I mean, the only proof we have that they were not lying is their own claims.
And if it is just faith, why have faith? Men have lied a lot in the past.
2011-04-14T14:28:12Z
Not historically...but about all the god stuff...and the jesus dying a coming back and immaculate conception....they obviously wouldnt lie about historical events because then it would all seem like bs
2011-04-14T14:31:09Z
i think the reason if they lied they havent been found out is a very large following before the age of enlightenment. then childhood indoctrination raises people from birth to believe its all true and its blasphemy to question belief (not claiming i'm right at all...just theories)
2011-04-14T14:32:04Z
Couldnt they have just said they were under the guidance of the holy spirit?
interested12082011-04-14T14:28:28Z
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Of course...
@Kyle: People die for their 'beliefs' all the time, even today.... does that mean that their 'beliefs' were true?
First, "immaculate conception" is not in the Bible. That was made up by the Catholic church long after the Bible was written.
You might be referring to the virgin birth of Christ, which is in the Bible and is central to Christianity.
With respect to what we know about God, the prophets authenticated themselves through miracles and by being right about future events. So God would talk to a prophet, tell them some facts about himself or what he wanted people to do, then would seal the deal with a prediction of the future or by giving the prophet some super power. The prophet would preach to the people about who God was or what he wanted from them, then either tell them what was going to happen tomorrow or do some miracle.
If the prediction of the future didn't come to pass, or if the prophet didn't have some kind of super power, people wouldn't believe the other things he said. But if he was right about the future or was able to do miraculous things (proving that God was working through him) then the people should believe the other things.
The Bible, then, is a collection of writings of the "successful" prophets who did miracles and/or had super powers. While we personally can't meet them and observe their powers of prediction or miracles, we have a written record and have to trust that the record wouldn't have survived if the prophet wasn't any good.
The Bible itself instructs people to kill the so-called prophets who don't pass the prediction test. So they wouldn't have gotten a chance to write anything down. :-)
Yes, they could have. So what the people of who put the books of the Bible together did was compare all things written about God and Jesus to find consistency. They came up with 66 books of the Bible to that were consistent with each other. They were put together and thats the Bible. Sort of like witnesses accounts to a car accident. If there were like four people who witnessed an accident and all their stories were the same but they witnessed it from different angles they must have seen the same accident. Their witness must be true.
There is always a possibility but I dont believe they did. Besides, how could the story of the great flood(in Christianity its Noahs Ark)be told in many religions when there is no reliable communication and they where written around the same time if the people who wrote the Bible lied?
That would be quite a feat, indeed if you think about it because of all the extra-biblicular writings that corroborate scripture not to mention the fact that though scripture spans such a vast expanse of time it is all very co-hesive in unity from one writer to the next without them ever having met or collaborated so that they all supported one anothers fabrications.