Is this statement true: "Either the Scriptures are right or they are wrong"?

Question

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Please explain your reasoning.

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Doesn't this statement exclude a reasonable middle ground?

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Answer 1

A story can be historically or grammatically wrong and still have meaning. The movie _The Bridge on the River Kwai_ doesn't accurately represent events that took place in the country formerly known as Burma during World War II, but that doesn't mean that the story cannot inspire or teach. _Jonathan Livingston Seagull_ is not a true story, but that doesn't mean that it has no value. The either/or statement is only true for those who stubbornly insist that their scriptures must be 100% accurate in every way and must be taken literally. Not all people accept that their scriptures are the inspired Word of their God and must be "all correct" or "all wrong."

Answer 2

"Law of the excluded middle" - a proposition is either true or false.

1. But that's ONE proposition, if you have a whole load of propositions they each could be true or false. Given, say, 25 propositions that gives 33,554,432 possibilities which can't really be summed up by "either true or false"

2. Identifying the actual proposition can be problematical. When Jesus says there was a man on the road....does He mean a specific man, is He referring to a specific historical event or is it a hypothetical? If I said "our desire for each other was so great we scorched the sheets" am I making a false statement or a poetic expression of our luuuurve (its ok - I'm married!). Similarly is "I shall make you fishers of men" true because the apostles go on to bring people to the cause or false because they don't use nets to do it?

3. Descriptive statements often do not obey the law of the excluded middle. "The world is round" is not, strictly, true as it is fatter along the equator. But the approximation is near enough for most purposes.

4. This may, naturally, be prompted by people quoting those verses that state that the Bible is true. But this has little relevance. Consider:

a. Kansas is a state of the USA
b. Cats are felines
c. All these statements are true

These are all true and so "c" is true. Now consider:

a. Kansas is a state of the USA
b. Cats are canines
c. All of these statements are true

b is clearly false. This means c is also false. But has Kansas suddenly ceded from the Union? No, this remains true. Those verses that appear to claim universal veracity for the Bible (and THAT requires some serious "interpretation" to sustain) can be incorrect without invalidating anything else in the Bible.

Answer 3

While I personally believe the Scriptures to be "right," the statement is much too exclusive. There could be some truth (as in the many historical facts in the book of Acts) while the resurrection might be false. therefore some are right and some are wrong. I personally believe all of it to be true, but that's what I have logically concluded having looked at the evidence and the alternatives.

Answer 4

Yes though some arent based on right or wrong - many of the teachings of Jesus are 'right' in that it would be good to follow them (I wish more Christians did) but wrong in the sense that Jesus may never have even existed - and if he did I don't believe there was anything supernatural about him.

The statement is true in the broader sense because reality is not based on faith or beliefs - it is objective and empirical in nature. Humanity has the potential to know all that is physically knowable, one day we will outgrow all religion.

Answer 5

Yes they are right.

As Christians what we believe are the truth claims of God that are in the Holy Bible. We believe that the Holy Bible was written by men and authored by God. The fact that the Holy Bible was written by men is a provable fact and is verified with one or more of our physical senses. Since God is Spirit and not a tangible reality to our physical senses, what is the proof that God authored what men wrote?

It is our faith that brings the intangible into the tangible for us. Our faith is the evidence to our senses that claims for us what we really believe to be true. Our faith comes into existence when we make a stand in our minds on what we truly believe. Since what we believe are the truth claims and promises from God that are written in the Holy Bible these are what we stand on and stand up for in our life. It is when we do this that our belief is transformed into faith.

When we choose to accept what we believe and act on it we find the result either verifies that what we believe is true or not. This verification of truth is always on the back end and not on the front end. If it were on the front end then "faith" would not be the bridge that brings the "for now" intangible spirit side of life into the tangible physical side of life. We now know that we are able to verify that the truths of God that are written in the Holy Bible are true and we can know that they are from God because they are not only true, they are consistently true. This means that even though the Holy Bible was written by approximately 40 men it was authored by God. This is how our "faith" is the evidence, the proof, the substance and the thing that tells the world what we really believe and is verification that God Almighty is real and the Living God.

Answer 6

If you want black and white...little in the world is right.

There are errors in the Scriptures, but that does not change the value of what Jesus taught (truth or story...it also does not matter).

The truth is the truth - good teachings is good teachings - it does not matter that it has been twisted, mistranlated, errored, or any/all of the above. It could be complete fiction...it still does not dimish the teachings - love thy neighbor as thyself.

Simple and profound.

Whether they whole of scripture is right or wrong is beside the point.

~ Eric Putkonen

Answer 7

Scriptures are always a matter of analysis and interpretation. We live in a changing world. Either we adapt or we die. Indeed, some stuff is as true today as it was thousand of years ago (as in Thou Shalt Not Kill), other stuff should be more flexible as everything else evolves (indeed, to take one example in another field, laws applying to the maintenance of chariots or horses and buggies would be a bit out of place in this space age).

Answer 8

If I was a witness to a crime that was going to determine the fate of your entire family, would there be any middle ground for the truth? Would it b ok if I left things out, exagerrated, or flat out lied? Didnt think so.

Either God has shared the truth with us or the Bible is the greatest decieving lie ever and Jesus and the apostles pulled off THEE greatest hoax in history at the cost of their lives.

Answer 9

Yes it is true, but the real problem is that even though the Scriptures are right, various people's interpretations of them may be right or wrong, and they are more often wrong, as demonstrated that one passage may have a dozen different interpretations, only one of which can be right.

Answer 10

I don't think the statement is true. I think some of the quotes from Jesus were true, simply misunderstood. I also think much of the scriptures were written by men of the time and reflect their attitudes, not God's.