If the bible really was the important word of an all powerful god?

what if the right person sets a bible on fire, do you think the entire universe would catch on fire and burn? i might try it, just to find out.

OK, let's distinguish the difference between the scriptures and "the word of God". The scriptures are history...both the recording of history, and the predicting of history through prophesy. It provides the history to validate its message...that there is a God who created men, and there is a separation of men from their Creator caused by their sin. Along with it, the consequences of rebellion and sin, and the requirements of God to be reconciled.

Then there is the "Word of God". That would be Jesus. And a book cannot contain all that he did or said, and a book cannot contain the life that is in him.

Language has changed, but the word has not. Language has changed, but history has not.

The seal that he put on those whom he redeemed is the Holy Spirit, and the Word lives with those who know it...the Spirit teaches us all things.

It was the whole of human history that was created, to be written down in a book, fore telling the coming of a savior, the living word, with whom we may abide.

One of the things that high-profile Biblical scholars like to point out is that the cultural context of the Bible is extremely important to understanding what it was originally intended by the author to mean, and that it sets the stage for how and why each particular book of the Bible is written.

What this means is that the meaning that could be extracted by any particular scripture may change with the times and it may become necessary (for God in some way, supposing him to exist) to add to it or modify it in order to receive the desired effect. This holds especially true in as dynamic a world we live in as this one.

If anything, it is suspect that the only major modifications we have heard of since the life of Jesus are from a man who married a nine-year-old, a con artist who stared into scrying balls looking for treasure, and a shady organization that failed to predict the end of the world several times.

History has shown the opposite of your claim regarding the Bible being "changed". Fragments of texts that have been found that are over 2000 years old, and comparisons between copies down through the centuries, show very little variation, and the vast majority of those variations have no real alteration on the meaning of the text.

If however you truly want to discern false prophets, this is actually easier than you might suspect, for false prophets alter Scripture quite a bit, to the point of blatancy.

For example, false prophets are described as "wolves in sheep's clothing" who seek to feed their own belly at the expense of others. They usually accomplish this by altering the old covenant tithing law to include tithes of one's wages, payable to them, all contrary to Scripture. The real problem then is how readily people alter Scripture as extant, and not a case of variants in Scripture down through time.

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Well, G-d only had to write the Ten Commandments because they were the next step in moral guidelines. Before this(Hammurabi's Code), laws were LAWS (crime=specific punishment) but then came the Commandments. The true face of written morality, its not bad to kill because you will be killed, it's bad because G-d says it's bad and not to do so. The rest of the books are really expansions of the Commandments and are only commentaries and examples to live by. you don't need to read any of the bible if you actually follow the commandments. Christianity, Islam, Orthodox Judaism and so on and so forth are all trying to be more specific and really there is no need. I suppose all they are trying to do is establish a broader scope of morality. Such as you shouldn't smoke cigarettes because your body is made in the image of G-d (and Angels, depending on who you ask) or do cocaine because it might kill you (thus you are committing suicide/killing) Honestly there are no commandments (of the Ten) that cover topics like this (or abortion, cheating on your GIRLFRIEND or purposely spreading the clap to a girl you dislike). Those are all products of our environment and our "evil" but doing these things won't land you in Hell, because if you are doing these things your likely in Hell already (Sheol) so you should learn your own lessons from your reduced quality of life. G-d didn't write it all down because he left it up to moral men (people that follow the commandments) to fill in the gaps with more morality, thus the creation and continuity of the scripture. hope this helps

why we can trust the word of God? how do we know it's true? the old testament dealt with God's revealed relationship with the Israelites. the new testament writers said these are the word of God. they were telling the story of Jesus after the fact, while the old testament was predicting Jesus, we have 5,300 manuscripts of the new testament writtings. no other book come close to that. if what we hear in the world dosen't line up with the word of God, we need to walk from that. if our actions are based on feelings then we arent going to be very stable in life. the message is Jesus. whatever circumstance we find ourselves in Jesus is the answer. we also need the Holy Spirit to reveal what we are reading in scripture means as we study in the word of God.

interpretation of the bible is not to prefer either literal meanings or figurative meanings it is to understand what god intended the words to mean sometimes god intended a literal meaning sometimes a figurative meaning and occasionally both

Because it isn't the word of any "God" it was written entirely by man.

you ask 2 much questions it is better to have a humble spirit than one one in arrogance and reproach!!

Excellent point!