Written: Sept 14, 2019
Last Updated: Jan 7, 2024
The Bible is in the Guinness World Records for being the most translated book in the World. With Christianity being the most popular religion (30-33%) in the World, it’s understandable. However, just because it’s the most translated book in the World doesn’t mean it’s free of doubts about its authenticity. Is it truly the word of God? Can it be, truly, accepted as God God-inspired book, without any human contamination? I wish I could give a full, unconditional, without-a-doubt, absolutely confident “yes,” but I can’t. I will explain why.
Age of the Earth
According to the most accepted Christian view of the age of the Earth, it’s just a little bit over 6 thousand years. This is obviously in conflict with the scientific community which states that it is much older. The difference in the postulated age of the Earth by the two groups is 4.5 billion years, give or take a few million years. How do we explain such differences and still accept both views? We can’t, and as the underdogs, liberal Christian groups came up with some theories. Of course, the conservative Christians are absolutely dismissive of the scientific community, but….
Gap Theory
The first of the accommodations is the Gap Theory. Gap Theory states that there was a very long “gap” of time between verses 1 and 2 of Genesis 1. Basically, the gap of time in this theory would be 4.5 billion years. This view states that there was a prior civilization that God created, in the past, that ended with destruction. This would, then, mean that the present world as we know it is God’s second trial at making his Kingdom.
The reason for this particular thought is due to how the second verse describes the Earth as formless and empty. They say that the Earth was formless and empty because of the aftermath of an Armageddon-like chaos (imagine nuclear warheads bombarding every inch of the world) led destruction. Therefore, when God’s Spirit was hovering over the waters, God was actually “renewing” the earth, so says the theory (see Psalms 104:30).
Day-Age Creationism
This second theory sets apart the six days of creation not as the normal 24-hour length days. It states those initial days lasting thousands to billions of years of time. This is actually more probable or, at least, easier to believe than the Gap Theory that popped out of nothing.
Our 24-hour defined day is based upon the time taken during Earth’s rotation around the sun. Is there any evidence that suggests this particular planetary rotation was constant throughout the history of the Earth? Couldn’t the Earth have rotated slower, for example? Maybe the light source, mentioned in the Bible, at the time, was not the sun but something else? Maybe the light source was the Big Bang? There are many guesses and thoughts to accommodate this direction of thought.
Other Theories
Then there are other theories that may explain the disparity between the Bible and science regarding the age of the Earth. We can spend many hours in our efforts to visit those various theories and speculations, but let’s not. Why? None of those can be proven. Why spend time on something that can’t be proven?
Let’s say a man arrives at a theory that he is happy about, and let’s say that such theory explains some of the doubts or issues that he was struggling with. As such, he can’t wait to tell others. So, he spends hours and hours organizing the theory and comes up with a way to tell it to others, but the fact still remains. What he has is only a theory, not the truth. With that said, is there any worth in sharing? Perhaps, but is it worthy enough to convince others? Maybe not.
I would gladly hear any theories, but if I am not convinced that a particular theory is truthful, I must revisit this theory when there is something more substantial that makes it more believable. The same is true in sharing other theories about the creation of the Earth. I can offer a few, but I will not spend an exhaustive amount of time trying to offer all the theories that are out there when there isn’t anything more substantial. It, simply, is not worth the time.
Compilation of the Books of the Bible
—The subject matters of this section will only be told in condensed manner—
Another issue that contests the authenticity of the Bible is that the Bible is a collection of writings that had been separated by a long length of time, decades to centuries of length of time between one writing to another. The significance of this is that the record-keeping was lax. The bible even mentions of people of Judah finding the lost book of laws that they found, (2 Kings 22:8). Not only that, in modern time, there are numerous old copies of the original writings, but there are no originals that exist today. This speaks of the lack of veracity of the copies, no matter how old the copies are.
Then there is an issue of which books (canons) should or should not belong in the Bible. For example, Hebrew Bible only has the Old Testament while the Christian Bible has both Old and New Testaments. However, when looking at the Catholic Bible, there are canons that neither the Hebrew Bible nor the Christian Bible contain. These canons are titled as apocryphal. Depending on which historical Bible is opened, some will have these apocryphic canons in variations.
But even before 1) the “filing” issue, 2) the lack of original writings, and 3) the selection criteria of the canons, there is a greater issue.
God Inspired? Breathed?
Are the canons of the bible truly God inspired/breathed?
Christians state that the Bible, though written by man, was God-inspired. The problem with this statement is that we accept that God is perfect in every way. However, as God’s instruments, we are not. Then, the question that needs to be addressed is whether God, using an imperfect medium, can generate a perfect product. Can an imperfect man receive thoughts from God flawlessly and transcribe them on a scroll, again, flawlessly? Can a man, completely, cut his self-thoughts for hours at a time in order to receive and transcribe God’s thoughts?
It is not like God’s consciousness stayed, overlooking, in man’s head and said, “No, you wrote that word wrong. Whoops, you made a mistake again. Start over. No, I didn’t mean it like that. I meant it as such….”
Then, did God take over a man’s consciousness and write what he desired? This would be a human vessel in “auto-control,” set by God for his purpose.
No one knows, exactly, how God used the writers of the canons to produce the desired outcome. We can’t even know what that desired outcome is, to the minute details.
So, what do we know? What can we know for sure? We know that God provides! We know that God protects us as if a father protecting his children. I speak of God’s Providence. So, regardless of whether the Bible is God-breathed or God-inspired.., or a collection of random sayings of “whoever,” God will take care of those who belong to him, those who set their heart on him.
God’s Providence
Christian scholars say that the purpose of the Bible is for God to guide his people. They say that the Bible is not just a book that tells its readers what to do and what not to do.
It’s an archive that reveals to its readers the character and traits of God, but it’s more than that. Through manifestation of the Holy Spirit, what’s already written, became an enduring, ever-living word of God.
What does this mean? Without the aid of the Holy Spirit, in our hearts, the Bible isn’t much different from any other manuscripts in existence. In other words, the Bible, then, is no different from, the books of Tao Te Ching, Mormon, Quran, Confusian, Xunzi, Marcus Aurelius’s Meditations, etc.
Above mentioned books and others like them, are read by people for general guidance in their lives. However, without the presence of the Holy Spirit guiding our understanding and application of the written text, the Bible can only be just simple writings of the past.
It is because of the Holy Spirit’s guidance in conjunction with the Bible that it becomes alive and current. To be clear, by “conjunction,” I’m not using this word to suggest additive supplementation by the Holy Spirit. Instead, I’m saying that the Holy Spirit makes the meanings of the Bible become alive and applicable to our lives.
This is the Providence of God that I speak of. God won’t, simply, give us a collection of writings and leave us to our own understanding. He sent to us his Holy Spirit to guide our understanding of the Bible. God designed it so that, upon an intimate relationship with the Holy Spirit, we are given an understanding of the Bible. We are not left alone to be deceived by the minions of Satan and go astray, as it is written:
The god of this age [Satan] has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
2 Corinthians 4:4
Continual Fellowship with the Holy Spirit
So, do we understand all there is to know about the mysteries of the Bible once we establish that intimate relationship with the Holy Spirit? No, not at one time. We will understand more and more, as we grow in God, but it’s not a necessity that we understand all, only the parts that are relevant to our lives.
Our intimate relationship with the Holy Spirit is that of a family, and yet, a fellowship. For example, two groups of people can have a relationship, but not have a fellowship. God does not want just a relationship with us, but a fellowship with us, a continual fellowship.
So, what is the recipe for a continual fellowship between two beings? What is the basic requirement? The basic requirement is that the two parties, through continual interaction, find things about each other. With each finding, they renew their understanding of each other and develop a more intimate relationship. If this process continues, it becomes a continual fellowship.
The hint to the mysteries of the Bible is given in the preceding paragraph! We 1) interact with God, 2) gain new knowledge 3) renew a greater understanding, 4) become more intimate, and 5) repeat. This is like a classic example of two friends of many years, upon a night out, discovering something about each other they never knew before. Provided that the discovery is something positive, they will become closer friends as a result. This happened because they took the time to spend time with each other.
A Desire, but Not an Obsession
Now, personally, I am not going to tell you that I think that the Bible is 100% error-free. I have seen and known few “questionables,” “contradictions” and such throughout the Bible that tells me otherwise. These are the scriptures that make me think to myself, “Surely this is a typo. This is a contradiction. Surely this was written this way due to the author’s limited understanding of God’s meaning. ” Etc.
The important thing, however, is that we don’t abandon our faith in the Bible and in God, too readily, upon such discovery. Don’t just say, “Oh, I found a contradiction, therefore, I am not going to believe the Bible anymore! What? This is not the God that I know. I will never believe Him again!” No…. These impulsive decisions about the Bible and God are just that, impulsive. Impulsive decisions tend to hurt us more times than not.
No, we must have the wisdom and patience to store away such scriptures for further study. We must give ourselves some time to rethink and re-approach the issues from different angles to chance upon insights. We must wait for the Holy Spirit to reveal to us the “context” of the issue that makes it right again, in his own time. This is no different from the respect that we give to other human beings when we desire to know more about them.
This means that whatever the issues or whatever the questions that we desire to have resolved in our minds, we can’t make them our obsessions to be addressed to God upon every meeting with God. Just as we apply the age-old saying of, “treat others as we would like to be treated,” to other people, give the same respect to God. I’m sure he’d appreciate that.
Wait for the Lord…
What more can I say? God can use anything to speak to us. God can even use the tragic wrongs of the Holocaust to speak to us. This means he doesn’t even have to use the Bible to speak to us. However, the Bible is the medium that is most accessible for us to hear what he has to say. It is like a primer that, somehow, sparks an initial understanding that leads to thoughts more relevant to the situation at hand.
God will reveal himself to us through the Bible if we gather, within ourselves, the desire and motivation to read through his words.
The result? We gradually understand the correctness of an issue or an idea in the Bible that we weren’t sure about or were skeptical about. This understanding leads us to expect more “updates” from God in the future. However, it is not a profound understanding of the Bible that matters, but rather, a sudden “knowing” that God is enveloping us with warmth and assurance of his protective care – his providence through newfound understanding. In other words, the search for the absolute truth of the Bible is less important than the lessons learned during the search for the truth.
Lessons? God’s Love, God’s Faithfulness, God’s Protection, God’s Guidance, God’s Embrace….
Wait for the Lord. Be strong and take heart, and wait for the Lord!
Psalm 27: 14
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