Why did God allow so much hate and so many inaccuracies to be put into the Bible?

Question

I understand the main rebuttal to the prejudices and hate in the Bible is that it reflected a certain time, that it was written by humans, etc. But why didn't God stop it? Didn't He know that it was the one bit of written proof he expected us to live by? That this book would live to hundreds of generations beyond the time period, and if parts of His own word weren't actually His word, that there would be no reason to take Him seriously?

Why didn't God tell the writers exactly what to right, so it would actually be His word? Allowing his own word to be filled with so many inaccuracies and prejudices doesn't seem very right, does it? Even if it's not his direct word, He knew it was the only word that would serve to teach others about him.

Yes, free will, but even as I can accept that God lets innocent people die to prevent something worse or to leave a lesson, I can't understand why He wouldn't intervene in something so important that will turn millions of smart people into atheists.

To the first comment: I've been Lutheran all my life. And I think you should be able to question your own religion. But when questions like these go by with no intelligent answer, I start to wonder. Stuff like this is starting to outweigh the amount of blind faith one person can have.

To people wondering where these inaccuracies are, I'm sorry that I don't have a better place to source, I don't want to flip through the Bible at this point, but this is a pretty good list: http://www.skepticsannotatedbible.com/contra/by_name.html
Some of those are easily explained, but others are more interesting and frightening.

Answer 1

You asked some very important questions here, and very good ones at that.

The answer, however, is too long and detailed to post here, so I'll recommend a book that I think you'll find helpful. It is called "Conversations With God" by Neale Donald Walsch. The premise of the book is that this man is actually TALKING to God Himself and taking dictation, so supposedly it is truly God's unadulterated word.

If you do not believe that a man could actually converse with God or think this book is a fraud, at least read it first. It provides a lot of wisdom, and many times in the book it is asked "What if this is all [the author's] imagination?" In the book, God answers that even if it IS his imagation, even if it is NOT God Himself talking, does the wisdom reflected in this book suddenly not have any value? Absolutely not.

Your questions are discussed at length throughout the three book series, and I highly recommend them.

::EDIT::

I feel compelled to say this because of the astonishing amount of answers that say "The Bible is 100% accurate." You are ignorant. End of story. Normally I wouldn't be so direct, but I don't even feel the need to justify my position. NO book, MOST of all one that is nearly 2000 years old is 100% accurate and infallible. To believe so is sheer laziness and stupidity.

Answer 2

Just as in today's world, men use secretaries to write their letters, correspondence and reports. Fortunately, they are not printed just as they dictate. I've no doubt if it were done, someone would end up shot! Secretaries fix it up with proper punctuation and better language to make them seem smarter than they are.

Even if Jehovah had written it Himself, men would still try to claim inaccuracies. There are still no inaccuracies as God has seen to it. What there is, are people who only look at one section they want to see, totally out of context. They fall over themselves, slobbering at the mouth, shaking their finger "SEE! SEE!" They just don't get it right.

Yes. He knew His Word would endure till today. Several of the prophesies are reaching fulfillment today and in the future. There are just and righteous reasons for God allowing things to go on as they are. Such pain is tempered with the fact that God can and has promised to resurrect those who have died unjustly. He has also promised to return the earth to a paradise condition for us. These who have died will not return to this old cesspool of corrupt system. That seems like a pretty good deal to me.

Answer 3

Hey Matthew how is this for an inaccuracy.

the story of the adultress in John chapter 7-8 I believe, exists in no bible before the 12th century

In Mark the book ends in all early bibles with the 3 women seeing the empty tomb and they are scared. The End, the rest of the story was added later, jesus appearing before all the different people was added later.

While most of them are minor and unimportant, in the 5400 existing greek manuscripts there are more errors than there are words in the NT. Even with computer programs they have still not come up with an exact number, it is in the 100's of thousands.

Answer 4

It seems that you have many questions.

There are many misunderstood portions of scripture and the like that are used to make it seem as though the bible is full of contradictions. It is worth really investigating because often, what people present as "contradictions" are more a result of not reading entire accounts or faulty reasoning.

The bible is God's word.

Yes, it was penned by humans, but they were guided by God's spirit. So it is similar to when the president of a company dictates a letter to his secretary. The secretary wrote it down- but what she wrote are the thoughts and expressions of her boss. It is thus correct to say that the letter came from the president of the company- even though the secretary did all the writing.

There is good reason for caution before buying into what websites like the one you referenced have to say.

Also, God does not ask anyone for blind faith. There are piles and piles of evidence that can be examined from many angles if a person is so inclined.

If you are interested in taking your questions one at a time via email, I would happily correspond with you. I promise you, the answers are there.

Answer 5

I think "man" says that there are inaccuracies in the Bible. I think all of the most important information has been conveyed to us by the Bible, which is God's word. OH and God doesn't let bad things happen. All things happen for a reason but not all things are by his design.

Answer 6

Because the authors thought were tired oif being ruled by a religion where the woman was the all powerful one!

Answer 7

Well, if you look through the bible, you'll find that God is more a man of action than a man of word. So, he wouldn't have told them in words what to do unless is was of an absolute necessity, which it more than likely was not. He more than likely allowed this to happen because he knew that in the future, humans wouldn't interpret the bible literally as the pharosies did back in the olden days. He knows that regardless, humans will learn what he wants them to learn from it, and that's the main point. He also created us with free will, thereby allowing us to sift through the bible and say what we believe as true and untrue.

Answer 8

The Old testament was probably not written down until about 200BCE and the New Testament was not written down until about 100CE. Up until that time it was all oral tradition.

Answer 9

Everyone says there are inaccuracies in the Bible but there are NOT! What you perceive as inaccuracies are just your prejudices. Yes there is hate and murder and all kinds of rotten stuff .But guess what? The Bible shows us as we really are and people don't like it!

Answer 10

Common sense dictates that even if God Himself wrote the WHOLE BIBLE people would just try and find loopholes and inconsistencies. If they did not find any then they would just take verses out of context like they do now-a-days.