BIBLE - Inspired Word of God?

Billygoat

I may be asking a question that's already been addressed on another thread. If so, kindly redirect me. I read this post on another thread, which made me ask a question. Here is the quote...

The bible will never make sense, or provide answers. It doesn't have any.

I have always believed that The Bible was a manmade piece of literature, but the writers were inspired by God. I believed that when I was a JW and even now when I'm no longer a JW. So my question is born out of curiosity for others opinions - it's not to debate or trick anyone.

Who says the Bible was to provide answers?

As I get older I am beginning to look at it as a tool that asks the questions. Not a tool to provide the answers. I just feel that it's up to us to come up with the answers according to our individual conscience. What do you think???

Andi

philo

For me, the bible is old literature. It's about answers and questions, but one can't sum it up with anything so trite as 'the washing machine manual for living' as per JWs. The more I read it the more diverse it appears in it's scope, and the less relevant for today, especially when you consider Science.

The bible writings have been treasured through the ages more highly that any rare commodity, and so they have been subjugated by jealous authorities. My hunch is that these jealous ones have never been the same ones who did the writing, as creativity tends to be radical more often than conservative.

philo

AGuest

Hello, dearest BGoat... may you have peace... and may I respond? Thank you!

The "Bible" is not the 'inspired word of God'. The "Bible" in fact is not all 'inspired', nor it is all 'scripture'. "Scripture" is what God, through Christ, TOLD folks to write, and thus is "Moses, the Psalms, the Prophets and the Revelation". A good example of what is NOT 'scripture', because it was NOT 'inspired'... are the writings of Luke: the gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles. These were written NOT at the behest of God, but at the behest of Theophilus, a non-christian Roman ruler who wanted to know if what he had heard about the christians was true.

So, what IS the Word of God? The 'Bible' itself tells you:

John 1:1
John 1:14
Revelations 19:13

It is for this very reason... that the 'Bible' and 'scriptures' are NOT the Word of God, that my Lord is recorded to have said:

"You are searching the scriptures, because you THINK
that by means of them you will have everlasting life.
And these are the very ones that bear witness about ME...
and yet, you do not want to COME... to ME... that you
may have life."

I hope this helps out, BGoat... that you have 'ears to hear' and get the SENSE of it. And again I bid you peace.

A slave of Christ,

SJ

Silverleaf

Hello Andi,

Your question was: Who says the Bible was to provide answers?

I certainly think the Bible inspires questions, however the questions I had after reading it were not very pleasant ones and the answers I thought it was supposed to provide were not there.

I think the Bible is literature. That's all. Inspired perhaps by a desire to believe in God, but not inspired by God at all - if it were I think it would stand up better under scrutiny and it wouldn't be so easy to find contradictions. If someone finds answers in it that help them lead a better life, that's great. I found my answers elsewhere.

Just my 2 cents. A good question, though,

Silverleaf

Moxy

interesting thoughts bgoat. the bible is certainly an incredibly powerful and enduring piece of work, no matter what one thinks of it. if one finds spiritual value in it in nothing more than the questions it inspires, well then that's something at least. altho, i think you're just looking for meaningful questions and intend to search for answers thru other personal means, than one might as well look for inspiration in any given holy writings, say the collected works of Dire Straits for example. one would probably find that more enjoyable too.

mox

Moxy

double post

Francois

BG: I think several things about the bible. The first is that it contains partial answers to questions that were asked five thousand years ago. And the concept of God presented there is also five thousand years old. And this God's the one that's still worshipped in most judeo-christian religions: the angry, jealous, all too human big daddy in the sky.

I also think that the Hebrew scriptures are nothing more than the secular history of the Jews pumped up with fiction into a divine writ. Think about it. These scriptures were supposedly fostered and maintained by a group of men whom Jesus characterized as "white-washed graves. The offspring of vipers," and other discourageing words. These same guys were also famous for doctoring up their scriptures during the Babylonian captivity in order to give hope to the hopeless. And these guys can be depended upon to transmit "Gods" inspired word to future generations?

Right.

Francois

NOTE TO GOVERNING BODY: You've been challenged to a debate, boys. Dont you have ANY balls?

logical

AGuest said it all I think.

Francois

And one other thing:

That scripture that no doubt some troll is going to bring up? The "all scripture is inspired of God..."? That one?

Didja ever stop to think that in the time that the letter was being written to Timothy that "scripture" meant the Hebrew scripture? And nothing else? What we know as the Greek scriptures, the New Testament, didn't exist. And these letter-writing guys had no idea that their letters were going to be collected years and years later and presented to the world as the inspired word of God? So where does that leave us? With the OT only, according to the dictates of common sense. Of course, we're dealing with religion here. Common sense has nothing to do with it.

I kinda like the Tao Te Ching myself.

Francois

NOTE TO GOVERNING BODY: You've been challenged to a debate, boys. Dont you have ANY balls?

d0rkyd00d

What about all the books that weren't included in the Bible? From what i understand, a group of wise men long ago decided to leave out certain books from the Bible for some reason or another. Also, where are the books that are mentioned in the Bible, that we are told to refer to? check this website out. has some neato stuff.

* http://members.aol.com/beyondjw/incomp.htm

BIBLE - Inspired Word of God?

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