What makes people think that the Bible, Torah, Koran etc. is the true word of God instead of just a book?

Question

I've read the Bible and it really didn't make any sense to me or prove anything to me. I didn't even think it was particularly well written or entertaining or relevant to modern times. So I don't understand what makes people believe the Bible, or books like it, is the word of God. It seems popular for people to refer to the Bible for proof that the Bible is true, but that doesn't make sense to me. That would be like me writing a research paper with the paper I'm writing as my source.

So what is it that makes people attach divine significance to these religious books?

Answer 1

There are several good reasons for believing the Bible was divinely inspired:

1. Fulfilled prophecy. - God spoke to men telling them of things He would bring about in the future. Some of them have already occurred. Others have not. There were more than 300 prophecies concerning Jesus Christ's first coming 2,000 years ago. There is no doubt that these are prophecies from God because of manuscripts and scrolls dated before the birth of Christ. These were not written after the fact. They were written beforehand. Scientific dating proves this. And the prophesies have come to pass.

2. Unity of Scripture - The Bible was written by a diverse group of approximately 40 human authors over a period of approximately 1,600 years. Yet, the great themes of Scripture are maintained in all the writings. The Bible does not contradict itself. There is no way, apart from God the Holy Spirit supervising the writing of the Bible, that this could have been accomplished.

3. Honest - The Bible presents its heroes truthfully with all of their faults and weaknesses. It does not glorify men as other religions do about their heroes. God did not withhold "the good, the bad or the ugly."

4. Archaeological and Cosmological Findings - support the history recorded in Scripture. In fact, in the past the Bible contradicted the current “scientific” theories, only to be proven later to be in fact true. A good example is Isaiah 40:22, which declared that God “sits on the circle of the earth” long before scientists claimed the earth was flat

5. Testimony - a diverse group of people who all attest within the pages of the same book that the scriptures are inspired. The testimony of historical, reliable witnesses - particularly of Jesus, but also of others such as Moses, Joshua, David, Daniel, and Nehemiah in the Old Testament, and John and Paul in the New Testament - affirm the authority and verbal inspiration of the Holy Scriptures.

Answer 2

The Torah, Bible and The Dead Sea Scrolls quote the actual words that are coming right out of the God Yahweh's mouth as He's talking to Moses and other prophets. Some of these quoted words are written in The Laws of Moses. How can I prove that these are the actual words of God? By the fact that whoever wrote this had a advanced working knowledge of microbiology and all the fields of science that evolved through the microscope 3500 years before mankind invented the microscope and even more time learning about the microscopic world, (the germ theory for one example). The Quran and all other religion's religious books do not contain any written proof of their god or gods advanced scientific knowledge. Proving that the God Yahweh is the one and only God.

Answer 3

If I think my religion is correct than it should follow the current science (facts not theories), right !

The Qur'an says in Surah Al Zumar, Ch. No. 39, Verse No. 5, it says…
(Arabic)…‘It is Allah who has created the heavens and the earth in true proportion and he overlaps and coils the night unto the day and overlaps or coils the day unto the night’.
The Arabic word used is, ‘Kawwara’ which means overlapping or coiling. How you coil a turban around the head - How you overlap a turban around the head. This phenomena of the night overlapping and coiling over the day is only possible if the shape of the earth is spherical. It is not possible if the shape of earth is flat - there will be a sudden change.

The Holy Qur'an further says in Surah Naziat, Ch. No. 79, Verse No. 30…. It says.
(Arabic)… ‘And thereafter, We have made the earth egg-shaped’.
The Arabic word ‘Dahaha’ comes from root word ‘Duhya’, meaning an Egg-shape and it does not refer to any normal Egg. It specifically refers to the Egg of an Ostrich - and today we know that the world is not completely round like a ball- It is Geo Spherical. It is slightly flattened from the top and bulging from the centre - It is Geo Spherical. And if you analyze the shape of the Egg of an Ostrich - it too is Geo Spherical, slightly flattened from the top and bulging from the centre. So the Holy Qur'an describes the exact ‘geo spherical earth’ 1400 years ago.

Previously we thought that the light of the Moon, is its own light. It is recently we discovered, that the light of the Moon is reflected light of the Sun.
The Qur'an says in Surah Furqan, Ch. No. 25, Verse No. 61…
‘Blessed is He who has created the constellations in the sky, and placed therein a lamp, and Moon having borrowed light’.
The Qur'an says in Surah Yunus, Ch. No. 10, Verse No. 5…
‘It is Allah who has created the Sun as a shining glory and the Moon having a reflection of light’.

U need proofs here r some and i hope it will be really helpful for all of u !!

Answer 4

I can't speak to the Quran, but the Bible and the Torah are not just books. They are compact libraries. The Bible was written over about a 3000 year time period. Yet different books by different authors reinforce each other, reporting fulfilled prophecies sometimes hundreds of years after they were given. That's not normal.
Also, there is archaeological evidence for many incidents in the Bible. If you look at what REAL historians say about it, you'll find that it is a well respected source text.

Believe it or not, laymen are not qualified to judge works like this. But for some strange reason, every pride-filled atheist in the world thinks they are smarter than real researchers.

Answer 5

I don't look at the Bible as God's book, but rather as God's guide.

It was written by people who had devoted themselves to God or Jesus Christ and what the Bible does, isn't give proof that God exists. Thats not the point. The point of the Bible is to teach people how to live the right life. Even if you are not a Christian you can imagine what the right life should be....

Killing and sacrificing really isn't apart of the right life and that is really why you think that Islam and Judaism don't exactly lead their people towards the right life. When you look at the Christian Bible, you see this book that gives direct tips to live the right life. For example in the proverbs it says something like if you are around wise people you will become wise just like them, but if you find yourself around the wrong people more often you will begin to do wrongs yourself." Whether you believe in God or not, don't you think that is true? If you had a kid wouldn't you give that same advice to your kid?

Thats what the Bible is...

Answer 6

Have you read the Bible searching for God?

I've studied it many many years and read the Bible many times over and the *only* conclusion I can come to is that it is a book that must have been created by God Himself. There is no other book like it on the face of the earth.

For instance have you looked at Genesis 22? Look carefully and you'll see a portrait of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ and the blessing that follows as a result of his death.

Have you read Psalm 22? Look carefully and you'll see a portrait of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.

The Bible is almost like one large puzzle with many many pieces created over a period of several thousand years with many different writers. The reason why you don't understand is because you see a book filled with pieces and it doesn't make any sense. Analyze the separate pieces carefully and start placing them together and you'll eventually end up with a complete picture.

Example:
In Revelation 1:12-16 we read about the "Son of Man" which is a picture of Jesus Christ.

In verse 16 we read "He had in His right hand seven stars, out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword, and His countenance was like the sun shining in its strength."

If someone reads this they may wonder what in the world is this sword that protrudes out of the mouth of Jesus? It doesn't make sense.

Ephesians 6:17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God;

The Bible is like a sharp double edged sword since it is capable of judging and condemning mankind for their sins.

Bear in mind that Revelation and Ephesians were written by two separate authors. Revelation was written by John and Ephesians was written by Paul. It's not like John had a copy of the book of Ephesians when he was exiled to the island of Patmos.

So the conclusion is:
#1 John knew already what the sword of the spirit represented and decided to lie by including this in the vision he saw in order to deceive people.

or

#2 There was a mastermind at work behind John's vision.

Answer 7

Oh my goodness; don't you get it? The bible is the word of God because the BIBLE SAYS it's the word of God! People who call that circular reasoning really just need to open their hearts to Jesus. I mean, sure, perhaps the Koran says it's the Word of God too, but the BIBLE doesn't say that the Koran is the word of God, so it can't be. The Bible is the final word on everything: all witches ought to burned, and all homosexuals are going to hell unless they pray to God for forgiveness and abandon their wicked ways. What we call dinosaur bones are just funny rocks put in the dirt by satan and the earth is only 6000 years old. Period, end of story. I'm telling you man, the Bible is all you need!

(And lest anyone mistake me for a gibbering idiot, yes, that was all sarcasm...)

Answer 8

I don't know for sure how other people feel about their religious books, but for me I love and believe in the Bible and Book of Mormon for many reasons.

First, I know that they are the word of God because of the feeling I get when I read about them and pray to get an answer and see if they are true. Many people will make fun of that last thing I said, but I don't care if they ridicule me as long as I know that what I feel is right. When I read them and then pray to ask God if they are true I feel happy, and have an assurance that they are true. I can't quite explain it right, but you have to experience it for yourself to really understand the wonderful feeling that you get that I am talking about.

Also, I love and believe these books to be the word of God because of what they teach. I believe that everything they say we can and should apply to our lives. I share many of the same values and standards that are taught in these books.There is nothing but good, righteous things that I find in them, and that is another reason of why I love them so much.

I hope I answered your question OK and now understand why certain books are so important to people. Thanx

Answer 9

The Bible was written by man and changed lots of times over the centuries
the Quran is the word of God and has not been changed since the 7th century

Answer 10

No matter how it is examined, the Fundamentalist position is not one that is rigorously reasoned out. It is a rare Fundamentalist who, even for sake of argument, first approaches the Bible as though it is not inspired and then later, upon reading it, syllogistically concludes that it must be. In fact, Fundamentalists begin with the fact of inspiration—just as they take the other doctrines of Fundamentalism as premises, not as conclusions—and then they find passages in the Bible that seem to support inspiration. They finally "conclude," with obviously circular reasoning, that the Bible confirms its inspiration, which they knew all along.

The Catholic method of proving the Bible to be inspired is this: The Bible is initially approached as any other ancient work. It is not, at first, presumed to be inspired. From textual criticism we are able to conclude that we have a text the accuracy of which is more certain than the accuracy of any other ancient work.

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