Believe in the Bible?

Question

How can I believe the words of the Bible if all of it was written by MAN? And over 2000 years I think some people have probably changed a few things in it.

Answer 1

You can't believe it if it was all written by man. Nor can you believe it if it's subject to change over time.

But the fact is that a substantial portion of the Bible claims to be directly from God, and that the prophecies of the Bible have historically come to pass. God is the same yesterday, today, and forever, so nothing has changed about God's plan in the last 2000 years. So by your own standards, it's safe to believe the Bible.

Answer 2

Engineering books are written by man, does that mean we should not believe in the integrity of a man made bridge or building?

Medical books are written by men, does that mean we should not believe a single thing your Doctor tells you?

Your birth certificate was written by man - does that mean you don't really exist?

Men are quite capable of recording important information accurately.

While written down by men, The reason for Bible’s uncanny unity is due to the fact that, ultimately, it has one Author: God Himself.

God inspired the human authors of the Bible so that while using their own languages, writing styles and personalities, they still recorded exactly the message God wanted us to have.

A crude way to illustrate this miracle is to consider how you would write things down on paper. When you write a letter, do you write the letter, or does the pen? Obviously you do; the pen is merely the instrument you use. It is the PEN which actually does the writing -- but only writes as you move it.

God used men as instruments to write His "letter" to humanity. Perhaps a better example would be how a beautiful sunset inspires a painter to capture the scene on canvas so that you can see what he saw, or a writer inspired to compose a description of the sunset - the light, the colors, the entire experience that he witnessed.

The Bible contains it's own built in proof - Between a fourth and a third of the Bible concerns prophecy because fulfilled prophecy proves God's existence. No mere human being can accurately and consistently predict future events in great detail hundreds if not thousands of years before they take place. Yet the biblical prophets did so hundreds of times.

God revealed the future through these human messengers, inspired those messages to be written down and preserved for us, and then He brought those very specific prophecies to pass—hundreds, sometimes thousands, of years later. Nothing but a divine, supernatural Being could possess such power.

The prophecies recorded in the Bible came true in such a detailed way that they could not have been predicted by chance. Further, archaeologists have evidence that these prophecies were written down many years before they were fulfilled, proving that the documents claiming to be prophecies were not written after the event.


Multiple other categories of evidence support the historical accuracy of the Bible as well as its claim to divine authorship.
Ancient history supports the Bible's accuracy as a historical record.

The Gospels provide multiple reliable accounts of Jesus' life.
Archaeology backs up the Biblical account.

Just because you or I don't like something that's in the Bible or we think it should say something different, doesn't mean it has been changed. Textual scholarship confirms that the message and doctrines in books of the Bible have not been changed since they were first written, the message is the same today as it originaly was.

Answer 3

How can I believe anything about the past as told in a book?

Research and lots of study would be the best place to start.
I mean, if the sole "reason" for not believing the contents of the bible is because of how old the manuscripts are, then we might as well throw ALL history away. As for the book itself being physically written by chosen men, what of it? If I quote 2 Timothy 3:16, some will say "But it was written by a man", and I will have failed to make my point. At some point, though, I have to make the decision that what I'm reading in that particular book is not only true in form and content, but that it makes sense and is not difficult to *agree* with, in the sense that I can rationalize for myself that the historical account(s) of the American Revolution are false, even though there's much historical evidence to prove my position absurd and unjustifiable. Every history book I've ever read (and that means alot of them) was written by "man". That fact does not negate the truth of those books one iota. Of course, the historical revisionist crowd would no doubt disagree with me, but those idiots are another story best ignored.

Answer 4

What would lead someone to believe it had been altered? In ancient times texts as long as the Biblewre cherished, they werentojsut re-copied on a whim. These books lasted hundreds of years. Also when the monks and scribes wrote copied the Bible nearly all of them were illiterate so they were just copying symbols, they couldnt have changed the stories. And obviously after Gutenburg all changes were impossible.

Answer 5

I agree with you 100%. In my opinion, Mack and Jack sat in a shack and wrote the bible to control the masses. It is widely accepted that copying it by hand, translating it and the shifting and splintering the Christian church (never mind fires that consumes irreplaceble text) has damaged the purity of the message, if you will.

Having said that, however, I find it interesting when you can see similarities of message and intent across multiple religions and philosophies. I will also say that having a understanding of the bible can be helpful in understanding where others are coming from and give you the tools and the terminology to get your point across to them. Fascinating, isn't it?

Peace!

Answer 6

you read it with an open mind to let God help you understand. the old testimant can be very hard to accept unless you learn about the times and culture but it all points to Jesus, our need for Jesus. Do not worry who wrote it down it is a letter from God.

Answer 7

it takes faith. but why wouldnt you believe in the bible? can you prove the bible wrong?

Answer 8

none believer here and much has changed