how do you really know please help?

Question

how do you really know that what the bible says is real, and not just something someone made up? and how do they make pics of Jesus when they have never seen him?

Answer 1

My dear child, what the Bibles says is real ONLY if you want it to be. It was put together by men and written by them. It has some very good ideas and some quite poor ones as well that people have been fighting over for centuries. You really have to trust in yourself when taking advice from it. As for pictures of Jesus? A lot of them are an archetype of what the early church thought that he should look like. I personally like the pictures of him laughing and having fun. It makes him more human (which of course he was at one time). It is a matter of faith but I always like tempering faith with wisdom as well. Blessings on you, my dear.

Answer 2

The Bible is a gathering together of many different kinds of documents. Some are historical [Genesis, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John], some are census data [Numbers], some are poetry [Psalms, Song of Solomon], some are wisdom literature [Proverbs], some of the writings are the recountings of futuristic visions [Revelation].

The Bible is divided into two Canons [not cannons that go "boom" but canons as in "collections of written works." :) ]: the Old Testament and the New Testament.

A lot of the old testament is writings which were written long after an event occurred. They wrote down the stories which had been told over and over again down through the generations. It's like what would happen if you wrote down a story your day told you that his dad told him about your great-great grandfather. Your stroy would be "true" as it sought to retell the meaning passed down through the three generations to the fourth [you]. However, some ofthe exact details might get missed. Does that make the stroy untrue? No.

A current example is what people have written about the assanination of JFK. Each writes from his point of view - in this case literally. Was the writer behind, beside or in front of JFK when the first shot hit him? The second shot? The third? Each person will report truthfully what they saw. Each will be a truthful account of the event. However, there will be differences among the stories because they are written from three different points of view.

The gospels are like that: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are different because the author is different, and the person for whom the writing was intended was different.

As far as Jesus' picture...

Do you think you could draw a picture of an American Indian circa 1800's? You probably could based on somethings you know about today's indians, and things you could learn from reading about indians at that period of time, and what you know of the human physique. Would it be "real" like a photograph? No. Would it be similar to what an Indian looked like? Yes, much better than drawing your Indian based on a photograph of an Eskimo.

That's how an artist draws a picture of Jesus.

Answer 3

Everything in this world takes a leap of faith. Regardless if you're a believer or not, scientist or not If I were to give you a quarter and place it in your hand, could you prove to me that it exists. Sadly no, because our reality is based around the ASSUMPTION that an object tangible or not exists through our senses for example. If were to die and ascending into heaven, how would I know I was there? Based on observations in the bible, what my senses would tell me through sight, sound etc I'd have to ASSUME this information that I'm receiving is genuine in order to accept it as fact first. By no means am I saying that God doesn't exist. I personally believe god and Jesus exist. But, in order to accept something as true, you need to assume that it is true and that requires faith.

Answer 4

The pictures came from the image on the shroud of turin.

You can't really know that what the bible says is real, because of where the bible came from. It was compiled by the early catholic church, and you need to take anything that they say as suspect at best.

Any one who tells you that the bible is true and you are going to hell if you don't believe it, is only trying to keep you from thinking about it logically.

All religion is man made it all makes the same claim that it comes from God. This claim is partially true but people can never stand to leave Gods word alone. This is because god’s word is consistent and does not mesh well with their personal preconceptions and bigoted ideas. So they make little changes here and there injecting their thoughts into the mix tainting the word with nonsense. For this reason you should not put much faith in these ideas about god that come from others. If God wants to tell you something He is perfectly capable of telling you directly.

Maybe you should stop reading what other people say about God and ask him to tell you what he wants you to do directly. Stop reading; clear you mind and listen. When you pray get you’re talking over as soon as possible and listen. He is trying to talk to you but your mind is full of nonsense from the bible and other sources. Don’t be surprised if what you hear does not sound much like what you have been told about God. You will be hearing Gods message minus the nonsense.

In your bible study have you ever heard of the small still voice? You can't hear it if your mind is otherwise occupied with other people’s silly ideas about God. Just try it you will be surprised

Love and blessings
don

Answer 5

I am a Christian... so please don't take this as blasphemy... Jesus on the cross - He didn't look like that... the real image would be too gross to put up everywhere... you could think for yourself what would happen to your body after a few days of torture. The image is how every artist interprets the image of Jesus. There were no paparazzi in those times so we don't have an actual image of what the J-man looked like. The Bible was written by people, so obviously here and there it is imperfections, like the missing years of Jesus's life between the age of 11 and 30 (when he died) Just trust what you believe to be true, because as many Christians as there are, that many different ideas you will get on the faith... I hope it helps.

Answer 6

IMHO..

It's a living document. I've studied it for decades and I am still finding new things in it. God speaks though it. I can read a passage I've read a thousand times and, this time, a word or two catches my attention. I won't write a book, like others here, but suffice to say it's the real deal.

In the final analysis it's a faith thing. Although some non-biblical substantiation exists you either subscribe or you don't.

Answer 7

You don't know and won't ever know. If you're the type of person who can put up with that, then believe, have "faith". If you are a rational, thinking, scientific person then stop thinking of yourself as a slave to someone else and live your own life.
Oh and I do believe Jesus was a real person but he probably doesn't look anything like the pictures. Think about it - how many white men with sandy brown hair and blue eyes were born in the Middle East at that time?

Answer 8

You know the Bible is true only if you trust Jesus as your Lord and Saviour and then ask the Holy Spirit for understanding. As for pictures, we can make a picture look like anything, remember on TV, Superman can fly.

Answer 9

The bible is made up. And to make things worst, many of the pictures of the unseen Jesus portray him as white even though the bible has him in the middle east

Answer 10

historical documents. It isn't just faith. . it is faith BASED ON FACT!!

The factual historical documentary evidence for the Bible being God's Word is overwhelming. . not just strong, but overwhelming.

The factual evidence for Jesus being who He said He is (God) is also overwhelming. .

if you really want to know. . go get the book "The Case for Christ" by Lee Strobel (an atheist and prizewinning investigative crime reporter for the Chicago Tribune until he decided to check out the claims of Christianity, and then he became a Christian because he encountered that overwhelming evidence.).

Also, go look into it elsewhere as well. .

go to http://www.answersingenesis.org and do a search on their site for articles on the Bible and the accuracy of the Bible.

The Bible has an amazing track record for being accurate about the ancient world, according to scholars in every applicable field.

One major documentary proof is the Dead Sea Scrolls, which were discovered back in 1947 in a cave in Israel where they had been sitting untouched since the first century.

These scrolls are fragmentary bits of the Old Testament which was translated into Greek about 250 BC, and in every single case what was found agrees COMPLETELY with what we have today. They even include a complete copy of the book of Isaiah (the one OT book that, more than any other, fortells Jesus' coming in a way that can't be denied, and shows His deity in a way that can't be denied.

So when someone tells you that the Bible has been changed and mistranslated and added to, etc. . over the centuries, you can point to the Dead Sea Scrolls and say, "HA! Here's something that existed parallel to the known scriptures ALL that time, sitting in a cafe for all those centuries, and when they were compared 2000 years later, there have been essentially NO changes!!"
(nothing but a missing word here, or a sentence here or there which is in some of the manuscripts but not all, etc.). .

as one scholar put it, "the Bible has been passed down to us 99.5% accurate"

(and that slight .05 % has nothing to do with any major doctrine, just a misnamed king or someone's relative that doesn't play any major part of any story, etc.).

The Bible has never been found to be wrong about anything (either in science, or history, or archeology. . nothing the Bible states has been shown to be wrong (by either modern or ancient man).

for an interesting read, go to that link I just gave you above, and on the main page, click on "More past articles" (middle of page). . and scroll down to one called "archeology and the Bible". . quite a good article.

Again, that site has about 5000 very awesome and compelling articles that are full of awesome proof of the reliability of the Bible, starting from the very first verse and going to the very last verse. . it's completely correct about all it speaks about.