How do you KNOW that the bible is factual?

Question

i admit, i'm a cynic (i also don't HAVE a religion... i do believe in god, but not in the bible or anything... and i don't go to church.), but i find it hard to believe all the stuff in the bible. How do you KNOW that some random guy didn't just randomely write a bunch of stuff down and call it "fact." what evidence is there for that?

personally, i think formal religion is a bunch of bull. just being honest. going to church every sunday doesn't make you moral, or a good person. if you truly BELIEVE in god or buddha or whatever, then that's great. but so many people just so up to mass and sleep, then go on about how fantastic they are because they attend church. come on people! if you're going to "believe," at least make an effort!

Answer 1

Because Jesus is historically most documented person in history and He confirmed the Old Testament, and promised the New Testament. : )

Answer 2

First of all,

We don't go to church to makes us moral or good. The whole reason for the church is to listen and meditate on God's word and listen to what He has to say. I do not believe it is bull, because I have felt God and seen miracles in situations. I do not need church to be good or go to heaven. I could just sit at home and read my Bible, but I go to church because it is where a group of God's children are gathered also, and when two gather in His name there He shall be also.... I do not say I am fantastic for going to church.... I think the exact opposite, I do not diserve to even be here, I should be in hell right now, yet God has chose to give me life and redemption. It has nothing to do with church, but a relationship with God....

How do you know that the Bible isn't true? You have already taken a bias position that all in the Bible can't be true, when all of the things in the Bible have historical proof, and many of the prophecies of Revalation are coming true.... Some random guy came along, and thought about what was going to happen in the future and wrote it down? Not to mention that they gathered different copies from all over the world and they all matched up perfectly..... Did they all make it up? Or did they all know the truth? Also the finding of the Dead Sea Scrolls....

There is a lot of evidence that suggests that the things in the Bible happened, and I'm sorry that you think formal religion is bull, because it just could help you....

Do not let people fool you with the Flood. It happened, if all of the water molecules underground joined together with the oceans, then it could flood the entire earth...

one evolutionist said

" If all of the molecules formed together it would devestate the earth and all that lived on it, in a Noah like manner..." He then goes on to say that he know it wouldn't happen? But it could that leaves the door open....

Answer 3

Well, there is a lot of evidence that shows us that the Bible is factual. The historical accuracy of the Bible was once widely doubted. Critics, for example, questioned the existence of such Bible characters as King Sargon of Assyria, Belshazzar of Babylon, and the Roman governor Pontius Pilate. But recent discoveries have verified one Bible account after another. Thus historian Moshe Pearlman wrote: "Suddenly, sceptics who had doubted the authenticity even of the historical parts of the Old Testament began to revise their views."

If we are to trust the Bible, it must also be accurate in matters of science. Is it? Not long ago scientists, in contradiction of the Bible, asserted that the universe had no beginning. However, astronomer Robert Jastrow recently pointed to newer information that refutes this, explaining: "Now we see how the astronomical evidence leads to a biblical view of the origin of the world. The details differ, but the essential elements in the astronomical and biblical accounts of Genesis are the same."—Genesis 1:1.

Men have also changed their views relative to the shape of the earth. "Voyages of discovery," explains The World Book Encyclopedia, "showed that the world was round, not flat as most people had believed." But the Bible was correct all along! More than 2,000 years before those voyages, the Bible said at Isaiah 40:22: "There is One who is dwelling above the circle of the earth," or as other translations say, "the globe of the earth" (Douay), "the round earth." (Moffatt)

The Bible foretold the overthrow of mighty Babylon nearly 200 years before it happened. In fact, the Medes, who became aligned with the Persians, were named as the conquerors. And although Cyrus, the Persian king, had not even been born as yet, the Bible foretold that he would be prominent in the conquest. It said that Babylon's protecting waters, the river Euphrates, "must be dried up," and that "the gates [of Babylon] will not be shut."—Jeremiah 50:38; Isaiah 13:17-19; 44:27-45:1.

These specific details were fulfilled, as the historian Herodotus reported. Further, the Bible foretold that Babylon would eventually become uninhabited ruins. And that is just what happened. Today Babylon is a desolate heap of mounds. (Isaiah 13:20-22; Jeremiah 51:37, 41-43) And the Bible is full of other prophecies that have had dramatic fulfillment.

These are just a few examples of the authenticity of the Bible - not to mention the Dead Sea scrolls that were found recently. A book written over a time period of over 1600 years, and preserved over a long time, and one that provides good counsel as to how to live our lives, cannot but be factual!!!

Answer 4

It is real simple we have so much proof that I will have to limit myself to just a few or this could be the longest post ever 1. archeology proves what the Bible says it is so accurate that archeologists use it to dig for ancient cities also the thousands of prophesies it contains were written centuries in advance and it named people , places and events and when where why and how things would happen with such detail that it has to be divinely inspired also the astronomy it uses is centuries in advance of when it was written and confirmed within the last century and medical advice 2,000 years ahead of its time and timeless moral and other values it has helped countless millions lead better lives and no random book could ever accompolish what the Bible has and no book has been tried to be destroyed by ignorant people and survived as has the Bible is that enough or do you require more best wishes gorbalizer

Answer 5

I only know that when I was a teen I wondered where all the stuff that happened in the Bible went. Why wasn't it happening today. I now live among people who live like the people in the New Testament and it is awesome. I am always amazed at what God can do. And how much Jesus loves me.

After 30 years of walking in the Holy Spirit I still cannot fathom half of the love that Jesus has for me.

It is so much beyond what I can ever have hoped for. He shows me more and more each day. I am so self-actualized and so full of life and so looking forward to a new day with the Lord.

Answer 6

There are a lot of evidences to prove the Bible is true. Unfortunately, it is a complex question and hard to explain in the context of Yahoo answers. Let me recommend a book by a man who was an agnostic who set out to prove the Bible was false. As he studied the scriptures he became convinced that the Scriptures were true. The book is called "Evidence that Demands a Verdict." by Josh McDowell. I wish you well as you search for the answer.

Answer 7

The "Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation" (Vat. 11, Ch. 3.11) of the Catholic Church says that "all that the inspired, or sacred writers, affirm should be regarded as affirmed by the Holy Spirit, we must acknowledge that the books of Scripture firmly, and without error, teach that truth which God, for the sake of our salvation, wished to be confided to the sacred Scriptures." This is the Church's teaching on the matter after twenty centuries of Christian discernment.

Biblical inerrancy, then, is the Bible's privilege of never teaching error. Does this mean that every statement in the Bible is divine teaching? Of course not. The Bible does not always teach. There are many statements in its various books that are there for historical, geographical, poetic or other reasons. However, whenever a biblical author intends to teach us something, then the Holy Spirit intends that too. Everything that the Bible teaches is without error, but everything in the Bible is not meant as teaching. Each author was left free by the Lord to express himself according to the ideas of his own day. It is the revelation contained in the Scriptures that is important.

There are many accounts in the Bible, which employ a literary device used by Jewish Old and New Testament writers called Midrash. Midrash is the substantive of the Hebrew word darash which means to search, to investigate, to study and, also, to expound on the fruits of the research. The aim of Midrash is to draw from Scripture a lesson for the present.

Midrash could also be defined as a "reflection on Scripture in the light of the actual situation of God's people and of the developments of God's action on its history. It proposes to explain the meaning of Scripture in the light of the later historical experience of God's people. This kind of interpretation often opened the door to embellishments of the sacred accounts, anachronisms, and a freedom in handling and maneuvering the data of tradition that were at times a little too candid and certainly very imaginative."

A good example is the Midrashic story of Noah and the flood. It is the divine message, which is important, (God saves his children from evil) not the literal account of the story.

Peace!

Answer 8

We don't, just like we don't know whether most religious or spiritual texts are factual.
It all comes down to a matter of faith. I believe the Bible, and in fact all religious/spiritual texts have truth contained within them, but I find it hard to believe with all the varying faiths out there that any one of them contains the whole truth.
That's why I left the Church and went looking for my own spirituality, which led me to Esotericism.

Answer 9

hehe im like you sort of, I believe in a god or higher meaning to life. The only reason why the bible is real is people make it real...they have faith in it, for whatever reason, either they were indoctrincated or they honestly and spiritually within themeslves know it to be true. This goes without saying for all religions/faiths/philosophies....

Answer 10

That's the thing.Besides some history They don't know if some guy just wrote down stuff he thought would fit. I think people should explore christianity with an open mind not with a "god warrior" mentality that so many fundamentalists seem to get after being christian.

Answer 11

A lot of the Bible has basis in fact (with a lot of political spin). There are some people who would argue that one fact correct proves the whole.