Is the christian bible a god?

Question

The bible is the word of God. So is John 1:1 talking about the same word? Is the book we hold in our hands the creative power the made the universe?

I don't think it is.

The old testament is a collection of historical record, law, moral stories, etc.

It may have been inspired by the almighty but it is not his words. Men wrote it. In some cases they wrote down what God said word for word but men wrote it all.

Jesus didn't write the new testament. His followers did. They wrote it from their point of view, eye witnesses, and some personal experiences.

Translators have tainted it through the years by translating it to match their doctrine. That isn't done as much any more but it does happen.

Now you have further watering down with such translations like the Message and Word on the Street.

My point is this and question is this:

Is the bible a tool to discover God and his son Jesus? Is it something to give us an idea on morality that is expected of us by God?

To say that the bible is perfect is an error. To say that it IS the word God makes it god doesn't it?

Early chrisitians didn't take things literally as we seem to do now. Why are we taking some of the stories so literal?

Did you know that is a new movement this inerrancy thing?

http://mb-soft.com/believe/text/inerranc.htm

Anyone with scholarly training can prove the inaccuracies and what I say. How can you reach them as a witness when you hold short sighted views of the human book we call the bible?

Also, the apocrypha and pseudogripa must be considered inerrant too since they were used by early christians and Jesus and his apostles.

Did God approve the extra stuff that later scholars added to make their doctrine plausible? (KJV comes to mind.)

Answer 1

You are right to a degree and isn't it interesting that Jesus did not write a gospel. What He left was the Holy Spirit and He said that He [the Holy Spirit] would lead us into all truth.

The question is does the Bible have a place and the answer to that is a definite "YES". Especially the New Testament as it describes the life and the work Jesus did here on earth.

It is very important as it does define doctrine and yes it has been redacted many times to combat many things that the early church had to contend with. That is the reason over 300 scholars deemed what would be 'canoned' in order to lay foundational truth for what we [the church] believe. 3 things should be asked when interpretting the Bible....Who was it written to?....What did it mean to them?....And how can it be applied to us today?

Many of the writers in the Bible wrote much to contend with the enormous heresy arising in the church. You must remember they had no writings other that part of the Old Testament and Jesus and all the others quoted constantly from that information. So many were getting in error that it became necessary to set definite guidelines to help the church know when it was and is getting into error.

Personally, I don't think you can rely on just the Bible because Jesus left you the Holy Spirit and He speaks to you and that too is the Word of God. So you take what you hear from the Holy Spirit and make sure it lines up with what the Apostles have written that they seen Jesus do.

Do not lose confidence in the Bible as it will keep you consistent with the faith and Jesus' teaching.

God Bless

Answer 2

Well, historically it is the Church dogma that universalized the Canon of Scripture for the Christian Church. So if you are thinking sanely, Sola Scriptura is right out. How can you expect the Scriptures to define your doctrine if it is doctrine that defined them? Further, while the Scriptures are complete and sufficient, they weren't written for the purpose of producing every doctrine the Church would ever need. The Old Testament is a historical testimony of the Hebrews that contains a ton of prophesies about the coming of Christ as the God-man, but was not written for the purpose of instantiating religious doctrine beyond the Law. Some of the O.T. contains books of wisdom and poetry, but again, they weren't written for the purpose of defining doctrine, per-say.

Further, the NT contains the 4 Gospels, which themselves admit that they are not a complete record of Christ's teachings and life. They act as a written testimony to who Christ is, who He claimed to be, and what his coming to Earth as a man and death at the hands of men accomplished. They certainly were not written to define Church doctrine, though. This is not what the authors had in mind when they wrote down Christ's life. Also, the Epistles were written to address specific issues that arose in the Church. The doctrine was already established before the entire New Testament was written. the Epistles only address a handful of Church issues that arose while the Apostles were still around. In no way were they ever meant to be a complete, solitary guide to the entire Christian world view. The only book left to talk about now is Revelation. I think we can see that the Revelation of John is written as a prophesy, not particularly as a moral guide of doctrine.

When you put together the fact that there was no universally accepted canon of scripture until at least 397 A.D., and there were clear disputes among many books (Sirach, Wisdom of Solomon, Jude, II and III John, II Peter, Revelations, Baruch, and more) and many Churches accepted or rejected various combinations of these books as Scripture acceptable to be read in Church even after 397, it makes little sense to believe in Sola Scriptura. In reality, there are still disputes about some books. The Orthodox accept the Septuagint OT version in its entirety, which contains more, so-called, apocryphal books than even the Catholics have. I believe the Russian Orthodox Church accepts an extra book that the rest do not. The Ethiopian Church (which is not Eastern Orthodox) accepts quite a few books that other Churches choose not to recognize. The Nestorians emit 5 books from the New Testament, I believe. The Catholics accept the Jewish Masoretic(sp) OT, which is what was translated to Latin when the Vulgate was formed. This Vulgate is where the Protestant Bible comes from. Some protestants accept some or all of the Catholic so-called Apocrypha, some don't. During the heavy evangelistic period in the West, some of the 'Apocrypha' was left out to make it easier to distribute books in large quantities to communities being evangelized to. The books chosen to send to these communities varied greatly. However, the fact that some of these communities did not receive the entire Vulgate is the reason why some Protestant churches do not accept the 'Apocryphal' books, if I remember right from my sources. Some churches just decided to throw them out, for whatever reason. So the Canon is not really 'universal' among all churches today.


Since the Bible was written by Godly men, it makes sense to believe it is the word of God, inspired by the Spirit. This, however, does not make the Scriptures God. Jesus is referred to as the Word because in Greek the word Logos is used for the second Person of the Trinity. This is, more or less, not written word but more like the mind or nous. The historical understanding is that every man contains a nous that was created by the Divine Logos, and a spirit created by the "Breath of God" or the Holy Spirit. This is a feeble and poor description of a Great Reality. I do not have the words to say this to the precision of the true doctrine of the Church, but this at least gives the gist of the belief.

Therefore, while the Bible is the word of God, it is not the Word of God. The Bible is not the divine Logos.

The Church that has upheld this doctrine since 33 AD is the Eastern Orthodox Christian Church.

**If my views are not consistent with the historic understanding of the Church, please forgive me and correct me, and disreguard anything which is incorrect**

A good place to go to learn about what the Church has universally believed (judging against the mistakes fallible people make and watching for where doctrine remains consistent) is here
http://www.searchgodsword.org/his/ad/ecf/
Remember, no one is infallible.

Answer 3

It sounds to me like you have both asked a question and answered it for yourself.

Are you looking to confirm your results or get some additional insight?

OK - The Bible is may things, Yes it is written by people, yes it is translated, from aramic, hebrew, and greek into english and many of the words in these other languages can not be direcly translated into english. Yes in the year 60 AD the religious leaders of the era decided what was to be put into the various texts. During the Dark Ages the pope and his coharts hid much of the information from the public and are still hiding it.

What is left defines how the public will believe based on what is presented in its pages, as governed by the church (s) and their interpretation of the various texts.

Given that - There is a world of wonderful information still there, second to that there is a code, and once this code is understood the words on the pages unfold as if there is a new and entirely different world that we live in. To understand this do your research on "Who actually was in charge of the King James Version" and study the history of that person, and his beliefs, follow that road to its end and you will have an answer beyond your present understanding.

Answer 4

The Scriptures are penned by man, and inspired by God - not "kinda inspired", but
each verse in the Texts are approved of by God. The Bible IS THE LIVING WORD>
The Word of God, whats written in the Bible always was alive and present, but now we have it bound into a book that is approved of by God. The Word was made flesh and walked the Earth. We called him Jesus Christ, or better explained: Emmanuel:
"God with us".
In the "1611", the translators wrote a note in the front to tell you that they did their best, but that when you try to tranlate from the original languages over to the English, alot is lost - what is lost is the deeper thought that is being conveyed. They tell us that in order to capture that deeper thought, or fuller message of each verse, that you may have to go to the original manuscripts.
That is what I do: I study and teach directly from the original manuscripts.

Yes, the Bible is a tool to discover God,
but its more than that: there is a golden thread of a deeper message that runs all thru the Scriptures: even though the Books were written in many cases one thousand years apart, they still perfectly match when you find the beginning of that thread, and follow it from Genesis to Revelation: it is perfect and flows like honey throughout the
Bible. This deeper message of God is there for all to see it, but most people are completely blind or unaware of its presence.

If you understood what you were actually reading, you would never again state that
its nothing more than watered down experiences of a bunch of street folks.
In fact, you would probably kick yourself in the butt.
The problem is that the Churches have a person sitting in a pew every week for thirty years - the same congregation, being taught baptism, salvation, and love thy neighbor over and over and over again for the entire thirty years. They are baby Christians only taking in the milk; they never seem to get around to the meat of Gods word that is there to strengthen and grow a person into a useful vessel to do Gods work. Thats a shame.
Churches need to have a teacher on-staff that can handle the manuscripts and the languages.
In over 36 years, I have found only ONE Church that teaches from the original manuscripts.

Answer 5

2 Corinthians 3:6 Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.

The Bible is paper and ink. Word put together in a particular order. There is no life or spirit in paper and ink. The Holy Ghost brings the words of God alive. The spirit gives the word of God power and authority.

I love my Bible. It is the word of God written in it. But it is not the book but rather what is written in the book. By this we know God and the Lord Jesus Christ. By this we can receive the mind of God. I know a woman who sings in our church a song that says "MY BIBLE IS A ROAD MAP"

I never pay any attention to what scholars have to say but rather those who spend their time on their knees and in the word of God. These men KNOW what the Bible is all about. With out the spirit of God a person will never understand the Bible.

The Word of God is all that we need to live by.

Matthew 4:4 But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.

2 Timothy 3:16 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:


I hold to the 1611 King James Version. All others since then have been "watered down".

God did aprove of the New Testament. Every writer he chose personaly to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Answer 6

We know that the Bible is inspired by God because of its wonderful unity. Think about it...over 40 authors wrote 66 books in different lands and over a period of 1,800 years. Many of them never saw the writings of the others, yet there is no contradiction of moral tone, prohecies, principles, the way to Salvation ( Jesus),etc. between any two of them. Coincidence? I hardly think so. As a Christian, it is imperative that we maintain a strong, unwavering, uncompromising view of the Bible, God's holy Word as inspired and authoritative. Without this mindset, our faith would be doomed because without a strong view of the Bible as God's Word it is impossible to be faithful to what Jesus Christ, the apostles, and scripture itself teaches us. We are in the last days because God's Word shows us. Greater perilous times is upon us, and without a strong view of God's Word Christians will not be not be able to withstand the extreme difficulties of what lies ahead ( 2 Timothy 3:1;1 Timothy 4:1; 2 Thess.2:1-12 ). God's Word is not an idea, but Truth that died for for you and me. Critical reasoning of it is a tool of Satan that will keep one spinning their wheels so that they never make that leap into faith for Jesus. To say one believes in God, yet does not believe in the authority of God's Word is not possible. I agree with you that the Message is watered down and should not replace the Holy Scriptures, but some enjoy it as a good read. Personally, I'd rather read my Bible.

Answer 7

No the bible isn't God but it is the INSPIRED word of God written by men. God knew that the letter wrote by the Apostles would become apart of a book. The bible is the True word of God...

John 1: 1, "the word" means Plan, or thought, God had Jesus in his plan since the beginning.

Answer 8

the bible is different than the word at the beginning, his son was the word that was made manifest by being begotten by Mary. the bible is the word of god that has been inspired for men to write down as a manual for us. a car has a manual on how to operate it and we have a manual on how we should operate. Yes translators have tainted god's word down Thur out history, for example the name Jehovah that was put into the bible is a man made name for God, it was coined by a catholic monk in Spain by the name of Raymundus martini now translators are removing it because it is in error.. the BIBLE is a tool for guidance and a way to discover God and Jesus. the current presence of thousands of divided denominations is hardly a testimony to the one united church for which Jesus prayed" that they may be one as you father and i are one John 17:11, that means in union with each other.

Answer 9

You got it all wrong. The Bible is a Book. What is written in the Book is the Word, that Word is Life, meaning it can save your life and who died and saved your life, the Word, Jesus Christ.

The Bible is a Word that lets you learn about how to please God, it contains the Basic Instructions Before Living Earth, hence, BIBLE. The Bible teaches you about righteousness, how to please God. It is the book that gives you the truth about morality.

Men wrote words from God, not from their own imaginations and that is why it is called the Word of God not the Word of men.

Answer 10

I agree with your point, and I would answer YES to your question.

I don't think John 1:1 is talking about the same word, either.

I believe, as you do, that the Bible is the inspired word of God.

The 4 gospels were written by Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John...giving their views. Paul wrote several of the books in The NT, as did James, Peter, etc.

Great thoughts, thanks!