Is the Bible God's word? Help please.....

by Freeandclear 47 Replies latest jw friends

  • jws
    jws

    The best book to tell you the Bible isn't inspired is the Bible itself.

    IMO, if this was the word of god, the stories would make sense and it would all agree. There would be no contradictions. If it were god's word he'd also protect it so that it's all there and properly translated. He'd also write it in such a way that there would be no ambiguity - even after translation.

    I started a document when arguing with JWs. PM me if you want to read it. Some contradictions:

    How many birds on the ark? Gen 6:20 or Gen 7:3?

    Was Nimrod a son of Cush? Gen 10:7 or Gen 10:8

    How did the Egyptians keep getting livestock? Ex 9:3, Ex 9:6, Ex 11:5, Ex 12:12, Ex 14:9, Ex 14:17,18

    How many times were the Amalekites totally destroyed and were they really? 1 Sam 15:7-9, 1 Sam 27:8-9, 1 Sam 30:1-2, 1 Sam 30:17-19

    Exodus 17:14 is one of the stupidest verses in the Bible. if you're going to wipe out a name from history, why put it in the most popular book in history? Really? An intelligent being wrote this?

    Who told David to take a survey? 2 Sam 24:1 or 1 Chronicles 21:1

    How many years of famine did Gad offer David? 2 Sam 24:13 or 1 Chronicles 21:11-12

    How many charioteers did David capture? 2 Sam 8:3-4 or 1 Chronicles 18:3-4

    How many baths? 1 Kings 7:25--26 or 2 Chronicles 4:4-5

    Check out the counts between Ezra 2 and Nehemia 7, line for line and see if they agree. Descendants of Pahath-Moab, Arah, Zattu, Bebai, Azgad, Adonikam, Bigvali, Adin, or Hashum, but keep on comparing. Like how many male and female singers?

    Who was Maakah's father? 2 Chronicles 13:1-2 or 2 Chronicles 11:18-21? And how could she be Absolom's daughter, if he only had one: Tamur? (2 Samuel 14:27)

    Skipping a bunch....

    Who was Joseph's father (of Joseph and Mary)? Matthew 1:16 or Luke 3:23

    Who was Uzziah's father? Matthew 1:8 or 2 Chronicles 26:1-2

    Was John the Baptist Elijah? Matthew 11:11-15, Matthew 17:10, 11-13, John 1:19-21

    How did Simon Peter find out Jesus was the Messiah? Matthew 16:16-17 or John 1:40

    Was Jarius's daughter already dead when he came to Jesus or dying? Matthew 9:18-19 or Mark 5:22-24

    At Jesus' baptism John knows he's the messiah but then later has to send people to find out if he's the messiah. Mathew 4:13-17, John 1:29-34, Matthew 11:2-3.

    How did the soldiers identify Jesus? By the kiss of Judas or did he identify himself while Judas hung back? Matthew 26:47-49 or John 18:2-12

    When did the curtain on the temple rip? Before or after Jesus' death? Matthew 27:50-53, Mark 15:37-39, Luke 23:44-46

    Does god punish children for the sins of their parents and vice versa or does each person stand on their own merits? Ex 20:5-6, Ex 34:5-7, Duet 24:16, Numbers 14:18, Ezekiel 18:20

    Has anybody gone up to heaven but Jesus? John 3:13, 2 Kings 2:11-12

    How many children did Saul's daughter Michal have? 2 Samuel 6:23 or 2 Samuel 21:7-8 These two things are in the same book. C'mon!

    Does god stay angry forever? Michah 7:18 or Jeremiah 17:4

    That's some of the contradictions. Some of them are clearly contradictory, no wiggle room. It isn't something like Judas' death where you can imagine where he hung himself over a cliff and the rope broke and you could say he spilled on the ground or hung himself. When it says Saul's daughter Michal "HAD NO CHILDREN TO THE DAY OF HER DEATH", that's pretty clear. Or that she had 5 sons. That's clear too. Both cannot be true. No twisting of doctrine or squinting can make it true.

    If the bible is God's word, why didn't he preserve all of it? Where is the book of Jashar (Joshua 10:13, 2 Samuel 1:18), the Book of the Wars of the Lord (Numbers 21:14-15), The records of Samuel the Seer, the records of Nathan or the records of Gad (1 Chronicles 29:29-30), or the Annals of the kings of Judah (1 Kings 14:29). Or where are all 3000 proverbs and 1,005 songs (1 Kings 4:29-32)?

    There are various technical errors and just plain stuff where you go "that's stupid". Or would an intelligent being do that?

    The only thing that really comes out of this is it was written by men over various years and does NOT sync with each other. In some cases, even the same book was written by multiple people like the 2 different accounts of creation.

    But I'm sure there are other books out there by scholars too.

  • cofty
    cofty

    Ehrman teaches his students to read the gospels "horizontally".

    What he means by that is to read a particular account in Mark (the oldest gospel) and then read the same account in Matthew and in Luke. You will easily notice how inconsistent they are. Try it with the birth and death narratives in particular and you will see what he means.

    Mark doesn't even bother to tell us anything about a virgin birth - or the ressurection. Matthew and Mark cannot be sensibly reconciled. They both need Jesus in Bethlehem to fulfil a tenuous OT prophecy but they use different stories to get there. One has Mary and Jospeh living in Bethlehem, then fleeing to Egypt and moving to Galilee later to escape Herod. Then other has them living in Galilee, going to Bethlehem for an imaginary census and then returning to Galilee.

  • Ding
    Ding

    Entire books have been written about this subject.

    For the Christian view, you might read the relevant chapters in Grudem's Systematic Theology or books by F.F. Bruce, such as New Testament Documents: Are They Reliable?

    Lee Strobel discusses the topic to some extent in his Case for Christ and Case for Faith books.

  • breakfast of champions
    breakfast of champions
    xjwsrock I heard about this book on a podcast I plan to read -
    God: The Most Unpleasant Character in All Fiction
    by Dan Barker

    I was thinking of ordering this book myself. Looks like an interesting read.

    I've also enjoyed listening to "The Bible Geek" podcast.

  • slimboyfat
    slimboyfat

    Robert M Price the Bible Geek he is the best! I've listened to all his podcasts.

    And don't forget his lesser known podcast The Human Bible!

    http://www.thehumanbible.net

  • OneGenTwoGroups
    OneGenTwoGroups

    2nd John 12,13

    12 I have much to write to you, but I do not want to use paper and ink. Instead, I hope to visit you and talk with you face to face, so that our joy may be complete.

    13 The children of your sister, who is chosen by God, send their greetings.

    When you read these verses, do they sound like the words of the Creator of the universe, or do they sound like some religious dude writing just another letter. Obviously the writer of these passages wasn't worried about transmitting God given messages in his head to other humans.

  • slimboyfat
    slimboyfat

    Excellent episode:

    Does the New Testament say that Jesus is God?

    http://www.thehumanbible.net/episode_030/

  • breakfast of champions
    breakfast of champions
    slimboyfat Robert M Price the Bible Geek he is the best! I've listened to all his podcasts.
    And don't forget his lesser known podcast The Human Bible!

    The Human Bible is also an excellent podcast. A little better "production values" than Bible Geek, but the information in both is great. He also seems like a good guy (had an email exchange with him a couple years back).

  • Crazyguy
    Crazyguy

    Google Yahweh and read Wikipedia on the name. Then google the city named Ugarit. Then google the God named El. You'll will start to see the connection. Google the book of Amenope. Google the writings of the Enuma Elish. Google Mesopotamian flood stories.

  • 060702015
    060702015

    To be fair, the bible is suppose to be symbolic in parts. Problem is which parts?

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