Saturday, January 12, 2008

The Infallible Bible....

One strong bias that the anti-Mormon authors of books, pamphlets, and videos have is their position that the scriptures known as the Bible is all God has ever declared to mankind. They claim that it is completely accurate, error less, and infallible. Some of them actually raise the status of the Bible equal to that of God, and actually worship it as such.

What does The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Mormons, believe in? Mormons believe in the Bible, and treat it as the Word of God. The Mormons read it, study it, and accept it as Holy Scripture. But........Mormons believe that the scriptures were written by men, translated be men, and that we interpret them as men. The scriptures are a mixture of the divine and the human mind. Mormons do not believe that any scripture is perfect.....including the Book of Mormon.

Mormons are not alone in this belief. This belief is also shared by many non-Mormon, knowledgeable, Bible scholars. Something to "Google" on a rainy day ;-) .

What I find most interesting is the fact that there are, in the English language alone, over twenty (20) different versions of the Bible, there may be more, but that was all I could find. See this non-Mormon site:

http://www.biblegateway.com

Now if you look up a particular verse, you may get a number of changes found from Bible to Bible. So which Bible is correct? (And who said that it was the correct Bible? ;-) )

The following examples will show that the existing text of the Authorized Version of the Bible shows many errors, contradictions, and confusing statements:

2 Kings 8:26 -- Ahaziah began his reign at age 22
2 Chronicles 22:2 -- he began at age 42

Matthew 27:5 -- Judas died by hanging himself
Acts 1:18 -- He fell burst open, and his bowels hushed forth.

Mark 15:25 -- Jesus was crucified the third hour
Luke 3:23 -- He was still before Pilot the sixth hour

1 Kings 4:26 -- Solomon had 40,000 stalls of horses
2 Chronicles 9:25 -- He had only 4,000 stalls of horses

Mark 16:14-19 -- The Ascension took place in a room
Luke 24:50-51 -- It took place outdoors

James 1:13 -- God tempts no man
Genesis 22:1 -- God tempted Abraham

These are but a few of the many, many, differences that can be found in just one version of the Bible. I shudder to think of all the differences in all the 20+ Bibles in the English language!
Is it unchristian to believe that the Bible is infallible?

The Gutenberg press was not invented until the mid 1400's, so all of the previous Bibles were written by hand and man, one book at a time. Doesn't logic tell you that perhaps someone at some time made an error in transposing from one book to another?

Martin Luther is called the father of the Reformation. This is what one web site says of his translation of the Bible: Luther's translation of the Bible into the German vernacular, making it more accessible to ordinary people, had a tremendous impact on the church and on German culture. The translation also furthered the development of a standard version of the German language, added several principles to the art of translation,[5] and influenced the translation of the English King James Bible.

Does anyone really believe that Martin made NO mistakes in his translation? This is the same Martin Luther who took out some of the books in the Old Testament, because he didn't believe that they belonged. But is Martin Luther unchristian because he had strong feelings against certain books of the Bible that he thought weren't worthy of being in the canon of scripture? Is Martin Luther unchristian because, as a monk in the Catholic Church, he was ex-communicated and therefore went out and started his own church? Even Martin Luther, father of the Reformation and Lutheranism, didn't believe that the Bible was without error.

Nowhere does the Bible claim to be infallible. To say that the Bible is infallible, means that your interpretation of the Bible is infallible, which is very close to saying that you are infallible.

Today, many Christian churches have a different number of books in their canon, which says that the problem of canonical has not yet been solved.

The Bible itself lists several books that are not in the Bible today. Here is a short list of some of them - there are many more:

Book of the Covenant (Exodus 24:7)
Book of Enoch (Jude 14)
Book of the Acts of Solomon (1 Kings 11:41)
Book of Statues (1 Samuel 10:25)
Book of Jasher ( Joshua 10:13 )

Interesting that both the Book of Jasher and the Book of Enoch have been found since our modern Bible was canonized. Simply "Google" Book of Jasher and Book of Enoch for some interesting reading.

Finally, the Bible never declares itself complete or infallible. Never. But if the Bible is as complete and infallible as the anti-Mormons claim it to be, why hasn't it lead to a oneness of mind, a oneness of religious beliefs?

What is your true object of worship? I don't believe that you can worship God and the Bible. Truth comes from one source, and I believe that one source to be God the Father.

The Bible does not have to be infallible to get its message across. IMHO

Next : Faith vs works.