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Josh McDowell in His book "The New Evidence That Demands A Verdict" he talks about how the bible is unique. There are several ways that the Bible is unique; I breifly look at a few of these.
Unique In Its Continuity
1) Written over a fifteen-hundred-year span.
2) Written by more than forty authors including kings, military leaders, peasants, philosophers, fisherman, tax collectors, poets, musicians, statesmen, scholars and shepherds.
3) Written in different places including wilderness, dungeon, palaces, prisons and traveling.
4) Written at different times (war & peace)
5) Written in different moods
6) Written on three different continents: Asia, Africa & Europe
7) Written in three languages: Hebrew, Aramaic & Greek
8) Written in a variety of literary styles
Unique In Its Circulation
Has sold more copies than any other book in the world.
Unique In Its Translation
It has been translated into 2,200 languages; more than any other book.
Unique In Its Survival
It has with stood time and the tests of time. Throughout time it has been carefully copied and translated. It is accurate to it's manuscripts and autographs. It has survived the pursecution of both Jews and Christians. It has withstood criticism. No one has been able to prove the Bible wrong.
Unique In Its Teaching
It contains prophecy, history, law & characters.
Wednesday, September 13, 2006
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3 comments:
do you believe every person has their own unique perspective on every situation? and if so, how does the writting of random people, notable they may be, over a number of years prove the events described actually occured? simply because it coincides with non-religious or cross-religious accounts, does nothing to prove the accuracy of the record.
The bible is the most widely sold book in the world, very true... still it fails to provide evidence in regards to it's accuracy.
And just because i can't prove something like the bible is wrong, doesn't suggest that it is correct either. Things aren't a case of simple deduction.
It's withstood the tests of time because the power behind the Christian religion has for many centuries, took advantage of peoples' fears. The Christian church aquire most of it's wealth by having rich noblemen sign over their fortune and property because they though that the plague was a punishment from god, in which they were led to believe leaving their wealth to the church, would cleanse
them of sin. They provided people with a sense of belonging in a time of fear and uncertainty, while murdering all who opposed them.
I believe that the bible is God breathed. Since He who cannot sin says it I believe it and that settles it as the saying goes.
The truth of the bible has nothing to do with the fact that some people in the heirarchy of the middle ages churches skimmed people of every penny that they could get.
fn it is a fact that greed is one of the qualities of the sinful nature which Jesus died to heal.
What people do with the bible doesnt make it any less true it just proves that people are exactly what God says in the bible,
Man is born in sin and has a sinful nature.
Kev. this is a good article. I have heard it before and I am enjoying reading it again.
Sorry I didn’t note this before, I will make sure that I do this in the future, but this post is not a point for the Bible being inspired by God but to the fact the it is historically reliable.
Yes every person has their own unique perspective on every situation, however, not every author is inspired by God to write. Christians believe that all the authors of the Bible were inspired by God. In addition many of the books of the Bible were written by people who were there at the events recorded. For example, all of the Old Testament, also used by the Jews as the Jewish Bible, with the exception of Genesis was written by authors who were there. In the New Testament the books of Matthew, John, Acts and the Epistles were written by people who were there. To note, Matthew and John were Jesus’ disciples. The books of Mark and Luke were written by the named people who would have had direct contact with Jesus’ Disciples.
As for accuracy of the record there are numerous books which confirm the historicity of the Bible. Among these sources are Josephus and Philo. Not to mention that process of copying the Bible was done so meticulously and preciously. The Dead Sea Scrolls are proof of this. To date we have numerous manuscripts for the bible, more than any book written in history. Here is a listing of manuscripts of the biblical texts we possess:
New Testament
Uncials 307
Minuscules 2,860
Lectionaries 2,410
Papri 109
In Other Languages:
Latin Vulgate 10,000+
Ethiopic 2,000+
Slavic 4,101
Armenian 2,587
Syriac Pashetta 350+
Bohairic 100
Arabic 75
Old Latin 50
Anglo Saxon 7
Gothic 6
Sogdian 3
Old Syriac 2
Persian 2
Frankish 1
Total – 24,970+
Old Testament (I do not have to totals for most of these)
Dead Sea Scrolls 223 Manuscripts of various books
Septuagint
Hexapla
Aramaic Targums
Mishnah
Midrash
Masoretic Text
Interesting to note that Archeology often uses the bible for digs and every time a dig is done they find the exact place they were looking for. This too proves that the Bible is historically accurate.
These are part of the reason why the Bible has withstood the test of time. No one has been able to disprove the Bible is a case for it being true as well.
True, there has been so tragic things happen using the name Christian, but that doesn’t mean that the church should be blamed, the church is made up of people. The church is not to blame for the selfishness of people in power. This is precisely why Martin Luther started the reformation.
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