If you believe in God but not the Bible?

Question

This is not for those "There is no God, Polly want 2 points" parrots.

If you truly believe there is a Creator of the universe, but think the Bible is not a reliable source because it is written by man who is fallable, please respond to this thought:

How do you reconcile the idea that a God who is powerful enough to create all that is and ever was could not orchestrate a handful of His most faithful and prophetic followers to get His story right?

Consider that archeologists now use books such as Luke as a field guide because of the proven accuracies. Historians have verified dates, names, locations and events. Why do people choose to believe only what they can see with their own eyes when they have no reason to doubt the rest?

BTW, it is the oldest existing book that is still over 98% accurate to the original with the only inaccuracies being because of language changes or minor typos which do not affect the context in any way. So you can't answer with "it's changed."

I didn't say He manipulated anyone's free will. The Bible says He gives dreams and visions. This is how events can be told by people who did not witness things such as the creation of the earth and how the end times can be predicted.

There's a difference between real prophets like Isaiah receiving visions and false prophets like Mohammed having hallucinations and telling everyone it was a divine revelation so people wouldn't stone him to death for being insane. So no, I'm not saying God inspired Islam in the same manner.

Answer 1

Im not saving I dont believe the Bible is the word of God, but I do say that I at this point in my life have a hard time reconciling some of what I read with what I believe about God and his Love. And in some passages, reconciling what I read with what science has, in my mind, proof of.

Answer 2

You cannot believe in one and not the other. You have to take them both.

John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

Center of the Bible

Q: What is the shortest chapter in the Bible?

A: Psalms 117

Q: What is the longest chapter in the Bible?

A: Psalms 119

Q: Which chapter is in the center of the Bible?

A: Psalms 118

Fact: There are 594 chapters before Psalms 118

Fact: There are 594 chapters after Psalms 118

Add these numbers up and you get 1188.

Q: What is the center verse in the Bible?

A: Psalms 118:8

Q: Does this verse say something significant about God's perfect will for our lives?

A: Yes
The next time someone says they would like to find

God's perfect will for their lives and that they want to

be in the center of His will, just send them to the

center of His Word!

Psalms 118:8

"It is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in man."

Now isn't that odd how this worked out (or was God in the center of it)?

When things get tough, always remember... Faith doesn't get you around trouble, it gets you through it !!

Answer 3

The Bible is a collection of stories, most written 2000+ years ago. It should not be used as a reference for modern day beliefs.

I don't mind people who believe in God or Jesus, but using a book as a source of proof of anything should be discouraged and even ridiculed.

Regardless of whether some parts have truth in them, a large percentage of the Bible has been proven to be false. Also, a majority of the Old Testiment was passed down by word of mouth, you can never expect such a method to preserve the original content.

Answer 4

You make it sound like someone knows, or has seen, the "original." And given that this is patently false, where does you argument go from there?

Regardless of your sentiments on the bible, there is considerable biblical scholarship you should consult when making these kind of claims.

For example, you say that "Luke" is used as a "reference" by historians. Do you know who this "Luke" is? If so, you are privileged indeed, since no one else does. The same goes for most of the "Gospel" texts. And why does it impress you that a writer of that period would know about the local geography and events? There's a lot of fiction set in the real city of New York.

Answer 5

OK,

Question 1: Did GOD want the Bible as we know it to be used as we use it? Look at its own references to itself. It seems clear in the Old Testament that the books of the Laws and the Prophets are one one level (inspired, useful for teaching, etc.) and the books of history and geneologies are just meant to be records.

Was it ever meant that each and every word was to be considered holy?

Question 2: Even for the inspired parts- what was God's purpose for us? There is a Jewish tradition (Midrash?) in which you look for the MEANING of the stories and passages and what they have to teach us, not for the historical or scientific accuracy of them. Are they meant as 'teaching storys' or are they meant as a textbook?

Question 3: What the heck IS 'truth' in this sense? What does 'inspired' mean here? To what extent IS the Bible really the literal words of God, and to what extent is it a collection of human observations and records? It is pretty clear that the Gospels and many of the epistles, and many of the first books of the OT are the records of what the author saw, did, or felt. Wrestled with an angel or God? If he wrestled with an angel and claimed it was God because that is what HE FELT it was- is it wrong? Gospel writers seeing and recording different things from different points of view or for different audiences or to emphasis different elements- does this make one version righter or another wronger?

Question 4: How much of what we know or think about the Bible is based on what we learned from someone else- often someone with an agenda? In many ways, modern religion is a game of numbers and power. Church A claims to have THE answer, so does all kinds of interesting things to distance itself further and further from Churches B through Z. Teachings get more and more codified, problems are explained away with either platitudes (it's a mystery) or convulated explanations.


The more I study this, the more convinced I am that it is our job to 'rightly divide the word of God'- to find those things that are commands or requirements, those that are good ideas and suggestions, etc. When does a statement apply to all of us in history, and when was it directed to the audience then and there?

I am more and more convinced, for example, that much of the OT law does not apply to us here and now- that Acts 18 (or is it 17- I don't have a Bible readily available) basically overturned it for us Gentiles- and yet- quite a bit of the Mosaic Law is still good ideas. I am unconvinced that the Great Commission applies to all of us. I have my doubts that most churches teach baptism accurately. I am finding less and less evidence that humans will go to hell, or that only a few people with specific codified beliefs will go to heaven, etc.

I've been trying to read the Bible for what it is, discarding as much baggage as I can, using only a few basic study tools (mostly to help determine what a word or passage might really mean.) it helps a lot to just plain LISTEN to it on tape- sometimes, hearing an entire chapter at a time reveals a totally different emphasis than a verse-by-verse study does.

For example- listening to several epistles in a row, I heard a few messages that seemed to transcend the specifics in the text, like:
- Love, help, and care for one another
- We are responsible to and for each other. It is my responsibility to not be a stumbling block for others (ie- if I think it is OK for me to drink alcohol, I should not do it in front of another brother who has a problem with it.)

We hear such messages, but they get rather lost in the 'give money, help clean the church, don't wear make-up, let's boycott this movie, pray this way, smile at each other in church then go your own way' babble that makes up so much of modern religion.



Basically, I think the problem is Human Nature + Time + Free Will + God Laying Low = distorted understandings of things that should be pretty easy and natural.

Answer 6

Consider that Peter Parker lives in Queens New York. This location is historically and archaeologically correct. This does not make Spider-man real. Spider-man also has some exaggerations in it that no intelligent person would take as the truth.

Luke has the same problems. Jesus falsely predicts that some of his listeners would live to see him return and establish the kingdom of God. 9:27 Jesus says that all that he describes (his return, signs in the sun, moon, and stars, etc.) will occur within the within the lifetime of his listeners. 21:32

It is another story book set in the real world. The bible has some accurate history in it. It would have to if it wanted to be taken seriously. it has noble poetry in it... and some good morals and a wealth of obscenity, and upwards of a thousand lies.

andymcj66 makes a good point. "christian science" uses it in it's digs, but it is out to try to prove the bible, not to find the truth. No one credible believes these findings.

Answer 7

I am not impressed by Luke. Any fictional work can get some real facts right. But just because there was a Civil War, and Charleston is a real city, doesn't mean that Rhett Butler ever existed.

The Gospel accounts are so widely discrepant that they could not be used as testimony in any court of law. Only people who are blind to this think that it's consistent and inerrant.

And you're begging the question when you assume that the Supreme Being who created everything is represented in the Bible. For all you know, the Supreme Being is NOT Yahweh, but Brahman, Ahura-Madza, or some entirely different entity.

Answer 8

Well I must assume you're talking about the Old Testament. The new one is just not that old, we're talking about 1800 years maximum.

Yes, a God powerful enough to create the universe COULD orchestrate his followers to get His story right, we just don't believe that he DID. The OT has too many inconsistencies and mythological metaphors. We don't buy God making all the male and female animals and then making the female human from one of Adam's bones. Don't buy creating a tree of the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil unless he wanted it partaken of.
Don't buy the flood.....true nonsense. Don't buy him obliterating 2 cities because he disapproved of the behaviour of the inhabitants.

You need to get away from these books and embrace the being that they are mistakenly assumed to describe. The books are traps for the naive and the ignorant. They blind you to His true nature which can ONLY be determined and read by our souls.

Answer 9

God and the Bible go hand in hand.

John 1:1-5

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
2 The same was in the beginning with God.
3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.
4 In him was life; and the life was the light of men.
5 And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.

Answer 10

You see you are hanging the validity of the bible on the assumption that God inspired "His faithful and prophetic followers" in the writing of that book. There is no way that anyone can prove that statement. The bible was written by men with their own agenda. they stole Jesus story from Mithra and several other Deity's from their past. They invented the words, hell, sin, and Satan to control the masses through fear.