Having Faith in the Bible

by william draper 75 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  opusdei1972

  Could the following reading be fruitful for my son of 9 years old?

  The word of the Lord came to me: 2 Son of man, there were two women, daughters of the same mother. 3 Even as young girls, they were prostitutes, serving as prostitutes in Egypt. There the Egyptians fondled their breasts and caressed their virgin nipples. (Ezekiel chapt. 23)

  
  

  Now, suppose a young woman was raped by a man, so, should I use the following verse so as to give comfort to her?:

  28 If a man comes upon a young woman, a virgin who is not betrothed, seizes her and lies with her, and they are discovered, 29 the man who lay with her shall give the young woman’s father fifty silver shekels and she will be his wife, because he has violated her. He may not divorce her as long as he lives. (Deut. chapt. 22)
  

  
  

  Any thoughts??
  

  
  

  
  
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  Chris Hannover

  Draper's point is not about the legitimacy or virtue of the Bible. Draper's point is that we were fooled by false teachers.

  In the first sentences of the OP, he states that "ones do not have the right perspective" and "We have usually been taught by bad teachers , or ignorant."

  He is discussing the quality of the teachers, not the validity of the Bible.

  This thread is just Draper claiming to be the true teacher and that we should listen to Draper. He made the point (intentionally or unintentionally) that we were fooled by false teachers and that he can lead us to the truth about the Bible.

  It all seems too familiar.
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  Village Idiot

  William draper,

  "...condemning everything in it , because of some things that are not understood or appreciated ."

  Actually it is those things which are clearly understood about the Bible that brings it condemnation. My list above provides examples.
• 

  Finkelstein

  The bible is just a historical reference of people who lived thousands of years ago who were too ignorant of the world they lived in to know much of anything else.

  They still tried particularly when Jesus appeared to promote better social moral behavior.

  It was their reality and human experience just like are own today.
  
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  steve2

  William, the Bible deserves scrutiny in the exact same manner as do ALL books claimed to be the "Divine" word.

  During the immediate time period in which Joseph Smith produced the Book of Mormon, religious critics vigorously exposed its innumerable flaws and pronounced it the work of man.

  A prominent judge of the day acknowledged the critics' powerful arguments against the Book of Mormon. He noted something that is as compelling today as it was almost 200 years ago:

  if those same critics had turned their critical eye to the Holy Bible they revere so much, it too would not withstand the resulting scutiny. That judge was subsequently loudly denounced.

  I suspect the same could be said of any "Holy" book: Products of man (and occasionally woman) to the very last.
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  Coded Logic

  William,

  Why do you believe the Bible is the word of God? Have you ever read the Bible? What sort of metrics do you use to discriminate between divinely inspired works and not divinely inspired works? How do you know what parts of the Bible God wanted included and what parts God didn't want included?

  Why would anyone believe that God inspired it? And how could anyone know that?
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  Garrett

  Double post :(
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  Garrett

  I will agree that the bible does have some good in it, especially the New Testament, however, you cannot ignore the fact that the bible has bad in it as well such as those that were mentioned by some of our fellow members. Yes the New Testament has some good morals in it such as the golden rule, but frankly, we are all born with the same moral compass. For example, a person not raised in a religious household will have the same moral code as a Christian. They will know stealing, killing, lying, etc is wrong.

  Now let me ask, what makes the bible any different from the holy books of other major religions such as Islam, Hinduism, taoism, Sikhism etc? What if you were born in a part of the world where the major religion was Hinduism? Would you have the same view of the bible as you do now? Would you not hold the view that your religions holy book is the truth and the bible is not?

  Lastly (Going a bit off topic) every holy book claims divine authorship, just like the bible, so without thoroughly looking into all those how can you know for sure that your book is the truth? I mention this because I assume you're a theist who believes in the Bible. The points you make are the same points people all around the world make to defend their beliefs just like you are doing.

  Hopefully that made some sense, I just woke up :p

  Peace,

  Garrett
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  kaik

  Bible does not have Divine authority. Even in the late antiquity when Christianity became dominant, it became clear in Eastern Roman Empire and later in Catholic Europe, that Bible cannot be used as source for laws, or moral codex. Various Christian kingdoms had to compromise their beliefs with reality when it comes to laws and they had to pick something more qualified like Roman laws over antiquated, impractical, Mosaic laws of the OT. If we take away issues of slavery, wrong Earth's history, abuse of children, wife, etc., it cannot be taken as authority. Bible shows what long gone civilization thought about Divine order and they tried to interpret it such way.
  
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  steve2

  Perhaps the mistake we have made in responding to William Draper is to assume he is really interested enough in our answers to carefully consider them. We are simply providing him a springboard to promulgate his cherished beliefs. He follows the JW method: Give impression of being interested in people's answers to your questions but use this as opportunity to advance your own agenda. Some exchange, huh?