The Bible.....Just another book?

Question

I was having a converstaion recently with my father-in-law. we were discussing the Da Vinci Code. He was rambling on and on about how he couldn't belive that someone would read a story, take its meaning to heart and start living by it.
Isn't that what evey christian does with the Bible? We can't prove that any of those stories are true...for all we know they were ment to be fiction and some took the meaning to heart and started living by it.

What are your thoughts?

Answer 1

Sees the bible as a book of christian mythology. Parables intended to teach lessons. Much the same as ancient greek and roman tales of mythology. Have often wondered why the bible was, and is, taken so literally when these very similar tales are dismissed as mythology. To me they are one and the same.

Answer 2

You could view it that way, people by the millions do. There have been people aplenty, sometimes really smart people, who start reading the Bible and it speaks to them, like no other book has ever done. When it connects it sometimes changes lives. Some people experience things that make the book believeable. It isn't just a beautiful story inspiration, but more. Some of the stories of the biggest names in Christianity often started with things like "he [or she] started reading the Bible."

Can you "prove" that you've ever been in love? Can you "prove" that such and such a food or fashion or feeling "was the best ever"? Many years ago doctors did not understand how the circulation system for blood in the human body worked. The heart pumped out, the heart drew in, but how did it happen? Surely it passed through some part of the membranes of the chambers of the heart to complete the flow. Then one doctor said there were these very small vessels that the arteries feed that connect with the veins to return the flow of blood. He couldn't prove it, microscopes weren't invented yet to show capillary action. He was right, but couldn't prove it. He had evidences and indications, but nothing more than the rest of established science. People called Harvey's ideas fiction as well. The same with Pasteur, Galleleo, Copernicus, and a pile of others. One of the biggest names in astronomy half-a-century ago coined an expression for a cosmological idea proposed by a Catholic astronomer--calling it the Big Bang. Hoyle lost. Hoyle also felt that God didn't create humanity, but that the universe was seeded with DNA produced by some super-intelligent alien civilization, and our world was simply one where the seeds from this panspermia "took". He had no proof of aliens, but he knew that someone had to cook up the genetic blueprints of life, they were simply too complex and elegant to have happened by chance.

You don't have to believe the book. You don't have to believe any book. Some people do. Some of those that do credit it to have made profound changes in their lives, so let it. What harm has it done to you if some one reads the book and starts hearing voices and then decides to listen to the voices and stop doing things like drinking or swearing or stealing or sleeping around with everyone he or she can? What does it matter to you if they find God is real? Science keeps unproving proven things all the time. Check out a good book on nanostructures, you'll love how they keep seeing how certain physical laws don't seem to behave that way down on the molecular and atomic level. Check out the astronomy section and hear the stuff coming out that some of our always-everywhere constants may be or have changed, I particularly enjoy the prospects of the speed of light not always being at the currently posted speed limits. What does it matter if your "proven" things may be disproved here and there now and then?

Answer 3

Gven that I went to a redemptist grade school, a jesuit high school, attended mass regularly & read for the sermons, you'd think I had an inkling of faith, Forget it, most of those priests were child molestors who were eventually brought to justice. After learnng about how the church suppressed gospels by Mary (& turned her into a prostitute in gospel -- she was a fish monger) and Thomas (now doubting Thomas) I decided to have a closer look, guess the jesuit's screwed up when day 1 of bible class the old priest told me the story f adam & eve was B.S.

P.S.
Why is it that the Koran, Bible, etc all are the same in many respsects but each has a different ending (of sorts)?

Answer 4

the word "fiction" suggests that the books of the bible were written as entertainment. rather, it is well-proved that they were written to control human behavior. much the same way as modern governments write books filled with laws.

the possibility, which most academics now accept as true, that organized religion is (and has always been) just another form of control, rarely gets discussed by common people. to the man/woman on the street, it's just a question of whether or not the "stories" in the bible are true. that's a pretty stupid question.

Answer 5

"get a life" is what ppl say to me but yet somehow i hold on knowing there is somthing greater coming.


Mary Khoury
17 years old
Damour,leban
During the levanese civil war 1992

"Mary and her family were forced on there knees before there home. The leader of the muslim fanatics who had raided their billage waved his pistol carelessly before their faces. His hatred for christians burned in his eyes. "If you do not become a muslim," he threntend,"you will be shot."

Mary knew jesus had been given a smilar choice"give up ur plan or u will be crucified.

Marys choice was similar. : I was baptized as a Christian and His word camt to me:' Don't deny your faith. I will obey him. The report of a gun shot from behind her echoded from the forest behind her.

two days later she was found alive,naked and badly beaten.
"Everyone has a yocation," she said. "i can never mary or do any physical work. So i will offer my for muslims the the one who vut my fathers throat, cursed my mother and staber her to death,and tried to kill me. My life will be a prayer for them.

somone loves u praying for you.

would somone do that for a fake god or a book?

Answer 6

The Holy Spirit testifies of truth. We can know the truthfulness of things by praying to God and asking Him with faith, believing we will receive an answer.

Also, by their fruits ye shall know them. We shouldn't just read the bible, we should live as Christ did. Proclaiming the gospel, preaching repentance and baptism by immersion for the remission of sins and receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost.

Answer 7

Bible is a book but its not just a book!DO U KNOW WHO WROTE THE BIBLE?God wrote all of the stories in the Bible to prove that He is the only one God.If u believe in Him u have the eternal life.ITS TRUE!

Answer 8

Yeah that is what people do with the Bible. They believe one book but not another. Sad isn't it?

Answer 9

no the bible is not just a book it is a Gide for the one that are church people

Answer 10

M-A-P-S to Guide You through Biblical Reliability

by Hank Hanegraaff





Use M-A-P-S to guide you through Biblical reliability:

Manuscripts, Archaeology, Prophecy, Statistics



Have you tried to show someone the historical reliability of the Scriptures, and not known where to start? A quick trip to your local well-stocked Christian bookstore likely will overwhelm you. Where among the dozens of impressive, comprehensive reference books should you start?



Fortunately, while there is a wealth of information available to support the reliability of Scripture, you don’t have to burn, the midnight oil to give a reasonable answer to those who ask, “How can we know the Bible is reliable?” Four basic principle chart your way to understanding basic biblical reliability.



To help you remember, I’ve developed the simple acronym “MAPS.” Remember the word MAPS and you will be able to chart Bible reliability.



Manuscripts



Manuscripts relates to the tests used to determine the reliability of the extant manuscript copies of the original documents penned by the Scripture writers (we do not possess these originals). In determining manuscript reliability, we deal with the question: How can we test to see that the text we possess in the manuscript copies is an accurate rendition of the original? There are three main manuscript tests: the Bibliographic, Eyewitness, and External (a second acronym — BEE — will help you remember these).



The bibliographic test considers the quantity of manuscripts and manuscript fragments, and also the time span between the original documents and our earliest copies. The more copies, the better able we are to work back to the original. The closer the time span between the copies and the original, the less likely it is that serious textual error would creep in. The Bible has stronger bibliographic support than any classical literature — including Homer, Tacitus, Pliny, and Aristotle.



We have more than 14,000 manuscripts and fragments of the Old Testament of three main types: (a) approximately 10,000 from the Cairo Geniza (storeroom) find of 1897, dating back as far as about AD. 800; (b) about 190 from the Dead Sea Scrolls find of 1947-1955, the oldest dating back to 250-200 B.C.; and (c) at least 4,314 assorted other copies. The short time between the original Old Testament manuscripts (completed around 400 B.C.) and the first extensive copies (about 250 B.C.) — coupled with the more than 14,000 copies that have been discovered — ensures the trustworthiness of the Old Testament text. The earliest quoted verses (Num. 6:24-26) date from 800-700 B.C.



The same is true of the New Testament text. The abundance of textual witnesses is amazing. We possess over 5,300 manuscripts or portions of the (Greek) New Testament — almost 800 copied before A.D. 1000. The time between the original composition and our earliest copies is an unbelievably short 60 years or so. The overwhelming bibliographic reliability of the Bible is clearly evident.



The eyewitness document test (“E”), sometimes referred to as the internal test, focuses on the eyewitness credentials of the authors. The Old and New Testament authors were eyewitnesses of — or interviewed eyewitnesses of — the majority of the events they described. Moses participated in and was an eyewitness of the remarkable events of the Egyptian captivity, the Exodus, the forty years in the desert, and Israel’s final encampment before entering the Promised Land. These events he chronicled in the first five books of the Old Testament.



The New Testament writers had the same eyewitness authenticity. Luke, who wrote the Books of Luke and Acts, says that he gathered eyewitness testimony and “carefully investigated everything” (Luke 1:1-3). Peter reminded his readers that the disciples “were eyewitnesses of [Jesus’] majesty” and “did not follow cleverly invented stories” (2 Pet. 1:16). Truly, the Bible affirms the eyewitness credibility of its writers.



The external evidence test looks outside the texts themselves to ascertain the historical reliability of the historical events, geographical locations, and cultural consistency of the biblical texts. Unlike writings from other world religions which make no historical references or which fabricate histories, the Bible refers to historical events and assumes its historical accuracy. The Bible is not only the inspired Word of God, it is also a history book — and the historical assertions it makes have been proven time and again.



Many of the events, people, places, and customs in the New Testament are confirmed by secular historians who were almost contemporaries with New Testament writers. Secular historians like the Jewish Josephus (before A.D. 100), the Roman Tacitus (around A.D. 120), the Roman Suetonius (A.D. 110), and the Roman governor Pliny Secundus (A.D. 100-110) make direct reference to Jesus or affirm one or more historical New Testament references. Early church leaders such as Irenaeus, Tertullian, Julius Africanus, and Clement of Rome — all writing before A.D. 250 — shed light on New Testament historical accuracy. Even skeptical historians agree that the New Testament is a remarkable historical document. Hence, it is clear that there is strong external evidence to support the Bible’s manuscript reliability.



Archaeology

Returning to our MAPS acronym, we have established ,the first principle, manuscript reliability. Let us consider our second principle, archaeological evidence. Over and over again, comprehensive field work (archaeology) and careful biblical interpretation affirms the reliability of the Bible. It is telling when a secular scholar must revise his biblical criticism in light of solid archaeological evidence.



For years critics dismissed the Book of Daniel, partly because there was no evidence that a king named Belshazzar ruled in Babylon during that time period. However, later archaeological research confirmed that the reigning monarch, Nabonidus, appointed Belshazzar as his co-regent whi1e he was away from Babylon.



One of the most well-known New Testament examples concerns the Books of Luke and Acts. A biblical skeptic, Sir William Ramsay, trained as an archaeologist and then set out to disprove the historical reliability of this portion of the New Testament. However, through his painstaking Mediterranean archaeological trips, he became converted as — one after another — of the historical statements of Luke were proved accurate. Archaeological evidence thus confirms the trustworthiness of the Bible.



Prophecy

The third principle of Bible reliability is Prophecy, or predictive ability. The Bible records predictions of events that could not be known or predicted by chance or common sense. Surprisingly, the predictive nature of many Bible passages was once a popular argument (by liberals) against the reliability of the Bible. Critics argued that the prophecies actually were written after the events and that editors had merely dressed up the Bible text to look like they contained predictions made before the events. Nothing could be further from the truth, however. The many predictions of Christ’s birth, life and death (see below) were indisputably rendered more than a century before they occurred as proven by the Dead Sea Scrolls of Isaiah and other prophetic books as well as by the Septuagint translation, all dating from earlier than 100 B.C.



Old Testament prophecies concerning the Phoenician city of Tyre were fulfilled in ancient times, including prophecies that the city would be opposed by many nations (Ezek. 26:3); its walls would be destroyed and towers broken down (26:4); and its stones, timbers, and debris would be thrown into the water (26:12). Similar prophecies were fulfilled concerning Sidon (Ezek. 28:23; Isa. 23; Jer. 27:3-6; 47:4) and Babylon (Jer. 50:13, 39; 51:26, 42-43, 58; Isa. 13:20-21).



Since Christ is the culminating theme of the Old Testament and the Living Word of the New Testament, it should not surprise us that prophecies regarding Him outnumber any others. Many of these prophecies would have been impossible for Jesus to deliberately conspire to fulfill — such as His descent from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Gen. 12:3; 17:19; Num. 24:21-24); His birth in Bethlehem (Mic. 5:2); His crucifixion with criminals (Isa. 53:12); the piercing of His hands and feet at the crucifixion (Ps. 22:16); the soldiers’ gambling for His clothes (Ps. 22:18); the piercing of His side and the fact that His bones were not broken at His death (Zech. 12:10; Ps. 34:20); and His burial among the rich (Isa. 53:9). Jesus also predicted His own death and resurrection (John 2:19-22). Predictive Prophecy is a principle of Bible reliability that often reaches even the hard-boiled skeptic!







Statistics

Our fourth MAPS principle works well with predictive prophecy, because it is Statistically preposterous that any or all of the Bible’s very specific, detailed prophecies could have been fulfilled through chance, good guessing, or deliberate deceit. When you look at some of the improbable prophecies of the Old and New Testaments, it seems incredible that skeptics — knowing the authenticity and historicity of the texts — could reject the statistical verdict: the Bible is the Word of God, and Jesus Christ is the Son of God, just as Scripture predicted many times and in many ways.



The Bible was written over a span of 1500 years by forty different human authors in three different languages (Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek), on hundreds of subjects. And yet there is one consistent, noncontradictory theme that runs through it all: God’s redemption of humankind. Clearly, Statistical probability is a powerful indicator of the trustworthiness of Scripture.



The next time someone denies the reliability of Scripture, just remember the acronym MAPS, and you will be equipped to give an answer and a reason for the hope that lies within you (1 Pet. 3:15). Manuscripts, Archaeology, Prophecy, and Statistics not only chart a secure course on the turnpikes of skepticism but also demonstrate definitively that the Bible is indeed divine rather than human in origin.

Answer 11

yup