Is the Bible the word of God?

Question

Or, is it what it depicts itself to be; A history (actually a genealogy) of People who were inspired by God, not inspired by God, and sometimes simply people doing what they thought God wanted them to do?

(A loaded question, I admit. But please tell me, specifically, how you disagree with the above statement.)

Dear "lookn" - I love you. You are the most enthusiastic person I have (met?) lately. When I was in Viet Nam, I would have loved to have had you on my team, as my deputy Commander, or maybe as my Commander. - "Gung Ho"

Answer 1

Can I Really Trust the Bible?


1. Its Honesty and Accuracy.

The Bible teaches some hard truths in relation to mankind and sin. It speaks of human depravity and human wickedness, and is not ashamed to give the details. The Bible is very different from all other religious books...it doesn't prescribe a set of rituals to get a person to heaven...it reveals Jesus Christ!


The Bible expressly teaches that man is totally inadequate and incapable of saving himself or making himself good. The Bible teaches that even our good works are as "filthy rags" to God. This could not have been written by someone wanting an easy, comfortable religion--Christianity is a total surrender to Christ. The Bible says that one must lay down everything--every sinful habit, every future dream, every human effort--and give it over to the control of Jesus Christ.

The Bible also makes many predictions about the future, and none has yet to be proven false. In the crucifixion/resurrection of Christ alone, over 30 prophecies were fulfilled from parts of the Bible written hundreds of years before the event.

2. Its Preservation and Survival

The Bible has been preserved for centuries. This comes despite the fact that it has been hated, banned, burned, despised, and outlawed more than any other book in the history of the world. Governments and dictators have sought to destroy it and all who follow its teachings. Persecution against Christians has been severe, and still is today in many areas of the world. Yet God's Word stands. Despite the many fakes and counterfeits, the truth remains. God has preserved His Book for mankind. From the fall of Rome to the Reformation, monks spent their lives hand-copying the Bible--and when the manuscripts are compared to older ones, there is no difference. Thousands of years have passed, yet God has kept His treasure safe. No other book been more widely printed, distributed, and translated.

3. Its Claims for Itself

If the writers of the Bible had claimed to be speaking for themselves, and not for God, then we would know the Bible was just another man-made invention. But the authors, on many occasions, claimed that they were writing the Words of God himself. 2 Peter 1:20-21 explains: "Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet's own interpretation. For 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 Timothy 3:16 declares: "All Scripture is God-breathed…" If the Bible did not claim this, it would certainly not have formed the foundation of belief for hundreds of millions throughout history! Since it declares that it alone is the Word of God, the Bible cannot be "just a good book" or "just a nice piece of literature." Either it is a fake, lying about itself, or it is the true Word of the Creator. Read it for yourself to decide!

4. Its Miracles

The Bible is proven by its miracles. If the parting of the Red Sea, or healings of Jesus, or the resurrection of Christ from the dead are untrue, then the Bible has no authority to speak on behalf of God. The miracles served as validation of its authenticity. These were miracles that could have been disproved very easily by the other people who lived during ancient times...but they were never able to do that. The miracles presented in the Bible are factual. As science has progressed and archeology has advanced, more and more Bible "stories" are being unearthed as we discover things for the first time that the Bible has said all along.

The apostle Paul admits that if the resurrection of Christ had no occurred, then the Christian faith would be a total lie. (1 Corinthians 15) Many of the men and women who traveled with Jesus died because of their belief that His message was real. They saw it with their own eyes, and they were willing to suffer and be killed because of their belief in what they saw Jesus do. Would they have willingly died for something they knew was a lie?

5. Its Unity

Over 1600 years, forty different men wrote the 66 books of the Bible. However, from beginning to end, the Bible is consistent in its message and its view of God. Although there were many human writers, there was only One Author. God inspired the Bible and has written it for the express purpose of showing human beings their own lost condition, and His remedy in Jesus Christ. The Bible is not fraught with contradictions as so many believe. Read for yourself.

6. Its Power to Change Lives

The Bible claims to be "living and active." Those who read and obey its words understand the this truth. The Bible speaks directly to every area of life. It has never become out-dated. It shows men and women the way out of their sins and the way to worship and obey God. The Bible has in it the secrets of life and purpose. From the 10 Commandments to the Psalms to the prophecy of Revelation, the Bible can and does change lives.

If you lack faith in the Bible, the best thing to do is start reading it. Ask God to show you the truth. Start reading in the New Testament. Let God talk to you through His Word--the Bible!

EDIT:

That's sweet, UncleWayne..lol "Gung HO" Yup, sounds like me ;-)

Answer 2

No, it's the word of human men over different periods of time trying to tell a similar story based on some mythology. There are a lot of contradictions and inconsistencies, many of them historical inaccuracies. King Herod's slaughter of children at the time of Christ's birth never happened, there were never any Jews enslaved or escaping from Egypt, "Jesus of Nazareth" is especially a peculiarity considering that Nazareth didn't exist until several hundred years after Jesus was supposed to have lived.

Some notable differences also include the virgin birth stories... The first new testament gospel writers (Paul and Mark) both state clearly that Joseph was the father (indeed Jesus's actual name was "Yeshua ben Yoseph (Jesus son of Joseph), "christ" came from the latin word "christo" which means "messiah") and both writers express some concern about this. Luke and Mathew however actively tried to make the Jesus story fit with the prophecies in the Old Testament so they say it was a virgin birth. That's also why those two writers try to make it fit with the Old Testament while Mark and Paul don't.

Ultimately the bible is a collection of stories and mythologies that contradict each other on some fundamental levels and are far too inconsistent to be considered any kind of coherent word - let alone the word of some deity.

Answer 3

This could take more than yahoo for me to explain. I'll start with the fact that where it says word it should actually say plan. It is the Greek word logos meaning "something said including the thoughts" by implication "a topic or subject of discourse" also "reasoning with the mental faculties and motive" It is translated from the Hebrew word dabar which means the revealed will of YHWH, the plan and purpose for mankind. This according to Thayers Lexicon and The Interpreters Dictionary of The Bible. Proper names included it would be in the book of Yahchanan ben Zabdyah (those names actually have meaning unlike john) chapter 1 verses 1-4 In the beggining was the plan of Yahweh, and the plan was with Yahweh, and the plan was Yahweh's. The same was in the beggining with Yahweh. All things were done according to it and without it nothing was done that was done. In this plan was life and that life was the light to mankind. Also, properly put verse 14 says "According to this plan flesh was created; and dwelling among us, and we beholding his glory the glory of the begotten son of the only Father, full of honor and truth. edit: Where Terry says Collossians 1:16 the word through is actually to say "on account of him" As to his rant about Revelations 3:14, yes it says first. What he didn't tell you is that many sources say that the word perfected is left out. So it properly says ..."the first perfected of Yahweh.", which means he was the first man to be perfect, not he wass there in the beggining with Yahweh and His plan.

Answer 4

Actually I do believe that the Bible is the word of God as interpreted by human beings.

If the Bible were the cross-every-"t"-dot-every-"i", word of God I'd think that God would have just written it, like the ten commandments. But that wasn't the case.

I believe that the Bible was written by people trying honestly to write a history of God. And in doing that they also wrote a history of human thought and culture and as a consequence some of what is written has more to do with what the people who wrote it believed to be holy or important. After all they may have actually believed that what they believed was right just HAD to be what God believed to be right.

For example rules about women who were menstruating being unclean. To us this seems ridiculous, so its hard to understand why it would be something that God mandated. But to the people of this time it was probably just common sense, so it seemed perfectly fine to put it in a religious text.

It's finding things like this, as well as other things that makes me believe that while those who wrote the Bible were inspired by God and wrote a lot of what God wanted us to know, they also wrote what were there own beliefs and ideals and not God's at all.

Answer 5

This is a matter of opinion. If you are a christian then the Bible is the strict word of God. If you are a scientist it is nothing more then a fanciful myth with some historical facts. I am Wicca i believe the Bible to be only partially true. I have noticed a few contradictions and studied it with to different mind frames, the literal mind and the metaphorical mind. If one takes the Bible literally they may end up becoming atheist as the Bible is not a literal book. But even metaphorically I could not believe it to be the word of God.

Answer 6

It is the word of God. There is no way something written by men could have so many writers over so many centuries and never contradict itself. If you write a story in a round table. You write the begining and then pass it to the next person and they take what you have and add on to it, then pass it on, no way the story goes the way you had planned, unless there is one person telling everyone what to write. No person lived all those years and helped the story a long and yet the bible is cohesive and acurate from begining to end. The story of Jesus begins in Genesis and ends in Revelations. He is prophesised and promised from the begining, He arrives, He is murdered, He rises from the dead, all in fullfillment of prophesy. There is prophesy in Daniel that complements prophesy in Revelations. It is too well written to be man made. So therefore in my belief it is God inspired.

Here is a secular example to further illustrate my point. JK Rowling is the single author of 6 (7 is coming soon) books. She began the entire series with a plan, she knew where the stories were going before it was written, but there are errors in her books. People are online pointing them out all day. No person is perfect and can remember every detail, every word ever written, and there are people out there delighting in finding fault. But no one has ever found inaccuracy in the bible. They may believe it fanciful, but there is no place where it says something one place and discounts it later.

So I believe that makes it super human. Something above our ability. So it must be done by someone greater than us, therefore God. And if I believe God is powerful enough to create the world, flood it, spread the people throughout the entire globe, confuse the languages, etc... Then I could not possibly believe He would have trouble keeping His Word true.

Hope this is what you were looking for. Thanks for the question.

Answer 7

The Bible is God's Word to us.
It was written by human authors, under the supernatural guidance of the Holy Spirit.

Above all you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet's own interpretation. For 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 1:20-21. (New International Version)

Breakdown of the Bible
36 human authors inspired entirely by God over 1600 years.
66 separate books
39 Old Testament
Genesis- The creation of the world, sin, flood and birth of Israel
Exodus to Esther- History of the nation of Israel
Job to Proverbs- the books of poetry and wisdom
Isaiah to Malachi- Prophecy or foretelling of the future events to come.
27 New Testament
Matthew to John - Four Gospels representing the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ now with all authority in Heaven and earth.
Acts- Birth of the Church (The Bride of Christ)
Romans to Jude - Letters to the Churches
Revelations - The ultimate future plans for: The Church, Heaven, Hell, a New Heaven and a New Earth.

Here are some Bible Study Resources for anything you may want to look up:

Biblegateway.com
Ntgateway.com
Bible.org
Bible-history.com

Answer 8

God inspired the Bible through forty writers.
Inspiration doesn't mean the biblical writer just felt enthusiastic, like the composer of "The Star-Spangled Banner." Nor does it mean the writings are necessarily inspiring to read, like an uplifting poem. The biblical Greek worked for inspiration literally means "God-breathed." Because God breathes out Scripture - because it originates from Him - it is true and inerrant.
Biblical inspiration may be defined as God's superintending of the human authors so that, using their own individual personalities - and even their writing styles - they composed and recorded without error His revelation to humankind in the words of the original autographs. In other words, the original documents of the their own personalities and literary talents, wrote under the control and guidance of the Holy Spirit, the result being a perfect and errorless recording of the exact message God desired to give to man.
Hence, the writers of Scripture were not mere writing machines. God did not use them like keys on a typewriter to mechanically reproduce His message. Nor did He dictate the words, page by page. The biblical evidence makes it clear that each writer had a style of his own. (Isaiah had a powerful literary style; Jeremiah had a mournful tone; Luke's style had medical overtones; and John was very simple in his approach.) The Holy Spirit infallibly worked through each of these writers, through their individual styles, to in errantly communicate His message to humankind.

Answer 9

In Christian thought, the majority of people believe the bible to be a collection of inspired books. I heard one person say, that they must be inspired, if God is a righteous judge of his people.

Answer 10

No the bible is not. it has been changed over the years, many things have been omitted and included by various men. this is stated in history.
of course, this is known to me through my readings ...
In fact, based on many historians and religious professors, there were once 4 books transcended by god and through his "messengers" be it abraham or jesus or mohammed... these books were transcended in this order 1) zabur 2) torah 3) bible ( injeel) and den lastly 4) koran. each newer version of the text containing the word of god is a revised version , only being brought down to earth to help mankind.

no idealogies intended there . but...
what u need to do is to not only read the bible but read texts, articles and facts about other books of other religions and see where it will lead u .

Answer 11

well, try this on for size:

God created everything, so everything is a product of God, including words.

So the bible is the word of God.
This is the word of God.
Your question is the word of God.

Or, you can see the book as one organization's attempt at explaining the truth.

But p.s. that group makes a special claim to say that theirs is the only, real, authentic, true word of God.

I mean, if coca-cola told you theirs was the only true soft drink, wouldn't you at least want to try out pepsi?