How do you know the Bible is the word of God?

[Spiderman]

So I try to read some of the Bible every day. Today I opened up to
2 Kings 2
23 Then he went up from there to Bethel; and as he was going up by the way, young lads came out from the city and mocked him and said to him, “Go up, you baldhead; go up, you baldhead!” 24 When he looked behind him and saw them, he cursed them in the name of the LORD. Then two female bears came out of the woods and tore up forty-two lads of their number.

That just seems ridiculous to me. 42 children lose their lives to angry bears for calling somebody bald head. Even if Elisha prayed for that to happen, why would God honor such a disgusting prayer?

I wish that was the only ridiculous verse in scripture, but there are many... I'm really struggling to maintain faith that scripture is the word of God.

I would think God could do a much better job than that, and write a book that doesn't lead so many people to opposite beliefs and interpretation.

What are your reasons for believing the Bible is the word of God?

I'm finding it is a book that simply goes against my conscience.

 

[DavidFirth]

The Bible wasn't written for your conscience. It was written by the will of God. Just as Job did, we have to accept God's will even when we disagree with it. We have to understand that God is holy and determines righteousness and that we do not. We are not holy and have no good reason to think we are in a position to judge God and His word.

 

[Kemosloby]

It says in it it's the Word of God

 

[leibowde84]

So I try to read some of the Bible every day. Today I opened up to
2 Kings 2
23 Then he went up from there to Bethel; and as he was going up by the way, young lads came out from the city and mocked him and said to him, “Go up, you baldhead; go up, you baldhead!” 24 When he looked behind him and saw them, he cursed them in the name of the LORD. Then two female bears came out of the woods and tore up forty-two lads of their number.

That just seems ridiculous to me. 42 children lose their lives to angry bears for calling somebody bald head. Even if Elisha prayed for that to happen, why would God honor such a disgusting prayer?

I wish that was the only ridiculous verse in scripture, but there are many... I'm really struggling to maintain faith that scripture is the word of God.

I would think God could do a much better job than that, and write a book that doesn't lead so many people to opposite beliefs and interpretation.

What are your reasons for believing the Bible is the word of God?

I'm finding it is a book that simply goes against my conscience.

While I certainly entertain the possibility that certain parts of scripture are inspired by God, we know for sure that imperfect, ancient, unknown (for the most part) men wrote the books included in the Bible. So, ironically enough, it shouldn't all be taken as "scripture". It is up to us, as responsible adults, to be skeptical of claims not supported by evidence. If a passage doesn't make sense, investigate. As objectively as possible, see if it aligns with the spirit of the Bible. Look for contradictions. Look for historical references that should be easy to confirm (e.g., the Roman Census that was taking place during Jesus' birth ... Roman's had very good record keeping, yet there is no record of a census during that time in that location).

Never assume that something is true merely because some ancient unknown author claimed that it was. Remember, we have a much better understanding of the natural world now, so some explanations relying on the supernatural might easily be explained naturally today.

 

[sun rise]

The Bible is not the word of God - it contains the word of God along with man-written sections. The part I take as God's word are the Sermon on the Mount and the two 'greatest commandments'.

 

[Spiderman]

It says in it it's the Word of God

How do I know that it is true because some ancient authors said so

 

[osgart]

even the bible says to prove all things , put them to the test.

A God that commands blind faith, sounds dangerous.

we need reasons and justifications based on solid understanding to make truthful decisions. the bible should at the very least provide that rather than following blind commands and doing actions without justifying motives.

what's the difference if claiming God justified every action, without examining motives. without knowing the who, what, when, where, and Why, the actions are baseless. I'm no automaton, I don't take blind programming.

iv e actually seen people follow their God blindly, they end up in psyche.

 

[David1967]

So I try to read some of the Bible every day. Today I opened up to
2 Kings 2
23 Then he went up from there to Bethel; and as he was going up by the way, young lads came out from the city and mocked him and said to him, “Go up, you baldhead; go up, you baldhead!” 24 When he looked behind him and saw them, he cursed them in the name of the LORD. Then two female bears came out of the woods and tore up forty-two lads of their number.

That just seems ridiculous to me. 42 children lose their lives to angry bears for calling somebody bald head. Even if Elisha prayed for that to happen, why would God honor such a disgusting prayer?

I wish that was the only ridiculous verse in scripture, but there are many... I'm really struggling to maintain faith that scripture is the word of God.

I would think God could do a much better job than that, and write a book that doesn't lead so many people to opposite beliefs and interpretation.

What are your reasons for believing the Bible is the word of God?

I'm finding it is a book that simply goes against my conscience.

The bible 'contains' the word of God. It also contains poetry, individual contemplations of life as in Ecclesiastes. Also contains letters written by Paul and others to the early churches that were not intended to be scripture, rather advice to early believers of different cultures regarding things they were facing at the time. IMO of course.

 

[Mister Silver]

The bible is not the "word of god". Rather, it is a book written by men who "claimed" to be divinely inspired by god.

Any man can make such a claim and create a new religion; in fact, it's been done plenty of times since christianity.

I am not going to believe any claims made by man. I'd rather receive the truth directly from the divine being itself, which hasn't happened.

 

[proudpagan]

So I try to read some of the Bible every day. Today I opened up to
2 Kings 2
23 Then he went up from there to Bethel; and as he was going up by the way, young lads came out from the city and mocked him and said to him, “Go up, you baldhead; go up, you baldhead!” 24 When he looked behind him and saw them, he cursed them in the name of the LORD. Then two female bears came out of the woods and tore up forty-two lads of their number.

That just seems ridiculous to me. 42 children lose their lives to angry bears for calling somebody bald head. Even if Elisha prayed for that to happen, why would God honor such a disgusting prayer?

I wish that was the only ridiculous verse in scripture, but there are many... I'm really struggling to maintain faith that scripture is the word of God.

I would think God could do a much better job than that, and write a book that doesn't lead so many people to opposite beliefs and interpretation.

What are your reasons for believing the Bible is the word of God?

I'm finding it is a book that simply goes against my conscience.

Well whenever Christianity or its cohorts took control of a country or region, the ancient spiritual texts and records were removed and/or destroyed and those who had spiritual knowledge were mass murdered by the Inquisition. This took out of circulation the very knowledge those in power have used and still use to manipulate the ignorant population using spiritual/occult power. Not to mention there are vacuum-sealed vaults in the Vatican library containing thousands upon thousands of ancient esoteric books from around the world that have been stolen and hoarded over the years and kept out of public circulation.

The matter of fact is that Christianity is few hundred years old only while Humanity goes back tens of thousands of years !!!

Here are few honorable mentions kek

• Jesus sinned by making himself unclean when he touched the leper and dead girl (a violation of Levitical law which all Jews were under. Jesus himself agreed he was under the law.) (Ezekiel 44:25-27,Lev 13:1-8, Lev 5:2-6, Num5:1-3, Num 19:11, Matt 9:23-26, Matthew 8:2-4)

• The Messiah was to be of the lineage of David yet Jesus was born of a virgin! (Isaiah 9:6-7, Jeremiah 23:5-6, Zechariah 13:1, Matthew 1:1,20-24, 9:27, 12:3, 23, 15:22, 20:29-31, 21:9, 15, Mark 12:35, Luke 1:27-33, John 7:42, Romans 1:1-3, 1st Timothy 2:8, Revelation 5:5, 22:16, Matthew 1:18-25, Luke 1:26-38, Jeremiah 36:27-31)

• The Bible says honor your father and mother, yet Jesus says you must hate your father, mother, wife, children, and even your own life to be a disciple, and says to call no man on earth your father. (MT 10:35-37, LK 12:51-53, 14:26, MT 23:9)

• The concepts of heaven, hell, eternal life, etc., all predate Christianity as does a savior-god who died and was resurrected.

• The Hebrew word ‘Almah’, which people took to mean virgin, actually means ‘young woman of marriage age’. And there are plenty of indications that Jesus had brothers and sisters.

• God says killing is wrong, yet he advocates genocide. (EX 34:11-14, LV 26:7-9)

• It’s widely understood that God is supposed to be all-seeing and all-knowing. If that’s true, then why did he need people to mark their houses with blood in order to keep from killing their babies inside?

• God told Abraham to kill his son to prove that he loved God. Abraham raised the knife to him, about to do it, and God called it off—pleased that he would have done it. Does that sound like a moral God to you?

With all that being said , this is just a tiny sample of the inconsistencies and moral problems with the Bible. But don’t take my word for any of this. Go to the passages. Read the material. It’s all there uwu.

 

[proudpagan]

Tbh fam limiting the concept and doctrines of a God to a book that was compiled over time by various authors sounds retarded

 

[blü 2]

Nowhere does the bible claim to be written by God (or to be infallible, for that matter). Not in the Tanakh. And not in the NT, if for no other reason than that when it was being written, there was no NT to make the claim about.

The evidence on the face of the record is persuasive too. A god who has no concept of the Big Bang, the structure of the universe, a spherical earth, a rotating earth, evolution, genetics, germ theory, democracy, religious tolerance or the equality of women seems a bit under weight for the job.

No, my personal suspicion is that humans wrote it.

 

[Father]

Reads few chapters of the bible. "Oh this is pretty simple" gets to part of God repeating himself. "wait you just said Man was made before animals and now animals were made before?"
Reads halfway through the bible. "Wait why do you keep appointing kings than getting annoyed at them halfway through only to say you're going to destroy something. then a chapter later when a new king is picked you go pointing out however king before was holy and perfect."

Reads near the end of Bible. "Wait burnt offering are not a thing now? wait why are you comparing the city of the Israelites to being a prostitute?"

Reads new testament "WHO the hell are you and what did you do with God? why is he all hippie now? I didn't sign up for this bring back jealous wrathful ex-girlfriend God"

Reads halfway through new testament "Wait so God impregnated a teen, had a Kid, then had his kid who is also in some circles himself. sacrificed to himself. to show humanity he loves him. and to save humanity from himself from what he is going to do to them for what they did even though he knew they were going to do it anyway and didn't stop them?"

Reads Revelations at end of New Testament. "Wow, that's harsh. but also cool. I could see some great stories being based on that "Seraph of the end".

Reads Quran. "Yay Old God is back. wait why is he tan and have an accent? wait he left the Israelis and is now dating the Muslims? and wait he is complaining at them like he did with the Israelites and having the same problems? maybe relationships are not for you God?"

Reads the book of a moron. "hahahahahaha, you're telling me this con artist with magic stones found golden native tablets depicting a battle that no tribe remembers and that we should have 9 wives and the holy land is somewhere to the west, also give him all your money? and you buy this? hahahahaha"

I knew it was not the word of any God the moment I saw the first logical error or contradiction. fun stories though

 

[proudpagan]

fun stories though

God swears to himself (Genesis 22:16)

 

[Father]

God swears to himself (Genesis 22:16)

if that's real that is amazing. "me dammit"

 

[corynski]

The Bible wasn't written for your conscience. It was written by the will of God. Just as Job did, we have to accept God's will even when we disagree with it. We have to understand that God is holy and determines righteousness and that we do not. We are not holy and have no good reason to think we are in a position to judge God and His word.

True, I'm certainly not 'holy', but I think it's time to ask the tough questions. Tell me, David, why would an omniscient, omnipotent 'god' create an entire world where nearly every living creature must eat the other living creatures around him just to stay alive himself? We know now that there have been thousands of years of human evolution in which starvation threatened constantly. The Bible mentions this at 2 Kings 6:28, "This woman said to me, 'Give up your son so we may eat him today, and tomorrow we'll eat my son." I'm puzzled why a god would create people but no food for them. And why would a god create two sexes, a male and a female, knowing that eventually 50% of marriages are in danger of failure? And such violence, why is the Christian God so violent, such as at 1 Sam 15:1-3, "The Israelites, on order from Yahweh, declared enemy peoples anathema: "Therefore go forth and strike Amalek, declare him anathema, along with all that he possesses; be without mercy for him, kill men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys."
It's not that I want to judge God, but I want to ask you, David, what evidence do you have that such a god really exists?

 

[Father Heathen]

It says in it it's the Word of God

So does The Koran, The Bhagavad Gita, The Guru Granth Sahib, The Kitáb-i-Aqdas, The Agams, etc.

So what's your point? Besides, circular logic is a fallacy.

 

[Father Heathen]

The Bible wasn't written for your conscience. It was written by the will of God. Just as Job did, we have to accept God's will even when we disagree with it. We have to understand that God is holy and determines righteousness and that we do not. We are not holy and have no good reason to think we are in a position to judge God and His word.

Or we can accept that it was written by ancient, primitive savages who presumed to speak on god's behalf, and that the god portrayed in the bible is not the real god but rather some long dead goat herders' hand puppet.

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

The Bible wasn't written for your conscience. It was written by the will of God. Just as Job did, we have to accept God's will even when we disagree with it. We have to understand that God is holy and determines righteousness and that we do not. We are not holy and have no good reason to think we are in a position to judge God and His word.

And this right here is what I hate most about religion. "Suspend your morality and critical thinking to to what this book says"? That's the start of evil, IMO.

 

[proudpagan]

Granth

BhagwadGita demands of its disciples that they equip themselves and get ready for the inner war-the discipline of worship and meditation and attain higher state of consciousness rather than slavish worship of some god in sky who will beat the **** out of your balls in case you dont buy his words i.e. Bible and or qoran