim it to be true. My thinking is that divine intervention, like what happens in the Bible, could show God is there and truly is helping and communicating with people, but of course being written by men this could be altered to achieve whatever you would like (their arguments against). I would appreciate your views on this argument and any rebuttals to it.
Lastly, I watch an entertaining quiz show called QI, and the points they raise in this clip bother me into doubting the Bibles veracity. This is the link to anyone interested in helping with this/these questions: youtube.com/watch?v=VKzMy4Ya9s8
I apologize for my long post (and bad grammar and punctuation ), I am searching for the answers to my faith doubting/skepticism in the hopes I can become a believer in Jesus. I appreciate any help I receive with these questions so thank you to anyone who can help in advance.

 

[petra22]

Have you read the bible? I just want to mention that there is a lot of good and bad events that take place in there. Some events seem horrible. Some seem too far out to believe. If someone was purposely going to try to convince you that Jesus is real with beautiful stories they could have changed the settings into beautiful places and the people into beautiful people. When I read this old book my mind goes WOW. For example Jesus being born in a stable… The SON of God? The Christ? No clothes, no house, no extended family to speak of? A lot of the stuff that’s in there you can say to yourself, THAT COULD NEVER HAPPEN. You have to remember that there is a God who can do Anything… Nothing is impossible with God. And if you want to believe in Jesus–the bible isn’t the only place he is mentioned in history. Do some research to see who else was writing about him.

"In his historical work Antiquities of the Jews, Josephus writes that the Roman procurator of Judea died suddenly in A.D. 62. During a three month interregnum period, Annas the younger, son of Annas who is mentioned in Luke 3:2, John 18:3, and Acts 4:6, is appointed high priest and orders the stoning of lawbreakers:

[H]e convened a judicial session of the Sanhedrin and brought before it the brother of Jesus the so-called Christ—James by name—and some others, whom he charged with breaking the law and handed them over to be stoned to death. (Josephus, Antiquities, book 20)

This James was probably James the Just, whom St. Paul describes as “James, the brother of the Lord” (Gal.1:19). An overwhelming majority of scholars believe that this passage is authentic…"

Anyway my suggestion would be to read the bible with the thought of, “hey, what if this is true?” Instead of, “hey, what if this is false…” Praying for you!

 

[StickOfRock]

Have you read the bible? I just want to mention that there is a lot of good and bad events that take place in there. Some events seem horrible. Some seem too far out to believe. If someone was purposely going to try to convince you that Jesus is real with beautiful stories they could have changed the settings into beautiful places and the people into beautiful people. When I read this old book my mind goes WOW. For example Jesus being born in a stable… The SON of God? The Christ? No clothes, no house, no extended family to speak of? A lot of the stuff that’s in there you can say to yourself, THAT COULD NEVER HAPPEN. You have to remember that there is a God who can do Anything… Nothing is impossible with God. And if you want to believe in Jesus–the bible isn’t the only place he is mentioned in history. Do some research to see who else was writing about him.

"In his historical work Antiquities of the Jews, Josephus writes that the Roman procurator of Judea died suddenly in A.D. 62. During a three month interregnum period, Annas the younger, son of Annas who is mentioned in Luke 3:2, John 18:3, and Acts 4:6, is appointed high priest and orders the stoning of lawbreakers:

[H]e convened a judicial session of the Sanhedrin and brought before it the brother of Jesus the so-called Christ—James by name—and some others, whom he charged with breaking the law and handed them over to be stoned to death. (Josephus, Antiquities, book 20)

This James was probably James the Just, whom St. Paul describes as “James, the brother of the Lord” (Gal.1:19). An overwhelming majority of scholars believe that this passage is authentic…"

Anyway my suggestion would be to read the bible with the thought of, “hey, what if this is true?” Instead of, “hey, what if this is false…” Praying for you!

Thank you for both your wisdom and your prayers It would be tough to imagine all the people going through these horrific things for a lie.

 

[Kaninchen]

I am searching for the answers to my faith doubting/skepticism in the hopes I can become a believer in Jesus. I appreciate any help I receive with these questions so thank you to anyone who can help in advance.

One thing of which you can be reasonably sure is that people will carry on rowing about it - “Oh, Yes he was!/Oh, No he wasn’t!” for ages and ages to come.

 

[Della]

Hello StickofRock and welcome to the journey to the Church.

Never get your information about anything or anyone from people who are determined to disprove/denigrate those things or persons. They are obviously driven by an agenda. And people driven by agendas and not by love will say anything, skew anything, falsify anything in order to be “proved” right in their own minds.

Secondly, the people you cited are not legitimate Bible scholars or if they have degrees, again, they are driven by a negative agenda instead of the search for the truth.

And lastly, the Bible is a set of books with various types of writing from historical to poetry. Like any library of books each must be read within the proper context of the author’s intent in writing it, its historical context and, in the case of Scripture, the spiritual context. It’s complex undertaking that isn’t for amatuers or people who read them merely to pick at them to pull them apart. That is what these people are doing. Their actions are meant to be destructive not helpful.

Look to Christ’s Church founded on Peter and the Apostles for the truth about God as seen in Scripture, history and the never changing truths Christ gave us.

You have my prayers, as well.

 

[Abu]

StickOfRock #1
Firstly one point was that in translating the Bible they changed what Christ said from ‘I am A son of God’ to ‘I am THE son of God’. They say about his words as a prophet of God being changed to be a messiah that died for our sins. Would someone please be able to relate to me any proofs that he was who modern Christians think he is and that he died for our sins so that we can be forgiven?

From the acceptance of the reality of God to the truth of Catholicism is based on the history of Christ Himself.

Quadratus writes (circa 123 A.D.) that in his day there were still persons around who had been cured or raised from the dead by Jesus – prime witnesses. [Eusebius, *Church History, 4.3, 1.2; See *Free From All Error, *Fr W. Most, p 12].

Even Adolf von Harnack, a rationalist historian of high repute among Rationalists and Protestants, wrote that the Synoptic Gospels were written before 70 A.D. – before the fall of Jerusalem, and accepted the tradition that St Luke derived his information on the infancy of Jesus from Mary His Mother. Theologische Quartalsch, Tubingen 1929, IV, p 443-4].
[See *Apologetics and Catholic Doctrine, The Saint Austin Press, 2001, Sheehan/Joseph p 89, 93].

The facts of Jesus miracles were recorded by His own Apostles who were present – Saints Matthew and John were companions of Christ, and Saints Mark and Luke lived in constant contact with His contemporaries.

His miracles “were so frequent, the eyewitnesses so numerous, and the evidence so stark, that not even Christ’s enemies disputed the fact of their occurrence. Instead they ascribed them to the power of the devil, or defied Him to perform another one in His own favour.” (See Mt 12:24; 27:39-42; Jn 11:47). Apologetics and Catholic Doctrine, Sheehan/Joseph, Saint Austin Press, 2001, p 104].

 

[Mystophilus]

Firstly one point was that in translating the Bible they changed what Christ said from ‘I am A son of God’ to ‘I am THE son of God’.

Um, option C, none of the above:
John 10: 36 ειπον 'υιος του θεου ειμι (“I-said son of-the God I-am”)

There is no article (a/an/the) there, which is perfectly normal in Greek for the complement to the subject (“I”-subject “am”-verb “a teacher”-complement). It really demonstrates nothing.

However, in John 10:30, Jesus has just equated himself with God, causing his Jewish audience to want to stone him to death (v. 33).

So, the native-Greek-speaking Christians of the first centuries of the Church were entirely justified in reading his declaration in their own language as one of uniqueness.

 

[Viki63]

What convinces me, among other things, is that all of the first disciples except for John, who was exiled to Patmos, died the deaths of martyrs. If they had invented what Jesus said, why would they have done that? It makes no sense whatsoever.
Christ brought hope and love to the world which was steeped in darkness. Many of the early Christians were thrown to lions, burned to light the festivities of the Romans, and died in other ways. They knew a good thing when they saw it.
Jesus is the Truth. If you read the Bible and ask God to reveal himself to you, He will.
God bless.