Questions about the Bible.

I'm wanting to explore Christianity,and probay convert, but I'm havng trouble wrapping my head around the Bible due to certain diffrences between itself and the Qran. I hope somebody can help me.

Is the Bible inspiredby Go or the verbatim word of God? If it's not the verbatim word of of, but was written centuriesafter certain events, is the OT fictitious?

Why does the OT have a different God to the NT?Aren't Christians monotheistic?

Why were some books discarded by a counil of men? How do we know that their choices we inspired by God rather than of their own free will?

thank you, and please bear with the typographic errors.my phone has a very sleepy keyboard.

Is the Bible inspiredby Go or the verbtim word of God? If it's nit the verbim word of Gd, but was written centuriesafter crtain events is the OT fictitious?

Click to expand...

The Bible is the inspired Word of God, superintended in its writing by God's Spirit, communicating in its original form exactly what God wanted to communicate.

No, the OT is not ficititious for the reason you suggest.

Why does the OT have different God o the NT?Aren't Christians monotheistic?

Click to expand...

The God of the NT is unchanged from the one in the OT. Only axe-grinding atheists who are parroting the faulty information they've read on atheist websites, and/or those who are ignorant of the actual content of the Bible make this assertion. What seeming changes in God's nature that are pointed to in the Bible are the result of God's unfolding plan of redemption of sinful humanity.

Christians are monotheistic. But biblical theology is rather more complex than what is presented in the Q'uran.

Why were some books discarded bus counil of men?

Click to expand...

Because they did not meet the basic criteria by which the canon of Scripture was established. The canon of Scripture was not chosen by councils but acknowledged by them. The books presently found in an evangelical Christian's Bible were all commonly in use as sacred texts by early Christians. THey chose which books were canonical and the councils merely formally recognized their choice.

How do we kn that twit choices we inspired by God rather tha of their ow free will?

Click to expand...

I'm not sure what you're asking here...Are asking about the canon of the Bible or about day-to-day choices people make?

Selah.

I am going to rewrite the question I think your asking then answer those.

catdancer said:

I'm wanting to explore Christianity,and probably convert, but I'm havng trouble wrapping my head around the Bible due to certain differences between itself and the Qran. I hope somebody can help me.

Is the Bible inspired by Go or the verbatim word of God?

Click to expand...

Is the Bible Inspired By God or verbatim the word of God.

We are told the Bible is the Inspired work of the Holy Spirit of God.

If it's nit the verbatim word of Gd, but was written centuries after crtain events is the OT fictitious?

Click to expand...

If it is not the verbatim word of God, and was written centuries after certain events is the Old testament fictitious or is the bible fictitious.

Understand that the bible was not written centuries after any events. What some people believe is that because the oldest manuscripts (Hand written copies of the bible) are older than the events that the bible was only written at the time the oldest document we have.

This is not true. The new testament was probably penned down toward the end of the generation who witnessed those events.

You have to remember it was a different time and culture. The general population prized eye witness testimony above and beyond the written word. Because so few people could read or write.

So the books of the bible were written with in the generation that witnessed those events.

Why does the OT have different God o the NT?

Click to expand...

Why does the Old testament God differ from the New.
He does not differ. That is why Christ Had to die. Christ died so we do not have to.

Aren't Christians monotheistic?

Click to expand...

Yes. One God three Parts.
Remember God is a title in the Christian faith and not a Name. As in:
God the Father
God the Son
God the Holy Spirit.

Kinda like how the US government is constructed. One government three parts.

The Executive branch (The president and his staff)
The Congressional branch (The Representatives of the individual states)
The Judicial branch (The courts.)

Each branch is separate but equal No one branch has absolute power.
Three branches or sections, but only one government to rule the united states.

Why were some books discarded bus council of men?

Click to expand...

Why were some book discarded from the cannon of scripture?

Because until the third century every church had individual letters and books/works of the Apostles. In that three hundred years from the time of Christ to when the church began efforts to unite, alot of "other" books and letters surfaced. Of which no one could verify the origins of the work. This was a problem if no one could verify the work as being authentic.
So it was left out the cannon (Or Central scriptures)

How do we kn that twit choices we inspired by God rather tha of their ow free will?

Click to expand...

How do we know the right books ended up in the bible?

Because no one agreed on the books that were their. They were the books that could be authenticated, not the books the early church leaders wanted. They also were the books that took power from the catholic church that complied the bible to begin with. If the first pope had his "free will" at heart then he most likely would not have included books like romans or Corinthians.

Click to expand...

catdancer said:

I'm wanting to explore Christianity,and probay convert, but I'm havng trouble wrapping my head around the Bible due to certain diffrences between itself and the Qran. I hope somebody can help me.

Click to expand...

You may be aware that there are differences among Christians about this.

Is the Bible inspiredby Go or the verbatim word of God? If it's not the verbatim word of of, but was written centuriesafter certain events, is the OT fictitious?

Click to expand...

Most Christians don't think that God dictated the Bible, because of things like differences in style. There are prophets who delivered something closer to a verbatim report, but otherwise not. The usual belief is that God inspired people and superintended the work to make sure it was accurate.

I don't go even that far. I think that God revealed himself, but allowed people to record it. There seem to be to have been things that people didn't fully understand. But that doesn't mean it's a fiction. From the time of the kings, there were official chronicles. (The OT refers to them.) And there are other ways to get reasonable information. E.g. mid-east cultures even today are used to passing on information verbally with a high degree of accuracy.

Most Christians think that this, plus God's supervision, resulted in a completely accurate OT. I think the accuracy of the details declines as you go back before roughly the book of Judges. I think this partly based on external evidence such as physics (for the early history of the universe), biology (for evolution) and archaeology. On the other hand, I'm not sure how much that matters. It seems perfectly reasonable to me that for periods before they had accurate records, the OT editors would include their people's traditions. Those traditions reflect their understanding of their relationship with God, and basic concepts such as God being responsible for creation, and the existence of a covenant with Israel.

If you're interested in being a Christian, one thing you should think about is whether you're prepared to reject external evidence or not. If so, then you can belong to the majority of churches that are conservative. Otherwise you'll want to belong to a moderate or liberal church, that is willing to tolerate concerns about the historical accuracy of earliest part of the OT. Most people in Christian Forums believe that the Bible if completely accurate.

Why does the OT have a different God to the NT?Aren't Christians monotheistic?

Click to expand...

It doesn't. The NT is clear about that. Jesus is not a separate God, but a way that God used in order to live among humans. In order to fully participate in human life, he needed to take on all aspects of humanity. But this doesn't represent a second God. That's why Jesus is referred to as the "incarnation" of God, i.e. God's human form.

Why were some books discarded by a counil of men? How do we know that their choices we inspired by God rather than of their own free will?

Click to expand...

I'd call that description a bit inaccurate. The contents of the Bible weren't settled at any particular conference. Christians inherited the OT from the Jews, because Jesus and all the early followers were Jews, and his teachings and death are part of the overall story of God's covenant, which of course started in the OT. There were two common canons of the OT, Greek and Hebrew. Some Christians use each of these.

For the NT, the Gospels and most of the letters seem to have been accepted from as early as we have records.

As far as we can tell from the records that remain, early Christians looked for books to be "apostolic." This means that they represented the first generation of Jesus' followers, either being written by an Apostle, or at least by someone who got the contents from one (e.g. Mark is thought to have been based on Peter's teaching, but written by someone else).

In practice I don't think there's much of an issue with the Gospels. The evidence seems pretty good that they're all from the first Cent, and that no other account of Jesus' life is.

The letters have a bit more uncertainty. Paul was recognized as an Apostle from the early days, and a number of his letters are clearly genuine. The issues are with a few of Paul's letters, and a few letters by other people. It's discussions among those relatively unimportant books that took a couple of centuries. The decision actually wasn't made by any particular council (the claims that Nicea decided on the council are pretty clearly wrong), but happened informally among the "mainstream" Church. There were churches with different theological views such as the Gnostics that had additional books, but I think it's pretty clear that, however useful someone may think they are spiritually, they don't represent the first generation Christians.

catdancer said:

I'm wanting to explore Christianity,and probay convert, but I'm havng trouble wrapping my head around the Bible due to certain diffrences between itself and the Qran. I hope somebody can help me.

Is the Bible inspiredby Go or the verbatim word of God? If it's not the verbatim word of of, but was written centuriesafter certain events, is the OT fictitious?
The Bible is the word of God and was protected by God. If any spiritual text is not protected by a God then it may be the word of mankind. There is much theocratic intelligencia about whom wrote what and when. I don't listen to any of it. Even the intelligencia agree the bible was written by many authors, yet the bible is written as if by one mind. That is what is important, not the reasonings of mankind.
Why does the OT have a different God to the NT?Aren't Christians monotheistic?
I do not understand this question. The God of the New Testament is the same God of the Old testament. Jesus was Gods son and prophesied to come in the old testament. Some Christians ascribe to the Trinity. The Jews would not accept Jesus as they expected some high flying Saviour that would back them and their sinfull and excessive lives. However Jesus called the Saducees and Pharasees sons of vipers and their father was the devil because of the excesses they insisted on and offering the word of mankind as scripture. Of course the Jews did not like the truth and were terribly full of self importance such that they could not accept a carpenters son as being the Saviour.
Why were some books discarded by a counil of men? How do we know that their choices we inspired by God rather than of their own free will?

I don't think we do for sure. However, the bible is written as if from one mind..all of it. Hence any gospels that do not appear to be written by the same mind are likely not inspired but only the words of man. They may have some historical benefit but should not be used as a spiritual guide.

thank you, and please bear with the typographic errors.my phone has a very sleepy keyboard.

Click to expand...

The most convincing testamony that the bible is the word of God is that it is the ONLY spiritual guide where none of the multiple writers sought glory nor riches out of it for themselves. This in itself is a miracle. Look to other spiritual guides and the writters all seek glory for themselves and most lived in shameless luxury. The bible writers never made themselves out to be anything special. This is truly miraculous.

Other evidences that support the bible's authenticity is that there are many scriptures that speak to unknown scientific facts. The bible stated the moon was created after the earth and this has been confirmed by modern science. The Israelites were given hygiene rules eg the washing of hands at a time where germs were unknown. No wonder the nation expounded and grew. The bible speaks to the circle of the earth at a time where the earth was thought to be flat. The bible speaks to the springs and mountains of the sea, which have been confirmed to exist. There is no concern for the few scriptures that appear may not align because this is reflective of the lack of knowledge of mankind rather than the bible being incorrect. Jesus supported the Old Testament. The bible has got it right too many times to think that the reasonings of mankind are more knowledgeable than the Creator of the universe.


I do not align with a particular faith, so this may not be the same view following as all will ascribe to. The best thing is that God offers salvation after physical death for only those that accept Jesus sacrifice and have put effort into repentance. Many others that did good deeds will have to await the resurrection on the last day where some will gain a resurrection of life and others will receive a resurrection of judgement for their bad deeds.

Many here have offered you good counsel. I just thought I'd throw in my 2 cents worth.

The bible stands out amongst the spiritual guides. It is meant to be as it is so that those that seek God will continue to strive for perfection and never feel they are perfect. All clarity will come in its appointed time.

Join a church if you wish as the overseers are responsible for you and will be held accountable if they preach the word of man as doctrine. The path is about loving God and his Son and doing unto others as you would have them do to you. Be of good conscience and always strive to be Holy and you will be on the right path to salvation. Gods will is not cumbersome.

I hope you convert and repent. You will likely be well rewarded for this.

Thank you to everybody who has responded to my questions in sincerity and offered me knowledgeable answers.

catdancer said:

I'm wanting to explore Christianity,and probay convert, but I'm havng trouble wrapping my head around the Bible due to certain diffrences between itself and the Qran. I hope somebody can help me.

Is the Bible inspiredby Go or the verbatim word of God? If it's not the verbatim word of of, but was written centuriesafter certain events, is the OT fictitious?

Click to expand...

Inspired by God. The Old Testament contains a numerous amount of material spanning diverse literary forms. It contains mythological, proverbial, psalmic, historical and philosophical material. Mythological, by the way, doesn't mean "not true", but rather refers to narrative with deeper meaning and implication.

For example, the story of Noah and the Ark shouldn't be read by trying to figure out which mountain today contains remnants of the ark, and debating whether the story speaks of a global or regional flood is missing the point.

The story is mythological, its purpose isn't "these are some random historical facts" but is telling a story that is a robust morality story. Questions the story asks and answers are such as: "If the world is so bad, why doesn't God just start over?" Well the story has precisely that happen. God brings judgment upon the world and starts over with Noah and his family, and yet nearly as soon as they leave the ark things return to the way they were and history continues on course. Thus the story suggest that the answer to the problem of evil isn't in erasing everything and starting over, but something else must happen. What is that something? Genesis is a prologue to Israel's Story, thus the story of Noah is firmly within that continuum of narrative leading toward Moses, the Exodus and God making a Covenant with Israel at Mt. Sinai. So the real answer to the problem of evil is to be found instead in the ongoing narrative of Israel's Story, which is one of redemption.

The world needs redemption, not eradication. It is firmly within this broad biblical meta-narrative that the specifically Christian story is found, and gives meaning and context to Jesus as Savior and Redeemer.

Why does the OT have a different God to the NT?Aren't Christians monotheistic?

Click to expand...

A misnomer. Same God is mentioned. God in the Old Testament is just as merciful, kind, compassionate and forgiving as God is in the New Testament. It is in the Old Testament that we read "I desire mercy, not sacrifice" and we have the story of Jonah which is precisely about God's loving acceptance of all people (even to the chagrin of those of us who think God should be more harsh with our enemies and those we don't like).

Why were some books discarded by a counil of men? How do we know that their choices we inspired by God rather than of their own free will?

Click to expand...

No councils discarded any books. The only time any major council met to discuss such things happened in the 16th century in response to the Protestant Reformation. The Roman Catholic Council of Trent removed a small selection of Deuterocanonical books from the Old Testament Canon but retained most of them; whereas all of these books were relegated by Protestant leaders to an appendix between the OT and NT. More recent Protestant (English) Bibles have removed them entirely since around the end of the 18th century, a choice made by book publishers, not a religious council.

thank you, and please bear with the typographic errors.my phone has a very sleepy keyboard.

Click to expand...

I hope my answers have been helpful.

-CryptoLutheran

Immensely so! Thank you very much.

~~~~~~~~~~~~MOD HAT ON!!~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This thread has gone through a clean up. If you notice a post of yours missing it was removed in the clean up. Please remember this part of the Exploring Christianity FSGs

If another non-Christian seeker wishes to ask questions about the Christian faith, they may start their own thread. No more than one non-Christian (the OP) may post in a thread.

Click to expand...

Documentation of thread clean up is HERE for staff only!

~~~~~~~~~~~~MOD HAT OFF!!~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

catdancer said:

Is the Bible inspiredby Go or the verbatim word of God?

Click to expand...

Welcome to CF. This is a very different concept in Christianity (c) than the way Islam looks at it. Within the Bible, only certain parts are actually G-d speaking. Much of it is actually showing us negative examples!

catdancer said:

If it's not the verbatim word of of, but was written centuriesafter certain events, is the OT fictitious?

Click to expand...

While the OT is useful for a mature C, it's not the "go to" source for learning about it. When you do approach it, you'll need to look at the stories as just that, stories, to see what G-d is telling us via those ...

catdancer said:

Why does the OT have a different God to the NT?Aren't Christians monotheistic?

Click to expand...

Not only are they the same God - but this was very important to the early Church!

catdancer said:

Why were some books discarded by a counil of men?

Click to expand...

They weren't. Really. The question you should be asking, is why were some books introduced by certain individuals, and what were they trying to promote? There was never any surprise about what was finally accepted. It's as simple as what had been read in Church, during Liturgical worship, from the beginning. The only real exception to that is the book of Revelation.

catdancer said:

I'm wanting to explore Christianity,and probay convert, but I'm havng trouble wrapping my head around the Bible due to certain diffrences between itself and the Qran. I hope somebody can help me.

Click to expand...

Hey, catdancer. I will gladly answer your questions for you. Of course, keep in mind that you will receive many different answers from Christians of different opinions, but there is only one correct doctrine. I hope that you will examine the evidence yourself so you can make an educated conclusion.

catdancer said:

Is the Bible inspiredby Go or the verbatim word of God? If it's not the verbatim word of of, but was written centuriesafter certain events, is the OT fictitious?

Click to expand...

The Bible is "God-breathed." If God made it, then it is perfect. However, what we read today are not the original manuscripts. We have translations/transliterations based on the manuscripts that we have. We can make educated guesses as to the accuracy of the manuscripts we have, based on the number that are similar, and the age of the manuscripts. Because of this, some passages have been removed or else [encapsulated, indicating that it may not have originally been in the Bible.]

Additionally, a story does not have to be 100% literal to be true. Regardless of whether or not Adam and Eve were really the first man and woman, or whether or not they literally ate from a tree, there is truth in the story that cannot be dismissed.

Matthew 5:17-19 - “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. Therefore anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

2 Timothy 3:14-17 - But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, 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 servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

Revelation 22:18-19 - I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this scroll: If anyone adds anything to them, God will add to that person the plagues described in this scroll. And if anyone takes words away from this scroll of prophecy, God will take away from that person any share in the tree of life and in the Holy City, which are described in this scroll.

catdancer said:

Why does the OT have a different God to the NT?Aren't Christians monotheistic?

Click to expand...

The notion that there are two Gods in the Bible is incorrect. There is one consistent God in Bible. Both the "Old Testament God" and the "New Testament God" are the same.

Think the OT God was pure wrath and no mercy? Read the book of Jonah. I'm sure you're familiar with the story, but I'll tell it for you anyway. Jonah was commanded to give a message to the city of Nineveh, but Jonah refused, boarding a boat headed in the opposite direction. Why? Because Jonah knew that if He shared God's message with Nineveh, the city would repent, and God would have mercy on them. Jonah hated that city, and he wished to see it go up in flames.

God prevailed, however, and the city repented and turned to God. Jonah, being the great moral giant he was [/sarcasm] wished himself dead when he saw this. God then provided a plant to cover Jonah's head from the heat, and then sent a worm to kill it the next day.

Jonah 4:10-11 - But the LORD said, “You have been concerned about this plant, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. And should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left—and also many animals?”

And what of the NT God? Is He not wrathful? Well, let's see. Isn't this the God who killed Ananias and Sapphira for lying to Peter, the church, and by extension God Himself? (Acts 5:1-11)

catdancer said:

Why were some books discarded by a counil of men? How do we know that their choices we inspired by God rather than of their own free will?

Click to expand...

I'll have to split my answer to this question in two, first to answer your question, then to address your assumption of free will.

1. The Apocrypha was not a part of the original cannon. It was added later, then discarded by those who knew better. The Apocrypha are littered with all kinds of theological inconsistencies, historical errors, and all kinds of problems. The authority of authors were also very questionable. The authors of the books of the Bible have always been important figures, being appointed by God to give His message. Whether this was Moses, the prophets, or the disciples of the New Testament.

One example of a theological inconsistency is a very weird one found in Tobit 6:17 and 8:3, which states that if you want to ward off the devil, just put on some perfume and the smell will cause Satan to flee. Sounds like witchcraft to me. Not to mention, it's just plain silly.

2. There is no free will. Both the Old and New Testaments teach determinism and predestination very strongly. All free will has going for it is the notion that the Bible "implies it." See here for a long list of scriptural evidence. (Keep in mind that the thread is in a Christians-only section.)

catdancer said:

thank you, and please bear with the typographic errors.my phone has a very sleepy keyboard.

Click to expand...

No problem. Just remember to weigh the evidence with the claims, and let me know if you have any more questions. I'm happy to answer for someone who is making an honest effort to find the truth.