1. Men accidentally corrupted the Bible despite trying not to (example: compare the list in Ezra 2 with the list in Nehemiah 7)
2. Satan is more intelligent and more powerful than any man
3. Satan is motivated to corrupt the Bible
4. ???
5. Satan cannot even corrupt the Bible to the same degree that man has
If you admit that Satan actually has corrupted the Bible, then boy are you in trouble. So premise 4 must be, "God manually prevents Satan from corrupting the Bible."
But then why doesn't God also manually prevent scribes from corrupting the Bible, especially if we can agree that they are probably praying for such divine intervention (John 14:13)? This would not be a vulgar miracle, nor would it be the overriding of free will. I know that some Bibles will be corrupted by man - I could easily type one up myself and change some things - but why has God allowed the corruption of the text to get so bad that there is not a single perfect copy on earth? And how does this reconcile with Psalms 12:6-7?
The Bible is reliable and any "errors" will be explainable somehow.
For example: I watched a Hebrew Scholar teach on the kings listed in 2 lists and the years counted for the generations.
I can't remember the details now, but the gist of it was that the years tallied correctly when you took out the years the unrighteous Kings of Israel reigned.
In that is a very special message: God doesn't count the evil generations.
He only counts the God-fearing generations.
Are there mysteries in the Bible? YES!
Are they for everyone to know and understand? NO!
God said the secrets of the Lord are for those who fear Him and He will make them know HIS covenant: Psalms 25:14
If you want to START to learn the secrets of the Lord you first have to seek Him with all your heart (Jeremiah 29:13) because you believe He exists (Hebrews 11:6).
If you haven't first asked God to prove to you whether or not He's real, you won't be able to move onto the more complicated / hard to understand parts of the Bible.
Some Christians are like Thomas, they need proof for things! Awesome! God can prove Himself no problem as Jesus DID prove Himself to Thomas!
Many Christians are like the majority of the Apostles - they believe God and take Him at His word!
Jesus commends Christians who believe whatever God says: John 20:29
God also helps those who need proof or have doubts!
You have some awesome questions AV!
If we Christians can't give you the answers, God can!
One of my favorite teachers for hard to understand passages of the Bible is Charles Capps!
His videos are free to watch on
http://cappsministries.com/ or Charles Capps on youtube!
I'm also studying Torah with a Jewish Rabbi.
The insights are amazing!
So the bottom line is there is amazing information available and if you ask God He will provide you the answers because HE wants you to believe!
Also God wants us to lean on HIM: Proverbs 3:5-6
isaiah 1:18 is God's invitation for you to deal directly with Him!
We are here to help as best we can, but you will get much better answers from God!
God Bless you!