Truth about God and the Bible?

Question

im 13 years old and i always believed in God but i have recently really gotten into my relationship with him and i am very curious. I truly believe in him but there are so many things that can confuse me.

1) Many people say that there is no God and he is as real as the easter bunny but could that just be God testing my faith?

2) I always thought that the stories in the bible were facts but i heard that the jews (who wrote it) sometimes tell stories to get there point across. Is there any proof of adam and eve or moses walking through the water? I beleive that jesus was burried and raised on the 3rd day and that is alot of proof of God but what about the other things? Is there any proof?

I completely believing in God and my faith will always be true whether or not there is any proof but if there is it would really help me understand my beliefs. Is there any proof that God is real?

from some of the answers that i have heard will reading the new testament with jesus make the old tesament seem more true

Answer 1

First, let me advise you to be careful what you read on this site in terms of its authority. There are those, like Simon T above, who are so biased it results in answers that are patently false. While it is true that you cannot empirically prove the existence of God (nor disprove), there is ample evidence for His existence. Additionally, I watched the "debate" he's speaking of and while I agree that the "Christian" position was embarassing, the "athiest" position was no more well reasoned and was in fact equally embarrasing. It was like watching dumb and dumber debate the meaning of life.

I concur with the others who have advised you to look for evidence, rather than proof of God. You cannot prove Him...if you could faith would be irrelevant. However, that said, faith is certainly not blind or I'd have a very hard time with it indeed. There must at least be evidence for me to have faith. You can read up on some of that evidence in Strobel's "Case for Christ" and "Case for Faith" which you could purchase from Amazon or your local bookstore, or you could also check out Josh McDowell's "Evidence that demands a verdict" which will likely only be available at Christian bookstores.

As a final note, there are other resources as well. The area of research your are asking about is called "apologetics." I encourage you to look into it more. You'll find that you can never argue someone into Christianity, but once you are there apologetic resources can certainly help to strengthen you faith in Christ.

Shoot me an e-mail if you'd like some more ideas and information. I'll be happy to help. In the meantime, keep it up. It's refreshing to see a young Christian who is doing her best to use her brain in opposition to popular belief.

Answer 2

There is no evidence for god. A couple of days ago two guys went on an ABC discussion saying that they would prove that there was a god without using the bible.

Their argument was:
We want there to be a god.
We do not understand science.
The bible say that there is a god. (A flagrant breach of their original terms)

It was embarrassing, and I am an atheist.

At the same time, you can never disprove god. Being invisible and omnipotent god can always move in such subtle ways that he can do anything without anyone noticing.

Similarly I can not disprove unicorns, dragons, mermaids, the easter bunny or fairies at the bottom of my garden. That does not mean that I believe in them though.


There are some facts in the bible. The geography is there and can be seen. Many of the kings have been independently verified.

However, when you look at the creation story, the flood story, exodus, the facts are not there to support them. In fact the things we would expect to see if these stories were true are totally missing.

The bible is a collection of separate books and stories, created over a long time span, written down my many different people. Some stories are quite factual, others are total fabrication. Aesop's fables are a fabrication, it does not mean that they do not carry a message though.

For comparison, look at the Odyssey and the Iliad, written by the Greek Homer. Many of the characters in these stories have been confirmed to be real. Troy is, and was, a real place. That does not mean that Zeus, Aphrodite, etc. live up on Mount Olympus though.

If you want to believe in god, then please go ahead. But do not think for a moment that there is any evidence to support your faith, because there is none.

You need to decide if your faith is based on a real god, or what you have been told is real, or what you want to be real. If it is one of the latter two, then I would suggest that you try and decide for yourself what reality really is, and base your life around that reality rather than your or someone else's desires.

Answer 3

That's neat that you have a relationship with God.

1) The Bible is a book of faith in God. Hebrews 11 is about examples of our faith. Faith does not come in verified facts. Or else you would not need faith.

2) Jesus was God in the flesh. And in Jesus's genealogy in Luke it goes all the way from Mary's line and back to Adam and Eve. If they had not sinned there would be no need for Jesus to die on the cross to redeem man from the sin they caused to come to on all the earth. That is why there is a connection in the New Testament.

3) Pick up an older version of Halley's Book of the Bible. It talks about archaeological evidence that shows how much Bible events are verified by discoveries in recent times. A lot of artifacts are in museums all over the world..

Below are some links. The first has a lot of material and facts and is good. The second link is about Halley's Handbook of the Bible that talks about the Bible, each chapters or several and makes archaeological comments as well.

God bless you and I am glad you have faith.

Answer 4

Dont believe in anything blindly. Get to the bottom of it. Question all the faiths. All bible stories have a deep inner meaning. Remember word is not the thing and the description is not the described. Quest for truth is Human life. Since ur young u may not understand life. Life is mysterious. Ask urself how u can into being and what will happen after death. Ofcourse hell o heaven, but those who know that are not here and those who are here only assume or believe truly dont know.
Make ur own quest and try to enjoy and unfold the mystry.

Answer 5

Good questions, and "Proof" like "Beauty" is in the "Eye" of the "Beholder"! That is to say that "Faith" is Believing what U cannot necessarily "Prove". U for example have faith that when it gets dark in Ur house that U can turn on a light. But U probably can't "Prove" the "Thermionic Emissions" that are going on when U flip the switch??? But as is the case with Ur accepting Christ, U have done it & accepted His free Gift!!! Man is very curious & on this Site, U will see a lot of people wanting someone to "Prove" God exists or some other foolish thing. I for one as a person of "Science" cannot ignore statistics & probability figures that ALL point to Intelligent Creation. I also now that many people here are in a state of Rebellion, in part because of their age, but as U know also their "Old Sin Nature". Stick with Daily Bible study & soon U will see how God does & does not work. Being close to God will "Prove" He is real!!! John

Answer 6

1) It is atheists testing your faith, not God. Study up on some of the philosophical arguments for the existence of God.

2) Many Bible stories are meant to teach lessons. Many Bible stories only sound miraculous because of the way they were translated.

You should always assume that the Bible is describing a natural event unless there is no other way to understand the text.

Also keep in mind that all of the stories in the Bible were included because they taught other lessons - not because they were history. Always try to understand why a story was included in the Bible - that is far more important that whether or not it actually happened.

Answer 7

Have you seriously considered the reliability of the bible? Ignore for the moment the whole notion of God and just think about the book's content.

Investigation by even the most skeptical will also reveal that there exists NO SINGLE SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY that has been shown to prove error, factually or doctrinally, in the Bible. There is lots of speculation and hypotheses, but not a single verifiable fact. If you or anyone should discover one, you will become quite famous. Yet, since recorded history, no one has offered it up and entered their names into the history books. Instead what we have is pseudo-science pandering to the masses, as in the recent John Cameron tomb of Christ debacle.

As a simple experiment, try turning your objective intellect towards the argument that no book, comprising 66 “mini-books”, written over a period of 1500 years by 40 vastly different authors, having an outstanding literary internal consistency and coherency, could be written by mankind alone. The bible’s authors ranged from high government officials, peasants, military officers, and fishermen, to a prime minister, a cupbearer for a king, religious teachers, and others.

Add to that the survival of the book’s ancient manuscripts, numbering in the tens of thousands, over thousands of years and yet these manuscripts remain over 98% textually pure. How this possible, when compared to all the other ancient writings are so few in number? For instance, the Dead Sea Scrolls contain all books of the Old Testament, except Esther, and have been dated to before the time of Christ. The earliest copy of Homer's Iliad dates to 500 BC, some 500 years after it was written. Only 643 copies of Illiad exist. The earliest copy of Ceasar's The Gallic Wars dates to 900 AD, some 1,000 years after it was written. Only 10 copies exist.

In comparison, there are over 24,000+ New Testament manuscripts, the earliest one dating to within 24 years after Christ. Now why would we accept the authenticity of Homer's or Caesar's writings and not the New Testament manuscripts? How can we objectively and rationally explain this book, the Bible, especially in light of the claims I have made above?

Thus, when I examine the evidence on both sides, I can only rationally conclude that given the bible's accuracy on so many issues, and that I have been given no reason to doubt its validity on all issues it contains, especially when it speaks to God's divine revelations.

Answer 8

These are some really good questions. I'm going to give you the minority view; I may be wrong, but I'm just answering them to the best of my knowledge.

1) Well, sure. That could be true. It might be god testing your faith. But why would he do that? Does he not want you to go to heaven? Do you really need to prove yourself to him? Then again, maybe he is as real as the easter bunny. What proof is there of his existence?

2a) No. There is no historical or archaeological evidence of the existence of Adam, Eve, or Moses outside the bible. There's far more evidence that the world is over a billion years old and humans are related to apes. There's no evidence that there was an exodus of slaves from Egypt, nor is there any evidence that there were Hebrew people existing at that time. In fact, the evidence shows that Moses was, at one time, a sun god and is really no more than a mythic leader, much like King Arthur.

2b) There's no proof outside the bible that Jesus died and was resurrected. Frankly, there's no good evidence that a man named Jesus walked the earth. However, there were a lot of other stories, even before the time of Jesus, about gods who were born of virgins and were resurrected in order to give people salvation. There's Dionysus, Mithras, Osiris, and Apollonius of Tyana. All of them died and rose again to bring salvation. And all of their stories were well-known before the time of Jesus.

3) Is there any proof that god is real? No. Even you think so; if you did have evidence, then you wouldn't need faith.

And now, my question to you, one that bothered me from the time I was your age: if god wants everyone to be in heaven and no one to go to hell, and if the only way to go to heaven is to accept Jesus, what happens if you die without ever hearing about Jesus? What happens if you were a person who died before Jesus was even born? Does that mean you just go to hell without being given a fair chance?

I'm not saying that you're wrong for your belief in god. I'm just bringing up some food for thought.

Answer 9

Jessi,I am glad you believe in Jesus.Many people will tell you many things.
You are young yet ,but you must read the Bible yourself and seek out the answers.
I believe the Bible is the Holy word of God given by the Holy Ghost to man as God gave direction.This is what the Bible teaches us.
You will see many prophecies coming to pass today,that where written 2000 years ago or longer.
Seek God in prayer,Never listen to man.As you will see as you grow.There are many spirits deceiving many ,lying spirits.The Bible said God would have to shorten the days less when He come He find no faith left on the earth.How sad our Father who gave us everything,have so few to believe in Him.<><

Answer 10

you have purely touched on prophecy, as a result the atheists will proclaim that anybody can forecast a generalization given sufficient time. whether they fail to attain the fairly factor of prophecy such because of the fact the Messianic prophecy's( that could later be validated through the ineffective sea scrolls) or the prophecy's on the subject of Israel that could desire to no longer have happen by twist of destiny. perhaps if the atheist studied those intimately with out secular aspects attempting to imprecise the reality. they might discover irrefutable info, yet regrettably tunnel ingenious and prescient seems to be an atheistic disease while it includes gaining knowledge of the reality by secular googles. perhaps while the mark of the beast gadget comes into play after the 0.33 temple in Jerusalem is equipped(in accordance to prophecy) they are going to awaken. do no longer forget approximately Christian squaddies, that even while Christ walked the earth appearing miracles which includes therapeutic the blind and unwell or feeding the 5000 or walking on water, human beings nonetheless denied he replaced into the son of God. through claiming he replaced right into a magician or sorcerer. This replaced into all finished in front of the hundreds. some anybody is purely destined to disbelieve no count what info is given. satisfaction and conceitedness will lead many human beings into separation from God after death.