[Home] [Headlines] [Latest Articles] [Latest Comments] [Post] [Mail] [Sign-in] [Setup] [Help] [Register]
Status: Not Logged In; Sign In
Religion Title: How do you know that the Bible is Divinely inspired? How do you know that the Bible is Divinely inspired? Leave a comment Posted by Anna Diehl on November 8, 2013 What we call the Bible today is a collection of old manuscripts that are believed to be Divinely inspired. The entire book did not magically appear one day out of thin air; instead the documents collected in it came into being at very different points in history. The ages of some manuscripts differ by centuries. It is important that we understand how our Bible came into being and what a tenuous thing its existence really is. After all, whos to say that the Bible you read is really the correct one? Within the Christian Church there are several different biblical canons (collections of books) in use. Some denominations include more books in their Biblesbooks which they believe to be every bit as inspired as the rest of Scriptures. Yet other branches of the Church reject these books as not inspired enough to warrant a place within our sacred Scriptures. Some Bibles include additional material for the books of Daniel, Esther, Psalms, and Jeremiahmaterial that other Bibles intentionally leave out. At some point we need to ask ourselves, Why do I believe my Bible is truly inspired by God? If our answer is just Because someone else said so, then we have a problem. We need a much better reason than this. Many Christians think the proof that the Bible is inspired can be found within the Bible itself: All Scripture is God-breathed and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness
(2 Timothy 3:16) But here we have a problem. This statement merely reflects one mans opinion of the Old Testament, not the entire Book. Have you ever met Paul in person? Of course not. So why do you put so much stock in his opinion? Why do you hang on his every word and blindly believe anything he says? Because your pastor tells you to? If your pastor told you to jump off a cliff, would you do it? We Christians have such trouble remembering that the New Testament didnt exist at the time it was being written. Every reference we find to Scripture in the Bible can only be referring to the Old Testamenteither part or all of it, depending on when the comment was made. The Jewish men who penned our Bible had never heard of the New Testament. When Paul wrote his letters to Timothy and various churches, he had no idea that his letters would be preserved for all time. When he wrote to the church in Rome, he wasnt trying add to what he considered to be inspired Scriptures. He was simply writing a letter to address certain issues, just as we write letters to people today. None of the New Testament authors were trying to expand the Scriptures. As far as they were concerned, the Scriptures plus the revelation of Jesus were complete and sufficient for training souls in righteousness. In their day, Jesus teachings were being spread about verbally and through individual letters like Romans, Colossians and Luke. There was no convenient collection of documents like we have today. Its important to realize that this Divinely inspired business is a manmade label, which is easy to misapply. The letter of Romans did not come floating down to us from the sky with the Holy Spirits Personal seal on it. It began as just a lettera document that could have been easily lost forever if someone hadnt gone to the trouble of preserving it. What makes us decide to preserve a letter that some random human jotted down to someone else? Well, it depends on who the human was. If he was a man we respect, such as the apostle Paul, then we take special interest in the things he wrote. We figure that when it comes to God, Paul was given some spiritual insights that we could all benefit from. We read what his letter says, we pray about it, and if our gut feels like it sounds inspired, we put in the Bible and declare that it is now a sacred document which must never be altered. This is how we got the book of Romans into the Bible. This is how all the books got into the Bible we use today. One by one, they were pulled out of a vast sea of written material and declared as Divinely inspired. First the Jews gathered together the books we now call the Old Testament. Later on, Christians decided to trust the Jews judgment about their Scriptures being Divinely inspired, and then they added on more documents which we now call the New Testament. So when you read your Bible, youre rifling through a collection of documents that some total strangers decided were trustworthy. You dont know who these people are, yet you are blindly trusting their judgment. Is this a good thing? Not really. If all youre doing is trusting in strangers, you could be just as easily talked into believing that some cultic book was the infallible and inerrant Word of God as well. After all, bibles arent unique to Christianity. Many religions have sacred scriptures, and many treat the writings of their prophets as Divinely inspired, even though those prophets were visited by angels who told them that Jesus was not the Son of God. If were going to risk our eternal future on other peoples opinions, visions, and dusty manuscripts, we could quite easily end up in Hell. Knowing the truth about who God is and what He wants from us is far too serious a thing to toy with. There are a lot of problems with trying to decide which documents are really worthy of receiving the Divinely inspired stamp. Authorship is a big one, yet were sometimes so impressed with a man that we get sloppy about testing the things he says. James, for example, makes some pretty farfetched claims in his book. He suggests that God will always heal the sick, as long as we follow a certa in formula of behavior and have faith. By now weve had time to learn that James guarantee simply doesnt work. No doubt he was sharing what his personal experience had been, but his immature claim has caused volumes of needless torment and guilt for sincere souls whose requests for healing were denied. James is also the one who gives us that famous resist the devil and he will flee from you line which has also led many astray into believing they can have a life free from demonic harassment. Not hardly. As long as we are on this earth, we will be attacked by demons and many battles will be very long and arduous, no matter how stalwart our resistance is. Satan doesnt flee for the hills the moment we start resisting him. Things are much more complicated than that. Satan couldnt ever attack us in the first place unless God was giving him permission to, and when God lets Satan have at us, He has a reason for putting us through the ordeal. Were supposed to be focused on growing through our trials, not just trying to escape them all through perfect prayers. Why did we keep the letter of man who has such underdeveloped theology? Because he was James. We consider his identity to be sufficient credentialsa system which has some obvious flaws. Interestingly, we dont even know who wrote some of the documents that we now cling to as sacred. Why are we keeping the teachings of an unknown author? Because the contents ring true to us. Authorship and contentsthats pretty much all we have to go by when dealing with old manuscripts. And of course theres no telling what archeologists might dig up tomorrow. What if they uncover another letter from the apostle Paul? Will we consider that Divinely inspired as well? What if Paul says something totally wrong? Will we keep it just because its a work of his hand end up leading generations of Christians astray? How do we know when weve made a mistake with our labels? How do we really know that all the books in the Bible should be in it? Many Christians try to argue that God obviously guided the formation of the Christian Bible, so thats why we know its what He wants. This is a very weak argument. God is in absolute control of this universe, yet He allows people to print lies and blasphemy about Him all the time. Just because God lets a book become published doesnt mean He approves of its contents. We cant just throw some documents together willy-nilly and call it a Divine revelation. Since you didnt personally assemble the contents of your Biblesince you didnt rifle through all the other documents available and do some serious studying and praying and comparing to see what sounded like an authentic message from God versus just someones opinion, <>how do you know that what youre reading is really true? We cant base our lives on words written by human hands simply because those humans claimed to be inspired by God. Any nutcase can claim to be inspired by God. Plenty of people claim the Quran is inspired by God. Others say the Book of Mormon is a sacred text that we should all be putting our trust in. Whos right and whos wrong? Are you going to risk the fate of your own soul based on someone elses claims? Today we are so used to having our Old and New Testaments that we cant imagine how we could ever come to know who God is without them. Yet as we turn back the historical clock, we find souls like Moses, Noah and Abraham coming to an understanding of who God is and what He wants without any Bible at all. There were no written Scriptures when these men first established personal relationships with God. Like us, they lived in a world that was filled with false religions and false gods. Everybody had a theory about who made the universe and what happened after death. Plenty of cultures had sacred writings and oral traditions that they considered to be divinely inspired. How could anyone possibly sort through such a mess to find the truthespecially someone without any access to Scripture? Its an impossible situation as long as we stick to the ridiculous assumption that God needs the help of a Book to teach us. But when we remember that the Holy Spirit is quite capable of illuminating souls without using any props, a lot of things start making sense. Your relationship is with God, not a Book. God can speak to you using anything He wants: the Bible, a movie, a song on the radio, a conversation with a friend. We mustnt become so narrow-minded that we start thinking we would be spiritually lost without our precious Bibles. Now of course it is a marvelous thing to have access to ancient documents which have been translated into languages we can understand. And if something were reading really was inspired by Godwell, what a thrill. Of course we want to pay close attention. But before we can get all excited, we have to receive some kind of confirmation from the Holy Spirit within our own souls that what were reading is something He feels is true and accurate. It is YOUR responsibility to be a discerning Christian. You cannot simply rely on the judgment of a bunch of dead theologians and scholars who lived long ago and decided the Scriptures you have are authentic. The only way youre going to be able to tell the difference between truly inspired documents and clever counterfeits is by going to God directly. You must remember that GOD is your end goal. You are building a relationship with a living, active, non-human Being. You arent just reading the Bible to study up on religious tradition like one studies up on the origins of Santa Claus. If you want to know God, you have to talk to Him directlyyou cant just sit around reading bits of paper. Prayer and focus are essential elements of discernment. If your soul isnt focused on the Holy Spirit when you read the Bible, and if you arent asking Him to show you His truths, then youre just wasting your time. Satan has all kinds of interpretations that hed like to shove on you, and unless you are in tune with God, youll be an easy sell for his lies. Countless Christian theologians, teachers, and laymen have gone far astray because they tried to use the Bible as a substitute for God. Without God, the Book is useless. Unless we are aligned with Him every time we read with a submissive, eager-to-learn, open minded attitude, we are just going to keep recycling the same lies that have been passed around the Church for years. You need God to teach you truth, and as a Christian, you have Him dwelling right inside of you all the time. Now you just need to be wise enough to listen to Him. Dont be impressed by manmade credentials and degrees. Many souls who have spent thousands of dollars to purchase a doctorate in biblical studies are total idiots when it comes to Gods truth because they arent listening to Him. You dont have to follow their bad example. By all means, read your Biblebut only receive from it truths that the Holy Spirit is giving to you. Dont let Paul, James, Luke, Matthew or anyone else be your final authority in life. Listen to God Himself, and He will tell you when the words of other men have merit for you. So then, is all Scripture really God-breathed? Dont take Pauls word for it. Ask the Holy Spirit. Hes the only One who really knows.
Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread Top Page Up Full Thread Page Down Bottom/Latest Begin Trace Mode for Comment # 5.
#1. To: Orthodoxa, redleghunter, TooConservative, Vicomte13, A K A Stone, Liberator, A Pole, GarySpFc (#0)
OK, guys, have at it. I bolded and underline the parts that resonate mopst with me.
If you're a reader, then you have favorite authors. You can pick up a book and know that it was the work of your favorite author because of his/her distinct style. The Bible is the same way. Perhaps there were many pens but one author. I suggest that others divide the Bible into parts. Start with Genesis, Psalms, Isaiah, Matthew. Read a couple of paragraphs from each portion per night...takes about 10 minutes. You will be stunned as the author's style unfolds. It takes a year to read. I did this while teaching a Bible study group in the 80's. I was stunned that this group did not know the scriptures. The Lord had a surprise for us. (I also read the 10 min. per night) On Easter, the scriptures spoke of his death and resurrection. I asked the people if they were up to date on their reading. They were not, so they missed the blessing! I didn't plan it that way, it's just the way it happened. Holy Spirit, indeed.
I have done so. I took four years of Theology in undergraduate school. "I was stunned that this group did not know the scriptures." SO, are they condemned to Hell because of that?
Of course not. They believed John 3:16. It is important that they know their scripture just to survive life here, a guide on how to live your life and fight off temptations. They need to know what the future is, that they might understand and watch as prophecy unfolds. It inspires deep faith and commitment, because we see the world for what it is.
There are no replies to Comment # 5. End Trace Mode for Comment # 5.
Top Page Up Full Thread Page Down Bottom/Latest |
[Home] [Headlines] [Latest Articles] [Latest Comments] [Post] [Mail] [Sign-in] [Setup] [Help] [Register]
|