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Exploring Reasons For Confidence in the Bible


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  • Moderators
Posted

What have been some of the most important influences on your belief in the Bible as God's word?

My own confidence has been based on the weight of many different kinds of evidence that I believe confirm the truth of the Scriptures.

1) Prophecy

2) Historical

3) Archeological

4) Textual/Manuscripts

5) Scientific/observation

6) Astronomy

7) Personal Experience

8) Testimonial

NOTE: This is not the place for debating or arguing with posters over their reasons for confidence in the Bible.

John 3:16-17

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. [17] For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

Posted

What have been some of the most important influences on your belief in the Bible as God's word?

My own confidence has been based on the weight of many different kinds of evidence that I believe confirm the truth of the Scriptures.

1) Prophecy

2) Historical

3) Archeological

4) Textual/Manuscripts

5) Scientific/observation

6) Astronomy

7) Personal Experience

8) Testimonial

NOTE: This is not the place for debating or arguing with posters over their reasons for confidence in the Bible.

My list has a lot in common with yours. I think I'd go with:

1) Archaeological

2) History

3) Prophecy

4) Scientific

5) Cosmology

6) Its failure as a moral guide

7) Textual

8) Unreliable epistemology

I believe in life before death

Posted

What have been some of the most important influences on your belief in the Bible as God's word?

My own confidence has been based on the weight of many different kinds of evidence that I believe confirm the truth of the Scriptures.

1) Prophecy

2) Historical

3) Archeological

4) Textual/Manuscripts

5) Scientific/observation

6) Astronomy

7) Personal Experience

8) Testimonial

NOTE: This is not the place for debating or arguing with posters over their reasons for confidence in the Bible.

John, that's exactly what my list is for why the Scriptures are not only valid, but true in every respect. Enough has been verified already to give God the benefit of the doubt regarding the rest. In my opinion, those who want every tiny detail verified before they grudging call God's Word true, won't believe it anyway, regardless of how great the evidence is.

I might put archaeology a step ahead of historical evidence. Archaeology is a relative recent science formed originally with one goal: to destroy the validity of the Bible. It has a very poor track record for this goal, though. Archaeological sites throughout the Middle East have confirmed the Bible back to Abraham and Lot. This, after over a century of proposing the Bible was a fictional account due to its mention of Babylon, the walls of Jericho, and the Sodom/Gomorrah city-states, among others. All of these, and more, have been proven true, much to the secular man's chagrin.

Archaeology is now teaming with man's science to put a firewall at the Flood. Because both Archaeology and Geology say the Flood is fictional as written, they declare Bible can't be taken seriously. It doesn't matter how many times man has declared something false, only to be proven wrong time and again - the next argument is always the "definitive point to believability". So the Flood is now the arena of contest.

Abraham and Lot's world has been verified; Abraham is regarded as a fully historic figure as well. Abraham, though, had a very famous ancestor who was alive at Abraham's birth. If his ship is ever recovered.....

God's "foolishness" runs rings around man's "wisdom".

Blessings,

"As iron sharpens iron, so also does one man sharpen another" - Proverbs 27:17

"The offense of the cross is that the cross is a confession of human frailty and sin and of inability to do any good thing. To take the cross of Christ means to depend solely on Him for everything, and this is the abasement of all human pride. Men love to fancy themselves independent. But let the cross be preached, let it be made known that in man dwells no good thing and that all must be received as a gift, and straightway someone is offended." Ellet J. Waggoner, The Glad Tidings

"Courage is being scared to death - and saddling up anyway" - John Wayne

"The person who pays an ounce of principle for a pound of popularity gets badly cheated" - Ronald Reagan

  • Moderators
Posted

I might put archaeology a step ahead of historical evidence.

Yes, I didn't mean to list them in their order of importance, although I can see why it may appear that I did that. I simply listed them as they came to mind.

While I do rate prophecy as extremely significant-- as the Bible itself does-- no single item in the list could stand alone, without the support of all the other evidence. For instance, history and archeology are needed to support the authenticity of the prophecies and the reliability of the biblical narrative.

John 3:16-17

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. [17] For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

  • Moderators
Posted

Archaeological sites throughout the Middle East have confirmed the Bible back to Abraham and Lot. This, after over a century of proposing the Bible was a fictional account due to its mention of Babylon, the walls of Jericho, and the Sodom/Gomorrah city-states, among others. All of these, and more, have been proven true, much to the secular man's chagrin.

An entire book could be written-- (has been written?)-- listing all of the things and/or people of the Bible that were once thought to be false but which have been proven to be true over the last 150 years or so. Some of the most interesting has to do with the dating of the book of Daniel.

On the other hand, I don't know of any archeological proof that has shown the Bible to be unquestionably mistaken. I would be interested in examning the evidence if anyone knows of any.

John 3:16-17

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. [17] For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

  • Moderators
Posted

I think I'd go with:

....7) Textual

That's the wikipedia article on Textual criticism, which is informative regarding certain general knowledge, but what do you believe the ancient manuscripts of the Bible show? Do they demonstrate that the modern books of the Bible are signicantly different from the ancient texts?

John 3:16-17

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. [17] For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

  • Members
Posted

What have been some of the most important influences on your belief in the Bible as God's word?

My own confidence has been based on the weight of many different kinds of evidence that I believe confirm the truth of the Scriptures.

1) Prophecy

2) Historical

3) Archeological

4) Textual/Manuscripts

5) Scientific/observation

6) Astronomy

7) Personal Experience

8) Testimonial

NOTE: This is not the place for debating or arguing with posters over their reasons for confidence in the Bible.

I'm in agreement with your list and like Ted I'd put #3 above #2, but I'd add the Jewish Nation as one of my reasons for believing the Bible and would probably put that at the top.

phkrause

When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice; But when a wicked man rules, the people groan. Proverbs 29;2

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