do you believe that bible was inspired by God? if so why not other holy books and why not other literature?
352316
2 Timothy 3:16, “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.” \n\n“prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.” Peter 1:21\n\nA correct view of God will lead one to a correct view of His Word. Because God is all-powerful, all-knowing, and completely perfect, His Word will by its very nature have the same characteristics. The same verses that establish the inspiration of the Scriptures also establish that it is both inerrant and authoritative. Without a doubt the Bible is what it claims to be - the undeniable, authoritative, Word of God to humanity.
497036
Your concept of the books of the bible are totally wrong.\nThe bible writers were chosen by God and their writings weren't just added together.\nThe library as we know it, now bound together was written over nearly 6 thousand years.\nYou cannot make a holy man of yourself. If not inspired of God, nothing will happen. You would be looked on today as a KOOK and ignored
407946
In one way, Bible is God's letter of introduction. He described His character through the Bible so that people may know Him. I don't think that He would allow His character to be misrepresented by wrong translations, cause it is His character we, people, can rely on (among other things). If God is omnipotent, I am sure He could and can find a way to prevent some catastrophic errors to appear in the Bible which would lead its readers into wrong assumptions and beliefs.
291600
with no doubt the Holy Bible is God words ... but how can we follow it if it has been changed many times over years! ... how can we trust a verse that is true and other is not ...\n\n\n\n" But on account of their breaking their covenant We cursed them and made their hearts hard; they altered the words from their places and they neglected a portion of what they were reminded of; and you shall always discover treachery in them excepting a few of them; so pardon them and turn away; surely Allah loves those who do good (to others). "\n\n\nThe Holy Qur'an\n005.013
393361
How long do you think it will be before a person or group successfully reassembles the bible to include recently discovered religious texts that they feel better suit modern times?\n\nNever.  For all practical purposes, the Bible as now been “set in stone.”\n\nWhat do you think about this?\n\nI believe that those who tend to be the loudest on this topic have either done the least amount of study or have very extensive time invested in their current belief.  Most claim as articles of fact pieces of information which are not true.  Less than one in one billion (if any) could give me that actual names of the men who met to determine which books and works were included in either Testament.  Yet they propose that these men were inspired by G-d to make these choices for all time.  They are seem to ignore that most works which were not included were systematically searched for and burned as heretical.  The mere fact that any remain after 2000 years is a miracle.\n\nWhat will the cultural/spiritual ramifications of this be?\n\nA continuation of our current position.  As beautiful as the KJV is to read, it is flawed.  This fact has been shown over and over again by scholars who do know the languages involved.  Yet look at the number of supporters that it has.  The sad part of this is that many who claim to understand the meaning of the KJV of the Bible (which is a very serious and metaphysical work) do not understand and cannot follow a simple Shakespearean play (which is light entertainment) that was written at about the same time.  What does this yell you about the ignorance of humans?  And ignorance is bliss.\n\nIf God is really solely responsible for the bible's contents why does he have hundreds of millions of Christians using different versions?  And how would a new version be any worse?\n\nThose humans who claim to be privileged to the plans or purposes of Divinity are deluded.  No human has that capability.  Only Divinity is perfect.  Humanity is arrogant, not understanding that the message is important, not the delivery of the message.  Those that must quote scripture for every answer (especially those claiming that it is the Word of G-d) are probably idolaters.  They have worshipped the written word instead of Divinity.  Each believing that they are right and all others wrong.  They are the cause of the fragmentation of the Church and people like them are usually too stubborn to see their own sins.\n\nA new version of the Bible is not needed.  These recently discovered and translated works should be made available to the widest reading audience for study and debate.  At least by those who are capable of understanding that Humanity did not have the message right then and still is lacking in understanding.  This is human nature.  Divinity is the only proper judge; and Divine Judgment, unlike human opinion and understanding, IS perfect.
575026
The Bible is a mythological tale. Do you actually believe that the red seas parted or that stone became bread? Perhaps there was a saint and he had many followers, Also perhaps some of the incidents described did happen, but the truth has been exxagerated to become a description of a super-human. And therefore, take the Bible, or for that matter most of the Holy Books with a pinch of salt. It is meant to evoke faith and thankfulness that there is a superpower above us who can do things that we can't(simply translated to hope!) Again, many versions of The Bible exist. Popular ones do not refer to Mary or his descendents.
239924
This is a question that I've always asked.  I see it as being closed-minded to believe that the Bible is 100% true.  It was written my man, not God.  It is human nature to exaggerate stories, and that's what the Bible is; stories.  I believe that there is truth in the Bible, but I think it's nuts to assume all of it is true.
1021917
since you know the word: hermeneutics I will assume you know the word inspiration and the idea that the holy spirit inspired all texts. While it is true that the bible was written to a certain culture in a certain time, the holy spirit inspired the text so that it's principles, themes, ideas, and truths can still be applied to us.
1123572
Since the bible was inspired by God, and it says so in many places including the ones mentioned above, then it must be God's word.  He would not inspire the bible writers to write someone elses words.
785053
And how are you any different from us? Do you have access to information that did not come from mortal men? And what might that information be?\n\nTry this hypothesis on for size: the Bible is just a book, written by mortal men, who lived at a time when written language was only recently acquired. Their culture was still based in oral tradition. The books they wrote that became the books of the Bible were just those oral traditions. The God of Abraham is just a very successful camp fire story. The Bible is a collection of myths.\n\nNow consider your theistic hypothesis. The God of the Hebrew Bible is the real God who created the universe, as described in Genesis. Every word of the Bible is his word.\n\nFinally, consider the evidence you have directly available to you, aided by all knowledge that mankind has been able to accumulate by working together, making observations about the natural world, creating hypotheses to explain those observations, creating experiments to test those hypotheses, and publishing their results so that other people can independently verify their results.\n\nYour task is to take the two hypotheses above (the Bible is myth vs. the Bible is the true word of a real God) and see which hypothesis makes more sense.\n\nI was raised Christian. I've studied religion, and I've studied many branches of science.  To me, the Bible is myth hypothesis is much more consistent with the evidence.
66282
Many Christians, Jews and Muslims believe that God authored the bible. They believe in the inerrantacy of the bible because it is claimed to be inspired by God himself. If the bible is inerrant, without error, then they reason that  the bible must be literally true. The problem for them then is to interpret the bible so any inconsistancies can be explained within the entire bible when read as a whole continuous work. The bible was written by 40 or more individuals over perhaps 1500 years. Reading it as a whole continuous work inspired by God, does not leave room for the evolution of religious thought not to mention the evolution of the Universe and Mankind. This is "Group Think' on a global scale. I am not saying that the bible is not inspired by God, but it should be read in literary form not literal form. In the area of ethics and morals I believe the bible is more literal in nature. God communicates directly with his creation through Science, there is no middle man. Scripture has man in the middle, communicating ideas with his own limited understanding of the world. When fundamentalists are confronted with the science of evolution, they just do not believe it. Some will try to find ways to expain the Universe so it is in agreement with the bible. Examples would be that radioisotope dating is wrong or the Universe was created to look billions of years old when it is less than 10,000 years old. It does seem ridiculous to reasonable people.
757639
1. No, It contains all the recorded words of God that He inspired to be passed down orally and then later put into written form. It contains what God wants us to have, that gives us pertinent information to allow us to live holy and godly lives.\n\n2. No, There is no other need for additional or supplemental material to be classified as "holy scriptures". With the closing of the book of the Revelation of St. John the Divine. no more scriptures have been or will be added. \n\n3. In the Bible is all the doctrine we could want if we as true born again Spirit filled Christians would live and this completely to the fullness of God. The doctrines that are found and established therein are there because controverseries arose in the early church and hereseys were beginning to creep in. So the epistles were birthed. The reason for the gospels was that those who were first witnessed to Christ were aging and the Spirit inspired them to put their account into written form. These were later copied with minute precision to which the errors that we have found do not undermine a single doctrine noted there in. \n\nEventhough there may be writings found, such as the Dead Sea Scrolls the rule that made the books of the Bible into a canon, that none other books have met the criteria. These were to have been written by an apostle, or someone known by the apostles (Luke, Mark) or have a high spiritual content (like the book of Hebrews), or to have been agreed upon by the original founding fathers of the church by AD 100.\n\n4 The Bible pertains to all needs to grow in grace in all holiness, godliness and fear of the LORD, to lead each succeeding generation of followers into greater and rewarding light that in each and every generation there is enough scripture to produce revival in every generation - if only we believe wholeheartedly in the word of God.\n\n5. References\n\n2 Timothy 3:15-16 and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scripture which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness  so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped  for every good work\n\nHebrews 4:12-13 For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrows; it judges the thoughts and intents of the heart. Nothing in all of creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.\n\nRevelation 22:18-20 I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds anything to them, God will add to him the plagues that are in this book. And if anyone takes away from this book of prophecy God will take away from his share in the tree of life and in the holy city which are described in this book.\n\nSee also 2 Tim ch.s 3 - 4
553918
Actually, God is the Author of the gospel of Mark. The bible is the Inspired Word of God, written down by human hands for the benefit of mankind.
550140
When people speak of the Bible being inspired, they are referring to the fact that God divinely influenced the human authors of the Scriptures in such a way that what they wrote was the very Word of God. In the context of the Scriptures, the word inspiration simply means “God-Breathed.” Inspiration communicates to us the fact the Bible truly is the Word of God, and makes the Bible unique among all other books.\n\nBecause the Scriptures are the inspired Word of God, we can conclude that they are also inerrant and authoritative. A correct view of God will lead one to a correct view of His Word. Because God is all-powerful, all-knowing, and completely perfect, His Word will by its very nature have the same characteristics. The same verses that establish the inspiration of the Scriptures also establish that it is both inerrant and authoritative. Without a doubt the Bible is what it claims to be - the undeniable, authoritative, Word of God to humanity.
1060680
I never thought the bible is a myth...the bible is a book written by man, why should I base my life and beliefs on a book?  Just because it was written a long time ago?
384087
The Scripture is inspired by God, and this not any street inspiration but one of divine origin. "God-breathed" says it all about the divine nature of the Scripture. However, when we speak of the inerrancy and infallibility of the Scripture, it is only referring to the original writings of the biblical authors, and is not extended to those translations that we have in our hands today. Once we understand that inspiration relates to the original writings, we would be able to better appreciate the transmission and translation issues. \n\nFirstly, transmission issues relates to the copying of the manuscripts or how well the original writings are preserved down the ages by the hands of scribes. At this point, please bear in mind that those duplicates of the original writings are not considered to be God-breathed, only the original writings are. In a sense, the duplicates are "God-breathed" only to the extent of how well the original writings are preserved intact via copying word for word and not adding nor subtracting a letter. But obviously, some mistakes during the copying process are inevitable and discrepancies may arise among the different manuscripts or duplicates. Nevertheless, where there are variances between the different manuscripts, none of them hinge on a major doctrine, and we can safely conclude that we are able to know the message of the original writings without distortion. Even when there are discrepancies, they are usually of relatively minor issue such as grammatical structure which doesn't affect any relatively major doctrine. \n\nSecondly, we have the translation issue which relates to how well we translate the duplicates from one language to another. And how well a translation is, depends on the translators' capability to translate accurately and the translators' understanding of the manuscripts. Some may argue that one might never know what the manuscripts say, but the fact is that we do have able translators on the translation task. Moreover, whether the manuscripts should be translated word-for-word or thought-for-thought or somewhere in between is something the translators have to deal with too. A side note is that different translations may be based on different textual choice such as the critical text or majority text, which will explain why there is no uniformity between some translations. \n\nTo recap, we can say that God has amazingly preserved His Word down through the ages from distortion and we can understand His will through His Word by His Spirit. And as a concluding remark, it is my opinion that there is no perfect translation (because inerrancy and infallibility belongs to the original writings and not the translations) and therefore would prefer to use the variety of existing translations instead on relying on some only.
779081
Some say that the Bible is nothing more than fairy tales. But this cannot be for it contains great wisdom and truth and it has been verified throughout history as being accurate.  Its historical accounts are flawlessly accurate. In fact, archaeology routinely demonstrates the accuracy of the biblical records concerning locations and events recorded in the Bible.  \n\nThe Bible is a collection of 66 books written by about 40 authors, in three different languages, on three different continents, over approximately 1600 years. The Bible claims to be inspired and inerrant. This means that the Bible claims to be from God and that it is without error in everything it addresses.\n\nThe Bible contains many different styles of writing such as poetry, narration, fiction, history, law, and prophecy and must be interpreted in context of those styles. It is the source of the Christian religion in that the Bible contains the words of God and how the Christian is to apply the words of God to his life.\n\nBasically, the Bible describes the origin of man in the Garden of Eden along with his fall into sin and out of fellowship with God. It then describes how God called out a special people to Himself, the Israelites. He promised the Israelites a future Messiah who would restore mankind's relationship with God. The Bible is the account of the work of God in history bringing to fruition His prophetic declarations concerning Jesus.  Jesus was born of the Virgin, died on the cross, and paid for sins, just as the Bible prophesied in the Old Testament and fulfilled in the New.  In short, the Bible points to Jesus, "You search the Scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is these that bear witness of Me," (John 5:39).  \n\nFurthermore, the Bible teaches us that forgiveness of sins is found in Jesus alone, "And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men, by which we must be saved,” (Acts 4:12).