The Bible is infallible?

Question

I think every single one of the stories in the Bible are true. The Bible says that if you pray you will get a feeling that will let you know that it is true.

The stories may be hard to believe, but God wants you to have faith.

Besides, if God does exist, don't you think he can do whatever he wants? I know that some atheists will get after me for using something that we have no scientific evidence for to prove something that we have no scientific evidence for, but the point that I'm making is the stories really aren't that hard to believe if you think about it.

They really aren't as silly as they sound. Not any more silly than saying that you believe you're distantly related to a banana (which is what evolutionist actually believe because they believe that all life on earth came from a common ancestor).

Anyways, I have faith. I believe it happened exactly as it says it did.

Do you agree?

Answer 1

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 also 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 and every blessing!

Answer 2

Yes, I agree. It seems to be Science Vs. Bible/Religion tonight. The Bible will always win on these topics however. God's Word is perfect, and science is not. If the Bible wasn't supposed to last this long...it wouldn't have. It would've been done away with long ago. But, it's been preserved for so many years..and still provides practical answers for our everyday problems. (As well as for more complicated issues.) Anyone who reads it, can actually see the fulfillment of the "Last Days" taking place right now. (Matthew 24:4-14; 2 Timothy 3:1-5)

Consider the fact that in the 1500's, the first ship sailed around the world, proving that the earth was round. But, the Bible (recorded thousands of years earlier) had already stated that fact. Isaiah 40:22 says: "The One who is dwelling above the circle of the earth..." And, Proverbs 8:27 mentions this: "When He decreed a circle upon the face of the watery deep..."

Brilliant scientists suggest theories and are awarded the Nobel Prize for their work. How much more brilliant must be the intelligent Being who designed and brought into existence the universe, which scientists try so hard to understand!

Rachel B

Answer 3

The bible has hundreds of errors, and one may as well start at the beginning: the universe creation per Genesis has nothing in common with the truth. The Adam and Eve tale is fiction, as shown by genetic evidence. There are a half a dozen completely independent evidences that the flood never occurred. We know that it is biologically impossible for people to live more than about 130 years. The sun cannot stop in the sky. I could go on, but I won't; I will simply note that there are also dozens of internal contradictions, so it is impossible in principle for the bible to be correct. Bottom line: no educated person can possibly believe that the bible is literally true, so I guess you aren't educated.
Postscript: Evolution has been established science for a hundred years, meaning that it works; it is also now a proven fact (details on request).

Answer 4

There are dozens of Bibles.

Best appreciate the Bible of your choice for what it is, an interesting human work, and not try to make it into something it was never intended to be, such as a science textbook.

But bear in mind that there are many other sacred books. The Hindus say that their religion is the oldest and supposedly contains all the lessons in all other faiths.

The Buddhists' materials are said to be derived from the Hindu scriptures such as the Gitas, and no doubt also the Avestas (I think that's the name) of Zoroastrianism.

The Zoroastrian sources are particularly interesting because parts of the Christian Bible are so obviously copied from Zoroastrianism. For example, the story of Jesus being lifted up to a high place and shown all trhe kingdoms of the world and tempted to give up his faith, is in the Zoroastrian scriptures and the Buddhists to have a similar story.

The story of Moses in the bullrushes of the Nile is a knockoff of the story of Sargon of Akkadia in the reeds of the Euphrates.

Noah's Ark and the Great Flood is a re-telling of the Epic of Gilgamesh. The Israelites probably learned it when they were in Babylon, the era in which they became literate and started writing down their history.

The Ten Commandments are mostly in the thousands of years old Egyptian Book of the Dead, the Papyrus of the Scribe Nepseni, now in the British Museum.

Answer 5

For those of you who don't understand and think that Christians are intolerable please know that that is not true. The same can be said of people in all religions and situations. The truth is that we don't want to make liars stop lying or thieves stop stealing or murderers stop murdering or turn homosexuals straight. There is not one sin that is greater than the other, a sin is a sin and personally I have broken them all. Jesus said that to hate your brother is as murder and to look with lust is as committing adultery. What we want you all to do is simply see that everyone of us has sinned against God and that WE ALL need someone to save us from what we believe is going to happen when we die. We believe that if there is something that God has told us not to do that you can overcome anything with His help. Now that being said - I do not expect you to stop doing what your doing or believing what your believing simply because I said so and I believe or because I have a Bible in my hand. There will be those that never believe and I cannot control that I give that control to God who will at the end do what is just. BUT that is not up to me. All I can do is what is asked of me in the Bible and that is to "tell" you (and it need only be one time) that we are sinners and we cannot gain redemption on our own. All I can do is pray that you will hear what God is telling you.


Yes, to be a Christian you must have faith and you must stay strong and guard yourself from what is constantly being hurled at you. If you believe one small thing from the bible it by default makes even the most hard to believe stories true. And speaking as a Christian there are no hard to believe "stories" in the Bible.

MY GOD CAN DO ANYTHING, MY GOD IS JESUS WHO DIED FOR ALL OF US, MY PRAYERS ARE HEARD AND ANSWERED


read some of these links

Answer 6

Most of the events in the bible are allegorical (A fancy word for symbolic) so most of the events did not happen literally how it is described. Plus much of the bibles literature has been misinterpreted or got lost in lost in translation anyways. To truly understand the Bible you should not interpret it literally but instead interpret it in a more symbolic manner. For example the "Parting of the Sea" may be symbolic of a separation of nations. In other words saying that the Israelites must no longer be a part of Egypt and dis-assimilate from their culture and become free. Or the wondering in the wilderness can symbolize a struggle towards independence. The bible is not the New York Times or the Associated Press you must look at it deeper then its literal meaning.

Answer 7

The teachings are infallible, but some stories are not science but means of conveying a message: for example Genesis 1-3 mean really that God created everything, but it should not be taken in a literalistic way as 6 days, because for God "one day is like a thousand years and a thousand years like one day" 2 Pet. 2:8, which means basically that God is out of time (He created time) .
Now if you combine those two teachings above and you believe that the earth is 6000 years old (based on the 6 day creation story and in 2 Pet. 2:8), then you make God a deceiver because he put fossils on the earth dating to millions of years

Answer 8

Nope. Right off -- earth and man/woman created in 7 days flat; a flood that covered the Earth; raining continuously for 40 days; burning bush -- all these miraculous things were written down some 2000 years ago when men were far less educated or sophisticated. Come on! Let's believe in our progress towards mental advancement, to believe in logic, to believe in scientific FACTS. Go read Charles Darwin instead of the Bible. It's a nice book with lots of good things in it, but please don't tell me to believe it happened exactly as it says it did.

Answer 9

I agree. Those without the Spirit won't be able to understand. I always ask God to help and give me His wisdom when reading the Bible.

One thing that He has taught me to do is ask who, what, why, where and when, as I am reading.

The Bible is God's written 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 someone may want to look up:
http://www.Biblegateway.com
http://www.Ntgateway.com
http://www.Bible.org
http://www.bible-history.com
http://www.answersingenesis.org/

Answer 10

I believe God wants you to use what you were given, and what makes you superior to all other organisms on earth - your mind.
While I don't argue that the bible is real, the stories are not meant to be taken literaly. It fits perfectly together with science if you think about it. Some examples of how this happens are:

Creation = Seven days in God's time, millions of years in ours.
Adam+Eve = He made them at the end. During the previous years, evolution took place. The bible uses this analogy to explain it to eary people. They knew little of science, and therefore would not understand the concept of evolution. Now that we are more educated though, we can connect the bible with science.
Noah's Ark = I guess he forgot the dinosaurs. Seems to me to be connected with the mass extinction of many organisms.


These are the ones I can remember off the top of my head. It's just an example of how similar the bible and science really are. I'm not saying they are exactly true, but if you think about it, it seems to make a lot of sense.