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Bible as the Inspired Word of God Essay

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Bible as the Inspired Word of God

The Bible is the work of various authors, who lived in different continents and wrote in different eras. Furthermore, much of the text does not claim to have been 'dictated' by God and is not always God speaking to people. In parts it consists of people speaking to God, as in the Psalms, and people speaking to people, as in the New Testament letters written by Paul. In light of this, some maintain that it is not possible to treat the Bible as a book of divine oracles, delivered once by God and recorded by its authors through divine inspiration, since biblical authors were products of their time and subsequently their understanding of divine truth was culturally …show more content…

It should, however, be noted that biblical texts only appear to be contradictory when taken out of context. The importance of studying scripture as a whole is clearly illustrated by the happenings of September 11th: Muslim fundamentalists took the Koran's teaching on Holy War out of its context and used it to justify action against America.

Many liberal theologians engage in hermeneutics, the study of interpretation and application of Biblical texts. They may reject literal interpretations in favour of establishing general rules from the Bible, thus maintaining that the Bible is not the inspired word of God, but simply a text from which we can learn about God and Christian teaching, and then apply this knowledge to our own lives. Considering that this view overcomes the apparent contradictions in the Bible by, for example, claiming that the account of God sending the Israelites to fight is intended to portray his desire for justice, it holds strong. Nevertheless, it fails to account for the fact that teaching within the Bible itself asserts that Biblical text is the word of God.

Interpreters must be wary before referring to 'the teaching of the Bible,' for as John Locke asserts, [3]"the scripture serves but,

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