Is the Bible human-proof? Why follow text instead of your heart?

Question

Ever since I can remember, I've tried using reason before making decisions.

Well now, If I remember correctly, there's a part in the bible warning against changing any part of this 'word of God'. Can we really trust that through all the ages the bible has gone through, that all its messages are still 100% intact?

I think: How old is the bible? How many people has the bible gone through? How many generations and governments... How many translations.. How many additions have been made?

Unfortunately I answer my question with a 'No'. My reasoning is that we, as humans, have free will. We as humans are also far from perfect, and unfortunately often corrupt, especially those of us with power.

Truly ask yourself these questions.

The bible, in my honest opinion, would be better off replaced with a simple phrase; Do no harm. =)

Now... if everybody would follow this simple phrase, wouldn't the world be a better place?

Answer 1

The Bible even if it has been changed through out time
still holds enough information in it to save your soul

Answer 2

The Bible has seen many changes over the years. Since the Old Testament is originally in Hebrew and is the book for Judaism, Christians are scrutinized by Jews for even using it. The New Testament is origially in Greek with the exception of Matthew which was written Hebrew. Matthew wrote it in Hebrew because that was the language that the priests used in those days and he saw it as an addition the the Jewish faith.

Now over the years with the scrolls that were used to keep the message alive you have to think that the scribes who were writing them over and over would make certain mistakes with the letters so that when people read them they got a different message from the original script. Even when the Old and New Testaments were translated into English there were certain parts that were translated different ways and the scholars of the day would vote on what was the best translation. When King James I authorized the translation of the Bible to be in his name he even changed some of the things that were in it.

Now almost 400 years since King James there have been many more different versions of the Bible. All of them have a lot in common and also a lot of differences. Thus, the original message is not in tact.

Now to understand a faith issue here. People believe that every word was given to the writer by God himself to be written down. This leaves certain questions itself to the fact that how come they are being the ones that get the connection to talk to God? In the understanding through what we read in the Bible it tells us that every believer has the connection to talk to God. So does that mean that we can be inspired to write another book to go in the Bible? There are too many questions that arive in this issue.

Another issue is that how do we know the birth story of Jesus. None of the New Testament writers were present at his birth so why is it included. This goes back to the word inspired by God issue. Another thing is that Moses is accredited to writing the first 5 books of the bible. If this is true why are there verses that tell of him going off to die if he wrote them. Another faith issue.

You see that there are faith issues within the Bible. You either believe that the stories are true or you don't. To me the Bible is a great source of history of mankind throughout the middle east and Africa. I have taken both Greek and Hebrew and find it amusing when I translate something myself on how much the English version is different.

Now to the free will idea. The sense of free will comes from predestination. There are two types of predestination. The first type which is call single predestination is that God has chosen who will be saved and who will not. This type is just dumb because I thought that God wanted all of his creation to be saved and live with him forever according to the Bible. The second type is double predestination which is considered Free Will. This type states that God does choose but you get the final choice with free will. It becomes your choice to either accept it or not to accept it.

Answer 3

General info on the Bible

1. The Bible consists of 66 books: 39 in the OT and 27 in the new. The Bible took about 1600 years to write. It was written in three languages (Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek) by about 40 authors and is internally consistent throughout.

Reliability of the Bible

1. The Bible is 98½ percent textually pure. Through all the copying of the Biblical manuscripts of the entire Bible, only 1½% has any question about it. Nothing in all of the ancient writings of the entire world approaches the accuracy of the biblical documents.
2. The 1½ percent that is in question does not affect doctrine. The areas of interest are called variants and they consist mainly in variations of wording and spelling.
3. The NT has over 5000 supporting Greek manuscripts existing today with another 20,000 manuscripts in other languages. Some of the manuscript evidence dates to within 100 years of the original writing. There is less than a 1% textual variation in the NT manuscripts.
4. Some of the supporting manuscripts of the NT are:
1. John Rylands MS written around 130 A.D., the oldest existing fragment of the gospel of John
2. Bodmer Papyrus II (150-200 A.D.)
3. Chester Beatty Papyri (200 A.D.), contains major portions of the NT
4. Codex Vaticanus (325-350 A.D.), contains nearly all the Bible.
5. Codex Sinaiticus (350 A.D.), contains almost all the NT and over half of the OT


Jer 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?

Answer 4

How long have we had the "Golden Rule"? We certainly can't trust anyone to 'do unto me as he would have me to do unto him', [as a paraphrase]. So, we still have people who 'do harm', right? The world is not a better place yet. And the Bible has been shown in the last 50 years to be with the full meaning it has had for 6000 years, no interpretation changes for the original texts [you have heard of the Dead Sea Scrolls, have you not?] They were the original ones, and say the same things as the Bibles printed today.
You have answered your own question of 'follow your own heart' by saying people are often corrupt and far from perfect, but the Bible is so perfect that we really must follow it, not men [or women].

Answer 5

You can do what you want. You have free-will.
But Gods word is kept from corruption. You can see from the findings of the dead sea scrolls that the word has been the same for a thousand years. In Isaiah only one 3 letter word was the difference. Historians confirm the validity of correct history. So correct history and prophesy show how accurate this book is. I believe it to be true. Gods promises are always kept and loves us. Jesus gave us 2 commandments that all the other commandments hang on. Love God and Love thy neighbor. Very simple. God is the creator of the universe. Gods ways are above our ways and our wisdom doesnt supercede His. God is good. We are imperfect human beings. Put your hope in above, not in yourself. Your life is a short breath and then there is eternity. Look to the future of eternity, not just your moment of self righteousness. God bless you.

Answer 6

Can we really trust that through all the ages the bible has gone through, that all its messages are still 100% intact?

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

If you believe in God, you believe in his word.

Rev 19:13
And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God.

2 Chron 6:10
The LORD therefore hath performed his word that he hath spoken: for I am risen up in the room of David my father, and am set on the throne of Israel, as the LORD promised, and have built the house for the name of the LORD God of Israel.

God performs his word and honors it above his own name.

That simple phrase is a part all major religions today. The point of the Bible is that Jesus saved us and we are not here by random chance!

Answer 7

Instead of faith in God, I see you have great faith in humanity. Truly ask yourself these questions:

1) How reliable is the human heart? Aren't most of us rather fickle in our loves and convictions?

2) How many in human history have chosen to set aside moral standards like, "Do no harm, " when it suited their own selfish interests? Who among us hasn't disregarded the potential harm to others when we stood to gain?

The Bible, in my honest opinion, stands out as the oldest and most reliable source of moral standards and truth.

If everybody would follow its words, wouldn't the world be a better place?

Answer 8

God's Word is witnessed through the Holy Spirit, and is the power of God unto salvation.

Hebrews 4:12 (New International Version)
New International Version (NIV)
Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society



12For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.

Answer 9

The Bible is not about morality, or doing "no harm." It is about one's relationship with God and with their fellow man. It is about how our sin (not morality) separates us from God, and how Jesus Christ came to restore that relationship. As to following your heart, I think the Bible has that nailed pretty well:

"The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?" (Jeremiah 17:9)

As to how old the Bible is, that is a strawman argument. The Bible has been singularly attacked for centuries, and yet it remains. It is the multiplicity of the manuscript evidence that proves the Bible has not been changed throught the centuries. Any supposed discrepancies have been researched, and are well known and documented. The surprising thing is that none of these supposed discrepancies change anything the Bible teaches.

When the translators of the King James Bible wrote the Old Testament, the oldest available manuscript for them to use, was known as the Masoretic Text. This had been written in the 9th century A.D. It was this text that the translators based their work on the Old Testament. In 1947, a shepherd boy discovered some pottery in caves in the area called Qumran, near the Dead Sea. In these jars, he discovered scrolls, which archaeologists and Bible scholars have researched ever since. Every book of the Old Testament (except Esther) was discovered. Most of these scrolls are dated to 150 B.C. After comparing these Dead Sea Scrolls to the Masoretic Text, the scholars discovered an amazing degree of unanimity between the two, although they were written a thousand years apart. Further, the Septuagint (the Greek language translation of the Hebrew Bible) was also compared. With all of these references, there is plenty of evidence that no biblical doctrine has been tampered with.

Naturally, the next object of scrutiny is the New Testament. Yet, there is no larger ancient body of manuscript evidence in the history of mankind, than the papyri and parchment manuscripts of the New Testament. With over five thousand actual Greek manuscripts, and numerous other manuscripts in four other languages, there are about twenty-four thousand available manuscript texts for the New Testament.

Even if we didn't have these documents, we could almost have a complete New Testament from extra-biblical sources, such as ancient lectionaries, church fathers' records/sermons/writings, etc.

No other body of ancient work comes close. No one really disputes Julius Caesar's The Gallic Wars (10 manuscripts remain, with the earliest one dating to 1,000 years after the original autograph). No one really disputes Pliny the Younger's Natural History (7 manuscripts; 750 years elapsed). Or Thucydides' History (8 manuscripts; 1,300 years elapsed). No one disputes Herodotus' History (8 manuscripts; 1,350 years elapsed). No one really disputes Plato (7 manuscripts; 1,300 years elapsed). No one really disputes Tacitus' Annals (20 manuscripts; 1,000 years elapsed.) Homer's Iliad, the most renowned book of ancient Greece, is the second best-preserved literary work of all antiquity, with 643 copies of manuscript support discovered to date. In those copies, there are 764 disputed lines of text, as compared to 40 lines in all the New Testament manuscripts.

Answer 10

Yes, i also believe the bible has been through the hands of to many politicians. See www.stephen-knapps.com/articles_to_read for christianity and islams roots. Do not harm is a good rule to live by. I see it as the same commands jesus gave. Love God and love thy neighbor as thyself. The essence of our being is unconditional love.

Answer 11

I've asked the same question over a period of many years and have decided that it is not reliable. There are as many books that weren't included in the bible as there are books in the bible (Gospel of Mary, Thomas and Philip and the Apocalypse of Paul to name a few). The more I studied the Bible, the more mistakes and mistranslations I found. "DO KNOW HARM" pretty much says it all and is a major tenet of my belief system. Blessings to you.