Why Do You Trust the Bible?

[Steven_R]

The bible was written by Godly men inspired (God breathed) BY GOD EVERY WORD.

Assuming that is true, does it take into account political actions like committees deciding which books were good enough to be in a Bible or kings using Bibles for political reasons like King James I or even just the work of translators or stuff lost along the way when oral traditions were all we had?

Oral traditions weren't all they had. It was an expensive task to write them down on animal skins.

That's not what I'm saying. Before writing, we have nothing more than oral traditions. We don't have writings dealing with any of the people who would become Israel pre-Genesis. Genesis finally puts it all down and covers about the first 3000 years of human existence if the Bible is literal. Since nobody put pen to paper about the story of man before Moses, how do you know the stories about Jacob and Esau and Isaac that ended up with Moses were properly told? Even if the original stories were factual, how do you know that what Noah told his kids about the pre-flood world were the stories his grandkids heard properly?

Remember that game of telephone from third grade? Each person tells their neighbor what they heard and by the end of 30 kids "Billy has a red car" has becomes "Dead cats are chilly"? Did God intercede so that no parts of the story were lost or embellished or changed for dramatic license over the next three millennia or so before it was written down?

 

[KevinWestern]

Somehow routine Christian isn't good enough? They have to be super Christian or something?

So because there is a false system, the true one cannot be true or you cannot know?

I should rephrase. I believe there to be many people who say "yes I'm Christian" (in the context of a survey that counts the number of Christians in a community) but in fact don't go to church, don't read the bible, etc. Not saying you need to be a "super Christian", just pointing out that many people are Christian in name only and don't necessarily try to immerse themselves in the doctrine.

Growing up, I witnessed many sets of parents that simply went to church to maintain social structure. Not saying that's good or bad or anything, just pointing it out.

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so in summary, a person may be a Christian yet never attend a church......or attend a church but never believe in Christ......

Yes, exactly. A person who attends a Christian church every week to maintain a certain position in the community, but doesn't actually believe the story or in Christ isn't in reality a "Christian"..

 

[JakeStarkey]

I should rephrase. I believe there to be many people who say "yes I'm Christian" (in the context of a survey that counts the number of Christians in a community) but in fact don't go to church, don't read the bible, etc. Not saying you need to be a "super Christian", just pointing out that many people are Christian in name only and don't necessarily try to immerse themselves in the doctrine.

Growing up, I witnessed many sets of parents that simply went to church to maintain social structure. Not saying that's good or bad or anything, just pointing it out.

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so in summary, a person may be a Christian yet never attend a church......or attend a church but never believe in Christ......

Yes, exactly. A person who attends a Christian church every week to maintain a certain position in the community, but doesn't actually believe the story or in Christ isn't in reality a "Christian"..

Don't you think folks in all societies have done that in the history of human kind?

 

[JakeStarkey]

I mean look at Adam and Eve, running around the garden necked.

I can just see Eve not giving in to Adam's caresses, demanding "I want to know just where our relationship is going."

 

[Chuckt]

Assuming that is true, does it take into account political actions like committees deciding which books were good enough to be in a Bible or kings using Bibles for political reasons like King James I or even just the work of translators or stuff lost along the way when oral traditions were all we had?

Oral traditions weren't all they had. It was an expensive task to write them down on animal skins.

That's not what I'm saying. Before writing, we have nothing more than oral traditions. We don't have writings dealing with any of the people who would become Israel pre-Genesis. Genesis finally puts it all down and covers about the first 3000 years of human existence if the Bible is literal. Since nobody put pen to paper about the story of man before Moses, how do you know the stories about Jacob and Esau and Isaac that ended up with Moses were properly told? Even if the original stories were factual, how do you know that what Noah told his kids about the pre-flood world were the stories his grandkids heard properly?

Remember that game of telephone from third grade? Each person tells their neighbor what they heard and by the end of 30 kids "Billy has a red car" has becomes "Dead cats are chilly"? Did God intercede so that no parts of the story were lost or embellished or changed for dramatic license over the next three millennia or so before it was written down?

I knew an engineer who could recite half the book of John without looking at it.
You have people who memorize song lyrics and trivia. You have smart people on Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune.

What do you think people were watching on television 3,000 years ago? Exactly. There wasn't a lot of television to fill their minds.

They had time to memorize and that is what they did because they didn't have notebooks back then. It is a different culture and that is what they did.

 

[Chuckt]

Assuming that is true, does it take into account political actions like committees deciding which books were good enough to be in a Bible or kings using Bibles for political reasons like King James I or even just the work of translators or stuff lost along the way when oral traditions were all we had?

Oral traditions weren't all they had. It was an expensive task to write them down on animal skins.

That's not what I'm saying. Before writing, we have nothing more than oral traditions. We don't have writings dealing with any of the people who would become Israel pre-Genesis. Genesis finally puts it all down and covers about the first 3000 years of human existence if the Bible is literal. Since nobody put pen to paper about the story of man before Moses, how do you know the stories about Jacob and Esau and Isaac that ended up with Moses were properly told? Even if the original stories were factual, how do you know that what Noah told his kids about the pre-flood world were the stories his grandkids heard properly?

Remember that game of telephone from third grade? Each person tells their neighbor what they heard and by the end of 30 kids "Billy has a red car" has becomes "Dead cats are chilly"? Did God intercede so that no parts of the story were lost or embellished or changed for dramatic license over the next three millennia or so before it was written down?

There was some kind of rhythmic pattern to what they were memorizing. They wrote it down.

 

[CrusaderFrank]

I could write about 9/11 50 years from now, so I think writing about walking with Christ 30 years later is not unreasonable, especially since so much of the information matches in the 4 Gospels

 

[GISMYS]

2 Timothy 3:16God's Word says= that the entire Bible is inspired by God, not just partially. It is an important concept, for if we choose and pick some parts of the Bible as inspired and others are not, then the entire Bible soon falls apart. Who has the authority to decide the extent of inspiration, but God Himself. And God made it very clear that all Scripture, is inspired by Him. Therefore those who preach partial and degrees of inspiration are playing God. Since God is truth (John 3:33, Romans 3:4), whats breathed out by God, must also be true (John 17:17) and infallible. The process of inspiration is described in 2Peter 1:21, for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. All Scripture was regarded by the Jews as prophecies, that it did not originate from man, but came from God.

 

[JakeStarkey]

Who has the authority to decide the extent of inspiration, but God Himself. And God made it very clear that all Scripture, is inspired by Him.

No doubt but fallible man cannot interpret infallible God, don't you get that?

 

[Chuckt]

Who has the authority to decide the extent of inspiration, but God Himself. And God made it very clear that all Scripture, is inspired by Him.

No doubt but fallible man cannot interpret infallible God, don't you get that?

It doesn't matter if man is fallible. The Bible says we are without excuse so we don't use fallibility as a reason to not follow. If you know it is all inspired then you make every attempt to follow.

 

[JakeStarkey]

Who has the authority to decide the extent of inspiration, but God Himself. And God made it very clear that all Scripture, is inspired by Him.

No doubt but fallible man cannot interpret infallible God, don't you get that?

It doesn't matter if man is fallible. The Bible says we are without excuse so we don't use fallibility as a reason to not follow. If you know it is all inspired then you make every attempt to follow.

The Bible comes through fallible man trying to understand God's infallibility.

That is where you fail.

 

[freedombecki]

THIS IS NOT AN ATTACK on Christian beliefs as I respect the grand majority of Christians, see them to be wonderful people and wonderful contributors to the community, and have no right to say that what they believe is wrong.

However, I have a question; given that the New Testament was written ~30-60 years AFTER the death of Jesus Christ (correct me if I’m wrong), aren’t you at all concerned that the authors might have:

(1) Forgotten some key details, exact words, etc (I mean, do you remember what you ate for lunch March 3rd, 2009? I don’t)
(2) Altered some things to make the story more interesting

Fair question, right?

I mean, imagine if followers (ie disciples) of President Obama were to create a biography of his SIXTY years from now (specifically his followers) – from memory – don’t you think it’d be just a little bit skewed? Would you consider their account to be valid? I know I wouldn't, and would demand backup/proof! Would you?

These are just honest questions from a non-Christian. I'm not trying to be combative...

Thank you, Kevin.

A Church is like a Renaissance stained-glass window. From the inside, you can see the glow of images when the sun sets the images on fire. From the outside, it looks like a series of grout lines which line opaquely dark indiscernible figures.

So it is with believers who are inside the church, and nonbelievers who are on the outside. Those who remain outside the belief system can never make out the beauty seen from the inside of faith and beliefs.

It would be futile for me to tell you how wonderful life is when Jesus is in my heart, unless you came inside the building and let his sun shine in your life. All I can say is that He is wonderful, a counselor to our spirits, and generously made himself the sacrificial lamb that absolves us from wrong and makes us want to do good works and avoid sins told in the Mosaic Laws, to care for the widow and the fatherless, and walk in his footsteps of meekness, caring, and turning to him in prayer and studying his teachings so we will know how to discipline our acts. We know we fall short. We trust his promise that we can live as forgiven people. That's about it.

 

[Chuckt]

Who has the authority to decide the extent of inspiration, but God Himself. And God made it very clear that all Scripture, is inspired by Him.

No doubt but fallible man cannot interpret infallible God, don't you get that?

It doesn't matter if man is fallible. The Bible says we are without excuse so we don't use fallibility as a reason to not follow. If you know it is all inspired then you make every attempt to follow.

And a person who doesn't aim at a target never gets anywhere because he feels it is hopeless anyway.

 

[GISMYS]

Yes!! Unless we go up in the very soon rapture,all will die, but how sweet the death of a believer can be, ripe in years,ready to just slip up to meet jesus not dieing in sickness,pain,crying and screaming as the unbeliever!!

 

[freedombecki]

Yes!! Unless we go up in the very soon rapture,all will die, but how sweet the death of a believer can be, ripe in years,ready to just slip up to meet jesus not dieing in sickness,pain,crying and screaming as the unbeliever!!

Christians have sickness, pain, crying, and screaming out loud pain. We're fully human. The only difference is we're forgiven. Could you be seeing the stained glass window from the outside of the building?

 

[BreezeWood]

the lost Commandments etched in stone by God are the only written text of the True religion and therefore the spoken religion remains as in the past the means by which humanity is meant to discover the path of Remission to the Everlasting set as the goal from the beginning by God.

 

[KevinWestern]

the lost Commandments etched in stone by God are the only written text of the True religion and therefore the spoken religion remains as in the past the means by which humanity is meant to discover the path of Remission to the Everlasting set as the goal from the beginning by God.

If they were ever found and authenticated, what do you think they'd go on ebay for?

 

[Steven_R]

the lost Commandments etched in stone by God are the only written text of the True religion and therefore the spoken religion remains as in the past the means by which humanity is meant to discover the path of Remission to the Everlasting set as the goal from the beginning by God.

If they were ever found and authenticated, what do you think they'd go on ebay for?

I think some archaeologist already found them and they are being investigated as we speak by top men.

Top. Men.

 

[Indeependent]

the lost Commandments etched in stone by God are the only written text of the True religion and therefore the spoken religion remains as in the past the means by which humanity is meant to discover the path of Remission to the Everlasting set as the goal from the beginning by God.

If they were ever found and authenticated, what do you think they'd go on ebay for?

They're probably in the Vatican.

 

[Delta4Embassy]

THIS IS NOT AN ATTACK on Christian beliefs as I respect the grand majority of Christians, see them to be wonderful people and wonderful contributors to the community, and have no right to say that what they believe is wrong.

However, I have a question; given that the New Testament was written ~30-60 years AFTER the death of Jesus Christ (correct me if I’m wrong), aren’t you at all concerned that the authors might have:

(1) Forgotten some key details, exact words, etc (I mean, do you remember what you ate for lunch March 3rd, 2009? I don’t)
(2) Altered some things to make the story more interesting

Fair question, right?

I mean, imagine if followers (ie disciples) of President Obama were to create a biography of his SIXTY years from now (specifically his followers) – from memory – don’t you think it’d be just a little bit skewed? Would you consider their account to be valid? I know I wouldn't, and would demand backup/proof! Would you?

These are just honest questions from a non-Christian. I'm not trying to be combative...

Those who subscribe to a given faith without studying the orign and development of that faith's religious text(s) aren't studying the right things. Without understanding how the Bible came about, when it was written, why other things were left out, etc. you're only getting the specialized cherry-picked version the old Catholic Church wanted disseminated. But if genuninely interested in the truth, read whatever they say not to, study everything forbidden, and never stop asking questions.