Famous TV commentator Bill Maher termed the Bible a "game".
This is not surprising given his well-documented views on religion, especially Christianity.
He is not alone however.
Billions of people around the world continue to ignore and totally reject the claims of the Bible citing different reasons.
One of the major reasons advanced by some major religions is that the Bible has been corrupted either during translation or transmission.
In fact, Muslims believe this to be the primarily the reason why the Koran was "given", that is, to be an improvement and a replacement of the Bible.
Indeed Muhammad wrote, "the people of the Book (Christians), changed the words from their right places and forgot a good part of the message".
But is it true the Bible has been corrupted either in the process of translation or transmission? Christians believe the Bible is inerrant Most Christians, with the exception of some liberal theologians, believe in Biblical inerrancy, that is, it is without error.
They believe according to 2 Timothy 3:16 that all of scripture is "God-breathed" and if something is breathed out by God, then it cannot be in error.
It is infallible.
Infallibility means unfaltering-something which, "cannot be broken" (John 10:35).
The argument for inerrancy is simple; The Bible is the Word of God; God cannot err; therefore, the Bible (which is the Word of God) cannot err.
What about the mistakes it contains? This is where many go wrong.
The original Bible manuscripts were copied by hand (there were no copying machines or printers then).
These were then copied again and again.
The scribes who partook of the copying were especially careful to preserve the original message.
But being human they were not immune to making textual errors.
These however, were not deliberate attempts to falsify doctrine as this would have been impossible (the originals were still present to compare).
We have to be careful because errors in transmission do not constitute errors in doctrine.
The doctrinal soundness of the Bible was never affected by the errors.
It is also untrue that actual errors exist in the original text.
Mistakes made by Bible critics Many who claim that errors exist in the Bible are not even Bible scholars.
They are critics and scoffers who have something against the message.
Here are the mistakes they make: 1.
They assume that just because they don't understand something, then that thing must be in error.
This is flawed reasoning.
Just because the Bible contains things we are currently unable to explain or understand does not mean we will not be able to explain or understand these truths at a later date.
2.
Many Bible critics have never read the book in its entirety but depend on word-of-mouth.
They approach the Bible from a perspective of "guilty until proven innocent".
None of these critics ever approaches any other book, say, the daily newspaper, with the same attitude.
3.
Critics are humans with fallible understanding trying to understand the mind of a perfect God.
They pridefully assume that it is God who is wrong instead of the other way around.
4.
In most cases Bible critics do not understand the context of the Word of God.
5.
Bible critics neglect to interpret the difficult passages in light of the clearer ones.
This is not surprising given his well-documented views on religion, especially Christianity.
He is not alone however.
Billions of people around the world continue to ignore and totally reject the claims of the Bible citing different reasons.
One of the major reasons advanced by some major religions is that the Bible has been corrupted either during translation or transmission.
In fact, Muslims believe this to be the primarily the reason why the Koran was "given", that is, to be an improvement and a replacement of the Bible.
Indeed Muhammad wrote, "the people of the Book (Christians), changed the words from their right places and forgot a good part of the message".
But is it true the Bible has been corrupted either in the process of translation or transmission? Christians believe the Bible is inerrant Most Christians, with the exception of some liberal theologians, believe in Biblical inerrancy, that is, it is without error.
They believe according to 2 Timothy 3:16 that all of scripture is "God-breathed" and if something is breathed out by God, then it cannot be in error.
It is infallible.
Infallibility means unfaltering-something which, "cannot be broken" (John 10:35).
The argument for inerrancy is simple; The Bible is the Word of God; God cannot err; therefore, the Bible (which is the Word of God) cannot err.
What about the mistakes it contains? This is where many go wrong.
The original Bible manuscripts were copied by hand (there were no copying machines or printers then).
These were then copied again and again.
The scribes who partook of the copying were especially careful to preserve the original message.
But being human they were not immune to making textual errors.
These however, were not deliberate attempts to falsify doctrine as this would have been impossible (the originals were still present to compare).
We have to be careful because errors in transmission do not constitute errors in doctrine.
The doctrinal soundness of the Bible was never affected by the errors.
It is also untrue that actual errors exist in the original text.
Mistakes made by Bible critics Many who claim that errors exist in the Bible are not even Bible scholars.
They are critics and scoffers who have something against the message.
Here are the mistakes they make: 1.
They assume that just because they don't understand something, then that thing must be in error.
This is flawed reasoning.
Just because the Bible contains things we are currently unable to explain or understand does not mean we will not be able to explain or understand these truths at a later date.
2.
Many Bible critics have never read the book in its entirety but depend on word-of-mouth.
They approach the Bible from a perspective of "guilty until proven innocent".
None of these critics ever approaches any other book, say, the daily newspaper, with the same attitude.
3.
Critics are humans with fallible understanding trying to understand the mind of a perfect God.
They pridefully assume that it is God who is wrong instead of the other way around.
4.
In most cases Bible critics do not understand the context of the Word of God.
5.
Bible critics neglect to interpret the difficult passages in light of the clearer ones.
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