Why don't you believe in the Bible? Or why do you?

Question

I don't get it. Some people just think the bible is written by some wacky old guy who died thousands of years ago and other people half-believe in the bible (catholics) and some people go all the way (adventists)

so if u don't beleive in the bible how are we hear? (and don't give me the stuff about evalotion!!!)

Answer 1

Sir Frederic Kenyon, in The Story of the Bible, notes that "For all the works of classical antiquity we have to depend on manuscripts written long after their original composition. The author who is the best case in this respect is Virgil, yet the earliest manuscript of Virgil that we now possess was written some 350 years after his death. For all other classical writers, the interval between the date of the author and the earliest extant manuscript of his works is much greater. For Livy it is about 500 years, for Horace 900, for most of Plato 1,300, for Euripides 1,600." Yet no one seriously disputes that we have accurate copies of the works of these writers. However, in the case of the New Testament we have parts of manuscripts dating from the first and early second centuries, only a few decades after the works were penned.

Not only are the biblical manuscripts that we have older than those for classical authors, we have in sheer numbers far more manuscripts from which to work. Some are whole books of the Bible, others fragments of just a few words, but there are literally thousands of manuscripts in Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Coptic, Syriac, and other languages. This means that we can be sure we have an authentic text, and we can work from it with confidence.

Next we take a look at what the Bible, considered merely as a history, tells us, focusing particularly on the New Testament, and more specifically the Gospels. We examine the account contained therein of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection.

Using what is in the Gospels themselves and what we find in extra-biblical writings from the early centuries, together with what we know of human nature (and what we can otherwise, from natural reason alone, know of divine nature), we conclude that either Jesus was just what he claimed to be—God—or he was crazy. (The one thing we know he could not have been was merely a good man who was not God, since no merely good man would make the claims he made.)

We are able to eliminate the possibility of his being a madman not just from what he said but from what his followers did after his death. Many critics of the Gospel accounts of the resurrection claim that Christ did not truly rise, that his followers took his body from the tomb and then proclaimed him risen from the dead. According to these critics, the resurrection was nothing more than a hoax. Devising a hoax to glorify a friend and mentor is one thing, but you do not find people dying for a hoax, at least not one from which they derive no benefit. Certainly if Christ had not risen his disciples would not have died horrible deaths affirming the reality and truth of the resurrection. The result of this line of reasoning is that we must conclude that Jesus indeed rose from the dead. Consequently, his claims concerning himself—including his claim to be God—have credibility. He meant what he said and did what he said he would do.

Further, Christ said he would found a Church. Both the Bible (still taken as merely a historical book, not yet as an inspired one) and other ancient works attest to the fact that Christ established a Church with the rudiments of what we see in the Catholic Church today—papacy, hierarchy, priesthood, sacraments, and teaching authority.

We have thus taken the material and purely historically concluded that Jesus founded the Catholic Church. Because of his Resurrection we have reason to take seriously his claims concerning the Church, including its authority to teach in his name.

This Catholic Church tells us the Bible is inspired, and we can take the Church’s word for it precisely because the Church is infallible. Only after having been told by a properly constituted authority—that is, one established by God to assure us of the truth concerning matters of faith—that the Bible is inspired can we reasonably begin to use it as an inspired book.

God Bless
Robin
PS
Note that this is not a circular argument. We are not basing the inspiration of the Bible on the Church’s infallibility and the Church’s infallibility on the word of an inspired Bible. That indeed would be a circular argument! What we have is really a spiral argument. On the first level we argue to the reliability of the Bible insofar as it is history. From that we conclude that an infallible Church was founded. And then we take the word of that infallible Church that the Bible is inspired. This is not a circular argument because the final conclusion (the Bible is inspired) is not simply a restatement of its initial finding (the Bible is historically reliable), and its initial finding (the Bible is historically reliable) is in no way based on the final conclusion (the Bible is inspired). What we have demonstrated is that without the existence of the Church, we could never know whether the Bible is inspired.

Answer 2

According To Me: I think you nail it right on the head.

First lets get this straight the Bible is a book .. moreover a collection of books. I do not believe in an inanimate object .. I can not believe in a book any more than I can believe in a table.

The question is do you believe in what is written in the bible .. well which part? which author?. the books that are currently in the bible? or the ones that are not?. some of the original text in their original language?, or the translations? the changes to adapt to the powers that be to meet their agendas or how the words were originally..

I personally find the dead sea scroll interesting .. yet they don’t seem to being shipped by the Gidions at the moment.

The point being that there is a lot of accurate information in the bible. There is a lot of false hoods .. there are stories and there are historical notations. It’s a book .. Now does the Bible have a overriding message .. and is that message good Yes.

Answer 3

I believe no matter how the Bible is analyzed, it is flawed. Strictly discussing only the New Testament, it was written two centuries after Christ was murdered. which was long before translators made the Bible readable for the masses. They had complete discretion over content. Before being released to the masses If a story wasn’t complete, multiple stories were woven together to form one book. Pieces were moved around and put together like a puzzle. When a turn of a phrase disagreed with the King’s Church, it was removed in its entirety. We now know that multiple scrolls of material, intended to be included as part of the Bible, were carefully hidden instead. This was necessary to avoid destruction of both the authors, and the information. We are aware of this as scripted Codices, have slowly been discovered. They’ve been carbon dated and authenticated by experts to prove they were written at approximately the same time the Bible. Numerous experts believe these writings were intended to be part of the original Bible. However, it is also true to say that these compositions are still the cause of great debate. Before the Bible was let loose to commoners, these powerful people had just simply raped it. When one controls the religion of a people, they then control those people. This is why it was so important to make sure the Bible only told the stories approved of by the King and his Church. It also explains the hiding of certain texts. If anything written even smacks of freedom for the common man, it must be destroyed. For if it was found that the King was not god, the King could loose his ability to control his kingdom. As the translators were loyal to the King, the Bible was edited very carefully indeed. Speaking only of the New Testament, the Bible remains one of the very best set of life instructions known to man. There is only one, most important law. It is: To love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might, and to love thy neighbor as you love yourself. If this Law is followed to the letter, it isn’t possible to break even one of the old Ten Commandments. When Jesus was born, all prophecies from the Old Testament were fulfilled. The Old Testament passed away with the first coming of the Christ. The Ten Commandments were no longer relevant. According the Christ the only Commandment needed in order to not sin is: To love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your might, and to love your neighbor as you love yourself. This is how we can live more abundantly, which is as God wants us to live.
Blessed Be

Answer 4

The Bible contains 66 books, written by 40 authors, covering a period of approximately 1,600 years. These authors came from all walks of life and include kings, peasants, prophets, poets, fishermen, statesmen scholars, a businessman, a doctor and a missionary. It is separated into two major sections, the dividing place being the birth of Jesus Christ. The Old Testament and the New Testament. I do believe the Bible is the truth and find comfort and strenght from the Bible.

Answer 5

I believe that it is an inspiring work of literature. I believe it is someones interpretation of what happened. Yes it does contain messages of value and worth, in that we should each try to do our best to follow the examples that are within its pages. However, it is no more valid or invalid that any other religions inspiring works of literature. It contains no more or no less beauty than the works of Shakespeare, Hawthorne or Thoreau. The difference in the bible compared to every other piece of inspiring literature is that it is perfectly acceptable to take it at such a literal value. Many will die on its behalf. Many more will cause war, hate and death on its behalf. When you take things so seriously and so literally, without realizing/accepting the fact that this piece of literature, was written by fallible man at a time when the only ones who could read and write were those who had something to lose.(ie, Kings, Priests, Scribes, the Wealthy, etc.) If I were to walk up to a high majority of Christians and tell them "Hey I'm totally inspired by Shakespeare's Hamlet, so I'm going to live my life according to this." , the first thing they would do is condemn me to hell, as they always do. The next thing that would happen is they would probably try to have me committed so I couldn't spread my "rubbish" to others.

Each Holy Book has things that are beautiful, inspiring and valid truths. The problem arises when SOOOOOOOOO many of every faith are unwilling to accept the fact that there are multiple truths and we can each learn from others. A book of beautiful, inspiring messages becomes ugly and "evil" when such hate and inhumanity results from its very existence.

Answer 6

Don't Believe. I've read it a couple of times and The Bible contradicts itself all the time. Because of this you make it read into it into anything you would like it to say by picking and choosing what to read or believe in. One just has to look at all the different religions that are based on the bible and see that even those who base their life around it can't agree exactly what it says. There are some great stories and one can learn a great deal from them but what really happened will always remain a mystery.

Answer 7

Do you believe everything that you read? Do you believe in hearsay and gossip? Biblical passages are just stories!

The Bible has many authors. Authentic? Not likely.

Please read The Age of Reason by Thomas Paine. It was written in the 1700's.

Answer 8

I believe in the Bible because it's God's Holy Word. The Gospels (Matt. Mark. Luke. and John) are eyewitness accounts of Jesus ministry. It's easy to believe someone who 'saw' what happened, don't you think? And the Apostle Paul, was called by God, to preach to the Gentiles (unbelievers (not Jews) ). Jesus' brother even wrote a letter in the Bible. I think that the majority of people who don't believe God's word is inspired, is the ones who don't study seriously. It's easier to criticize than to learn and follow.

Answer 9

I believe it is the good book. It has so many important messages to convey.
However it has been around so long and has been edited too many times by men who have agendas. i think it has been tarnished through the centuries.
I also have a hard time with metaphors & literal parts I don't know which is which.
I've studied the bible with others but typically it's not a conversation it is usually someone telling me what something means.

Answer 10

For the sake of my own mind I have investigated the bible and I know it's a miracle how it was preserved and written. The fact that so many people had the same revelation through different generations and continents proves to me it's the inspired word of God. But the biggest reason I believe Is I have served God for 20 years and personally put his word to the test. I have been BLESSED to suffer enough to where I had to count on the promises of healing, being fed, clothed and taken care of by God himself. This is because I was married to someone who would not keep a job for quite a few years. When you are forced to put God's word to work because you have no other choice and you cannot "help yourself" it's then you see that his promises are true. We always have the choice like the children of Israel to grumble or complain or TRUST and believe him when we are in dire straights. But my experience is that God does what he has promised to do in his word. That has concreted it for me time and time and time again until nothing can penetrate my faith in God and his word.