why do people believe the bible?

The Bible is about Jesus Christ. Consider the following:

Jesus Christ only lived 33 years, never went more than 30 miles from his home, never wrote a book, never was on tv, never made a cd or any multimedia source and YET

-- Jesus Christ has influenced the world more than any person;

-- Jesus Christ's existence separates history (ac or bc);

-- Jesus Christ has more books written about him than any person in history;

-- Jesus Christ is the Ruler of the largest religion in the world;

-- Jesus Christ had 11 apostles and numerous martyrs die excruciating deaths believing in the Messiah, the Son of God;

-- Jesus Christ as the promised messiah fulfilled over 300 prophesies in the Old Testament. Just fulfilling 50 makes the odds of doing so 10X135 power, an astronomical number. No human being or religious leader's existence was fortold with such clarity, never fulfilled so many prophesies about them, not even Moses, Muhammad (pbuh), Buddha, Confuscious or anyone!

In short, Jesus Christ has accomplished things NO OTHER HUMAN BEING HAS DONE in the entire history of mankind. If anyone thinks Jesus Christ is JUST A GOOD TEACHER they are very unrealistic by making such a huge understatement.

The Bible is not 100% accurate but, there are some things to take into consideration before declaring the Bible an invalid source to believe in. You ask a lot of good questions.

There are some problems with the Bible and errors. Please remember, the Old Testament was passed down by oral tradition before the technology of writing was available. Compared to the Quran which existed long after the technology for writing was invented. So, yes there are errors.

Secondly, there are different ways to interpret based upon the "literary forms" of writers. Depending whether it is in a historical context, prophetic, poetry, or some other type of literary form. I believe Jesus Christ IS THE WORD of God. The Bible is written by people inspired by God.

If you took a Bible course and discovered what SCRIPTURAL TYPOLOGY is you would be amazed. If you knew what SALVATION HISTORY was in the Bible you would understand. If you recognized DIVINE AUTHORITY you would know that there has to be someone in authority to reveal the "secret" truths God has given. If you research all those phrases you will begin a journey of discovery that will last a life time.

We have a saying in Catholicism: the New Testament is hidden in the Old and the Old is revealed in the New. There are many mysteries contained in the Bible that I have been amazed at discovering for the past 20 years and there is a whole lot more. St. Jerome said: Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ. The whole Bible is about our SALVATION: Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ fulfilled over 300 prophesies in the Old Testament about the Messiah you can discover 50 of them in cd's IT IS WRITTEN.

WHEN YOU HAVE BEGUN TO DISCOVER THESE THINGS YOU WILL KNOW IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO HAVE BEEN WRITTEN BY MAN. Jesus (a historical figure along with others in the Bible that are not fictitional characters) by fulfilling just 50 prophesies makes the odds of doing that 10X135 power! An astronomical figure that could not have been achieved by human means.

The thing that might shock you and others is that SATAN used scripture to tempt Jesus. So, too Satan will use scripture to trip us up from following the true faith. This is why there has to be DIVINE AUTHORITY that passes from the Old Testament to APOSTOLIC SUCCESSION in the New Testament. This is why someone cannot Authoritatively pick up a Bible and correctly interpret it nor can there be millions of interpretors to HOLY SCRIPTURE. There can only be one!

Actually faith is not a cop out. Faith is first of all a gift from God that gives us the ability to believe what is revealed (no matter the human errors involved). This is because in faith one can see the truth behind the mistakes in scriptures and believe it. Secondly, faith is also the human response to what is revealed by God. So, how would you ever expect to understand if you do not allow the gift of faith within? Obviously, since you do not understand you have yet to surrender to faith. Also, since you believe faith is something of a cop out, then you know nothing of what faith is. Many who have faith have tried to tell you why they believe. Yet, if your are hard of heart would any answer give you satisfaction? Surely it would not! Just as you doubt the reality and effectiveness of faith, you would also doubt if God were to reveal Himself through science, philosophy, poetry, etc. etc. Your heart precludes you from the truth. Yet if your heart surrenders its fear, anger, and prejudice then you will see.

This is not an insult to you. I have a stubborn heart as well, but in the life of faith I grow in understanding, I remain free from my stubborness because I can change. And with faith I have the ability and peace to let a mystery be a mystery in order to know it. I assure you. Not all mysteries can be known and understood by our solving them. Some mysteries can be known and understood just by our experiencing them. This is what Neil Peart from Rush meant when he wrote these words to the song Resist. "I can learn to get along with all the things I don't know."

The point is in order to have your question answered, and you be satisfied with it, you need faith and a good study of the scriptures. If you refuse this than even the truest answer would be denied by you.

May the Lord bless and keep you. May He let the light of His face shine upon you.

God's and your beast of burden

Fr. john

OK, let's apply that theory (the circle story telling experiment) to the Bible. You'd expect to get Genesis talking about totally different creation stories, the Gospels talking about stuff we've never even heard of. The Bible was written by over 40 authors, and yet all 40 authors are in complete agreement with one another. Jesus Himself quotes the Book of Genesis, which was written by Moses nearly 2,000 years before Jesus' life. Most of the Epistles were written by Paul, who was the first real persecutor of Christians. Paul became a Christian himself, and the things he taught were in agreement with the things taught by Moses, Jeremiah, Jesus, and all the other prominent figures of the Bible. That's basically why I believe the Bible.

The Qumran Scrolls, better know as the Dead Sea Scrolls, were discovered in the 1940's. They are 1,000 years older than any previous manuscript of the Jewish Scriptures. The Maseretic Text, the previously oldest manuscripts were written in the A.D. 800's and the Dead Sea Scrolls were written in the early 100's B.C. In the 1,000 years of copying and translations between the 2 manuscripts there are NO differences of any importance. The only differences are in spellings of names and punctuation.

That is how we can say the Bible as we have it currently is reliable.

I believe the Bible because it's the inspired word of God. It's a collection of 66 different books written by 40 authors over a period of 1500 years with consistency & unity of theme & purpose. It's integrity is verified by historical, geographical & archeological accuracy and consistency the #1 bestseller :-)

If you want to know why people believe in the Bible, and you really want to know, do a web search on fulfilled Bible prophecy, check out the date it was prophesied and the date it was fulfilled with 100% accuracy, makes for a interesting study and may answer some of your questions

Your right. I used the circle story in a previous answer.

Mom asks "why were you throwing apples at cars?"

I answer " because everyone else was, it seemed cool at the time"

Mom says " if everybody were to jump off a bridge, would you?"

Ever heard that one before?

I believe some parts of the bible as historical and nothing more therefore there is no reason to believe.

BTW expect alot of scriptures. lol

God spoke through the writers that wrote the bible. they preached and wrote. they were also told to write by God. read Revelation 1:9-11, John was approached by God and told to write. It is also the living word of GOD. In the bible, there are so many things that are predicted that come to happen.

You should also read about the dead sea scrolls-is supposed to be really old--go to http://www.usc.edu/dept/LAS/wsrp/index.html.

and click on "educational site" tablet and then click on Dead sea scrolls midway down inside box these things aren't supposed to have been preserved for as long as they did. That's hard core eh? eh?

thanks and good luck in your game of unsureness

1) it is the infallible word of god

2) each book has a different author,all are in concordance with the message and word of god,some are from different regions etc. and would not have been made available to the same source however all sources are tested and proven.

3) alot of happenings and artefacts have been proven by scientists or historians. there are other reasons but i'd need to look it up. hope this helps.

Because the principles in the bible work. Tried them and the work. I still live by them today.