I believe the bible to be mosty accurate. Some things in it I believe that man added. For instance Noah bring two animals on a boat and those animals populated the whole animal kindom? Hard to believe. Also people in the old testement living to be almost a 1000 years old. Impossible. They have never even found a skeleton from old testement times that would suggest that anyone lived even two hundred years. The story of Jonah being swallowed by a fish and living it for three days before being spit out and living. People have to stop being puppets and use common sense. If the bible had almost anything in it many people would just almost always say it is true no matter how unreal it seems.
2007-04-01 09:44:14 · 19 answers · asked by Joe B 1 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
So, who in your mind, is qualified to decide what is true and what isn't? If it is us, then we become the arbiters of truth instead of God.
If you don't believe the story of Jonah to be true, then you should look at what Jesus thought of it. He said, "For just as Jonah was in the stomach of the sea creature for three days and three nights, so the Son of Man will be in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights." (Matthew 12:40)
Now, either Jesus thought the story to be true, or Matthew conspired with an Old Testament writer to perpetuate the lie. This is unlikely.
2007-04-01 09:48:54 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 3⤊ 1⤋
The Bible was written by many people over the course of hundreds of years. It was only recently (the past 200 years) that people insisted on the literal truth of the Old Testament rather than understanding its theological truth.
You must understand that not all of it was ever intended to be "literal." Noah is an extended parable about the consequences of sin and God's desire to rebuild the world in holiness and to forgive. When the Old Testament speaks about people living 1000 years the authors are using a common literary devise of the time. To say that some one lived 1000 years was the way of giving honor to an important person. This form of honorific was used in many Mideastern texts of the time, not only just the Old Testament. Jonah is a parable about God's desire to reach all people. Jonah has to go to Nineveh -- the capital of the enemy -- to preach for God. He is swallowed by the whale when he resists the call of God to reach out to the stranger and enemy. It is a great story -- not because it is literal -- but because it teaches that God loves all of humanity and calls us to share his love more broadly.
Listen for the truth that is in Scripture.
God bless
2007-04-01 17:05:02 · answer #2 · answered by Mr Wisdom 4 · 1⤊ 1⤋
Making the assumption, as the Bible puts forth, that God created the earth, is all powerful and all knowing, why do you put Him in a box by saying he can't bring two of each animal to Noah or sustain Noah in a fish for three days? I believe the Bible to be a literal and truthful book. I also believe in the one true God. My God is big enough to do all those things...is yours?
2007-04-01 16:54:07 · answer #3 · answered by ramcguir_98 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Lets say, for the sake of argument, you are correct. Does it change the overall lesson the book is trying to get across? I believe the book is part allegory, part historical fact, part symbolism. The art is to be able to distinguish which is which and to derive the overall purpose from each. Does it really make a difference where Cain's wife came from? Not to me. Does it make a difference if the were only two or seven of each animal on the ark. Not to me. Those things are not as important as the issue of the lesson being related.
2007-04-01 16:56:50 · answer #4 · answered by rico3151 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Informational Books:
The Case for Christ by Lee Strobel
The Case For Easter by Lee Strobel
Messiah by Grant Jeffery
Evidence For the Defense by Josh MacDowell
2007-04-01 17:05:52 · answer #5 · answered by Stormchaser 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Uh...I hate to burst your bubble, but 100% of the Bible was written by the mortal hands of man...maybe even some women...possibly even a kid or two.
The Bible is like a greatest hits collection of various writers gathered together over the course of about 300 years. People who claim the Bible is the word of God are really saying that they believe God directly communicated His/Her/Its message to the human authors of the Bible, not that God grabbed a pencil and jotted down his most important ideas.
By the way, does God's pencil have an eraser?
Anyway, the Bible, like ALL religious texts is nothing more than a human attempt to explain or understand the divine. The people who collectively wrote EVERY WORD of the Bible ate food, slept, snored, coughed, sneezed, cursed, bled, had sex, spit when they talked, sweated, smelled bad, farted, scratched themselves, and never flossed their teeth...just like the rest of us.
Well, I actually have flossed my teeth more than a few times...how about you?
Good Luck!
;o)
2007-04-01 16:56:52 · answer #6 · answered by tahunajcw 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Don't you believe that with God all things are possible? And by the way Noah took 2 of the unclean and 7 of the clean animals onto the Ark.A lot of people who trust in man to read their Bible for them don't know this.If you would start prayerfully reading it for yourself you might see it in a different way.If you had read this story of Noah for yourself you would have known that already.Hope you find peace with all of this.
2007-04-01 16:53:01 · answer #7 · answered by don_steele54 6 · 3⤊ 0⤋
Ever heard of a folk tale? Usually, they are strange stories, often exaggerated, that give a moral. That's what the stories in the bible try to do: give a moral. Yes, some of them are quite outlandish, but that's why we have common sense. We need to separate the cream from the whey.
2007-04-01 16:57:42 · answer #8 · answered by tahirih.luvs2sew 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Come now. If you believe some of it you must believe it all. God creating everything is alot to swallow (for some) why can't you believe it? Joshua telling the sun to stop in its course for the space of about a whole day is believable to me.
The bible tells us to be as little children. To God we are little children. Is anything too hard for God? Is anything too hard for God? Is anything too hard for God? No.
Believing Gods book completely doesn't make me a puppet and I have plenty of sense. His ways are higher than our ways. We can't understand it all yet but God doesn't expect us to. He wants us to trust Him and obey Him. And love Him.
2007-04-01 16:55:49 · answer #9 · answered by Jimguyy 5 · 2⤊ 0⤋
All the bible scriptures were made by man,
but inspired by God. Although there is 50/50, there is part that was taken onto the canon by guidance of God and the other part was just revealed to specific people.
2007-04-01 16:51:57 · answer #10 · answered by Cranberrydude 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋