Concerning the Bible, am I missing something?

Question

1.It is a collection of stories form several thousand years ago.
2.It has been heavily edited by the Church and some gospels have been thrown out.
3.For more than a thousand years until the invention of movable type, it was translated into various languages and hand copied.
4.It was written by men.

That is the end of the FACTS. That’s all we can prove with the evidence we have available.
Since the same can be said of numerous other text, many of a religious nature, what else can be inferred other than they make interesting reading, but offer absolutely no evidence that they are the word of God.
The only real reason anyone believes that the Bible is the word of God is because they have been told that by their religious leaders.

Your correct. Most learn their religion from their families.

The amount of drift a manuscript undergoes over time when hand copied is supstantial, the bilble is no exception.

It seems no matter how one asks a question someone is offended.

I have actually looked at a number of different sources over the years. Most of which are "peer-reviewed"

Answer 1

I once believed the bible was as good as its hype but the people who push it ....well I'll just leave it at the two faced hipocracy drove me away. all the preachers who did what they said you should not do , they did do.
I have searched and searched for a church where the leaders and followers were honest and true but all I found were fair weather friends and all shunned me when I asked questions that exposed the lack of logic. I have given up on religeon as I have been burnt by the holy holy holy Liars.

Answer 2

I beleive the Bible to be the Word of God because I proved it to myself,not because of family or religious leaders.
It is the most amazing Book ever written.
It was penned by some 40 writers over a period of 1500 years.Most did not know each other.And yet the whole Bible harmonizes.No other book has been so widely despised and had as many attempts to have it wiped out,as the Bible has and yet it has been preserved throughout the centuries down to our day.
There are thousands of fragments from various parts of the Holy Scriptures that have been located and are kept in museums etc.We also had the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls which contained the whole book of Isaiah.By comparing these fragments,experts have been able to ascertain that while words have changed here and there,the overall theme of the Bible is accurate and unchanged.
What you fail to understand is, this IS the Word of God.Jehovah has provided this 'guidebook' for his intelligent creation to learn from and live by.It has His backing.How could man ever destroy it ,alter it message or do anything to it that our Creator would not find acceptable and think that Jehovah would not ensure its protection and survival.
Of course it was written by men for men.However these men were inspired by God to write what they did.How could Moses had ever known about Earths creation without Jehovah telling him what to write.How could Isaiah and Job known that the earth was round and 'hung upon nothing?'(Isa.40.22;Job26:7)
History itself agrees with the Bible.Many artifects have been located that confirm different Bible facts about various kings and battles won and lost etc.
You really should do yourself a favor and visit your local Kingdom Hall of Jehovahs Witnesses.They would be only too happy to conduct a free home bible study with you.And then you could see for yourself what a magnificent gift Jehovah has provided for us.

Answer 3

Yes, you are missing something.

Some of us who appreciate the Bible have actually done the research and checked the work.

We've determined exactly how much "drift" there might have been in the manuscripts, and evaluated all or most of the who's, the why's, and the where's.

We've investigated the biblical stories, traced all the prophecies, and matched them up with the history.

We tracked the "chain of custody".

We compared the biblical accounts with the known truth.

We investigated the various biases, whether scholarly or otherwise, of those who offer their opinions on scripture.

Then, we overlayed all of that onto the consistent teachings, beliefs, and practices of the Church.

Only after doing all that can one make an informed decision as to what the Bible truly is.

Based on all of the above, I feel perfectly confident in the accepting the Bible as the God inspired book that most Christians understand it to be.

If you actually did the same work, I'm pretty sure you would too.

Answer 4

As with most belief systems there is an aspect of faith in accepting the Bible as the word of God (as I do, and it was not from being told by Religous leaders). The Bible speaks of itself as being wholly inspired be God, but why believe this? Well for one I think it truly amazing that it was written over a period of 2000+ years by men of various nationalities and educations and yet is so seemless and so well coordinated. You find the same things written by a wandering nomad in 2000 BC that are written by a gentile Physician in 50 AD.

Another reason I was so impressed with this book is that if you compare texts found in the dead sea scrolls that were just unearthed after 2000 years, they are virtually word for word with most accepted modern translations. Most of the old testament can be found in various scrolls recently unearthed, and no major changes have been noted versus modern versions.

Another reason I consider it a supernatural book is that if you study the book of Daniel, written 500 plus years BC, you will see spelled out every major world power that would come to power way before the events occurred. Some of these countries, like Rome, were no more than a fishing village at the time of Daniels writings and yet he predicted it would be a major world power that would be in charge when the Messiah would come. Impossible if not devine!

But the major factor in my determining this is more than any other book is that it has the power to change lives. I can't prove this, but I can hope that you believe that it changed everything about who I am and what my motivation in life is. It turned me from someone solely motivated by self to someone activated to better the lives of others. And I have seen hundreds if not thousands of other lives impossibly changed by its words. No other text has this power. And so from the bottom of my heart I believe we have the very words of God at our fingertips, and yet we spend time discussing if it is an important book instead of picking it up and finding out how it changes us for ourselves!

Answer 5

2 Tim. 3:16-17 says, "All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; 17 that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work." Paul who wrote this epistle was obviously referring to the entirety of the Old Testament as being inspired. The word "inspired" is literally "God breathed." This is an interesting phrase since it implies that the Scriptures are from the mouth of God. Likewise, Peter says in 2 Pet. 1:21, "for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God." Notice that Peter is stating that prophecy is not the product of human will. Instead, prophecy occurs by those moved by the Holy Spirit.
Furthermore, we can easily see that the Old Testament Scriptures are full of statements and phrases claiming to be the Word of God.

Is true that there are difficulties with in the Word of God. But these are due to copying errors through the centuries. As more and more historical, archaeological, and manuscript evidence is uncovered, the fewer Bible difficulties there are. Nevertheless, for an examination of answers to the alleged Bible contradictions, please see

http://www.carm.org/bible_difficulties.htm

I also believe that the most important step to being able to understand the Bible. is to know GOD The Bible is written to HIS people so if you have not trusted the LORD, you can not fully understand it.

Answer 6

Yes you are missing something.
The original unadulterated bible is the written History of the world and its relationship to the Creator.Handed down by oral traditions from the beginning of life and the words of the Creator.Until some type of alphabet was invented and a means of writing them down for all to read.
The first part of Genesis deals with the whole world and its creation. then abruptly moves to the creation of the First of the Tribe we call Israelites. who met other tribes outside of the Garden when they were escorted out for sin and meet these other tribes. It doesn't say who these other tribes were or how long they had been around before then.Then continues to dwell on the middle East Countries. Until Jesus is born and then crucified . the Gentiles( those of non-Jewish heritage) are to keep the words and deeds of the Christ true and pure . Until the Jewish people reconsises Jesus as the true Promised Messiah.

Answer 7

As with anything we look at it for what it is, until something better comes along.

NO ONE sees Einstein's or any scientists original notes or scribbling on their theories, we see the PC re-workings designed for the masses.

Certainly sciencts might get some benefit out of seeing ALL of EINSTEIN's work, un censored, but we don't.

That's private.

We see what we were allowed to see.

There are copies of the "lost books" and "Banned books" of the Bible out there and I've attempted tor read some and quickly I start to see why they weren't included.

The "stories" we are told in School about the Mayflower or Constitution or American Revolution are often PC dribble.

I've read some letters and journals written by Medical Doctors who served with George Washington at Valley Forge and some of what they write is illeterate and disgusting!

I never learned any of that in high school!

Does that invalidate a high school education on the formation of the United States?

How about they way we are taught "bill" goes through congress in school.

Reality is so different.

People who were IN VIETNAM or IRAQ are going to be horrified when they see what their grand kids read in a high school history text on the subject.

It's going to be a black and white difference.

And IF you tell them how it REALLY was and they WRITE about it for school, they will get an F because the Schools want them to write about what was TAUGHT, not about what was TRUE!

That is why the American Education system is failing students!

This is reality. The Bible is written in ANCIENT GREEK, ANCIENT HEBREW, ANCIENT ARABIC

NO ONE speaks or fully understands any of this, because NO ONE has used those languages in over 1,000 years!

I did a "fer example" once for a Y/A A girl from the late 1960's writing in her journal

"We saw the Dead at Winterland Friday night and it was bitchen!"

Now, in 2,000 years what will this mean?!

Anyone know who or what the Dead is?

Anyone know who or what or where Winterland is?

Define the word "bitchen!"

The Dead is the Grateful Dead, a rock band, Winterland is a medium size concert venue (converted from a skating rink) run by Bill Graham in Northern California.

So she saw this rock band at a club called Winteland and she was in awe over it.

But who can translate her sentence in 2,000 years accurately!

There will be all sorts of conjecture as to what the "Dead" was.

Winterland might be defined as some theme park with snow.

Now, with all that, what will the translation look like!

Bitchen, they may find the root bit ch which means female dog.

Now how are they going to translate that sentence!

Answer 8

First hire a translator, then get some preliminary attempting out achieved to authenticate them, then sell them to a museum or some thing alongside those lines. they had have historic fee, in that they've been written centuries in the past and help us understand the way our ancestors lived and what they believed. i would not evaluate them divine in any way, which reflects my thoughts in the direction of the bible. Why might I supply them to the government? so as that they might use them as a political device? comparable is going for the church. and that i might go away it as much as a historian to placed up articles related to the scrolls.

Answer 9

I have had this discussion for over twenty years. If an individual chooses to believe in a Creator or not is reflective of how they will take information provided to them. You are correct with most of your statements, but do you know why? This is very important for you to find out the truth for yourself. There's much more to learn. The collection of writings that "Christians" refer to as the Holy Bible comes out of the the Jewish "Bible" or Torah. (I use quotes for "Christian" to denote its' origin as a derogatory word for the People of The Way) The first five "books" in the collection are claimed by the Jewish community, however the Zaburah (Book of Psalms) and Engel are claimed by the "Christian" denominations such as Baptist, Methodist, Catholic, Coptic, etc. In short the words of G-d were pure and perfect prior to mans manipulation. Yes, many of the teachings contained in the "Bible" are from G-d, but not the words we read. G-d spoke to the people in their language, thus the words were copied and recorded in their language. The Torah was given to Bini Israel (the Children of Israel) as a guide for behavior, dress code, business dealings, and rule of law. The original language that these "books" were written in was Aramaic (Hebrew was the same at that time.) Neither Aramaic nor Hebrew exist in the same manner today as they did 2,000 years ago. In fact, when we look back to phonetic translations of many phrases in the English translation of the Bible, we find thousands of errors in the contextual frame work of the verses. This is how scholars were able to validate some of the changes and edits from various versions of the Christian Bible (not including the verses thrown out by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese, but let's not forget the Catholic Bible which has 7 more books than the Protestant Bible (King James version, 66 books). There are significant differences when we look at one translation from the next and the changes continue to occur even as I write this statement. Compare any Bible from the early 1960's to any other published ten years later and you will see a shift in context primarily in what Christian scholars refer to as the "New Testament." You are correct in noting that the Bible was written by men, but these were men with agenda's and protocol. Many were prophets designated by G-d, thus they had to follow protocol. The translators who followed misguidance by Kings and priests are the individuals you may be referring to with regard to "written by men". There were at least 40 different translators/editors over several centuries who have worked on the King James (Protestant) translations including Shakespeare. Look at some of the links I've included. If anyone wants to ask more questions send them to [e-mail]

Answer 10

There is alot missing in the bible like the doctines of Assumption of Mary, Using beads in prayers, Purgatory, Praying to God trough Mary, Mary as Co-mediator, Pope as being infallable, Pope as comforter, Rosary, Waffer as body of Christ, Confession to a Priest, Someone will pray for us in heaven, Mary as Mother of God, Trinity God (God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit), Incarnation,Apostolic succession, Eucarist, etc. Search in vain, You can not find these "GARBAGE" in the Holy Bible.