Is the bible divinely inspired? (salvation, church, scriptures, Holy Spirit)

[ThisShouldMakeSense]

hi y'all,

how did we get the bible as we know it today? with all the books in it? how come there were other books, even other ones written by bible writters themselves, that didn't make it into the bible canon as we know it? do you think that God, if this book really is from him, couldn't make sure that his word, as we have it today, is the way he wanted us to have it, and therfore makes it inspired of him?
Look back at the history of the bible canon and see how it was put together. some writings of the time, such as the apocypha, even certain verses which aren't in some translations weren't included. why? in a nutshell, because they weren't inspired.

[Scuba Pete]

Is the Bible divinely inspired.

My heart tells me "yes".

I need no other "argument" after that.

I think it's important that the scriptures claim to be inspired of God, but they never claim to be perfect. God chooses to continually work through earthen vessles. I don't claim to understand why, but I accept that he uses the faulty to demonstrate his divine power.

[James the Persian]

Originally Posted by ThisShouldMakeSense

hi y'all,

how did we get the bible as we know it today? with all the books in it? how come there were other books, even other ones written by bible writters themselves, that didn't make it into the bible canon as we know it? do you think that God, if this book really is from him, couldn't make sure that his word, as we have it today, is the way he wanted us to have it, and therfore makes it inspired of him?
Look back at the history of the bible canon and see how it was put together. some writings of the time, such as the apocypha, even certain verses which aren't in some translations weren't included. why? in a nutshell, because they weren't inspired.

You seem fond of circular arguments. Now you seem to be saying the Bible doesn't contain uninspired texts, therefore it must be inspired, because if texts were not inspired they weren't put into the Bible.

Now I must ask, which Bible is it you consider inspired and how many books are in it. Why do you think that one's right? In case you wonder what I'm talking about, the usual Protestant Bible uses the Masoretic Text for the OT and omits the deterocannonicals, the Roman Catholic Bible uses the Septuagint (LXX) and contains most of the deuterocannonical books. My own (Orthodox) Bible contains all the books of the LXX including a few the RCs don't have and an extra Psalm, the Ethiopian Orthodox Bible has even more books - including, for instance, the Book of Enoch. So, if the books of the Bible are inspired because they're in the Bible (as you appear to think), how many books of Maccabees are inspired? None? Two? All four? What about Enoch? Which Bible is your authority and do you know how or why it came to be? Note that I haven't even gone into any of the modern, altered texts of groups such as the JWs.

Forgive me for being skeptical, but I suspect you know little about the setting of the canon. How do you think the OT canon was settled, where, when? What version of the OT do you think the early Church (and the Gospel writers) used? What about the NT? Where, when and by whom do you think that canon was set? How long did it take? I can answer all of the above, can you?

James

[ThisShouldMakeSense]

Hi IacobParsul,

Thanks for your reply. I'm glad i have someone here who seems to know a bit more than the basics. you've got a good few quetions there. And as you know, you didn't learn about it all in a chatroom on the web. it probably took you years to learn all that. but, what i do like is a challenge. my challenge is to write out eveything and tell you what i know.
Now, it's taken me years to get to where i am now and those questions can't be fully answerd in a nutshell, so i'll be back with the answers to your questions, to prove that i can answer all of the above. i hope you don't mind long emails... i might be a while tho... :-)
by the way, have you always been orthodox?

[angellous_evangellous]

Originally Posted by NetDoc

Is the Bible divinely inspired.

My heart tells me "yes".

I need no other "argument" after that.

I think it's important that the scriptures claim to be inspired of God, but they never claim to be perfect. God chooses to continually work through earthen vessles. I don't claim to understand why, but I accept that he uses the faulty to demonstrate his divine power.

What does your heart tell you about the Book of Mormon or Science and Health or the Watchtower Magazine?

Do you really trust in yourself so much as to be able to rightly discern that which is inspired and that which is not? Since God is divine, how do you know what is truly from Him?

Also, are you able to isolate the redactional additions in the NT and discern what is from the original author and that which is not? I could use some help...

[James the Persian]

Originally Posted by ThisShouldMakeSense

Hi IacobParsul,

Thanks for your reply. I'm glad i have someone here who seems to know a bit more than the basics. you've got a good few quetions there. And as you know, you didn't learn about it all in a chatroom on the web. it probably took you years to learn all that. but, what i do like is a challenge. my challenge is to write out eveything and tell you what i know.
Now, it's taken me years to get to where i am now and those questions can't be fully answerd in a nutshell, so i'll be back with the answers to your questions, to prove that i can answer all of the above. i hope you don't mind long emails... i might be a while tho... :-)
by the way, have you always been orthodox?

Don't worry, I don't mind getting a long answer. I'm fully aware of how much there is to cover in what I asked. And you're right, I didn't learn about the canon on an internet forum and my knowledge is the result of several years research, on and off. What can I say, I've always been a bit of a Church history and theology buff.

I haven't always been Orthodox. I started out as a Lutheran (so I did, stupidly I feel, once believe in sola scriptura and all that) and only converted to the Orthodox Church in my mid-twenties after an awful lot of research.

James

[Jayhawker Soule]

Originally Posted by angellous_evangellous

What does your heart tell you about the Book of Mormon or Science and Health or the Watchtower Magazine?

I'm beginning to really like this conversation!

[robtex]

The question , "Is the Bible Divinely Inspired?" is a kind of question that cannot be asked without begging the question.

If I said to you "Is the movie hitchhiker's guide" inspired by Douglas Adams? One would only have to find correlations between the books written by Adams and the movie to make an arguement for this question. If I said to you "Was the constitutuion of the USA inspired by the settlers wanting to seperate themselves from England?" One could look at the history of the early settlers and the history of England before during and after the settlers landed to prepare an agruement for this question. If I said to you "Did Russia launching a ship into space create enthrusiasm for the space race?" Once could look at the history of Russia at that time, at the USA's reaction and draw a valid conclusion.

However, when one asks "Is the Bible divinly inspired" we run into complications. The biggest being is we have been unable to find God. Without verifing God's existance how could one really make a successful arguement as to what inspired various authors to write these essays?

In addition, the Judiastic texts present a God named Hashem but the christians rename this non-evidencable God as Jehovah and YHWH. In addition to changing the name after using Judiastic texts, the group adds two Gods but than doesn't count the additions. So now we have father, son and holy ghost and 1+1+1 = 1.

Furthering the mystery is the chapters themselves. Books like the gospel of Mary and the gospel of St Thomas are regarded is hersey while other books are included. No authors can be verified though some are strongly speculated.

In summary the Bible is a book composed of 1/2 borrowed text, 1/2 mysterious authored text, much unaccepted text by a God who has for the duration of mankind and certainly in modern history been completely unevidencable to all of humanity