Iggy said:
I find the "faith" issue intriguing and am exploring it in this thead by asking for views on accepting a person's claim to be Christ without having proof. It is not easy to answer without expressing room for the possiblity of doubt.
Indeed. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that it is impossible to answer without the possibility of doubt. Those who don't want to doubt are well and truly on the road to fundamentalism... Fundamentalism is essentially placing rules in the way of actually having to grapple with your faith.
Seriously, my faith is based on a gut-twisting 'instinct' (although thats probably an inadequate word) that speaks to me in a way more than adrenaline would. I guess there are all sorts of scientific names and theories you could come up with for what it might be, but there are some points in my life that have been profoundly influenced by a sense of God. If someone showed up claiming to be God, I would presume that same gut sense would permeate their presence.
Non of this means I don't doubt. I do. I've spent nights grappling over whether Jesus could have existed. I've had to acknowledge the high improbibility of God inhabiting the body of a human being. I've wondered if the Christianity we have today has any semblence of the faith Christ brought to the earth. I cetainly have had to deal with the fact that the bible seems to contradict itself.
Yet out of all of this, I still have this 'gut feeling' or sense of God's existence, which leads me to continue to find a way that all of those things above make sense...
So, if Jesus did show up, I'm pretty sure I'd know... if I didn't, then Jesus is something other than what I believe in, and I've got it wrong. I'd then have to eat humble pie, I guess. But for now, I'll stick with my gut.
Does that help at all?
No, that was not what I was fishing for. If I saw the four horse man along with the giant locusts I think my views on the New Testament would become a little more reverent. 
