Do you believe the Bible to be fully true?

[SgtSpike]

There are parts of the Bible which have been proved to be true but these are overshadowed by the glaring inacuracies. Of course people who believe it will give you the same old tired arguement about taking it out of context which makes you wonder what the point of it at all is if you can twist it to whatever you want to believe.

Lots of people say there are all these inaccuracies and whatnot in the Bible, but I've never seen any... can you show me one?

Also, God didn't make the Bible to be easy to read. He made it so that those who are brand new Christians and don't understand much about God can read it and get something out of it, but a Biblical scholar who has been studying the Bible for decades can read it and STILL get something out of it. It's hard to explain, that's the best I can do, lol.

Not to mention it would be 20 times longer if you wrote out everything literally because of all the various scenarios you'd have to list out and what to do in each one, etc...

 

[SgtSpike]

Just thought I would add this... found it in the link I provided in the post above. So yes, we can agree that there are (or at the very least were) differences from the original texts compared to the texts today, but nothing of significance that has been found thus far. We can't be 100% positive on that for obvious reasons, but based on the various copies we have, and comparing them, it's fairly safe to say that the Bible's ideas have been copied accurately throughout time.

Until the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in the 1940's, the oldest extant copy of any Old Testament writings were the Masoretic Text dated around 916 AD. When the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered, a complete copy of Isaiah was found. Its date was 125 BC. The difference in dates between the oldest copy and the newly discovered Isaiah document was 1000 years. This provided a pristine opportunity to judge the copying accuracy of the Old Testament documents since it would be easily discernable which errors crept in over 1000 years. The documents proved to be 95% textually identical. The 5 percent that was different were mainly misspellings of words and did not constitute any threat to the content or reliability of the text. This shows how accurately it was transmitted.

 

[Boomer]

I believe the bible is not meant to be taken literally. A lot of times it will say something, but really mean something else. which can be kind of dangerous depending on how it is perceived and the person that is perceiving it. If that makes sense...

There is a truth in the lessons it teaches. If you really pay attention and think about what it is trying to teach you it can be enlightening.

But you can read it straight up and tell that there is something going on under the surface of the words. Cause if you take them all from just straight up face value you'll walk away with nothing for the most part. Read revelations. There is alot of stuff gonig on under the actual words in that book. I just woke up, so sorry if this is kind of spacey. XD

 

[Peter Parka]

Lots of people say there are all these inaccuracies and whatnot in the Bible, but I've never seen any... can you show me one?

Have a look at this

Rejection of Pascal's Wager: The Bible: A Collection of Myths and Legends

 

[SgtSpike]

Have a look at this

Rejection of Pascal's Wager: The Bible: A Collection of Myths and Legends

That's what I'd expected you'd do. And I don't want to spend hours of time trying to disprove everything written there, so pick one or two of your favorite arguments and let me try to refute them.

 

[Peter Parka]

Ok then, try this one

"The prophet Isaiah, for instance, foretold the drying up of all the waters of the Egypt, and the destruction of all land used for plantation due to this drying up of the River Nile.
Isaiah 19:5-7
And the waters of the Nile will be dried up, and the river will be parched and dry; and its canal will become foul, and the branches of Egypt's Nile will diminish and dry up, reeds and rushes will rot away. There will be bare places by the Nile, on the brink of the Nile, and all that is sown by the Nile will dry up, be driven away, and be no more.

This part of Isaiah, widely accepted by scholars to be written around the eighth century BC, is about 2750 years old. And in all this period of two and three quarters millennia, this prophecy has yet to be fulfilled! Moreover it is clear from the context that Isaiah prophecy was meant for the Egypt of his time. For it was with that Egypt that Isaiah and his people had a grievance against, and the prophecy was a warning to them. Obviously this is a clear example of an unfulfilled prophecy"

 

[Sloth]

I will refuse to even respond to you when you treat me like trash.

Find some evidence for once, instead of preaching to everybody. Not everybody attends church, genius.

 

[SgtSpike]

Ok then, try this one

"The prophet Isaiah, for instance, foretold the drying up of all the waters of the Egypt, and the destruction of all land used for plantation due to this drying up of the River Nile.
Isaiah 19:5-7
And the waters of the Nile will be dried up, and the river will be parched and dry; and its canal will become foul, and the branches of Egypt's Nile will diminish and dry up, reeds and rushes will rot away. There will be bare places by the Nile, on the brink of the Nile, and all that is sown by the Nile will dry up, be driven away, and be no more.

This part of Isaiah, widely accepted by scholars to be written around the eighth century BC, is about 2750 years old. And in all this period of two and three quarters millennia, this prophecy has yet to be fulfilled! Moreover it is clear from the context that Isaiah prophecy was meant for the Egypt of his time. For it was with that Egypt that Isaiah and his people had a grievance against, and the prophecy was a warning to them. Obviously this is a clear example of an unfulfilled prophecy"

I see your point, but there are many Biblical prophesies of the Messiah (Jesus) in the Old Testament, along with many Biblical prophecies that match up with the book of Revelations for what will happen in the endtimes.

This is a random chart I found by Googling, and I don't know anything about it because I looked at it for all of about 10 seconds, but if you look up those passages, you'll find that they all are prophecies of things yet to happen, and they are all in the Old Testament.

(link) Old Testament End-times Prophecy Chart

Just because these things haven't happened yet, does not mean that they will not. Some of the prophecies regarding Jesus in the Old Testament were at least 1000 years old, but they did happen eventually.

Regarding your point about the context, I believe the reason it is written as a grievance of the day is only because that's the only way they knew of Egypt. Obviously there are some historical tints on the writings of the Bible based on what was happening at the time and who the writer was, and I think because of the recent events at the time of the writing, they wrote about Egypt based on those experiences. If you could explain more specifically what you mean by it being written for the Egypt of their time, perhaps I could answer that part of it more fully. I can't pinpoint exactly what you're writing about when you say that though.

On the other hand, many people believe that this prophecy was already fulfilled, as Egypt already had a big civil war in the distant past (another part of the same passage prophesied of a civil war). Perhaps they experienced a drought at the same time, but it just wasn't documented?

EDIT: Maybe it was God who took the nose of the Sphinx. After all, it does say that Egypt's idols would tremble when God came through.

 

[Peter Parka]

"There will be bare places by the Nile, on the brink of the Nile, and all that is sown by the Nile will dry up, be driven away, and be no more. "

I'm sure you are aware that the nile is still in existence and doing well. It was obviously a prophesy to be fulfilled back then because it was directed at the people then who were pissing god off, I'm sure they wouldn't give a shit and it would be a pointless threat if thousands of years later it still hadn't happened.

 

[SgtSpike]

"There will be bare places by the Nile, on the brink of the Nile, and all that is sown by the Nile will dry up, be driven away, and be no more. "

I'm sure you are aware that the nile is still in existence and doing well. It was obviously a prophesy to be fulfilled back then because it was directed at the people then who were pissing god off, I'm sure they wouldn't give a shit and it would be a pointless threat if thousands of years later it still hadn't happened.

I don't believe it is a prophecy that was "meant to be fulfilled back then". You don't really have a good basis for saying that. It's a guess, if anything. There's no date set on it, no "it must happen before Christ comes" or anything like that.

That being said, what you just wrote out said that all the crops near the nile would dry up, not that the river itself would be completely gone. Which is interesting, because I just watched a video in my anthropology class that talked about modern-day Egypt, and how the farmlands aren't nearly as lucrative as they once were because of the strict control they have on it now. The floods were what gave the farmlands all the nutrients to grow plants.

Anyway, I believe that this prophecy is yet to be fulfilled. And you saying that it was "meant" for old Egypt, well, it may be true, and it may not, but it's just a guess or a hunch. You can't disprove the Bible on your interpretation of the historical tint of a particular passage... that's going a bit far-fetched.

Of course, since we're on the subject, we could always talk about the 200+ prophecies that Christ fulfilled throughout his lifetime...

 

[Peter Parka]

If you dont believe it was meant to be fulfilled back then, what exactly was the point of it? I'm sure the Egyptians back then couldn't give a shit about something that wasn't meant to be fulfilled for at least another 2-3 thousand years.

 

[Kuroi]

I personally cannot bring myself to put my faith in a book written by humans so long ago. Not to mention if this book was supposed to be the word of god...why has it been revised 5 or 6 times over the years...you do not revise the word of god..if you do it no longer is the word of god.

However I do not have anything against people that do place their faith in a book...just don't try and ram your beliefs down my throat

 

[The Joker]

That's what I'd expected you'd do. And I don't want to spend hours of time trying to disprove everything written there, so pick one or two of your favorite arguments and let me try to refute them.

Wouldn't a true, full fledged Christian do anything to prove their 'Holy' Bible?

 

[GoldDust Woman]

Jesus said, "Now abides faith, hope and love. The greatest of these, is love."

So, love is above everything. Love is the foundation of Christianity. Through love, we can conquer anything and everything.

Splitting hairs over the 'stories' of the Bible is a road to nowhere, really.

You either believe that God is, or, you don't.

It's free, and painless to believe. Personally, I'd rather go through life believing that God is. At least when we die, we find out the truth... however, once you die, it's too late to go back.

You can't unring a bell.

Just my humble opinion.

 

[Panic]

I voted it's partially true, but there's some contradictions in it.

 

[Panic]

If you dont believe it was meant to be fulfilled back then, what exactly was the point of it?

lol, that's a good question.

 

[NicAuf]

Jesus said, "Now abides faith, hope and love. The greatest of these, is love."

So, love is above everything. Love is the foundation of Christianity. Through love, we can conquer anything and everything.

Splitting hairs over the 'stories' of the Bible is a road to nowhere, really.

You either believe that God is, or, you don't.

It's free, and painless to believe. Personally, I'd rather go through life believing that God is. At least when we die, we find out the truth... however, once you die, it's too late to go back.

You can't unring a bell.

Just my humble opinion.

What happens if you're wrong?

 

[GoldDust Woman]

Nothing. I turn to worm food once I'm put in the ground.

 

[GoldDust Woman]

In the meantime, I hang on to believing that God is.

 

[NicAuf]

Nothing. I turn to worm food once I'm put in the ground.

What if you're wrong about the other gods you reject?