Many believers mention that the Bible is the inspired word of God. It is different from other works. Not all, but quite a few believers can also point out that it has errors aplenty, all the while claiming it is still the divine inspired word of God.
Is there anything in particular that led you to this conclusion?
JZ
Are you asking the question to only Biblical literalists, or to Christians in general, or to the general polulation?
Personally, I’m a Christian non-literalist. The Bible is seperate from (most) other works because it is the recognized collection of books and letters which form the best description of the God I worship, and the history of those who feel the same as me.
Inner conviction and lots of soul-searching led me to this conclusion.
It’s for anyone that takes an interest. Anyone can respond, and thanks for replying.
The Bible is seperate from (most) other works because it is the recognized collection of books and letters which form the best description of the God I worship, and the history of those who feel the same as me.
This is something I will never understand. If the JC God is the best description of a God that someone can come up with, how would you separate it from Satan?
Inner conviction and lots of soul-searching led me to this conclusion.
It was nothing specific? Did you delve in other religions before coming to this conclusion? Just trying to understand what makes the mind of a Bible-Believer tick. Did other factors such as your parents beliefs or perhaps geography help play a large role? E.g., if you were born in some Middle Eastern country, do you think the same soul searching would have led you to the same conclusion?
JZ
Reason: their parents told them it was special.
Zahn: Nobody said it was the best description of deity they could come up with. Soup said the Bible provided the best description of the deity Soup worships.
Since I believe what the bible says, and it does say "** All Scripture is God-breathed (NIV) **, that does it for me. But there are many other reasons why it is different from other works.
The Bible tells one continuous story from beginning to ending. It’s in perfect unity and harmony. What makes that unique is that this story was told over a 1600 year period (1500 BC 100 AD). what’s even better is that there were over 40 writers who told the story. Keep in mind this is over a 1600 year period and they weren’t neighbors or anything. They were from different walks of life.
For Christians, biblical Prophecy is evidence. I don’t know any other teaching that has fortold things like the bible has that has come true exactly like the bible says it would.
The bible is not a science book but it is still scientifically accurate.
There is no scientific evidence that contradicts the bible.
All errors that people claim the bible has, always seems to get clarified. I can’t see how there are any errors. I have read many of the alleged contradictions, and if I don’t understand it, I do an indepth study and talk about it with a few bible scholars that I know. It always come out that it’s not a contradiction at all, but an error in whoever claims there is a contradiction.
God is God after all. He should have the ability to do some things we can not explain.
I have never been any other religion. I do ask a lot of questions when I meet people of others religions. I try to do some research online about other religions too, but I usually get my best info and opinions by talking to people in person.
I think that parents do play a large part in what a person believes, but not always. I knew about God from my family, but you would never know it. The only thing they really taught me is that there is a God. I have a pretty scary family, right now, pretty far from God.
I think where you grow up has a lot of impact on what a person believes.
I don’t think I had to do any searching. It was like God was pulling me in. I make Him upset a lot I am sure, but I am trying. He knows I am human.
I agree wholeheartedly, Jersey Diamone. You say it very well, much better than I could.
For JerseyDiamond and His4ever-How can you claim that the Bible is the book to follow without having read others?
Okay, I’ll reword it. If Soup wants to elaborate on why this is the best description of the God he worships, then, I hope he’ll feel free to do so.
JZ
If a similar phrase was found in another religious work besides the Bible, would that have just about done it for you too?
The Bible tells one continuous story from beginning to ending. It’s in perfect unity and harmony. What makes that unique is that this story was told over a 1600 year period (1500 BC 100 AD). what’s even better is that there were over 40 writers who told the story. Keep in mind this is over a 1600 year period and they weren’t neighbors or anything. They were from different walks of life.
When one compares the books in the Bible, one finds that it is extremely repetitious in telling the same story, but often the names, numbers or other pertinent facts get changed. Nehemiah repeats parts of Ezra. Deuteronomy repeats much of Exodus. Chronicles, Kings, and the Samuel books, often repeat but with different facts and figures. The Gospels have their share of problems too. Doesn’t seem like perfect unity and harmony to me, but instead of me giving many examples, I’ll have you look at just two pericopes side by side later on in my post.
**For Christians, biblical Prophecy is evidence. I don’t know any other teaching that has fortold things like the bible has that has come true exactly like the bible says it would. **
Well, I love evidence as much as the next person. Have any examples you want to share? Take the best three prophecies or even one. I hope it isn’t going to read like some astrology chart.
**The bible is not a science book but it is still scientifically accurate.
There is no scientific evidence that contradicts the bible.**
Let’s do something simple such as comparing numbers in different pericopes telling the same story. Do you believe numbers are absolute? Start with Ezra 2:1-70 and compare it to Nehemiah 7:6-73. You’ll find over 50 different discrepancies in numbers and names, but yet both start out the same. After reading and studying these texts, explain why this is still considered accurate.
All errors that people claim the bible has, always seems to get clarified. I can’t see how there are any errors. I have read many of the alleged contradictions, and if I don’t understand it, I do an indepth study and talk about it with a few bible scholars that I know. It always come out that it’s not a contradiction at all, but an error in whoever claims there is a contradiction.
See above. Take your time, but hope to hear from you again, and that you won’t be a no-show. His4ever, feel free to jump in since you agree wholehearted with JerseyDiamond.
JZ
the main thing that separates the bible from other works is that over the years, people with the bulk of the power and resources in the world chose the bible as their favorite collection of morality fables and fairy tales.
other peoples have chosen different myths on which to base their moral conduct and to explain post-mortality and other mysteries. however, since the euro/christian culture has been and still is dominant economically on this planet, the bible has had a disproportionate influence on worldwide civilization.
this is unfortunate-- we have enough hatred in the world without chuckleheads everywhere teaching their children that a vengeful, all-powerful being answers their prayers yet sends other, heathen children to a fiery hell.
a myth is a myth is a myth-- might don’t make it right.
**Doctor Goo Fee wrote:
the main thing that separates the bible from other works is that over the years, people with the bulk of the power and resources in the world chose the bible as their favorite collection of morality fables and fairy tales.**
I’ll agree with Doctor Goo Fee here, at least with his intent, tho not necessarily with his words. Since about 1100, in Europe and the West in general, Christian scripture has been seen as “the Word of God” and hence unchallengable.
It’s only within the past two hundred years that hard evidence has come to light that parts of Christian Scripture are merely poetry, (one-sided) history and mythology. Certainly the Word of God is in there, too, but one needs to read carefully.
Its a great collection of fictional paranormal short stories that somehow have been mistaken for the ultimate truth to naysayers of the present day paranormal.
No, because no other book is like the bible, in so many way. For one, prophecy!
I’ll try to do a few for you. There are so many that I would be here all night.
First, here are some prophecies fulfilled from the beginning to the exile of Judah. (keep in mind I am posting just a couple)
**1)**Gen. 2:17 Death to be normal lot of mankind …
fulfillment, Gen 3:19;5:5
**2)**Gen. 15:13 Israel to be slaves in Egypt for 400 years
fulfillment, Ex. 12:40-41
**3)**Ex. 3:8; 6:6 Israel to be delivered from Egyptian bondage
fulfillment, Ex. 12:41
**4)**Num. 14:23, 32-35 Israel to wander in the wilderness for 40 yrs
fulfillment, Num 26:63-65; 32:13
From the exile of Judah to the first coming of Christ…
5) Isa. 43:5-7 Jews to return to their land after exile
fulfillment, Ezra 1-2; 7-8
**7)**Ezekial has 821 verses of predictions: 6:8-10; 12:16 God to preserve a faithful remnant of Israel which has been preserved throughout the ages.
**8)**Ezek. 22:15 Israel to be scattered among the nations-
descriptive of the exile of Diaspora
**9)**Ezek. 26:1-28:19 Tyre to be destroyed
fulfillment, 332 B.C. by Alexander the Great
I think Daniel is 45% prophecy. Sir Isaac Newton did a lot of bible study. If you do a search under him, I’m sure you could learn a lot.
**10)**Daniel 4:10-27 Nebuchadnezzar to suffer an animal like madness, fulfillment, Dan. 4:28-33
**11)**Dan 7:4,17 A beast like a lion
fulfillment, Babylonian Empire
**12)**Dan. 11:3 A might king to arise
fulfillment, Alexander the Great
At the first coming of Christ
13) Gen. 3:15 The Messiah to be a man from the seed of a woman, fulfillment, Luke 1:31-33
**14)**Deut. 18:15, 18-19 A prophet like moses to arise
fulfillment, John 3:34; Acts 3:20-23
**15)**Ps. 109:3 The Messiah to be hated without a cause
fulfillment, John 15:24-25
If I had it in me, I could go on and on. So much was left out. If anyone wants to add anything, that would be great.
You also have the things yet to come. I will list a few.
see if this clarifies anything for you
Everytime I try to explain an alleged contradiction or error, it goes no where. Issaac Newton was a heck of a lot smarter than any one in the world that I know of, and he “believed that the Bible is literally true in every respect. Throughout his life, he continually tested Biblical truth against the physical truths of experimental and theoretical science. He never observed a contradiction. In fact, he viewed his own scientific work as a method by which to reinforce belief in Biblical truth.” a little on Newton
You should, if you are really interested, pick up the ‘Encyclopedia of Bible Difficulties’ by Gleason L. Archer.
I forget–JerseyDiamond, are you a young Earth creationist, an old Earth creationist, a theistic evolutionist, or what?
Do you think that both the Bible and science agree in saying that human beings evolved from non-human ape-like primates over the course of millions of years (whether or not this process was guided or directed by God)?
Um, Mr. Diamond, sir? Weren’t most of those “prophecies” written after the fact?
I’ll fully admit an incomplete knowledge of the Bible (I prefer King and Clancy for my fiction) but weren’t the first books, the Gospels, written something like forty years after the death of Jesus? And the rest decades, or hundreds of years later?
If that’s the case, aren’t those “prophecies”- concerning events that occurred prior to their writing- simply documenting past happenings and not necessarily “predicting” them? (As one assumes from the use of the term “prophecy”.)
I mean, few would lend much credence if someone published, say, last weeks’ lotto numbers, the results of the 2000 election or the outcome of the last Superbowl.
No, Doc Nickels, this is not last weeks lotto numbers. This stuff is all next years lotto numbers.
It was not written hundreds of years later. Try reading ACTS, an account of the apostles. The amazing thing is that these things were written after He Died over a few decades. A few of the guys from the NT actually walked around with Jesus. After He died, those guys went off there seperate ways. John was in exile, Paul was roaming the countryside, Peter was in Rome, these people all wrote the same story from different perspectives, but it was all the same story. They were not sitting around a table say" hey, you write this and I’ll write that".
Doc Nickels, can you tell me what you think about the prophesies of Daniel.
here
Mebuckner, I believe that it is entirley possible that the earth is 6,000 years old or even millions of years old. I don’t know if our idea of time is the same as Gods idea of time.
I didn’t know that science proved this to be true. As far as I know, it isn’t. We only compare science facts with the bible, not made up things. Can you back up your proofs of macroevolution with genuine examples from respected science journals, encyclopedias, or science textbooks? Actually Mebuckner, I am really not interested in getting into a science debate with you, but if you want to ask questions about what the bible says compared to science, make sure they are scientific facts.
Well, gotta go. JD
Well, really, JerseyDiamond, yeah, human evolution from non-human primates is about as solid as scientific facts get. It’s been “proven true” to the extent anything is ever “proven true” in science. If you really want to know about the subject–which, frankly, I gather you don’t–then the Talk.Origins Archive is ready and waiting.
It would hardly be fair of me to make some silly statement along the lines of “The entire Bible provides unwavering support for the ideas of ‘free love’ and ‘open marriages’” and then follow it up by saying “But I don’t want to get into a Biblical debate with you”, now would it?
If you don’t want to get into “science debates”, don’t make statements about science.
(You are also wrong about the Bible being harmonious and without internal contradiction, but I suppose there is little point in arguing with you about that either.)
**JerseyDiamond wrote:
It was not written hundreds of years later. Try reading ACTS, an account of the apostles. The amazing thing is that these things were written after He Died over a few decades. A few of the guys from the NT actually walked around with Jesus. After He died, those guys went off there seperate ways. John was in exile, Paul was roaming the countryside, Peter was in Rome, these people all wrote the same story from different perspectives, but it was all the same story. They were not sitting around a table say" hey, you write this and I’ll write that". **
I have to disagree. Dr. Elaine Pagels, in her book, The Origin of Satan says:
Elaine Pagels, The History of Satan, 1995 pg. xx
She goes and references this work for clarification:
Barnabas Lindars, New Testament Apolegetic: The Doctrinal Significance of the Old Testament Quotations, 1973.
Dammit, dammit, dammit.
Elaine Pagel’s book is:
The Origin of Satan, 1995. Sorry about the misquote on the title there.