The Bible

Bible quotations are printed in red. Quotations from other writers are in blue, and my own quotes and paraphrases are printed in pink.

The Basis of this Blog

The Bible claims that God inspired it but claiming inspiration of the Bible is not the same thing as saying that the Bible is perfect. The Roman Catholic Church does not claim infallibility for the Bible; that doctrine came along after the Reformation, and it seems that, until recently, that doctrine has grown continuously. 

Until about 50 years ago many Bible teachers taught that the Bible is word perfect, some even believe that in our day.  They insist that it says exactly what God wants it to say.  In the last number of years, Bible teachers have come a long way from that stance. 

If one insists that the Bible is word perfect, one must, of course, decide which translation is the perfect one.  For many years, many people insisted that the King James Version was the only Bible that Christians should use.  Fortunately, that teaching has diminished over the last few years.

How could any version of the Bible be verbatim the Word of God?  Every translation is different, in words and meaning than the writings were when the Bible was first assembled. Lately, there has been a whole horde of new translations and what is so upsetting about that fact is that the translators add their own theological bent to certain Bible portions. 

Surely, people have a right to their own opinions but I do not believe that they have the right to rewrite the Bible so that it will foster their own theological viewpoint. 

This practice also happened back in the fourth century when the doctrine of the Trinity was being heatedly debated.  For example, it is said that when Jerome was translating the Greek Bible into the Douay translation he added words to 1 John 5:7; words which clearly teach the doctrine of the Trinity.  He wanted to, finally, end the debate about the Trinity.  However, the words he added do not belong in the Bible, neither is the doctrine of the Trinity found in the Bible. 

More about this later, right now we are discussing the Bible, not the Trinity. 

The Muslims believe that if the Koran is translated from the Arabian in which it was first written it ceases to be "the word of Allah".  In this matter, the Christian Church might do well to learn from them.  In our faith, every man and his neighbour feels free to translate the Bible, add their own opinions, and call it the Sacred Scriptures.

Let us continue with the premise that the Bible is a good book, and that, for the most part, it can be trusted to tell the truth.  The Bible makes the claim for itself, that holy men of God, who were moved by the Holy Spirit, wrote it.  

That statement, of course, does not say that the Bible is absolutely without error.  It says only that God did His part in making the Bible; when we consider that the other part was done by people it is easy to believe that the Bible most likely is not perfect.  In spite of that, though, many theologians over the past few hundred years have maintained, and some still do, that the Bible is unquestionably without error.

Let us also agree that wise, honest people, who were interested in sharing their history, cultural leanings and their learning with their readers, wrote it.  At the time they were writing, they had no idea that someday their writings would be thought of as “holy books".  It is easy to believe that sometimes they inserted "facts" or ideas which, to them seemed to be relevant, but which, in fact, had nothing to do with the history that they were writing.

In the book, Jesus and His Times published by the Readers Digest is this illuminating statement; the recording of history with literal exactness of detail is a fairly modern development. At the time when the Bible was written, precise fact was far less important than the spiritual message of the stories shared.

Surely, the inspiration of the Bible was an act of God, or, is it more right to say, that God still inspires the Bible?  It is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction and for instruction in righteousness. 2 Timothy 3:16. 

Let's beware not to force it into a man-made mould.  The Word of God is not our servant so that the Bible’s teachings have to fit into the boxes we have built for our teachings!  When once we set the Bible free from our tenacious grasp we will find that it all makes a lot more sense.

Let's picture the writers of the Bible as being witnesses in a court case.  As already stated, these reputable people would do their best to witness to the truth as they knew it or as they remembered it.

Here is an example.  All four-gospel writers told a brief story of the life of Christ, but Mark, a younger person and the writer of the first written gospel does not mention the resurrection of Christ at all.  His omission, however, does not invalidate the fact that Christ did rise from the dead; it only tells us that he, being a Roman and not a disciple of Christ, did not wish to perjure himself on the witness stand by stating something as a fact, when he was not sure that it was a fact. 

Matthew and John were Christ's disciples, they knew the facts from first-hand experience and they had no qualms about stating as a fact that Christ did rise from the dead.

Luke, the other gospel writer was a well-studied doctor.  He even wrote to his friend that he had carefully studied all the details about the life of Christ and he attested to the fact that Christ, indeed, is raised from the dead.

As I said, this is only an example of how we can view the writers of the Bible.  The more witnesses there are that agree on an issue the more likely it is that their testimony is true. However, a problem does arise when one witness declares one thing and another witness declares the exact opposite. 

For example, in the Book of Exodus we read, Moses went up ... and saw the God of Israel. Some centuries later Saint John wrote, No one has seen God at anytime.  It is not right to gloss over discrepancies like this and pretend that they are not in the Bible, as biblical scholars, at large, have done for years. 

Because Biblical teachers have done that, I made it a point to study many of the church's doctrines in detail to find out how they do not agree with the Bible, or how the Bible does not even agree with itself.