By Sodium
Reciting Question (1):
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" What on earth do Christians mean when they say the Bible " is inspired by God ? "
Summary Of The Answer Given:
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~ Christians have no exact agreement, among themselves. Some of them believe that it was dictated by God, while other Christians believe that the Spirit of God was, somehow, inspired the writers of the Bible to write it; and still others believe that God had " pointed out the general direction " for the writers of the Bible to follow and the writers, as the author put it, " and then the writers (had) run with it "
~ In spite of the absence of a concrete and solid agreement, all Christians believe that the Bible is inspired by God. They support their belief, as they say: whenever the Prophets preached God's word they said to their listeners:
* " Listen to the word of the Lord" ( Jeremiah 2:4 ). That is just one quote from the Bible some devout Christians use the following quotes to support their belief. "
* " Jesus debating Jewish scholar, quoted a line from Exodus and asked: " Have you read what God told you ? " ( Mathew 22:31 ) " ,
* " Preachers described their sermons as messages from God: Paul said to Barnabas, " Let's go back to every city where we spread the Lord's word. " ( Acts 15:36 ) ".
* " The most famous link between the Bible and God shows up in a letter Paul wrote to his friend Timothy, who was pastoring the church in Ephesus, a city in what is now Turkey: Every scripture passage is inspired by God All of them are useful for teaching, pointing out errors, correcting people and training them for a life that has God's approval. They equip God's Servants so that they are completely prepared to do good things. 2 Timothy 3:16-17 " The author encountered the content of Paul's letter by saying:
" One problem with that quote: Paul was not talking about our Bible. He was talking about the Jewish Bible. The Christians call it the Old Testament. "
~ The author goes on and on, to a great length, in presenting the Christians points of views and then encountering them with more seemingly sensible questions and answers such as:
* " Here the hard question: How do we know which writings were inspired by the Holy Spirit ? "
The author answers his own question by saying that " it is the hard question because:
* " We do not know who wrote most of the books in the Bible.. "
* " We do not know exactly how those books ended up in the Bible. "
~ In one of the author's many rational counter points is the following one:
" For example, the prophet Nahum may have been inspired to predict the fall of the brutal Assyrian Empire, which was based out of Iraq. But he might have used his own words: "
" I am against you, Nineveh, " declares the Lord of Armies, " I will lift up your dress over your face. I will show nations your naked body and kingdoms of your disgrace. I will throw filth on you. I will make you look like a fool. I will make you a sight to be seen." ( Nahum3:5-6 )
Stephen Miller, author of the book, " 100 Tough Questions about God And The Bible " responds to the above quote of ( Nahum 3:5-6 ) with the following sensible observation:
" For some readers, a quote like that sounds more earthy than celestial. "
All the forgoing seems, to the writer of this blog, to be enough for the reader to get an idea, or rather a degree of comprehension of the answer given by Stephen Miller, to question (1) of his 100 tough questions.
Final Words
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It must be pointed out that Stephen Miller has spent more time in trying to answer this first question than to any of the other 99 questions. He spent a total of six pages in providing answers to it, while the lengths of the answers he gave to the other 99 question were between two to three pages only.
END.
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