Why believe the bible?

digderidoo

Why believe the bible? Why is it God's word or not?

A person should be 'Educated' about the Bible and understand the dynamics of this historical record which was used to shape Europe, the Americas, Africa, and the regions of Asia. Study it well enough to avoid its traps and pitfalls but definitely understand it well enough to recognize its influence on the culture you live in.

PSacramento

I was asked this a while ago and I said, simply:

I believe the bible to be what it is and don't believe it to be what it isn't.

To me it is:

A collection of books and writings written by Man about their views about God and things divine.

It represents a peoples history as told by a select group and how that history blends with their idea of God.

Soem of the writings are said to be inspired by God and others are the writings of man inspired to write ABOUT God, some are prophetic, some poetic, some history and some stories written to make a point or explain the nature of things, written by ancient man FOR ancient Man.

The bible is NOT:

A book of science, a literal book of the history of the world, The Word of God, to be take literally unless it is speaking about historical facts.

bohm

The Word of God, to be take literally unless it is speaking about historical facts.

so how do we distinguish historical facts from the non-historical parts? consider the following:

the kingdoms of David and Solomon? the wandering in the desert? The flood? The patriarks? the resurection of Jesus? the miracles of jesus? the consencus that supposedly caused Mary to go to jerusalem?

how can we know which of those are historical facts, and which are not? if many of these are not taken as facts because they are contradicted by archeology and history, how about the things that we cannot directly check, such as the virginity of Mary or the ascend of jesus to heaven?

just curious...

designs

Bohm- You are wise beyond your years Lotus Blossum. You ask all of the right questions. In response you get 10 different answers from 10 different Believers all claiming they they are getting special insight from God that smooth out all of the contradictions in the Bible.

Jesus says, Mark 13, that he will Return and take a husband or wife from their bed at night and leave the other to suffer in Hell, Paul says the Believer sanctifies the Unbeliever..............now watch the Believers reconcile the two opposing messages.

Bible Study is fun

bohm

thanks, designs! though I think theists and atheists are united in that critisising the bible and believing the bible require allmost no effort off the mind ;-).

I admire your resent vendetta against Jesus -- i must say you are truly going for the man rather than the ball. When i first got here i thought jesus must have said a lot of really bright, brainy things because people was allways talking about him (i had not read the bible).

so sometimes after finishing matthews and luke it dawned on me that the things jesus have said I would want to teach my kids are about equivalent in profoundness to the average disney movie, and then there is all the rest...

PSacramento

so how do we distinguish historical facts from the non-historical parts?

Well, you can always study the bible from a historical perspective and match it up with what we know based on history and archeology, keeping in mind that we don't know everything.

PSacramento

Jesus says, Mark 13, that he will Return and take a husband or wife from their bed at night and leave the other to suffer in Hell, Paul says the Believer sanctifies the Unbeliever..............now watch the Believers reconcile the two opposing messages

Dude, seriously, since you liek to advice people to know the real jewish faith to ask a Rabbi, I suggest to you, to KNOW what the NT is ACTUALLY saying to ask a NT scholar, ok?

Cause your "sunday school" knowledge of the NT is getting a bit dry.

I can understand your issues with it and I respec that, but your out of context quotes and your superficial knowledge of the NT is just that.

No Offense.

bohm

PS: should the default position be to accept a miracle which is not described outside the bible, or to put them as the same level of truth as a miracle described in eg. the Quaraan?

bohm

ps: as i understand your post, the following is not historical facts then:

garden of eden.
flood of noah.
exodus to egypt.
wandering in desert.
reconquest of israel.
that the first 5 books of the bible was written by moses.
kingdoms of solomon, david as described in the bible.

Why believe the bible?

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