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How do YOU know the Bible is God's Word? - 7/8/2008 10:55:09 AM
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crankius
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I was asked this question in the Mormon thread, and rather than take that thread off topic, I decided to start a new topic. It will be very interesting to read the variety of answers.
"How do you know it [the Bible] is God's Word? How did you discern this truth from fiction?"
Edit to clarify: This thread is not about mormonism and is not addressed to mormons. The person who asked the question could be from any religion or may not be religious at all.
< Message edited by crankius -- 7/9/2008 9:10:53 PM >
_____________________________
Do not be overly righteous, Nor be overly wise: Why should you destroy yourself?
Ecclesiastes 7:16
He Himself is our peace! Ephesians 2:14:a
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RE: How do YOU know the Bible is God's Word? - 7/8/2008 11:06:35 AM
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crankius
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I know the Bible is true because it has been tested and validated and has proven itself to be reliable.
That is my short answer.
_____________________________
Do not be overly righteous, Nor be overly wise: Why should you destroy yourself?
Ecclesiastes 7:16
He Himself is our peace! Ephesians 2:14:a
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RE: How do YOU know the Bible is God's Word? - 7/8/2008 12:03:50 PM
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LCannon
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Ultimate truth boils down to, 'Who do ya' trust?', speculation(our or another's ) or revelation garnered from the Word of God either by study and confirmation or the other way 'round not a single source. “[Jesus] proved He had a valid claim[to His Deity]but His own rejected His claim yet as many as receives His message; to them he claimed the right to become redeemed of God and appropriate His Name.“ John 1:11,12
< Message edited by LCannon -- 7/8/2008 12:16:37 PM >
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"I will behold Thy face for I shall be satisfied when I awake to Thy likeness."
(Psalm 17:15)
"To see God and to be like Him; what more can I desire? I believe it and I expect it."
(CH Spurgeon)
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RE: How do YOU know the Bible is God's Word? - 7/9/2008 5:30:33 PM
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swordsman
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quote:
ORIGINAL: crankius
I was asked this question in the Mormon thread, and rather than take that thread off topic, I decided to start a new topic. It will be very interesting to read the variety of answers.
"How do you know it [the Bible] is God's Word? How did you discern this truth from fiction?"
sw: First, it is one of a very small number of books in the entire world that makes the claim that it is from God. Therefore, such a claim should be investigated.
The proof that the Bible is God's word is given in a whole body of work called Christian evidences.
That includes the evidence of:
fulfilled prophecy
archaeology
science
history
geography
miracles
eyewitnesses
the resurrection of Jesus
Paul
etc.
What Mormons would like people to do, on the other hand, is to pray and see if you'll get an answer about Joseph Smith.
When it comes to evidence such as that for the Bible, if one becomes a Mormon, one has to hold one's nose in order to escape the odor arising from all the evidence AGAINST the BOM, including the taint given it by the horrible eyewitnesses, the immorality and untrustworthiness of Joseph Smith himself, the 2000 corrections that were made in the early manuscript, the anachronism of his copying the KJV of the Bible, etc, etc, etc.
Swordsman
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RE: How do YOU know the Bible is God's Word? - 7/9/2008 8:05:15 PM
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Bluethread
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The premises appear to best fit what is and provide the most reasonable hope for improvement. For example, an infinite and personal creator, recognition that man generally acts out of self interest regardless of the effects on others, a consistant and just moral code, salvation by grace, and repentance through recognition, restitution and reformation.
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"Show me wherein I have errored and I will hold my tongue." Iyov(Job)
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RE: How do YOU know the Bible is God's Word? - 7/9/2008 9:07:04 PM
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crankius
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quote:
What Mormons would like people to do, on the other hand, is to pray and see if you'll get an answer about Joseph Smith.
When it comes to evidence such as that for the Bible, if one becomes a Mormon, one has to hold one's nose in order to escape the odor arising from all the evidence AGAINST the BOM, including the taint given it by the horrible eyewitnesses, the immorality and untrustworthiness of Joseph Smith himself, the 2000 corrections that were made in the early manuscript, the anachronism of his copying the KJV of the Bible, etc, etc, etc.
Swordsman,
I agree with what you have stated here.
The person who asked the question wouldn't tell me that they are mormon. They just asked the question as a first post in the thread. Since I couldn't connect why he was asking me in the Mormon thread, I decided to start a new thread so that the topic could stand on its own.
It could just be a person of no faith at all who is wanting to know how we know the Bible is true.
Maybe I'll edit the OP to reflect this. If we talk about mormonism in here, my thread will most likely be closed. 
_____________________________
Do not be overly righteous, Nor be overly wise: Why should you destroy yourself?
Ecclesiastes 7:16
He Himself is our peace! Ephesians 2:14:a
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RE: How do YOU know the Bible is God's Word? - 7/12/2008 6:21:23 AM
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Annie64
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How do I, personally, know that the Bible is God's Word? Ultimately it comes down to faith. I have often thought, when reading through the threads on science and origins (and I do a lot more lurking than posting there, because I don't want my lack of scientific knowledge to be lambasted  ), that people who don't believe the Bible is true don't believe it because they don't want to believe it. But I have to admit that much of the reason I do believe is because I choose to believe. But I have a lot of reasons for making that choice.
One assumption I have to make first is one that is taught in the Bible. In finding my faith, though, I begin with it before I come to faith, and that is that God is good. And that truth is good. Therefore, if the Bible is God's word, it will be truth. The Bible says that God cannot lie. I have to begin by assuming that that is true.
I learned what goodness and truth looks like from my parents. I imagine that if God had given me different parents, I likely would not have come to faith. But I was given parents who consistently lived the Gospel in front of me, and who would not tell a lie because God does not lie, and because the Bible told them not to lie. I am 44 years old, much too old to believe something just because my parents believed it. But I do believe what they believed, because they were consistent. My parents were married for nearly 56 years before my mother passed away. Sometimes their marriage was less than ideal. But they toughed it out because the Bible teaches against divorce. But toughing it out did not mean for them living in a loveless marriage. In fact, it ended up great. They ended up with happy and fulfilling lives, rather than miserable lives, not in spite of their belief in the Bible, and not irrelevant to it, but because of it, and for no other reason.
I know that there are many people in the world who live decent, moral lives without believing that the Bible is God's Word, and there are people who are or seem to be fulfilled without it. But the fact of the matter is I would not be one of those if I did not believe. All of my reason for doing what I would call good is founded on the Bible. If I did not have that, I would very likely be in a mental hospital or dead of a drug overdose, or anyway a strung out junkie. I have never done drugs. But I went to public school where I was ridiculed and not accepted and that was painful. I was tempted to deal with the pain that way, and had I not believed that the Bible was God's Word, and that God didn't want me to do that, I probably would have. That, and only that, kept me out of it.
One last thing. (Yes, I know this post is getting long, and I'm sorry. I hope some people will actually read the whole thing, but if you didn't, I'm not offended. I don't read long posts, either, unless I'm really interested in them.) It seems to me that most people who have miserable, unhappy lives, have them because either 1) they are not living up to the standard given in the Bible, or 2) someone else in their lives is not living up to it. When any one person oppresses another, they are doing so in disobedience to Scripture.
I know that my reasons for my confidence that the Bible is God's Word are experiential rather than rational or scientific, and I do believe all the rational arguments for faith that the Bible is God's Word, but the things I listed predispose me to believe. And it is also, probably foremost, the work of the Holy Spirit in my life, using these things to awaken me to faith.
_____________________________
On Christ the solid rock I stand
ALL other ground is sinking sand.
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RE: How do YOU know the Bible is God's Word? - 7/12/2008 2:08:20 PM
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mvic
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Annie got it correctly:
"Ultimately it comes down to faith. ... people who don't believe the Bible is true don't believe it because they don't want to believe it."
The Bible is a book of Faith. We have the choice to believe it is the Word of God, or to believe it isn't.
No amount of proof will convince someone who does not want to believe.
Faith is to believe when your common sense tells you not to.
_____________________________
Christian words of comfort at http://www.holyvisions.co.uk
Welcome to my Blog
MEI VITA INDICO CHRISTUS
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