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Questions
On The Bible's Claims
Question 1. How can
somebody find the true religion? Why are there so many religions that claim to be
Christian?
Answer Thank you for your fine question.
It is one of the most important ones anyone can ask.
First, how can we find the true religion? I believe the answer to that is found in the
Bible, the Word of God.
There are many different world religions all claiming to be "truth". We can
either believe that all of them are true, one of them is true or none of them is true.
Depending on what we choose, will determine how we live our lives. I believe whatever
choice we make, we must have good reasons for doing it, based on evidence, outside of our
own opinions, for why we make whatever choices we choose when it comes to religious
matters.
In other words, I believe the Bible is the "one truth" and I believe there is
good evidence to show that this is the case. That being true, once I make this choice,
then all other religions can be viewed as something that may contain some truth, but are
not the standard of truth. The Bible claims to be the God given truth and Jesus claims to
be the only way to God.
2TI 3:16 All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for
correction, for training in righteousness;
2TI 3:17 that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.
JOH 14:6 Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes
to the Father, but through Me.
How do we know then the Bible is truly the Word of God? There are several lines of
evidence we could give to show that the Bible has special characteristics that lead us to
believe it is not just an ordinary book, both a Divine revelation.
First, the way it is constructed. It was written by around 40 different men over a 1500
year period. These men spoke different languages, lived at different times and came from a
variety of social and economic backgrounds. Yet, the amazing thing is, they write about
one central message - God's desire and plan to save men from their sins! How did they do
this? The only reasonable answer - God revealed to each of them at different times what He
wanted to communicate to men.
2PE 1:20 But know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one's
own interpretation,
2PE 1:21 for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy
Spirit spoke from God.
Second, the Bible is filled with prophecies, predictions of detailed event that would
happen in the future. These events related to Israel, other nations and to Jesus. They are
specific in their predictions not general. And, the writers of these prophecies had no
control over the outcome of these predictions.
One example of these prophecies can be found on this web site, http://www.biblesearch.com/evclaims.htm.
In The future, I hope and pray to have more of this type of material posted.
Finally, another type of reasoning is, the Bible foretells information hundreds and
sometimes even thousands of years before scientists are able to prove that these things
are so. The striking thing is, when these things are written, they go against the
prevailing notions of their day. The question is, how did these men know these thing? The
answer, God told them.
An example is, they wrote that the earth hangs on nothing, that is it is not supported by
any external object. And yet this was not discovered by science until the 16th century.
JOB 26:7 "He stretches out the north over empty space, And hangs the earth on
nothing.
For these and other reasons, I believe the Bible proves itself to be Divine revelation
that is different from any other. In it, we find the truth about our present spiritual
condition (lost in sin) and the truth about what God has done for us (death and
resurrection of Jesus) and what we must do to be saved (believe in Him, repent of sins,
confess His name before men and be baptized in water for the forgiveness of sins). Also,
we find how we as Christians should live and worship after we have received forgiveness of
sins.
As to the second part of your question, why are there so many religions that claim to be
"Christian". The Bible explains this also. Many, because of love for their own
traditions, are led to teach things that differ from the Word of
God.
MAR 7:1 And the Pharisees and some of the scribes gathered together around Him when they
had come from Jerusalem,
MAR 7:2 and had seen that some of His disciples were eating their bread with impure hands,
that is, unwashed.
MAR 7:3 (For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they carefully wash their
hands, thus observing the traditions of the elders;
MAR 7:4 and when they come from the market place, they do not eat unless they cleanse
themselves; and there are many other things which they have received in order to observe,
such as the washing of cups and pitchers and copper pots.)
MAR 7:5 And the Pharisees and the scribes asked Him, "Why do Your disciples not walk
according to the tradition of the elders, but eat their bread with impure hands?"
MAR 7:6 And He said to them, "Rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is
written, 'This people honors Me with their lips, But their heart is far away from Me.
MAR 7:7 'But in vain do they worship Me, Teaching as doctrines the precepts of men.'
MAR 7:8 "Neglecting the commandment of God, you hold to the tradition of men."
MAR 7:9 He was also saying to them, "You nicely set aside the commandment of God in
order to keep your tradition.
MAR 7:10 "For Moses said, 'Honor your father and your mother'; and, 'He who speaks
evil of father or mother, let him be put to death';
MAR 7:11 but you say,' If a man says to his father or his mother, anything of mine you
might have been helped by is Corban (that is to say, given to God),'
MAR 7:12 you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or his mother;
MAR 7:13 thus invalidating the word of God by your tradition which you have handed down;
and you do many things such as that. "
2TH 2:8 And then that lawless one will be revealed whom the Lord will slay with the breath
of His mouth and bring to an end by the appearance of His coming;
2TH 2:9 that is, the one whose coming is in accord with the activity of Satan, with all
power and signs and false wonders,
2TH 2:10 and with all the deception of wickedness for those who perish, because they did
not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved.
2TH 2:11 And for this reason God will send upon them a deluding influence so that they
might believe what is false,
2TH 2:12 in order that they all may be judged who did not believe the truth, but took
pleasure in wickedness.
However, if we desire to know the truth, we can know it, by studying and following the
Word, and be pleasing to Him.
JOH 8:31 ¶ Jesus therefore was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, "If you
abide in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine;
JOH 8:32 and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. " Contact Gary
Question 2. An Officemate of mine, who
regularly reads the Bible, believes that the Book was written by the Apostles of Jesus
Christ. I explained to her that it cannot be so, because I read somewhere that the Sacred
Book was started to be written more than a thousand years after the death of Jesus; and it
would be unthinkable that any of the Apostles lived that long!
Answer Yes, there
are those who claim that the Bible was assembled long after the time when it is claimed
that it was written. This has been asserted both of the Old and New Testaments. However,
when we look at the evidence for determining the authenticity of an ancient book, we find
that the Bible is the most widely attested of all the ancient writings. That is, the Bible
has an abundance of evidence to show that it was indeed written by the authors and at the
times that were claimed in the original writings. To help answer this question, I will
sketch some of the evidence for the New Testament.
First, the New Testament was a collecting of letters written to individuals and churches.
The letters were written on common writing material of the day, papyrus, a plant grown by
the banks of the Nile River in Egypt.
2TI 4:13 When you come bring the cloak which I left at Troas with Carpus, and the books,
especially the parchments.
The letters when received by churches were passed along to other churches to be read.
Also, if other churches had received letters, these were passed to churches that had not
yet read them.
1TH 5:27 I adjure you by the Lord to have this letter read to all the brethren.
COL 4:16 And when this letter is read among you, have it also read in the church of the
Laodiceans; and you, for your part read my letter that is coming from Laodicea.
Therefore, by 100 A.D., we can reasonably assume that all the New Testament letter had
been circulated to all the churches. Later on, copies were made. For a while, animal skins
were used for writing material and then later paper. The oldest and most complete copies
of the New Testament in existence were written on animal skins and date from the fourth
and fifth centuries, 300-400 years from the death of Jesus.
Besides these, there are thousands of later copies written on paper. Beyond these, there
are the translations into other languages. What does all this prove?
Simply, the Bible has been handed down to us and is the most valid ancient writing that we
have. It was not put together by men a thousand years after Jesus, for the oldest copies
we have were written hundreds of years before that. As the Bible itself indicates, God
gets said what He wants to say and then is able to preserve it so future generations may
know His word.
1PE 1:24 For, "All flesh is like grass, And all its glory like the flower of grass.
The grass withers, And the flower falls off,
1PE 1:25 But the word of the Lord abides forever. "And this is the word which was
preached to you. Contact Gary
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