What is a Bible?

Craig Allen

Craig Allen

I'm a Bible believer. I'm sure many have come here claiming that, nothing new there.

But what do I believe? Well what does it say about itself?

Is it true?

Thy Word is truth - John 17:17 KJB

What is it's importance?

Part 1 - In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
- John 1:1 KJB

Part II - I will worship toward thy holy temple, and praise thy name for thy lovingkindness and for thy truth: for thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name. - Psalm 138:2 KJB

What will I gain from it? What will it do for me?

For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. - Hebrews 4:12 KJB

1. quick
2. powerful
3. discerner

Those are the attributes of a living thing, aren't they?

see - John 1:1 again for reference

What should I do?

Seek ye out of the book of the LORD, and read - Isaiah 34:16 KJB

Then what?

And Jesus answered him, saying, It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God. - Luke 4:4 KJB

At this point, the only question ie,

which part of EVERY don't you understand?

Thank you for your time,
Craig
 
Craig Allen said:
I'm a Bible believer. I'm sure many have come here claiming that, nothing new there.

But what do I believe? Well what does it say about itself?

Is it true?

Thy Word is truth - John 17:17 KJB

What is it's importance?

Part 1 - In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
- John 1:1 KJB

Part II - I will worship toward thy holy temple, and praise thy name for thy lovingkindness and for thy truth: for thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name. - Psalm 138:2 KJB

What will I gain from it? What will it do for me?

For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. - Hebrews 4:12 KJB

1. quick
2. powerful
3. discerner

Those are the attributes of a living thing, aren't they?

see - John 1:1 again for reference

What should I do?

Seek ye out of the book of the LORD, and read - Isaiah 34:16 KJB

Then what?

And Jesus answered him, saying, It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God. - Luke 4:4 KJB

At this point, the only question ie,

which part of EVERY don't you understand?

Thank you for your time,
Craig
Click to expand...

And I think most all believers will agree with you my brother. I know I do!
 
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I've always found statements about the inerrancy of scripture to be counterproductive and side that non-believers like to jump on. Using scripture to prove scripture infallable is also counterproductive as it is cirular reasoning at its finest.

Scripture is a record of what God has shown His people throughout the ages , but like anything that was given through man it is possible that it has errors. The numerous reprints and translational corrections make that very clear.
That said the amount of archeological and historic evidence of its validity is staggering if a person actually takes the time to look. The evidence of its study in the live's of God's people through the years is also great proof of the scripture being God's word.

I will never tell anyone to ignore scripture or imply that they should. Its value to the believer is inestimable and what can be learned from it never ceases to amaze me. For a believer (or non-believer for that matter) to ignore what it shows us would be unfailingly foolish.

If a person is preayerfully reading scripture and seeking then they will learn the value of God's word. No arguments over its inerrancy will be requirred.
 
I think he was meaning read the WHOLE bible, not just bits of it.
Its not called the HOLY Bible for nothing.
 
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eric m williams said:
I've always found statements about the inerrancy of scripture to be counterproductive and side that non-believers like to jump on. Using scripture to prove scripture infallable is also counterproductive as it is cirular reasoning at its finest.

Scripture is a record of what God has shown His people throughout the ages , but like anything that was given through man it is possible that it has errors. The numerous reprints and translational corrections make that very clear.
That said the amount of archeological and historic evidence of its validity is staggering if a person actually takes the time to look. The evidence of its study in the live's of God's people through the years is also great proof of the scripture being God's word.

I will never tell anyone to ignore scripture or imply that they should. Its value to the believer is inestimable and what can be learned from it never ceases to amaze me. For a believer (or non-believer for that matter) to ignore what it shows us would be unfailingly foolish.

If a person is preayerfully reading scripture and seeking then they will learn the value of God's word. No arguments over its inerrancy will be requirred.
Click to expand...

Yet biblical inerrancy is extremely important. The fact is......Christianity rests upon whether the words that are the basis of our faith are true or not true. The Bible reflects on the character of God and is foundational to our understanding of everything He wants us to know. Here are some reasons why we should hold to the importance of biblical inerrancy:

1. The Bible itself claims to be perfect. God's Word is not "mostly" true or "nearly" perfect. The Bible doesn't claim merely to be true in spiritual matters but not in other matters. No, the Bible argues for complete perfection, leaving no room for other options or theories.

2. The Bible stands or falls as a whole. If it claims to be perfect, it must not contain any error, or it is a book of error. If the Bible is wrong about geology, why should its theology be trusted? It's either a trustworthy document, or it's not.

3. The Bible is a reflection of its Author. If it is inspired by God and is God-breathed as it claims, then it must be perfect. If not, we have a major problem with the character of God.

To put it another way, if God can create the universe, He can certainly write a book. And, if He is a perfect God (if He's not perfect, He can't be God), then the book He writes must be perfect. Therefore, when we find a concern with the Bible, it may be an issue of interpretation or, in some cases, an issue of our understanding the right wording of the original text. However, the originally revealed words of Scripture come from God. That being the case, they must be perfect.
 
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? I'm sorry to hear someone got mistakes in his bible. Maybe ask what version(s) he is reading. Hope it's not the Massage Bible.
There's no mistakes in mine...and if there does seem to be a typo or something not spelled correctly I just ask God about it.
 
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Craig Allen said:
I had done so prior to posting, so apparently I've infringed upon one of the rules.

Which one specifically, please?
Click to expand...
Your haven't violated any of the rules, as staff, we send all new members the link to the rules.
 
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Well…
My post pretty much received the responses I expected.
I’m still figuring out how your system here works so please bear with me if my responses seem a bit jumbled…

Lanolin,
What a thing is called does not affect or change what that thing is. Many books (quran, book of mormon, etc…) and things in man’s history have been and are still called holy.
As a general teaching or discussion point simply calling it holy does not make it so.
There are many who think of and call the bible evil. Does that make it evil?
A little bit of research will show us that there have been a fair number of translation issues and corrections made to the King James version alone. Your own post demonstrates that you yourself have noted translation issues in at least one other version.
Please note the similarity between your “I just ask God about it.” remark and the last part of my original post.

Major,
The issue of the bible’s validity is important and I don’t think anyone here has stated or believes otherwise. My point is that statements/arguments about its validity tend to be counterproductive.
When dealing with other believers, I have found it a far more efficient use of time to simply just get into the word and let it convince them of its own veracity.
When dealing with immature believer’s, believers who have been discipled by churches who hold more to the world’s views than to God’s, with non-believers, or with those openly antagonistic to the things of God saying “It is true because it says it is true” is circular and does nothing but place a stumbling block in their path.
Given the way you posted, I’m willing to bet that if you saw someone using a similar reasoning pattern in something you found questionable you would catch it quickly.
A different example of circular reasoning:
The layer of earth that fossil was found in was laid down millions of years ago so that fossil we found in it must be millions of years old and if the fossil is that old, then the layer of earth it was found in must be millions of years old.

Craig,
Your response apparently ignored much of my post and imputed things that I did not say. Do feel that I should treat your posts the same way? If I do, there will be no room for discussion and possibly eventual fellowship.
It will only become a repetition the many ritualized and generally non-productive responses we see all over the net and in the dying churches across this country.
I try to consider the whole of what people say without addition and ask for the same consideration.

Some questions for all of us to consider (Joshua 1:8, psalm 77:12, psalm 119:15):
1. If the bible is without error then why are there so many translations within the same base languages (English, Spanish, etc…)?
2. If the bible is complete, then what is the point of all the commentaries, studies, and sermons that expound on what it says?
3. What do we do when the bible is taken from us (especially a new believer who hasn’t had time to take it to heart)?
4. What does an illiterate person or a person who cannot get a translation in a language they can read do with it?
5. How did the first church prosper without so much of what we now as the bible?
6. How can a new believer know they have a valid version as opposed to a feminist bible, a witness bible, a kanye bible, etc…?
Food for thought, and the kind of things that I have found many new believers who are just beginning to dig into the word ask.
 
?
If you just wanna argue, sorry, nobody taking the bait.
Scripture is written on believers hearts as they read it. Jesus is the Word made flesh, the bible is the written Word of God. God inspired men to write what He had to say and what he did to communitcate with us. The reason why its all collected into the library of books called the Bible is because God instructed his prophets to be his mouthpiece.
The last days he sent Jesus to be his Word in the flesh.

The reason why so many translations is cos God mixed up the languages in the tower of Babel. Only the Israelites spoke Hebrew. The first part of the Bible, the Old testament, was written in Hebrew. God chose the Israelites to be his people, and through them Jesus was brought to be the light of the World. At the time, Jesus spoke aramaic and also greek cos greek was the lingua franca but he also was obviously Hebrew. But the new testament account was written in greek.
Also at the time of Jesus, since so many Hebrews now spoke greek the Old testament...what we know call it, was translated into greek.

This was so everyone could understand it.

Later on things happened with the bible, things became omitted and lost or added, and these corrupt translations were passed on and became the latin bible, which you can trace, as latin at the time was lingua franca. But...it was a dead language in later years and the established church at the time refused to let the common ppl read scriptures in their own langauage.

However the original scriptures, still being preserved in their original language were still there. The translators of what was to become the king James Bible translated from the orignal language, hebrew and greek, into English. And that was how the KJV came about, but with much opposition from the established church who claimed their latin scriptures were not to be tampered with, even though nobody could understand them. Many were matyred cos of this, and now english speaking ppls could read the bible for themselves, they no longer had to rely on the established church for scriptures and instructions from God. They had His word for themselves. And they soon found out church practises were far from what the Bible said and how to conduct ourselves and even what doctrines to believe.

Today, english translations have come out cos the rival corrupt translators keep trying to discredit the KJV. But it has stood the test of time for over 400 years. I would say trust it as His word to you in english. Read it for yourself. pray and ask God to show you, cos even it is written that all scripture is God breathed. So ask the author. He is not the author of confusion.
 
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