Christians, make your point..?

Well it WAS used to control the masses...

I'm new at this "Answers" stuff. What I see most of the time is some very angry people venting their religious frustration on a regular basis in hopes that they can get a "Christian" to take the bait. Then they often gang up on the unsuspecting believer and reward each other with "thumbs up" ratings.

My personal experience with reading the Bible leads me to conclude that it is truly the inspired by God and unlike anything I have ever read. I have read numerous translations and commentaries by great scholars and theologians.

I have also read hundreds of secular books of all types. None come close to having the impact that the Bible has had on me. Below is an attempt at answering why...

The Bible is inspired (God-breathed) by God, as declared in 2 Timothy 3:16.

1) Fulfilled prophecy. God spoke to men telling them of things He would bring about in the future. Some of them have already occurred. Others have not. For example, there were more than 300 prophecies concerning Jesus Christ's first coming 2,000 years ago. There is no doubt that these are prophecies from God because of manuscripts and scrolls dated before the birth of Christ. These were not written after the fact. They were written beforehand. Scientific dating proves this.

2) The unity of Scripture. The Bible was written by approximately 40 human authors over a period of approximately 1,600 years. These men were quite diverse. Moses, a political leader; Joshua, a military leader; David, a shepherd; Solomon, a king; Amos, a herdsman and fruit picker; Daniel, a prime minister; Matthew, a tax collector; Luke, a medical doctor; Paul, a rabbi; and Peter, a fisherman; among others. The Bible was also written under a variety of circumstances. It was written on 3 different continents, Europe, Asia, and Africa. Yet, the great themes of Scripture are maintained in all the writings. The Bible does not contradict itself. There is no way, apart from God the Holy Spirit supervising the writing of the Bible, that this could have been accomplished.

Contrast this with the Islamic Koran. It was compiled by one individual, Zaid bin Thabit, under the guidance of Mohammed's father-in-law, Abu-Bekr. Then in A.D. 650, a group of Arab scholars produced a unified version and destroyed all variant copies to preserve the unity of the Koran. The Bible was unified from the time of its writing. The Koran had to be unified through the editing of men.

3) The Bible presents its heroes truthfully with all of their faults and weaknesses. It does not glorify men as other religions do about their heroes. When you read the Bible, you realize that the people it describes have problems and do wrong just as we do. What made them great was that they trusted in God. One example is David. David is described as “a man after God's own heart” (1 Samuel 13:14). Yet, David committed adultery (2 Samuel 11:1-5) and murder (2 Samuel 11:14-26). This could have been left out of Scripture to hide these details of David's life. But God included these things.

4) Archaeological findings support the history recorded in Scripture. Though many unbelieving people throughout history have tried to find archaeological evidence to disprove what is recorded in the Bible, they have failed. It is easy to say that Scripture is untrue. Proving it to be untrue is a different story. It has not been done. In fact, in the past the Bible contradicted the current “scientific” theories, only to be proven later to be in fact true. A good example is Isaiah 40:22, which declared that God “sits on the circle of the earth” long before scientists claimed the earth was flat.

The Bible’s claims of being from God should not be understood as arguing in a circle or by circular reasoning. The testimony of reliable witnesses - particularly of Jesus, but also of others such as Moses, Joshua, David, Daniel, and Nehemiah in the Old Testament, and John and Paul in the New Testament - affirm the authority and verbal inspiration of the Holy Scriptures. Consider the following passages: Exodus 14:1; 20:1; Leviticus 4:1; Numbers 4:1; Deuteronomy 4:2; 32:48; Isaiah 1:10, 24; Jeremiah 1:11; Jeremiah 11:1–3; Ezekiel 1:3; 1 Corinthians 14:37; 1 Thessalonians 2:13; 2 Peter 1:16–21; 1 John 4:6.

Not sure what you're asking. Ingersoll, whoever he or she is, obviously hasn't read much of the Bible or prefers to pick out a verse here and there and expect the whole thing to make sense. It's like using only two or three ingredients from a cake recipe and expecting to get a good cake.

I am an Atheist, and tend to agree with Ingersoll on many things.

But I think he's overgeneralizing and being overly selective and dramatic in this particular bit.

What's to justify. Think of it. I can find highly extolling comments about the Bible (from myself first of all). The Bible does one thing infallibly. It makes those who oppose Christianity have to take a stand on it. You can't be quiet about a book whose contents issue in either Hell or Heaven, one or the other.

Ingesoll is rather cowardly in that respect. Instead of arguing true/false (Jesus is the Son of God, or He isn't) he goes for some tertiary point.

Why ? Because he'd be up the creek arguing Jesus IS the Son of God but I just don't accept Him.

I am a convert. I heard years and years of this stuff. It bores the living Hell out of me now.

This is a prime candidate for next-door-neighborship to "Guns don't kill people - people do".

The book didn't kill or hurt anyone. People did.

Ingersoll swung, missed, and fell down.

What an over-dramatic tool. . .

Who wrote that, an atheist?

Every word of the above is inspired by Satan, and is not found anywhere in the Bible. The above is a secular humanist view, which is at odds with, the enemy of God. Make sure you're on the right side. And the "right side" is not the one written above.

let me think before I answer.... get back with ya..... go in peace..... God bless

*edit*, ok , I think some or most of my brothers and sisters in Christ have answered far better than I ever could.. and even some who are not Chrisitans have asnwered and given wonderful answers... I bow to their wisdom on this ......

Ugh! You athiest, theologist-wannabe's make me sick!! Why can't you just believe in nothing like you all do and stop trying to talk people with FAITH in something out of their beliefs?????? You spend your whole life being bullies and trying to intimidate people of faith and prove to anyone you come across that they're wrong. It's disgusting and pathetic!!

This one is easy: Ingersoll had no ability to differentiate between a TRUE Christian (who would never hurt or oppress anyone) and a FALSE Christian (who is still carnal and finds it easy enough to oppress others in Jesus' name so s/he can feel superior).