I was talking with a friend this afternoon, and the question, "How reliable is the Bible?" came up. Not for the first time, I've had to go back through everything I've been taught on this subject. I actually think I became pretty confusing during the explaination. I began to talk about the Talmudists (the Israelite priests who copied the Old Testament, known by the Jews as the "Talmud"). This can get rather confusing even when you're sitting through a four hour seminar. The rules they followed go on forever. "No word or letter can be written from memory", "Wash your entire body and put on full ceremonial dress before sitting down to write", "Should the king address you while you're writing the name of God, take no notice" - I went through several of these laws.
I think that I got a bit carried away! Everything I said was true, but I should have covered more bases. I should have talked more about how the reliablity of the Bible as has been conclusively proven. I should have said exactly how many words of the Bible are in question (200,000 words), explained how when "textual variations" (e.g. "One and only son of God" changed to "Only son of God") and spelling differences (e.g. a city or a person's name spelled differently in various parts of the Bible), that number drops dramatically (to 400 words). 400 is 1/2 of one percent of the words in the Bible.
I should have talked about how the Bible is the only book that has prophecy in it (aside from the Koran, which does have one prophecy. Mohammed said that he was going to return to Mecca. He then turned around and walked to Mecca.). I should have given the example of the city of Tyre (The Bible prophecied that it would be thrown into the midst of the sea, that it's surface would be scraped to bare rock, and that it would be a place used to spread fishnets - Ezekiel 26:4-5. All this happened. Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon conquered and tore down the city. Alexander the Great had the all the ruins put into the sea so that he could cross to the other island/city. It's bare rock and fishermen still use that spot to spread out their nets to mend and dry.). Instead I harped on the Talmudists like it was going out of style.
Sometimes I'm incredibly glad that God is the one that's God and that my mistakes don't mess up what He's doing.
6 comments:
I think that friend is still confused but now has more info to think about.
Thank You.
I wasn't going to ask this today because I need to run but I can't not get it down. I will forget. Please forgive the lack of thought in writing this out. I'm in a hurry. Morgan asked me if the Easter Bunny laid eggs. I told him that they did not and explained to him why the rabbit and egg were chosen to represent Easter. I then explained what Easter was really about, Jesus' resurrection. I believe I explained it to Morgan as Jesus being reborn. After this Morgan asked why does Jesus get to come back alive and we don't. I told him the best I could, in child terms, about why Jesus died and then I told him that God brought Jesus back from the dead and took him to Heaven. (I'm not even sure about that part.) Morgan then simply said Why? I'm stumped. I told him I would find out. Please help. {=0) If I don't get to respond back today I'm sorry.
Take Care,
Jeremy
Since I'm not sure which of two questions (or what mix of both) you're asking, I'll answer both of them.
The reason Jesus died was because we can't get out of sin by ourselves. Jesus was (and is) God, He chose to be born down here, and He lived as perfectly down here as He did/does up there (even though He was tempted in every way we are). In Jewish days, they were required to offer a sacrifice (a lamb) to be forgiven of their sins, an innocent life for a guilty life. This had to be done yearly with the lambs.
Jesus was the one perfect sacrifice for all of us and so was called "The Lamb of God" (John 1:29). He died to take our place.
The reason God brought Him back to life is to show His victory over Death and Sin. It says in the Bible that, because He was sinless, He conquered sin. In conquering sin, he conquered death, not just for himself but also for all of us - His coming back to life is proof of that. Jesus brought Himself back to life to prove that He was the Victor, not the Victim.
Cilla
Ha Ha, I told you to please forgive the lack of thought into what I was writing. I can be very confusing when I am not able to explain face to face verbally.
Thank you for the response though, it does help me alot. Now, what will be really interesting is explainging it to Morgan, that childs mind runs 90 to nothing and I'm sure he'll have 50 more questions.
Jeremy
Hey - thanks for asking me! It gives me a real boost when I get to use all this knowledge I've accumulated over the years for any good purpose! Hopefully the fifty-odd questions Morgan will think up as soon as you've answered his previous one will be well within your grasp. *grins*
Cilla
Any question can be in my grasp. Is what's coming out of my mouth the factual truth? I'll never tell. {=0)
I'll record his questions so if they are not within my grasp you can hear them and help again. lol
Jeremy
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