Hello, Artemus, and welcome to the forums!
I’m sorry you are struggling with your faith, and I will pray for you.
You ask:
- In which Gospel or Letter, Jesus have ever said: “I am God” ?
The closest He came was John 8:58-59:
Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.” 59 So they took up stones to throw at him; but Jesus hid himself, and went out of the temple. (RSV)
“I AM” is how God named Himself to Moses. (
God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel, `I AM has sent me to you.’” (Ex 3:14, RSV)
Another place is this.
They answered him, “Jesus of Nazareth.” Jesus said to them, “I am he.” Judas, who betrayed him, was standing with them. 6 When he said to them, “I am he,” they drew back and fell to the ground. (John 18:5-6, RSV)
Why would these people draw back and fall to the ground, if all Jesus meant to say was “Yeah, that’s me”? No, He said, I AM, with the same supernatural force that God used on Moses.
- Jesus seems to be “ordinary man” read : Matthew 26:39
We know he was not an ordinary man. Ordinary men do not raise the dead, cure the blind and lame, appear with Moses and Elijah (the Transfiguration), or rise from the dead! The verse you mentioned is another example Jesus gives us of how to pray. He shows us that, even in the face of torture and death, we should still put His will ahead of our own.
- Yudas @ Judas Iskariot, is he a betrayer? or is he doing his job to fulfilled the Prophecies?
Both.
- Moses are sent to save Jews from Egypt. Are Jesus sent to save Israel from Pontius Pilate? read Matthew 15:31
Most Jews believed that the Messiah would be a conquering King, who would throw the Romans out of Israel, and that His kingdom would be an earthly one. The truth is that He came to “throw out” the power of sin, and His kingdom is spiritual, and is in both earth and Heaven.
- Christianity existed before Jesus Christ, is this mean Jesus is just a Prophet in Christianity?
I’m not sure I understand the question.
Until Christ came in the flesh, there was no Christian church. The Jews believed in an approaching Messiah, but that’s not Christianity. The Muslims believe that both Jews and Christians went wrong after Abraham, and that God’s chosen people descended from Ishmael, not Isaac. (Muslim friends, please correct me if I’m wrong.) That’s not Christianity, either. The Muslims call Jesus a prophet. Some sects that call themselves Christian believe this, too, or that He was merely a wise teacher. Real Christians believe that Jesus is the Son of God, and one of the three persons in the Triune God (the Trinity).
As for the reason for 12 Apostles and only 4 Gospels:
First, only 3 of the Gospels were written by Apostles. Luke was probably the disciple of Paul mentioned in Col 4:14, 2 Tim 4:11, and Phil 24, but he was not an Apostle.
Second, why *should *there be 12 Gospels? If the four writers got it right, why would the others see a need to write one for themselves?
Third, it’s possible that there were more Gospels, but they have been lost pretty soon after the Church was founded. We have the four that were consistently handed on from the writers to be read in the early churches.
And there *are *some pretty early manuscripts claiming to be gospels of Thomas and Judas, but there are major problems with them. I don’t know enough about it to tell you why.
God bless you,
Ruthie
