Is the Bible the word of God?

 

These are the facts based on knowledge:

 

1) the authors are known to have written the books of the Old and New Testament. They are not books that appeared from some unknown source, which the Church adopted for convenience

 

2) the prophecies of the Old Testament prophets were confirmed to verify their truthfulness. Only those that could prove “This is word of Jehovah” take part of what we know as the Bible

 

3) all prophets of the Old Testament had near future (within their lifetimes) and far future prophesies (beyond their lifetimes)

 

4) the Old Testament was accepted by the New Testament Church

 

5) the leaders and concepts contrary to the doctrine of the early New Testament Church (the Christians) were identified and repudiated from the start. The "books" in this category, the so-called "gospels" of Judas, Thomas, Mary, etc., were written by unknown authors between 100 to 200 years after the last book of the New Testament was written by the apostles

 

6) key Old Testament books that prophesied the Messiah were mentioned by Jesus, therefore could not have been written after the fact, like some try to suggest to discredit Him

 

7) all the Old Testament books, except Esther, were found among the Dead Sea Scrolls (which were written between 200 BC and 68 AD) therefore could not have been written after the fact, like some try to suggest to discredit Jesus

 

8) all the Old Testament parchments and scrolls in Hebrew say the same thing, there are no discrepancies even though they were written at different times (since the printing press had not been invented yet, the books were hand copied, which made them precious to the churches)

 

9) the entire Old Testament was translated into Greek by order of Alexander the Great (the Torah by 350 BC and the rest of the books by 132 BC)

 

10) the translation of the Old Testament was done by 70 Hebrew scholars; hence it is known as the "Septuagint". This is the version known by the Apostles of Jesus and the Christian Church

 

11) all the ancient New Testament scrolls and books in Greek say the same thing, there are no discrepancies even though they were copied by hand at different times

 

12) there have been many different translations of the New Testament books from Greek to all languages, some are literal (Latin Vulgate, King James) others are interpretations thought by thought (New Living Translation) and other more "modern" versions go as far as paraphrasing (not recommended, as it opens to personal interpretation). Most used and accepted Bibles are either literal (word by word) or thought by thought (phrase by phrase) and both essentially say the same thing. There are no differences between a Catholic and a Protestant Bible. The Catholic Bible may have a few additional books than the Protestant Bible, because it may include “apocryphal” books, that is, they are not canonical books, and therefore have no influence over the basic aspects of faith

 

13) the reason for the many translations is because the language (English more than Spanish) to which is was translated (our language) has changed since the time it was first translated from the Greek to Old Latin mostly by St. Jerome in 382 AD. The translation into Spanish was done in 1569 and is known as Reina Valera. John Wycliffe produced the first hand-written English translation of the Bible in 1382. The first printed Bible was produced after Johann Gutenberg invented the printing press in 1439. The Church persecuted and condemned to death those involved in translating the Bible because their teachings were not necessarily biblical, and the Church did not want that made public. This led to the Reformation movement that started in 1517 by Martin Luther and his “thesis of the ninety-five”. The kings of England took advantage of this movement to separate from the Catholic Church (which were imposing rules they did not want to obey) and created the Anglican Church, that supported translating the Bible into English. Once a greater number of people had access to Bibles, the Catholic Church had no option but to reform itself (Vatican I in 1868 and Vatican II in 1959). Despite these reforms, there are still many Catholic teachings that remain un-Biblical (infant baptism, canonization of saints, belief in purgatory, holy water, confessions/absolutions, conversion of bread and wine to the body and blood of Christ, justification by works, etc.)

 

14) In spite that the Bible is a compilation of 66 different books written by 40 different authors over a span of 2,500 years, it does not contradict itself. No matter how many times you read it, each time you do it, it reveals the amount of wisdom you need at that moment in your life. 

 

These are the facts based on faith:

 

The 40 writers of the 66 books that make up the Bible were inspired by the Holy Spirit. That is, despite being written by human beings, the concepts, ideas, and predictions come directly from God

 

If you believe there is only one God,

you must believe there is only one truth.

 

If there is one truth, there must be only one word of God (His story).

 

That story must cover important portions of human spiritual history, 

and provide explanation for important facts such as:

• How everything got created?

• Why do we sin?

• What are we expected to do to get back into good graces with God?

 

If God is perfect, He only accepts perfection onto itself.

 

If humankind is sinful, it is imperfect and unfit to stand before God.

It is impossible for an imperfect being to save itself.

Therefore, humankind requires a savior to be accepted into Heaven.

 

God created us perfect, but original sin separates us from God.

 

God is omniscient (all-knowing) and knew we would sin, but still loves us.

 

If God loves us, He would give us a way out of our predicament.

 

What story (word of God) says just that?

 

If there is only one true story, why is there so many religions?

 

Religions are a result of people needing to belong to a like-minded group.

Religions are man's attempt to reach God.

Religions have evolved, changed based on traditions, which stray away from the story.

Is that not what the devil wants? To make us stray from the actual word of God?

What is more important for you, tradition or the story?

 

Does your tradition describe a way to being saved?

Are you sure your tradition coincides with the story regarding being saved?

Are you willing to risk your eternal life by not checking for yourself what the story actually says?

 

How can you verify if the story (the word of God) is real?

 

1) It must be ancient but must be credible (the actors must not be mythological beings) and must cover the complete history of humankind. The first five books of the Old Testament were compiled by Moses, who led the Jews out of slavery in Egypt. The journey is well documented and witnessed by about 2 million people. Archeological digs keep finding the places mentioned in Exodus and cannot refute the supernatural events that took place. Genesis tells the story of creation, Noah, the flood, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph, and how a family of believers in God became a nation after 430 years in Egypt. Exodus tells the story of the Jews' journey out of Egypt and into the desert and God's instructions to build the Tabernacle. Leviticus describes God's instructions about making offerings and how to conduct themselves while camped around the Tabernacle. Numbers describes the receiving of the Law, the murmurs of the people against Moses and his brother Levi, and their poor confidence in God when they were just outside the Promised Land. Deuteronomy recaps the 40 years of wilderness wanderings and the need to observe the Law before finally entering the Promised Land.

 

2) the following seven books describe the early history of the Israelites (Joshua, Judges, Rut, Samuel I and II, and Kings I and II).

 

3) the two books of Chronicles are a factual list of the doings of the kings of Israel and Judah (the kingdom was split after the death of Salomon into the northern tribes forming the kingdom of Israel, and the southern tribes which formed the kingdom of Judah).

 

4) the sixteen books of the Prophets provide the impossible standard to match by any other religious story. The Bible sets the mark high by giving predictions of future events. How do we know who was telling the truth? There were hundreds of self-proclaimed prophets that provided advice to the kings when matters boiled down to choice. The reason the prophets we now find in the Bible are there was because they proved their statement "according to Jehovah" was right. That is, their prophesies were proven. Each prophet of God had a near-time prophesy (within a few years) and a far-time prophesy (much later, beyond the prophet's life). If they predicted the near prophesies, the chances that all the prophesies they have given are true and God was truly speaking through them. Some prophesies were fulfilled just recently (e.g. the creation of the state of Israel on May 14, 1948) and others are still to come (e.g. the war of Armageddon). For example, the prophet Jeremiah (29:10) in about 600 BC prophesied that the Jews would be invaded by the Babylonians and that they would suffer exile for 70 years because they disobeyed the Law, and after this period they would be able to return to their land. Daniel, who lived in Babylon after his deportation in about 586 BC prophesied the date of Jesus' triumphal entrance into Jerusalem as being 69 x 7 = 483 lunar years or 476 calendar years after the order to rebuild Jerusalem was given (the rebuilding was another of his prophesies), which happened on March 14, 445 BC by Artaxerxes I of Persia. The difference between these dates is April 6, 32 AD, the date of Jesus entered Jerusalem on a donkey! Malachi, in 460 BC wrote the last book in the Old Testament and also ends with a prophesy of the long-awaited Messiah, but it is not after about 489 years that John the Baptist begins to prepare the way for the appearance of Jesus in the scene. There are many prophesies about Jesus in the Old Testament, but, even though there are references of Him suffering for our sins like a lamb of God placed as a sacrifice, it also describes Him as conquering and establishing a new kingdom in Israel. The prophesies, maybe on purpose to test our faith, did not specify that this process was going to take place in two separate events with a lot of time in between.