Why the bible?
The old chestnut, why couldn't God have made his message clearer or better
or in a different way?
The problem is stated by Dan Barker:-
Although it is always scholarly to consider the original
languages, why should that be necessary with the "word of God?" An
omnipotent, omniscient deity should have made his all-important message
unmistakably clear to everyone, everywhere, at all times. No one should have to
learn an extinct language to get God's message, especially an ancient language
about which there is much scholarly disagreement. If the English translation is
flawed or imprecise, then God failed to get his point across to English
speakers. A true fundamentalist should consider the English version of the
bible to be just as inerrant as the original because if we admit that human
error was possible in the translation, then it was equally possible in the
original writing.
See also Inerrancy and Human Ignorance
by J P Holding at Tekton Apologetics
Ministries
Now I think the problem lies not so much with the perfections of God, but
the frailties of humans.
Now Dan Barker has created a theoretical omnipotent,
omniscient deity and stated how he thinks such a deity should behave.
However such a deity has no need to do things the way that a finite human being
like Dan Barker thinks he should. Such a deity is also much wiser than Dan
Barker, and carries out his plan according to His thoughts not ours (Isa
55:7-11).
Firstly we should note that no one has to learn the ancient
languages except those who go to seminary. The majority of people rely on
translations done by scholars in the field of Hebrew and Greek. So the point is
that God does make his word available to people in their own languages using
translators. The question for us is not whether it is unmistakably clear
but whether his word is sufficiently clear to those of us living
now. The fact that there are millions of Christians on earth now
indicates that God's word is sufficiently clear. The fact that people
now still use, and like, the archaic language of the King James version is
further proof. Further people do not even need to be able to read because God
has appointed pastors, teacher and evangelists (Eph 4:11). The 'scholarly
disagreement' about ancient languages is a red herring.
Now of course it is easier to find fault with the bible
rather than to obey it. Even in Jesus own day men were so preoccupied with the
scripture that they missed the one that the scriptures were pointing to.
(John 5:39-40 NIV) You diligently study the
Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are
the Scriptures that testify about me, {40} yet you refuse to come to me to have
life.
We should note that one of the NT offices within the church
is that of teacher whose job is to teach the members what God's word
says, in the local language. Jesus himself was known as a teacher, he
taught his disciples and the people.
Acts 1:1 In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that
Jesus began to do and to teach
(Eph 4:11-14 NIV) It was he who gave some to be
apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors
and teachers, {12} to prepare God's people for works of service, so that
the body of Christ may be built up {13} until we all reach unity in the faith
and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the
whole measure of the fullness of Christ. {14} Then we will no longer be
infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every
wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful
scheming.
Now, of course, the skeptic would say, now you have proved
my point, the bible is not clear enough because God needs teachers to explain
it. However, we send our kids to school to learn, until one day they know
enough to go to work or even to become teachers themselves. It is through the
learning process that knowledge is passed from one generation to another so
that society can advance. You will note from the Ephesian passage above that
the purpose of teaching is so that believers can advance from being infants to
maturity. We may need a childlike attitude to become a Christian but we need to
become mature as well. As with teaching our study of scriptures starts with the
easy stuff (milk) and then on to the harder stuff (solid food), in the hope
that we become more mature, see Heb 5:11-14).
The problem is that the bible records God's dealings with
ancient people, who wrote down the account, as they understood it, in their own
language and cultural background. It was then copied by scribes (no printing
press then), who occasionally made errors. Much later it was translated into
English and other languages, thus removing us one step further from the
original meaning written in ancient and less ancient Hebrew or common Greek.
Fortunately we have enough copies to figure out the original version. What Dan
is asking for is more supernatural intervention than we actually had. In
other words God should give every new-born child a copy of the bible in his own
mother tongue. What God could have done himself he has left to scribes,
translators and missionary groups. In N America we can find a bible in our
hotel.
The actual scenario envisioned by Dan Barker is actually
logically impossible, let us examine his criteria: "An omnipotent,
omniscient deity should have made his all-important message unmistakably clear
to everyone, everywhere, at all times." Because God's revelation of
himself was a progressive one, building up from the very ancient (stone
age) Adam and Noah through the Bronze age, Abraham and Moses, to Jesus Christ
and recorded in the common Greek of the time, which is not that ancient.
Therefore God's revelation must have been made in the languages understood in
the cultures of those times. The question for us is not whether it is
unmistakably clear but whether his word is sufficiently clear to
those of us living now.
We could all have one unchanging language. The different
languages of the world were instigated by God, because a common language would
frustrate the the purposes of God. Multiple languages would ensure that people
obeyed God's directive to "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the
earth and subdue it" . People do not have a problem with being fruitful
but there is a reluctance fill the earth because that means migration.
Language changes as society changes, so if we want an
unchanging language we require a static society which is unrealistic. To have
one unchanging language over all people and all time would, I believe, not be
possible without a severe restriction on our freedom. If on the other hand we
were robots we could have one 'language program'. However we are people, not
robots.
A number of points should be made:
- God must always interact with people in their own language and cultural
background otherwise he could not be understood. When God spoke to Abraham or
Moses he spoke in a manner that they could understand. If God visited New York
today he would have to speak American English in order to be understood.
Further, translation would be needed for French, Spanish, and German speaking
people watching CNN in their own countries.
- God gives men the responsibility to pass on his message. Having given
Moses the Law it is quite reasonable to require men to copy it so that they can
keep it.
- In what other way should God make his message clearer without a degree of
coercion, which violates our freedom to choose to follow God? The fact is that
if God made his word so abundantly clear that everyone was forced to conclude
that they had to follow after God would require us to be automatons. God
created us for relationship with him, as people in his own image. Would you
want your wife to desire you because she was supposed to (because her parents
chose you) or because you manifested some qualities to her that she admired?
- The fact is that God generally works within the real world of peoples
experience(s) and cultural and linguistic background. The disciples of Jesus
were Palestinian Jews speaking Aramaic with some knowledge of Greek which was
the language of commerce then.
- From a historical perspective we are fortunate to have the bible in our
own language, rather than in the language of the educated elite (Latin).
- The fact that God spoke to ancient people in their own language is
perfectly proper (could he do otherwise?). It is being fair and realistic to
them, so the question is whether it is fair and realistic to us? Judging by all
the sermons I have heard and all the books that I have read, modern men have no
trouble understanding God from the modern translations of ancient texts.
- What it boils down to is whether the 99.9% of God's message (that we have)
is sufficient or whether we actually need 100%. I would suggest that God is
sufficiently lenient to allow someone with a small understanding of his
requirements to have a relationship with him because he is more interested in
the relationship than technical knowledge. Hence Jesus comment about 'becoming
like little children' to enter the kingdom of God, but that does not mean that
we remain little children in knowledge of the most high God. God being infinite
has an infinite supply of intellectual truth to supply the intellectual for all
of infinity. Hence there will be no boredom in heaven.
- Of fundamental importance is whether our own language is sufficient
to convey God's truth. I would suggest, that since our modern languages are
sufficiently robust that many countries can build complex structures such as
ships, power generators, telephone lines and the internet, then the medium of
language, even if it is translated, is sufficient to convey God's word to men
of every nation. Thus fulfilling the Great Commission, which requires the
translation of scripture into a medium that people can understand. Godly men,
such as William Carey, devoted their lives to translate the bible into the
native tongues of the indigenous people of India.
- We should note that the people of Jesus time were multy-lingual that is why
Pilate had the inscription on the cross in three languages (Aramaic, Latin and
Greek, John 19:20). Paul used the Greek OT the Septuagint (LXX) we know because
he quotes from it. The NT was written in Greek even though in most cases it was
not the mother tongue (e.g Mark, Peter, John). Greek was the commercial
language of the time. The Latin bible, the Vulgate, was not available until the
5th century.
Only one original.
Let us consider the question why all the multiple copies of the scriptures,
which must be copied by hand, and indroduce errors by the scribes, so why not
have just one master copy.
If there is just one master copy who looks after it, is it just some elite
who in certain times would hide it from the people. The high priest can then
use it to control people and maintain power.
If there is just one master copy, it could be destroyed, broken, stolen or
even lost.
This is what actually happened:
The Law, the ten commandments was written by God onto stone. The only bit of
the bible actually written by God.
(Exo 24:12 NIV) The LORD said to Moses,
"Come up to me on the mountain and stay here, and I will give you the
tablets of stone, with the law and commands I have written for their
instruction."
(Exo 32:15-16 NIV) Moses turned and went down
the mountain with the two tablets of the Testimony in his hands. They were
inscribed on both sides, front and back. {16} The tablets were the work of God;
the writing was the writing of God, engraved on the tablets.
Within hours or days of God giving it to Moses, Moses had broken the tablets
of stone
(Exo 32:19 NIV) When Moses approached the camp
and saw the calf and the dancing, his anger burned and he threw the tablets out
of his hands, breaking them to pieces at the foot of the mountain.
He then had to up the mountain for another forty days for
God to write it out a second time. The second time round God told Moses to take
a wooden chest to put the tablets in. The chest is known as the ark of the
testimony or covenant.
(Deu 10:1-5 NIV) At that time the LORD said to
me, "Chisel out two stone tablets like the first ones and come up to me on
the mountain. Also make a wooden chest. {2} I will write on the tablets the
words that were on the first tablets, which you broke. Then you are to put them
in the chest." {3} So I made the ark out of acacia wood and chiseled out
two stone tablets like the first ones, and I went up on the mountain with the
two tablets in my hands. {4} The LORD wrote on these tablets what he had
written before, the Ten Commandments he had proclaimed to you on the mountain,
out of the fire, on the day of the assembly. And the LORD gave them to me. {5}
Then I came back down the mountain and put the tablets in the ark I had made,
as the LORD commanded me, and they are there now.
The priestly tribe of Levites were to carry the ark of the covenant.
(Deu 10:8 NIV) At that time the LORD set apart
the tribe of Levi to carry the ark of the covenant of the LORD, to stand before
the LORD to minister and to pronounce blessings in his name, as they still do
today.
Moses also wrote the Book of the Law to be placed alongside the ark of the
covenant.
(Deu 31:24-26 NIV) After Moses finished writing
in a book the words of this law from beginning to end, {25} he gave this
command to the Levites who carried the ark of the covenant of the LORD: {26}
"Take this Book of the Law and place it beside the ark of the covenant of
the LORD your God. There it will remain as a witness against you.
Later the ark was settled in Bethel
(Judg 20:26-28 NIV) Then the Israelites, all
the people, went up to Bethel, and there they sat weeping before the LORD. They
fasted that day until evening and presented burnt offerings and fellowship
offerings to the LORD. {27} And the Israelites inquired of the LORD. (In those
days the ark of the covenant of God was there, {28} with Phinehas son of
Eleazar, the son of Aaron, ministering before it.) They asked, "Shall we
go up again to battle with Benjamin our brother, or not?" The LORD
responded, "Go, for tomorrow I will give them into your hands."
Later it cared for by Eli at Shiloh (1 Sam 3:3) The Isrealite soldiers then
took the ark into their camp but it was captured by the Philistines.
(1 Sam 4:10-11 NIV) So the Philistines fought,
and the Israelites were defeated and every man fled to his tent. The slaughter
was very great; Israel lost thirty thousand foot soldiers. {11} The ark of God
was captured, and Eli's two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, died.
The Philistines were afflicted because of the ark so they sent it back.
(1 Sam 6:11-15 NIV) They placed the ark of the
LORD on the cart and along with it the chest containing the gold rats and the
models of the tumors. {12} Then the cows went straight up toward Beth Shemesh,
keeping on the road and lowing all the way; they did not turn to the right or
to the left. The rulers of the Philistines followed them as far as the border
of Beth Shemesh. {13} Now the people of Beth Shemesh were harvesting their
wheat in the valley, and when they looked up and saw the ark, they rejoiced at
the sight. {14} The cart came to the field of Joshua of Beth Shemesh, and there
it stopped beside a large rock. The people chopped up the wood of the cart and
sacrificed the cows as a burnt offering to the LORD. {15} The Levites took down
the ark of the LORD, together with the chest containing the gold objects, and
placed them on the large rock. On that day the people of Beth Shemesh offered
burnt offerings and made sacrifices to the LORD.
After a chequered history the ark was put in the inner sanctuary of Solomons
temple.
(1 Ki 6:14-19 NIV) So Solomon built the temple
and completed it. {15} He lined its interior walls with cedar boards, paneling
them from the floor of the temple to the ceiling, and covered the floor of the
temple with planks of pine. {16} He partitioned off twenty cubits at the rear
of the temple with cedar boards from floor to ceiling to form within the temple
an inner sanctuary, the Most Holy Place. {17} The main hall in front of this
room was forty cubits long. {18} The inside of the temple was cedar, carved
with gourds and open flowers. Everything was cedar; no stone was to be seen.
{19} He prepared the inner sanctuary within the temple to set the ark of the
covenant of the LORD there.
(1 Ki 8:9 NIV) There was nothing in the ark
except the two stone tablets that Moses had placed in it at Horeb, where the
LORD made a covenant with the Israelites after they came out of Egypt.
It was resited in the sanctuary during Josiah's reforms.
(2 Chr 35:3 NIV) He said to the Levites, who
instructed all Israel and who had been consecrated to the LORD: "Put the
sacred ark in the temple that Solomon son of David king of Israel built. It is
not to be carried about on your shoulders. Now serve the LORD your God and his
people Israel.
That is its last resting place mentioned in the bible. It
was presumably lost during the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians in
587 BC. There was no ark in the second temple (Josephus) IVP
New Bible Dictionary 2nd Ed.
Fortunately, because the scribes made multiple copies, the
Law of Moses, survived until the time of Jesus.
(Luke 2:22-24 NIV) When the time of their
purification according to the Law of Moses had been completed, Joseph and Mary
took him to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord {23} (as it is written in the
Law of the Lord, "Every firstborn male is to be consecrated to the
Lord"), {24} and to offer a sacrifice in keeping with what is said in the
Law of the Lord: "a pair of doves or two young pigeons."
Progressive revelation in scope.
Not only is God's revelation progressive in time it is
progressive in scope, God revealed himself to Abraham and promised him that
"all peoples on earth will be blessed through you".
(Gen 12:3 NIV) I will bless those who bless you, and whoever
curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through
you."
God raised up the nation of the Israelites through Abrahams
offspring and he revealed the Law to them. Jesus commanded his disciples to
preach the gospel to all nations (Mat 28:19), thus fulfilling his promise to
Abraham.
The Bibles own testimony as to why or how it was written.
It is interesting that the first mention of writing was as early Gen 5:1.
(Gen 5:1 NIV) This is the written account of Adam's
line. When God created man, he made him in the likeness of God.
In Exo 17:14 God commands Moses to write about the battle so that it will be
remembered (memorial).
(Exo 17:10-16 NIV) So Joshua fought the
Amalekites as Moses had ordered, and Moses, Aaron and Hur went to the top of
the hill. {11} As long as Moses held up his hands, the Israelites were winning,
but whenever he lowered his hands, the Amalekites were winning. {12} When
Moses' hands grew tired, they took a stone and put it under him and he sat on
it. Aaron and Hur held his hands up--one on one side, one on the other--so that
his hands remained steady till sunset. {13} So Joshua overcame the Amalekite
army with the sword. {14} Then the LORD said to Moses, "Write this on a
scroll as something to be remembered and make sure that Joshua hears it,
because I will completely blot out the memory of Amalek from under
heaven." {15} Moses built an altar and called it The LORD is my
Banner. {16} He said, "For hands were lifted up to the throne of the LORD.
The LORD will be at war against the Amalekites from generation to
generation."
Moses wrote down the words of the Law God had told him
(Exo 24:3-4 NIV) When Moses went and told the
people all the Lord's words and laws, they responded with one voice,
"Everything the LORD has said we will do." {4} Moses then wrote
down everything the LORD had said. He got up early the next morning and
built an altar at the foot of the mountain and set up twelve stone pillars
representing the twelve tribes of Israel.
(Exo 24:12 NIV) The LORD said to Moses,
"Come up to me on the mountain and stay here, and I will give you the
tablets of stone, with the law and commands I have written for their
instruction."
Here God himself writes his words
(Exo 32:15-16 NIV) Moses turned and went down
the mountain with the two tablets of the Testimony in his hands. They were
inscribed on both sides, front and back. {16} The tablets were the work of
God; the writing was the writing of God, engraved on the tablets.
(Exo 34:1 NIV) The LORD said to Moses,
"Chisel out two stone tablets like the first ones, and I will write on
them the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke.
(Exo 34:27 NIV) Then the LORD said to Moses,
"Write down these words, for in accordance with these words I have made
a covenant with you and with Israel."
(Exo 34:28 NIV) Moses was there with the LORD
forty days and forty nights without eating bread or drinking water. And he
wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant--the Ten Commandments.
(Deu 4:13 NIV) He declared to you his covenant,
the Ten Commandments, which he commanded you to follow and then wrote them
on two stone tablets.
(Deu 10:4 NIV) The LORD wrote on these
tablets what he had written before, the Ten Commandments he had proclaimed
to you on the mountain, out of the fire, on the day of the assembly. And the
LORD gave them to me.
(Deu 6:6-9 NIV) These commandments that I give
you today are to be upon your hearts. {7} Impress them on your children. Talk
about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie
down and when you get up. {8} Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them
on your foreheads. {9} Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on
your gates.
(Deu 17:14-20 NIV) When you enter the land the
LORD your God is giving you and have taken possession of it and settled in it,
and you say, "Let us set a king over us like all the nations around
us," {15} be sure to appoint over you the king the LORD your God chooses.
He must be from among your own brothers. Do not place a foreigner over you, one
who is not a brother Israelite. {16} The king, moreover, must not acquire great
numbers of horses for himself or make the people return to Egypt to get more of
them, for the LORD has told you, "You are not to go back that way
again." {17} He must not take many wives, or his heart will be led astray.
He must not accumulate large amounts of silver and gold. {18} When he takes the
throne of his kingdom, he is to write for himself on a scroll a copy of this
law, taken from that of the priests, who are Levites. {19} It is to be with
him, and he is to read it all the days of his life so that he may learn to
revere the LORD his God and follow carefully all the words of this law and
these decrees {20} and not consider himself better than his brothers and turn
from the law to the right or to the left. Then he and his descendants will
reign a long time over his kingdom in Israel.
(Deu 27:1-8 NIV) Moses and the elders of Israel
commanded the people: "Keep all these commands that I give you today. {2}
When you have crossed the Jordan into the land the LORD your God is giving
you, set up some large stones and coat them with plaster. {3} Write on them
all the words of this law when you have crossed over to enter the land the
LORD your God is giving you, a land flowing with milk and honey, just as the
LORD, the God of your fathers, promised you. {4} And when you have crossed the
Jordan, set up these stones on Mount Ebal, as I command you today, and coat
them with plaster. {5} Build there an altar to the LORD your God, an altar of
stones. Do not use any iron tool upon them. {6} Build the altar of the LORD
your God with fieldstones and offer burnt offerings on it to the LORD your God.
{7} Sacrifice fellowship offerings there, eating them and rejoicing in the
presence of the LORD your God. {8} And you shall write very clearly all the
words of this law on these stones you have set up."
(Deu 28:58 NIV) If you do not carefully follow
all the words of this law, which are written in this book, and do not
revere this glorious and awesome name--the LORD your God--
(Deu 31:9 NIV) So Moses wrote down this
law and gave it to the priests, the sons of Levi, who carried the ark of
the covenant of the LORD, and to all the elders of Israel.
Joshua
(Josh 1:8 NIV) Do not let this Book of the Law
depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be
careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and
successful.
(Josh 8:32 NIV) There, in the presence of the
Israelites, Joshua copied on stones the law of Moses, which he had written.
(Josh 23:6 NIV) "Be very strong; be
careful to obey all that is written in the Book of the Law of Moses, without
turning aside to the right or to the left.
(1 Ki 2:3 NIV) and observe what the LORD your
God requires: Walk in his ways, and keep his decrees and commands, his laws and
requirements, as written in the Law of Moses, so that you may prosper in all
you do and wherever you go,
Jeremiah
(Jer 30:1-4 NIV) This is the word that came to
Jeremiah from the LORD: {2} "This is what the LORD, the God of Israel,
says: 'Write in a book all the words I have spoken to you. {3} The days
are coming,' declares the LORD, 'when I will bring my people Israel and Judah
back from captivity and restore them to the land I gave their forefathers to
possess,' says the LORD." {4} These are the words the LORD spoke
concerning Israel and Judah:
(Jer 36:2 NIV) "Take a scroll and write
on it all the words I have spoken to you concerning Israel, Judah and all the
other nations from the time I began speaking to you in the reign of Josiah till
now.
(Jer 36:10-18 NIV) From the room of Gemariah
son of Shaphan the secretary, which was in the upper courtyard at the entrance
of the New Gate of the temple, Baruch read to all the people at the Lord's
temple the words of Jeremiah from the scroll. {11} When Micaiah son of
Gemariah, the son of Shaphan, heard all the words of the LORD from the scroll,
{12} he went down to the secretary's room in the royal palace, where all the
officials were sitting: Elishama the secretary, Delaiah son of Shemaiah,
Elnathan son of Acbor, Gemariah son of Shaphan, Zedekiah son of Hananiah, and
all the other officials. {13} After Micaiah told them everything he had heard
Baruch read to the people from the scroll, {14} all the officials sent Jehudi
son of Nethaniah, the son of Shelemiah, the son of Cushi, to say to Baruch,
"Bring the scroll from which you have read to the people and come."
So Baruch son of Neriah went to them with the scroll in his hand. {15} They
said to him, "Sit down, please, and read it to us." So Baruch read it
to them. {16} When they heard all these words, they looked at each other in
fear and said to Baruch, "We must report all these words to the
king." {17} Then they asked Baruch, "Tell us, how did you come to
write all this? Did Jeremiah dictate it?" {18} "Yes," Baruch
replied, "he dictated all these words to me, and I wrote them in ink on
the scroll."
(Jer 36:5-6 NIV) Then Jeremiah told Baruch,
"I am restricted; I cannot go to the Lord's temple. {6} So you go to the
house of the LORD on a day of fasting and read to the people from the scroll
the words of the LORD that you wrote as I dictated. Read them to all the
people of Judah who come in from their towns.
(Jer 36:32 NIV) So Jeremiah took another scroll
and gave it to the scribe Baruch son of Neriah, and as Jeremiah
dictated, Baruch wrote on it all the words of the scroll that Jehoiakim
king of Judah had burned in the fire. And many similar words were added to
them.
Ezekiel
(Ezek 43:10-11 NIV) "Son of man, describe
the temple to the people of Israel, that they may be ashamed of their sins. Let
them consider the plan, {11} and if they are ashamed of all they have done,
make known to them the design of the temple--its arrangement, its exits and
entrances--its whole design and all its regulations and laws. Write these
down before them so that they may be faithful to its design and follow all its
regulations.
Daniel
(Dan 7:1 NIV) In the first year of Belshazzar
king of Babylon, Daniel had a dream, and visions passed through his mind as he
was lying on his bed. He wrote down the substance of his dream.
Habbakuk
(Hab 2:2-3 NIV) Then the LORD replied:
"Write down the revelation and make it plain on tablets so that a
herald may run with it. {3} For the revelation awaits an appointed time; it
speaks of the end and will not prove false. Though it linger, wait for it; it
will certainly come and will not delay.
(Mat 4:4 NIV) Jesus answered, "It is
written: 'Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from
the mouth of God.'"
Luke
(Luke 1:3 NIV) Therefore, since I myself have
carefully investigated everything from the beginning, it seemed good also to
me to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus,
(Luke 22:37 NIV) It is written: 'And he was
numbered with the transgressors' ; and I tell you that this must be fulfilled
in me. Yes, what is written about me is reaching its fulfillment."
(Acts 1:1-3 NIV) In my former book, Theophilus,
I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach {2} until the day
he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to
the apostles he had chosen. {3} After his suffering, he showed himself to these
men and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over
a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God.
(Acts 1:20 NIV) "For," said Peter,
"it is written in the book of Psalms, "'May his place be
deserted; let there be no one to dwell in it,' and, "'May another take his
place of leadership.'
John
(John 20:30-31 NIV) Jesus did many other
miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in
this book. {31} But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is
the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his
name.
(John 21:24-25 NIV) This is the disciple who
testifies to these things and who wrote them down. We know that his
testimony is true. {25} Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of
them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not
have room for the books that would be written.
Revelation:
The book of Revelation is interesting because it has the most explicit
endorsement of almost every book in the bible (with the exception of the ten
commandments).
(Rev 1:1 NIV) The revelation of Jesus Christ,
which God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place. He made it
known by sending his angel to his servant John,
Even so John was told to write what he saw, God did not dictate the
book but allowed John some editorial freedom.
(Rev 1:10-11 NIV) On the Lord's Day I was in
the Spirit, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet, {11} which said:
"Write on a scroll what you see and send it to the seven churches: to
Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and
Laodicea."
(Rev 1:19-20 NIV) "Write, therefore,
what you have seen, what is now and what will take place later. {20} The
mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand and of the seven
golden lampstands is this: The seven stars are the angels of the seven
churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.
There appears to be two chapters (2 and 3) where John writes down what Jesus
says (i.e. dictates).
(Rev 2:1 NIV) "To the angel of the church
in Ephesus write: These are the words of him who holds the seven stars
in his right hand and walks among the seven golden lampstands:
See also Inerrancy and
Human Ignorance by J P Holding at Tekton Apologetics Ministries
And Glenn Miller on if Christianity is true,
why does it need so much defending? And why doesn't God make it clearer?
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