The Bible?

Question

What proof do you christians have that the bible is authentically divine?

Do you have anything except for: The book says it's from god, the book can't be lying 'cause it's always right, it's always right 'cause it comes from god, I know it comes from god because it says it comes from god...

If you've come with an answer like: The bible is obviously perfect, just read it.
Then you'll have to do better than that... It has been shown to contain many contradictions (http://www.skepticsannotatedbible.com/contra/by_name.html )
And though supposedly many prophecies of the bible have come true, they are all interperted in very abstract ways. Nostradamus' prophecies are supposed to have come true as well? So is he a prophet of god?

So, my question is, why do you think that the bible is divinely inspired?

Faith? So why do you have faith in this and not in say, the Qur'an?

Answer 1

John, you have to realize that Christians live by an ignorance that runs deeper, truer.....more unwavering and steadfast that perhaps any group I've ever seen.
You can't reason with them. Trust me, I've tried many times...just look at my Q&A history.

Answer 2

This is a good and very vauge question.
The Bible has been translated and re-translated, compiled and re-compiled over thousands and thousands of years by "un-inspired" translators through a maze of the multiple languages (which could and most certainly does account for much of the contradictions). At one time when the words were written down from the pen of Moses, Isiah, or David, they could have been considered the "Infalable word of God". However the origional manuscripts are no where to be found. Thus causing us to rely on the 100 or so generations of recreations by completly un-inspired men. Not even Jerome claimed to be inspired of god to do his translations from the already tainted and contradicting versions of Hebrew and Greek.

I think i just rambled on, but Point being, At one time the subsequent books of the bible have been inspired by God, however the many different variations and additions and filterings that the individual books have undergone leave no doubt in my mind that it can be in no way "Infalable."

Answer 3

THe prophecies , if spelled right , many of them have been fulfilled , ... IT has many parallels with history ie, the life of Jesus and the fall of Roman empire are both documented in other secular books. and the bible is not meant to be believed by non-faith or "carnals" , if u have no faith at all in God or the bible then you cant start by the bible , start by finding faith somewhere else. Perphaps look at nature and how perfect it is , and your own human body (you are human , arent you? lol ) j/k .. see how perfect its is , and how handsome God made u :)< .. The answer my friend, we might never factually know, but faith might come to you and me in the form we least expect it.

Answer 4

I don't know. It was written years ago not by God but by people that worshipped him; and their lifestyle back then was different from now, I guess it's just to document what happened back then when the world was first created or whatever. As a Catholic I'm supposed to believe in its teachings, I personally don't read it myself, but if you are Christian or such I guess it's just understood that you read it and accept/follow its teachings to some reasonable degree. Obviously not everything in the Bible can be 100% true, but if you're not of a religion that doesn't follow the Bible, the easiest thing to do is just not concern yourself with it. Who needs proof? Religion isn't really based upon proof anyway. It's just what you believe, or were taught by others to believe. Just my opinion.

Answer 5

Wow, I can't wait for the answer for this one!!!!!

PLEASE ENLIGHTEN US!!!!!!

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Are we talking about the Old Testament or the New Testament? Oh wait!!!!! "TESTAMENT" .... hmmm, wonder what that means?

Ok, the different books are "TESTAMENTS" of people who claimed to have been spoken to by god and who claimed to be writing his words.

What if George Bush all of a sudden went in a trance and said that god told him that he had to wipe out the Middle East ... would we believe him or lock him up in the looney bin?

People need to believe in something and therefore the bible is an easy answer to all those things that we did not have answers for at the time. You'll note that many interpretations of the bible have changed, especially in recent years, as man becomes more knowledgable of his surroundings and discovers irrevocable proof that disproves the previous interpretations of the bible.

Anyhow, I don't expect any other credible answers other than "Faith" or the likes, the truth is there is no reason that they believe in it other than that they believe in it, so for logical minds, it is nonsensical.

Toodles

Answer 6

you have to have faith to believe that the bible is true. i believe it is true because there are things that have come true today, and we have historical accounts of these things happening. also, god's work in nature is evident around us. i'm not saying that the bible is "obviously" perfect, it is perfect, but it is not obvious. you have to study. soon, after you get used to the way it is written, you will see the correlation between passages that seem to contradict each other at first. it is not written as a "for dummies" book, God doesn't want to just give us the answers, He wants us to study His word to understand it. i'm sorry, theres no better way to describe it, so good luck! just have faith! God bless

Answer 7

It is the doctrines of the bible alone which save souls, convert wayward minds and strengthens the faithful.

All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching for reproof correction and training in holiness so that the man of God may be fully competent and equipped for every good work”(2 Tim. 3:16-17)

The Bible alone can make a Christian “fully competent.”

Answer 8

John,

Thank you for this question. I appreciate the opportunity to share my beliefs. Any question on the authenticity of the Bible--must at least on some level--begin with the Good Book itself. In his second letter, Peter tells us that the prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit (2 Peter 1:21). In Timothy, we read:

"All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works." (2 Tim 3.16-17).

So we know that its writers considered themselves divinely inspired. As the apostle Paul stated, he spoke "not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words." (1 Cor. 2:13). Many passages in the Bible tell us of the divine inspiration of the Bible and that its words are authoritative. I include several links below. You can use some of these sites as a launching pad for your own future research on this subject.

Just simply reading the wonderful book can fill you with inspiration. It's words contain so much wisdom, aid, and comfort, that you can feel its divine inspiration. Plus, it often represents powerful eyewitness testimony of events thousands of years in the past. In 2 Peter 1:16, we read, "We did not follow cleverly invented stories when we told you about the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses in his majesty." First John 1:1 affirms "That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our own eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched--this we proclaim is the Word of Life." And you will feel the power of those words to this very day if you spend time reading its wisdom.

You reference "contradictions" in the Bible. While the Gospels may contain some apparent contradictions, these are not genuine contradictions. The inspiration and inerrancy of the Bible refers to the original autographs of Scripture. The copies we have are extremely accurate. But it is to the original autographs of Scripture, properly interpreted, that are wholly true in everything they teach.

It can be difficult sometimes to understand the meaning of words written and translated so long after they were initially written. And these words were initially written to a very different culture than our own. But with prayer, study, and an open heart, we can carry home God's meaning.

I find it amazing that the Bible has survived all of these years intact. How rare it is to find any Book that surives even a few hundred years. Yet we have copies of the Old Testament going back to somewhere in the 1st through 3rd centuries B.C. The Dead Sea Scrolls found at Qumran in 1947 provide us with an amazing confirmation fo the accuracy through which the Old Testament has been handed down through the years

Speaking of a copy of the Book of Isaiah discovered at Qumran, Dr. Gleason Archer, who personally examined both the A.D. 980 and 150 B.C. copies of Isaiah commented:

"Even though the two copies of Isaiah discovered in Qumran Cave 1 near the Dead Sea in 1947 were a thousand years earlier than the oldest dated manuscript perviously known (A.D. 980), they proved to be word for word identical with our standard Hebrew Bible in more than 95 percent of the text. The 5 percent of variation consisted chiefly of obvious slips of the pen and variations in spelling."

And we have more than 24,000 partial and complete manuscript copies of the New Testament.

And think about the archeological support that exists for the Bible. Did you know people used to challenge the Bible on the ground that the Hittites referenced in it were considered pure myth. This was because archeologists at that time had found no evidence of that people. Yet now we know the Hittites actually existed and we have found actual, physical evidence of this people.

God bless,

Laura

Answer 9

Faith

Answer 10

we christians believe in the bible because we have faith in a higher being, god. Our only proof is the profecies and the bible itself that this is all true, but the whole thing about being christian is having faith