I think ...

[Hunter.M.Ford87]

I grew up believing in the Bible as the word of God and because that's what it is called in church. The priest always says "This is the word of the Lord" at the end of each reading. Naturally, I thought every word had to be true.

As I grew up I discovered of course that the Bible is wrong on many counts. Not only in the area of astronomy and history but it's also inconsistent in its stories. For example, whether Judas died from hanging or his intestines burst open depends on whether which book you're reading.

My parents of course knew nothing because they're not very devout. My experience is most Anglicans (unless they're clergymen like John Stott) know very little about the Bible. My Aunt who's a Baptist gave me books that try to reconcile the inconsistencies in the Bible.

I was happy for a while but then I soon found that the books try very hard to reconcile really irreconcileable inconsistencies.

I began to ask myself why we picked these 66 books in the first place. What shocked me was that very few people really know anything about how these books came about. In fact, all the people I've come across know very little about the origin of these 66 books. They didn't really say that. You know how adults are like.
They'll say it's hard for them to explain because I won't really understand until I'm 15 or 16 which of course riles me up.

So I surfed the internet and bought books from amazon on the canon of the Bible including two wonderful books by Metzger and FF Bruce. After reading these books, I just cannot view the Bible the same way I used to when I was 5 or 6. I also realised to my disappointment that Josh McDowell's explanation of the canon is way off and might be suitable only to keep the lay person believing in what we all, deep down, want to believe.

How would you guys answer the above question? Have you anything to share? Please don't ask me to go the Teens forum (as someone did) because that will make me hit the roof.

 

[Kevin Snow]

The canon of the scriptures came about progressively through time. The first known example in history of canonizing scripture was of Irenaeus of Lyons, which he wrote about 180 AD. For perspective that's the equivalent of writing about World War II in our day. Which we have many historical documentaries about. He was the closest writer to the Apostles and he said this about the 4 Gospels.

It is not possible that the Gospels can be either more or fewer in number than they are. For, since there are four zones of the world in which we live, and four principal winds, while the Church is scattered throughout all the world, and the "pillar and ground" of the Church is the Gospel and the spirit of life; it is fitting that she should have four pillars, breathing out immortality on every side, and vivifying men afresh. From which fact, it is evident that the Word, the Artificer of all, He that sitteth upon the cherubim, and contains all things, He who was manifested to men, has given us the Gospel under four aspects, but bound together by one Spirit.
~Irenaeus of Lyons, Against Heresies, Book 3, Chapter 11, Section 8

So through time, the books which were chosen were slowly collected together and the Gospels were the first to be collected by Irenaeus here because of the many fake gospels that were around. You can find his writings here:

Irenaeus of Lyons

And that website is quite useful in discovering the many early christian writings that are available.

As for the many inconsistencies you find in the bible, they are not inconsistent but are giving another angle of view of the same event. The different perspectives are vital to understanding that this came about in a factual and historical manner, that these were eye witness accounts far outweighs whatever inconsistencies you think are there. So consider this passage in the scriptures:

Answer not a fool according to his folly,
lest you be like him yourself.
Answer a fool according to his folly,
lest he be wise in his own eyes.
~Proverbs 26:4-5

So which is true? If the bible is true how can this possibly occur? You see what is true is the guidance directed to you. You must stop thinking like a child and begin to think mature. There is a time in which, if you answered a fool you would be just like him for it would be vain but there is a time to answer a fool lest he go on in his foolishness. You see? This principle is held up in scripture also for it says in Ecclesiastes:

He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. ~Ecclesiastes 3:11

So the truth is time dependent and we must walk with him, that is Yahshua, to be in the truth.

Lastly, I point you to the woman in the well. She spoke the truth to Yahshua and Yahshua admitted it to her, but consider what exactly the nature of that truth was:

Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.” The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.”
~John 4:16-18

So how is that Yahshua told her that she is true in saying she has no husband when in fact she has had five? Wouldn't the truth be that she should have said she has five? But it's about the substance and the substance belongs to Christ. You see, she did not have a single husband in truth for if she had one that was true she would have stayed with him but because she had five of them all in falsehood, she had none in the truth.

Now God is true and we are all liars as the scriptures say, therefore we must not learn from ourselves who are false but should learn from God who has orchestrated the events of scripture that we might learn from them and know what is the way in which we should walk.

Let God be true though every one were a liar, as it is written, “That you may be justified in your words, and prevail when you are judged." ~Romans 3:4

 

[dysert]

How would you guys answer the above question?

Welcome to CF! Your post is a tad long for me, but I did manage to read it twice. However, I must have missed what "the above question" is. I didn't find any questions above that one. Care to point it out for me? Thanks.

 

[Akita Suggagaki]

I began to ask myself why we picked these 66 books in the first place. What shocked me was that very few people really know anything about how these books came about.

It must have been along fascinating process with many hands and minds involved. I think it requires a great deal of leeway in how we read everything in "The Bible". We tend to legalize it as if it came out of a God fax machine.