Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!purdue!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!rutgers!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: drezac@dcsc.dla.mil (Duane L. Rezac) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Re: Is the Bible God's Word? (long) Message-ID: Date: 5 Oct 89 04:22:14 GMT References: Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: Defense Construction Supply Center, Columbus Lines: 77 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu > > Why is it that Christians believe the Bible is the word of God? > .......... > grant Christians believe the Bible is the Word of God for several reasons. One reason is because of Jesus's view of the Scriptures. He Quoted Scripture as final authority. For example, in Matt 4 during his encounter with Satan in the wilderness saying, "It is written..." He spoke of Himself and events in his life as being fulfillments of the Scripture (Matt 26:56). And mostly when he said "The Scripture cannot be broken" (John 10:35). If we accept Jesus as who he is - Savior and Lord, it would be contradictory if we rejected the above statements. Another indication that the Bible is the Word of God is the number of fulfilled prophecies it contains. Many Bible prophecies are very specific in their details. There are a variety of kinds of prophecies. There are prophecies of a coming Messiah, Specific historical events and those dealing with the Jews. The most outstanding example of prophecy concerning Christ is Isaiah 52:13-58:12. These verses involve his life, his rejection in ministry, his death and burial. In Deut. 18:21-22 it is stated that if a prophecy is unfulfilled it is evidence of a false prophet. Would Isaiah be considered a false Prophet? As far as your statement concerning "God's will" and is it "purely a matter of faith...is there some physical proof that this is so?", it becomes a very involved process to explain. The Bible (as you said) was written by several human beings. This brings into play the word "inspiration". In II Tim 3:16 it says that "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God.. ." the word "inspiration", translated from the Greek, theopneustos, means "divinely breathed in:-given by inspiration of God" It refers to the **words** that have been written, not to the writers. God used the different human personalities of each writer and guided what they wrote. In the old Testament many prophets used the phrase, "the word of the Lord came unto me". David says in II Sam 23:2 "The Spirit of the Lord spoke through me; his word was on my tongue." Human authors wrote the texts, but the words are an action of God. II Peter 1:21 tells how God used the human writers to produce the Bible "for the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Spirit". On the subject of physical proof there are several but one that comes to mind first are the Dead Sea Scrolls. They were found in caves in 1947 in the valley of the Dead Sea. The Scrolls prove that a group of Jews lived about 150 BC to AD 70 in a type of monastery. They spent time studying and copying the Scriptures. When the Romans were about to invade they put the Scrolls in jars and hid them. The find included the earliest copy of the complete book of Isaiah and parts of almost every book in the Old Testament. In comparing the manuscript of Isaiah 38-66 with the one we have, scholars found that "a comparison of Isaiah 53 shows that only 17 letters differ from our text. ten of those are mere differences of spelling, like our 'honor' or 'honour' and produce no change in the meaning at all. Four more are minor differences which relate to style. The other 3 letters are the hebrew word for 'light';out of 166 words in the chapter, only this one word is really in question, and it does not at all change the sense of the passage. This is typical of the whole manuscript." To quote Keith Schoville, "It is important to realize that archaeological excavations have produced ample evidence to prove unequivocally that the Bible is not a pious forgery. Thus far, no historical statement in the Bible has been proven false on the basis of evidence retrieved through archaeological research" Yes, it also involves faith. The more reading and praying you do the more you will discover that the Bible truly is the "Word of God", without error. Duane and Melodie Rezac -- Verse of the Hour: So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don't fall 1 Cor. 10:12 -- +-----------------------+---------------------------------------------------+ | Duane L. Rezac |These views are my own, and NOT representitive of my place| | dsacg1!dcscg1!drezac drezac@dcscg1.dcsc.dla.mil of Employment. | +-----------------------+---------------------------------------------------+