Why do people have faith in the bible?

Question

People say the bible is the word of god. The bible was written by man not god,so how do we as people know the bible says the word of god?
These people where not next to Jesus when he died because Jesus died like 400 years before the bible was wrtten.
The people if there were any that were next to Jesus where dead.
So why do people believe in the bible. For all we know God could have been a drunk in his spare time. People aren't always with him. Please help me figure this christian/catholic faith thing. I want to knw why christians/catholics believe what they do.

Answer 1

Your right, interpreted and written by man. Because man is not perfect neither is the bible. 400 years, you think it might have been changed to fit the needs of the times? People need something to believe in greater then them self's. Christians were better organized that's why its still around. Besides Pagans, (Wiccan, Druids etc..), were here first!

Answer 2

I'm Catholic...I put NO faith in the bible.....that's bibleolatry. Rather I put my faith in God's holy word which is contained IN the Bible (big difference!)

The bible is inspired by God but not dictated word for word by him.

You are correct, however, in that the books of the bible were officially canonized some 300-plus years after the death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus. This means that a group of Catholic bishops (there were no Protestants back then) gathered in council (in Carthage, N. Africa in AD 397) and determined which books of the bible were truly inspired and would be included in the New Testament. However, all of the chosen books (27 of them) were indeed written between the years AD 54 and AD 120. Many other writings did not "make the cut". Among them: http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/

There are more than 150 Early Christian Writings listed on this site.....only 27 are in the New Testament.

How do we know the bible contains the word of God? It is filled with his Holy Spirit and therefore it is "alive" today....not static like some fairytale of long ago.

God "drunk in his spare time"? God is light...in him there is no darkness.

Answer 3

I am a christian, I think the Bible is one of the finest reference books anyone could study. I have faith in the wisdom one gains from a careful study of the scriptures. Yes, it was written by men and women, and all of them knew Christ. The Old Testament told of Christ through the Prophets. The New Testament contains the teachings of Christ and several of the Apostles. Paul's teachings also organized the Christian doctrine through his teachings.
I believe the Bible because there is no attempt to make Christians or Jews look any different than they were and are. The Bible gives us the short comings and the triumphs of both. It is believable because people are still the same as they were thousands of years ago.
Study the Bible, the truth and wisdom will be discovered. I am a Christian, I am a sinner and not perfect, my sins are forgiven because I cannot be perfect. The will of god will be done on Earth as it is in heaven, and I will embrace it.

Answer 4

I believe in the Bible for most of the reasons given, but I would like to add some other ones.
Although it was written by the hands of man, it has wisdom beyond its time. Under the old law, children were to be circumcised the eighth day (Genesis 17:12). Do you ever wonder why God would specify a certain day? Back then, no one had the understanding of biology that we do today, but with our knowledge, it makes perfect sense. You see, the clotting of blood depends on the levels of platelets, vitamin K, and prothrombin. The vitamin K is not present in enough abundance until about days 5-7, and on day 8, and only day 8 (in most cases), the prothrombin level is 100% above normal. That seems to me like an amazing case of an omniscient God looking out for his children.
Another example would be God's rules about eating certain meats. In Leviticus 11, God set rules about those animals which could be eaten. Among the animals not allowed to be eaten was the pig. We know today that the pig carries parasites (such as Trichinella spiralis and tapeworms) which can do a lot of damage to a human. The proper cooking techniques were not present at the time, so again, the all-knowing God was looking out for his children.
Isaiah 40:22 talks about the "circle of the earth," but was written before men knew the earth was round.
Psalm 8:8 refers to the "paths of the seas." We refer to them as currents today, but they did not know about them when Psalm was written.
Luke 17:34-36 talks about the second coming, and Jesus says that there will be two people in bed, and one will be taken, and there will be two people in the field, and one will be taken. Again, this was before much was known about the world, and yet Jesus was able to describe the round world as we know it where half is in the night, and half is in the day.

This is just a sampling of the perfectness of the Bible. There is really no other way to explain these passages other than an all-knowing God who inspired men to write these things.

Answer 5

Hello you know with all the prophecy in The Bible and the fact is was written over a 1500 year period of time and NO the new testament was written after The Second member of The Godhead Jesus Christ went back to Heaven the Old Testament was written before that by inspired folks, and its God not god, you say the bible is not true i am tempted to turn this around and ask you to prove its not, however the greatest proof of The bibles being real is the fact of changed lives, there is archaeology that proves what the bible says about History came true so how about you looking into it "after" prayer and seek Him for youself and see if He is real or not, free bible lessons www.amazingfacts.org talk to me also [e-mail] God bless

Answer 6

Ditto Esther's answer, except I started seriously studying about five years ago, and I would like to add:

It is not faith in the Bible. It is faith in God. The Bible was physically written by man, but the words are inspired by God Himself.

One can have faith in God in absence of the Bible. It is not about a book, but about knowing that God will make all you hope for real and all that you cannot see 100% sure. The thing is Christians hope for that which is eternal, not what is here on earth.

Answer 7

Well before I began studying the bible, I said the same thing. That was about ten years ago.

The bible was written by men, yes, but they were each inspired by the spirit of God. Forty authors, 66 books. Over thousands of years, all pointing the way to Jesus Christ.

Jesus did not die 400 years before the books of the new testament were written.

Before you go on making any more...excuse me...really silly statements, why not take the time to read it yourself? That at least would be an honest attempt to understand what it is.

Answer 8

The Bible is Truth and it stands on its own merits. You are encouraged to read, analyze, examine, etc. it. When you take the "leap of faith" and sincerely believe in an unseen God...when you commit your life to Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour...then...your life changes, both in attitude and actions. You realize more everyday as you increasingly pray to and learn more about the Lord that it is all True. God draws near to you as you draw near to Him...He reveals things to you, ministers to you, and changes who you are. You get a peace that passes understanding. And the more you rely on Him to sustain and direct your life and decisions, the more faith you get as confidence in His faithfulness increases. Everyone takes their own journey. But one thing is TRue from the Apostles to me...once you choose Christ, believing becomes much more fun and real and True.

By the way, most, if not all, the books of the New Testament were written by the Apostles - eyewitnesses - within the 1st 100 years after the death of Christ on the Cross.

Answer 9

Is Our Copy of the Bible a Reliable Copy of the Original?
by Rich Deem

Old Testament - How do we know the Bible has been kept in tact for over 2,000 years of copying? Before the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, our earliest Hebrew copy of the Old Testament was the Masoretic text, dating around 800 A.D. The Dead Sea Scrolls date to the time of Jesus and were copied by the Qumran community, a Jewish sect living around the Dead Sea. We also have the Septuagint which is a Greek translation of the Old Testament dating in the second century B.C. When we compare these texts which have an 800-1000 years gap between them we are amazed that 95% of the texts are identical with only minor variations and a few discrepancies.

New Testament - tIn considering the New Testament we have tens of thousands of manuscripts of the New Testament in part or in whole, dating from the second century A.D. to the late fifteenth century, when the printing press was invented. These manuscripts have been found in Egypt, Palestine, Syria, Turkey, Greece, and Italy, making collusion unlikely. The oldest manuscript, the John Rylands manuscript, has been dated to 125 A.D. and was found in Egypt, some distance from where the New Testament was originally composed in Asia Minor). Many early Christian papyri, discovered in 1935, have been dated to 150 A.D., and include the four gospels. The Papyrus Bodmer II, discovered in 1956, has been dated to 200 A.D., and contains 14 chapters and portions of the last seven chapters of the gospel of John. The Chester Beatty biblical papyri, discovered in 1931, has been dated to 200-250 A.D. and contains the Gospels, Acts, Paul's Epistles, and Revelation. The number of manuscripts is extensive compared to other ancient historical writings, such as Caesar's "Gallic Wars" (10 Greek manuscripts, the earliest 950 years after the original), the "Annals" of Tacitus (2 manuscripts, the earliest 950 years after the original), Livy (20 manuscripts, the earliest 350 years after the original), and Plato (7 manuscripts).

Thousands of early Christian writings and lexionaries (first and second century) cite verses from the New Testament. In fact, it is nearly possible to put together the entire New Testament just from early Christian writings. For example, the Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians (dated 95 A.D.) cites verses from the Gospels, Acts, Romans, 1 Corinthians, Ephesians, Titus, Hebrews, and 1 Peter. The letters of Ignatius (dated 115 A.D.) were written to several churches in Asia Minor and cites verses from Matthew, John, Romans, 1 & 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, 1 & 2 Timothy and Titus. These letters indicate that the entire New Testament was written in the first century A.D. In addition, there is internal evidence for a first century date for the writing of the New Testament. The book of Acts ends abruptly with Paul in prison, awaiting trial (Acts 28:30-31 (1)). It is likely that Luke wrote Acts during this time, before Paul finally appeared before Nero. This would be about 62-63 A.D., meaning that Acts and Luke were written within thirty years of ministry and death of Jesus. Another internal evidence is that there is no mention of the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. Although Matthew, Mark and Luke record Jesus' prophecy that the temple and city would be destroyed within that generation (Matthew 24:1-2 (2),Mark 13:1-2 (3), Luke 21:5-9,20-24,32(4)), no New Testament book refers to this event as having happened. If they had been written after 70 A.D., it is likely that letters written after 70 A.D. would have mentioned the fulfillment of Jesus' prophecy. As stated by Nelson Glueck, former president of the Jewish Theological Seminary in the Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati, and renowned Jewish archaeologist, "In my opinion, every book of the New Testament was written between the forties and eighties of the first century A.D."

With all of the massive manuscript evidence you would think there would be massive discrepancies - just the opposite is true. New Testament manuscripts agree in 99.5% of the text (compared to only 95% for the Iliad). Most of the discrepancies are in spelling and word order. A few words have been changed or added. There are two passages that are disputed but no discrepancy is of any doctrinal significance (i.e., none would alter basic Christian doctrine). Most Bibles include the options as footnotes when there are discrepancies. How could there be such accuracy over a period of 1,400 years of copying? Two reasons: The scribes that did the copying had meticulous methods for checking their copies for errors. 2) The Holy Spirit made sure we would have an accurate copy of God's word so we would not be deceived. The Mormons, theological liberals as well as other cults and false religions such as Islam that claim the Bible has been tampered with are completely proven false by the extensive, historical manuscript evidence.

Answer 10

The people have faith in the bible, have being brain wash since baby.

The truth of about bible was written by punch of lunatic & stories tellers.