John the Baptist - what was his purpose?

[eymik]

What was John's purpose? And did he carry it out?
After reading the Bible, I see John raised up as this great figure with a huge mission (new Elijah), but what happened to him? How did he go from being a well respected preacher, baptizing flocks of followers to sitting in a prison cell, questioning whether Jesus was the messiah or not? I mean, did he not see God come down to him and directly tell him, "this guy is my son"?

[Muz]

What was John's purpose? And did he carry it out?
After reading the Bible, I see John raised up as this great figure with a huge mission (new Elijah), but what happened to him? How did he go from being a well respected preacher, baptizing flocks of followers to sitting in a prison cell, questioning whether Jesus was the messiah or not? I mean, did he not see God come down to him and directly tell him, "this guy is my son"?

If you wound up in a cell because the wife of a king hated you and tricked the king into jailing you and then beheading you, you'd start to wonder, too.

Muz

[OnceConvinced]

What was John's purpose? And did he carry it out?
After reading the Bible, I see John raised up as this great figure with a huge mission (new Elijah), but what happened to him? How did he go from being a well respected preacher, baptizing flocks of followers to sitting in a prison cell, questioning whether Jesus was the messiah or not? I mean, did he not see God come down to him and directly tell him, "this guy is my son"?

If you wound up in a cell because the wife of a king hated you and tricked the king into jailing you and then beheading you, you'd start to wonder, too.

Muz

Well surely not if God came down to me and spoke to me myself! However if there was a possibility I was mistaken about it being God, then yes.

[Muz]

Well surely not if God came down to me and spoke to me myself! However if there was a possibility I was mistaken about it being God, then yes.

Surely not? You been through this situation?

Muz

[OnceConvinced]

Well surely not if God came down to me and spoke to me myself! However if there was a possibility I was mistaken about it being God, then yes.

Surely not? You been through this situation?

Muz

No. What about you? I take it you claim to be some kind of an expert? You've had God physically come down and tell you something? You've met Jesus in physical form and witnessed his godliness for yourself?

A physical visitation from God would be the most truly profound and faith building experience of your life. You wouldn't have any doubts. Unless of course you doubted it was God in the first place.

What we see here with John is a man who got to meet Jesus personally and experience the son of God for real, yet later he had doubts (much like Thomas and Peter). To me that shows me there was serious doubts about Jesus, that he wasn't all he was cracked up to be.

The only logical conclusion I can come up with is that if John did recieve a physical visit from the father, then he can't have been absolutely convinced it was God.

[Muz]

Well surely not if God came down to me and spoke to me myself! However if there was a possibility I was mistaken about it being God, then yes.

Surely not? You been through this situation?

Muz

No. What about you? I take it you claim to be some kind of an expert? You've had God physically come down and tell you something? You've met Jesus in physical form and witnessed his godliness for yourself?

A physical visitation from God would be the most truly profound and faith building experience of your life. You wouldn't have any doubts. Unless of course you doubted it was God in the first place.

What we see here with John is a man who got to meet Jesus personally and experience the son of God for real, yet later he had doubts (much like Thomas and Peter). To me that shows me there was serious doubts about Jesus, that he wasn't all he was cracked up to be.

The only logical conclusion I can come up with is that if John did recieve a physical visit from the father, then he can't have been absolutely convinced it was God.

Well, when you consider that the nation of Israel had been blinded to their Messiah (See John 12, et al), and that JTB was part of that culture, and in spite of being a prophet to go before Christ, it's not hard to see why he wouldn't really understand.

Even Jesus' disciples, who were around Him, saw the miracles, and heard him claim to be God, didn't really get it until close to the crucifixion.

And Jesus' response to JTB's question through his disciples was to look at the signs and hear the message. Clearly Jesus was who He claimed to be.

Muz