There are over 4,200 religions throughout the entire world but I grew up in a Christian home believing that God is the way, the truth, and the life. Christianity is a religion of grace and mercy, but many people struggle to believe in a transcendent figure that they cannot see. I was taught that all concepts in the Bible were valid through the Nazarene church; these beliefs are confirmed, in my opinion by the plenary theory of inspiration. This is what I grew up believing about the Bible. In Revelation 21:5 it states “He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” This passage of scripture leads me to believe that all that is written in the Bible is true. I do not think that there are passages that are “more true” than others. I feel like God would not have anything in the Bible that was not important or necessary to understanding Him and His ways. I believe that the Bible has many concepts that can be difficult to comprehensively understand without reading in context. A passage or verse in the Bible may be confusing to us, because we may not understand all that is needed to grasp what is being said. As a member of Grace Point Church of the Nazarene, we were taught to believe in the plenary theory of inspiration. This theory states that all 66 books of the Bible are true and that they are all necessary to the Christian faith. In 2 Timothy 3:16-17 it states “All Scripture is
I strongly believe that the Bible is God’s living Word, and the truth of His ways not being the same as mine (Isaiah 55:8-9) and how I am finite while He is infinite, I know only in part, and He is all knowing, nevertheless, I trust His Word even with my limited understanding while depending on Him completely and I am only fully persuaded that the entire creation account took place, but cannot determine if it was literal. (Word Count 214)
(Erickson). Through the many words of God that were collected many of the individuals that received it passed it on in their own way. Some critics would argue that certain passages of scriptures and details in those passages were misinformed because of the way it was passed down. Many often compare 2 Kings 8:26 in the King James Version and 2 Chronicles 22:2 in the New King James Version. (Erickson). These passages discuss the same scenario but report different numbers. Also, the book of Ruth was not found in the original dead sea scrolls with the other pieces of scripture. (Erickson) Nevertheless, the Word of God still holds divine authorship because of its consistency, fulfilled prophecies, the continuing theme through its entirety, the testimony from archaeology, unique content of scripture, and the witness of the Holy Spirit. (Erickson). The Bible has a progressive nature from Genesis to Revelation. It moves from creation to a new earth and heaven. It does not stay in one place nut the story continually moves forward. The big idea of inspiration is that even as the scriptures were forming in their various ways the core message of the gospel was never changed. In every version in the four gospels, it reports of Jesus divine miracles and the crucifixion story is the same. It 's consistent nature reveals that the Bible is true. Even in Mark 13:31, Jesus makes
Charles: Even though, much of what you said is true because many men were inspired by God and wrote down some of their thoughts that makes up Scripture. A good example is in John’s Gospel, who is one of the Twelve Apostles stated, “But there are also many other things that Jesus did; if every one of them were written down, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.”(John 22:25). This shows that not all Jesus taught is contained in Sacred Scripture, as well as acknowledging that all they wrote came from His inspiration and not His command for the apostles to write it down. Therefore, showing that would have been impossible to write everything in the Bible.
I believe that the 66 books of the Bible are God’s word revealed to us, written by God’s apostles and prophets. In its original manuscripts it contains truth without error as it unfolds the story of God – his creation, our fall, his redemption and restoration; therefore it is, and will remain to the end of the world, the true center of Christian union. The Scriptures are the supreme standard by which all human conduct, creeds, and opinions should be tried.
2. Jesus reinforced the accuracy of scriptures right down to the smallest detail in Matthew 5: 17-18: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have come to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the law until all is accomplished”. 3.
In Core Christianity, Elmer Towns states, “Books of other religious were written by their founders in their attempt to find God” (Towns, 2007). Therefore, religious texts written and inspired by human thought only provide conclusions. “But the Bible is not a search for God; the Bible is God’s book to reveal Himself to the human race” (Towns, 2007). The dual authorship of the Scripture provides words with “convicting, convincing, converting power to all who honestly accept its message and believe in Jesus Christ” (Towns, 2007). Therefore, the credibility and reliability of the Word of God can only be known by applying it to one’s life and watching how its words and teachings
My beliefs about the bible incorporate the written words which were inspired by God through the Holy Spirit to the human scribes as truth. To full understand the bible, one should understand the cultures of the people in the biblical world and their understanding and influences of the world around them. Scriptures are historical, narrative, and are factual. Some of the words transcribed by monks over the centuries may have lost some of the true meaning. The errors one find in the scriptures are from human error from transcribing to personal witnessing, as people tells a story from their own understanding. The prophets believed they were inspired by God and I believe, prophets were inspired by the Holy Spirit to write the Word of God.
To begin teaching Biblical Faith a teacher must first understand how as an individual they define what the Bible is to them. It is in this definition that as educators our beliefs and bias are acknowledged. The Bible, for me, is a story of the evolution of God’s relationship with mankind as told in two books. The Old Testament narrated by God’s chosen people, those of the Jewish faith and the New Testament, the story of Jesus as told by his Disciples and followers of His word. It is my belief that the stories told in the Bible are human interpretations of their experiences with God. These interpretations are strongly influenced by the circumstances of the writers emotional, physical,
F.F. Bruce, a Bible historian, contends, “There is no body of ancient literature in the world which enjoys such a wealth of good textual attestation as the New Testament” (Niles). The Bible is a historical document with an abundance of reasons why it can be supported as one. One explanation would be the consistency of the documents that were
These passages are just a few passages that emphasizes the truthfulness of God and his words. The second proof of Biblical inerrancy is that it is of divine, not human, origin. 2 Timothy 3:16 and 2 Peter 1:20-21 are solid confirmations of divine origin. The first passage emphasizes that “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God…” “Inspiration” was translated from the Greek word ‘theópneustos” or “God-breathed.”
We know that the New Testament did not emerge as a single collection of texts immediately, but that different groups of early Christians had different collections of sacred books. For not only did different Christians communities have their own perspective collections, but they had different versions of the same books. Looking at the bible from a historical point of view, it has been translated over and
The Bible says that it was inspired by God itself in 2 Timothy 3:16, “All Scripture is God- breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness.”(NIV) There are a few Christians who believe that scripture was written verbatim from the mouth of God on to paper by men. I have trouble believing this because of a few different reasons. One is that the way some of the authors wrote the scriptures were to vary differently than the others. If the scriptures were all completely God’s words verbatim than they would all be written in the same manner and the personalities and intelligence of the writers would not be shown in the text. Also that some of the Bible are just people speaking of their problems or issues or just records of historical events instead of God Speaking these words directly. I am not saying the authors were not inspired to write these things but that they were not the exact words of
But the Bible delves so much deeper than that. The Bible is in itself, a translation of history and humankind, showing how people, as individuals or groups, have either been blessed or disciplined by God for their demeanor towards Him and His holy laws. It is this unique account of the moral and spiritual factors behind the historical narrative, that continues to make the Bible so relevant to modern day society today. God’s word reveals the will of God in each of our lives through showing His divine nature as depicted in hundreds of real-life illustrations throughout the Bible.
(More to come on prophecy later.) The third way to know that the Bible is true is because of the so many attacks that have gone on the Bible, yet the Bible is still the most sold book, the most translated book, and the most popular book that most people have purchased. The Bible has gone through many attacks as it has been translated through 400 different languages. One well known person is named William Tyndale and he was burned at the stake for translating the Bible to english, but ultimately he was the one who helped the Bible to be translated into english. (CITE WEBSITE) These three things prove that the Bible is true and that whatever is in the Bible, is true. Therefore, if everything in the Bible is true that whatever that Bible says is true. A popular name for the Bible is God’s Word. If it is named God’s Word, then obviously it is written by God and it is his very own
Throughout history Christian’s belief is that the Holy Spirit, who controlled the writing of the individual books, also controlled their selection and compilation, thus continuing to fulfill our Lord’s promise that He would guide his disciples into all reality. This however, is something that is to be discerned by spiritual insight, and not by historical