What makes the Bible better than any other religious text, Christians?

Question

Please be specific...and admit it if you have no knowledge of other texts.

FYI, if you don't have a better answer than the first guy, please don't bother

Answer 1

Nothing is "Better than"
Nothing is "Worse than"

Answer 2

As an atheist I do feel the need to chime in a couple things...

1) Saying Jesus fulfilled the prophecies is silly. If the whole thing is fiction then the fact that a fictional character fulfilled fictional prophecies doesn't make it true! That's exactly the same thing as saying "Well the Matrix trilogy is real, because Neo fulfilled the prophecies of the first movie!" It's retarded and logically depraved.

2) The bible is inaccurate historically. It includes vague names and rough histories, omits a lot of important information and is sorely lacking in historical verisimilitude. Where it does give historical reference it's contradictory and flat out wrong. For example, it says that King Herod massacred a bunch of male children because he was afraid of Jesus - that never happened. It claims Caeser held a census - he never did. Sure there was a local census in Bethlehem instated by the governer Quirinius (or however it's spelled) only that wasn't instated until 6 AD - many years AFTER Herod's death. And then the different gospels have three different beginning stories. In Mark and John Jesus is criticized because he wasn't from Bethlehem, but Mark and Mathew tried to make him match the prophecies so they had him born in Bethlehem, but they have completely different stories in getting there.

And what were Jesus's last words? Each of the gospels has him saying something different as he dies.

3) Other books are more advanced scientifically. Muslims like to point to the Quran as it is more enlightened than the bible. However this isn't a surprise as the arabs were owned by the bizentine empire and such and they used the greek language and ideas until the 7th century... The Greeks were very advanced, and some of them were aware of evolution on some level, some guessed that the earth moved around the sun or that the earth spun around itself, and so on. Given all the years of advanced greek teachings, it makes sense that the Quran is more accurate - of course that doesn't mean it was divinely inspired, quite the opposite in fact. It was greek inspired.

4) Many eastern holy books have far more wisdom and much greater morality in much simpler, more digestable forms. There is more enlightenment and wisdom in the 80 or so verses of the Tao than the entire 600+ pages of the bible. The bible is a huge waste of space, it goes into absurd length about genealogies and other things that have little historical backing but more importantly have little to do with god's word. If there is a book that's divinely inspired, why would so much of the book be a complete, self-contradictory waste of filler?

Answer 3

Such reasons are as followers:

1. Bible prophecy explains the meaning of world conditions.
Many world leaders acknowledge that mankind is on the brink of disaster. The Bible foretold these conditions long ago; it explains their meaning and what the outcome will be. (2 Tim. 3:1-5; Luke 21:25-31)
It tells what we must do in order to survive the impending world destruction, with the opportunity to gain eternal life under righteous conditions here on earth.—Zeph. 2:3; John 17:3; Ps. 37:10, 11, 29.

2. The Bible enables us to understand the purpose of life.
It answers such questions as: Where did life come from? (Acts 17:24-26) Why are we here? Is it just to live a few years, get what we can out of life, and then die?—Gen. 1:27, 28; Rom. 5:12; John 17:3; Ps. 37:11; Ps. 40:8.

3. The Bible shows how we can have the very things that lovers of righteousness desire most.

It tells us where to find wholesome associates who truly love one another (John 13:35), what can give assurance that we will have sufficient food for ourselves and our families (Matt. 6:31-33; Prov. 19:15; Eph. 4:28), how we can be happy in spite of difficult conditions that surround us.—Ps. 1:1, 2; 34:8; Luke 11:28; Acts 20:35.

It explains that God’s Kingdom, his government, will remove the present wicked system (Dan. 2:44), and under its rule mankind will be able to enjoy perfect health and eternal life.—Rev. 21:3, 4; compare Isaiah 33:24.

Surely a book that claims to be from God, that explains both the meaning of world conditions and the purpose of life, and that shows how our problems will be solved is worthy of consideration.

In conclusion, how can we be sure the Bible has not been changed?

According to The Bible From the Beginning (New York, 1929), P. Marion Simms, pp. 74, 76.
“In the number of ancient MSS. [manuscripts] attesting a writing, and in the number of years that had elapsed between the original and the attesting MSS., the Bible enjoys a decided advantage over classical writings [those of Homer, Plato, and others]. . . . Altogether classical MSS. are but a handful compared with Biblical. No ancient book is so well attested as the Bible.”

Likewise a report published in 1971 shows that there are possibly 6,000 handwritten copies containing all or part of the Hebrew Scriptures; the oldest dates back to the third century B.C.E. Of the Christian Greek Scriptures, there are some 5,000 in Greek, the oldest dating back to the beginning of the second century C.E. There are also many copies of early translations into other languages.

Answer 4

1) Fulfilled prophecy. God spoke to men telling them of things that He would bring about in the future. Some of them have already occurred. Others have not. For example, there were more than 300 prophecies concerning Jesus Christ's first coming 2,000 years ago. There is no doubt that these are prophecies from God because of manuscripts and scrolls dated before the birth of Christ. These were not written after the fact. They were written beforehand. Scientific dating proves this.

2) The unity of Scripture. The Bible was written by approximately 40 human authors over a period of approximately 1,600 years. These men were quite diverse. Moses, a political leader; Joshua, a military leader; David, a shepherd; Solomon, a king; Amos, a herdsman and fruit pincher; Daniel, a prime minister; Matthew, a tax collector; Luke, a medical doctor; Paul, a rabbi; and Peter, a fisherman. The Bible was also written under a variety of circumstances. It was written on 3 different continents, Europe, Asia, and Africa. Yet, the great themes of Scripture are maintained in all the writings. The Bible does not contradict itself. There is no way apart from God the Holy Spirit supervising the writing of the Bible that this could have been accomplished.

Contrast this with the Islamic Koran. It was compiled by one individual, Zaid bin Thabit, under the guidance of Mohammed's father-in-law, Abu-Bekr. Then in A.D. 650, a group of Arab scholars produced a unified version and destroyed all variant copies to preserve the unity of the Koran. The Bible was unified from the time of its writing. The Koran had to be unified through the editing of men.

3) The Bible presents its heroes truthfully with all of their faults and weaknesses. It does not glorify men as other religions do about their heroes. When you read the Bible, you realize that the people it speaks of have problems and do wrong just as we do. What made them great was that they trusted in God. One example is David. David is described as a man after God's own heart (1 Samuel 13:14). Yet, David committed adultery (2 Samuel 11:1-5) and murder (2 Samuel 11:14-26). This could have been left out of Scripture to hide these details of David's life. But, God included these things.

4) Archaeological findings support the history recorded in Scripture. Though many unbelieving people throughout history have tried to find archaeological evidence to disprove what is recorded in Scripture, they have failed. It is easy to say that Scripture is untrue. Proving it to be untrue is a different story. It has not been done.

Answer 5

well, the first guy had it right, it is true. many things have proved that the Bible is correct. They found fish in the mountains proving that there was a flood covering the whole world (Noah) and other historic documents have concurred that Jesus did exist, die on the cross, and was missing from the tomb on the third day. They've also found altars that were built in the Old Testament. And while excavating Egypt, they found a layer of building that were made with bricks with a very small amount of straw which lines up with Exodus when Pharaoh forced the Israelites to harvest their own straw for the bricks they were being forced to make, causing them to have a smaller amount of straw in the bricks. It just makes sense.

Answer 6

The holds striking resemblances to other historical "texts" like the Enuma Elish, a creation story that seems parallel to the story presented in genesis and was written MUCH earlier. Thus, the bible is just as good as the rest, all books are created equal.

Answer 7

Because the Bible is the only book inspired by our Creator Jehovah God. It was God who sent his Son Jesus Christ to die for us. The Bible has endured so much persecution and people have been killed because they believe in the Bible.
Those that translated the Bible into different languages were persecuted and some were even put to death. No other book has helped people change for the better and gives people hope like the Bible does.

Answer 8

1.) The bible says it is the word of god.

2.) God's word must be true.

3.) From 1. and 2. the bible must be true

4.) From 3., 1. must be true.

5.) Go back to 1. and repeat until you have convinced yourself that dogma is the same as reality.

6.) If you ever start doubting that dogma is the same as reality go back to 5.

7.) If anyone point out that this dogma and a circular argument, yell BUT IT'S THE TRUTH!!!! very load, run away and go back to 5.

Answer 9

I have no knowledge of any other religious texts, and as I've admitted before I have a very limited knowledge of the Bible, as it is not the reason for my faith.

Answer 10

It contains unambigous prophecy that has been and is being fulfilled in detail.

It is an honest, uniquely candid record of history.

It is scientifically accurate, not reflecting the common myths of the time in which it was written.

It's message has been accurately preserved, and made available to virtually all mankind to read in a language they understand.

It is harmonious all the way through, from begining to end.

It is practical, contains timeless principles and counsel that really improves peoples relationships and lives.

Answer 11

It defines man's relationship with his Creator. The love of that Creator for His creations and the extent The Creator will go to in order to bring this creation to perfection and pure happiness. There are other writings such as gospels of phillip,thomas, mary magdalene, augustine, justine martyr, the book of mormons, the book of enoch, the didicae of peter and all of these I have read and believed if not most all, at least in part.