Posted: Fri Mar 25, 2005 10:48 pm
As a non-Christian why not examine every book of the NT on its own terms? You may not come to agree that everything written within each book is true, but then on the opposite hand I'm sure you won't believe everything it says is wrong. This is what many scholars do, and the criticism from such examinations is usually much more healthy to dialogue.Darwin_Rocks wrote:I dont know, it just seems shakey to live your entire life by a book produced almost two thousands years ago. I think the question that needs to be asked is, Is the Bible truly the word of God?
You also touched on something earlier about observing the OT to be mainly history. Well you are right. It is history. I find many non-Christians often come to the table thinking every word the Bible says would be controversial. They are suprised to see it mainly records a lot of history and beliefs surrounding a group of people. Far from being controversial where every word must be challenged, the Bible is a historical text, especially the OT which records much of Israel's history.
Yet, to Christians the Bible also reveals God's relationship with mankind where at the beginning this relationship was destroyed by our sin, to the end where those who have been made right by God through Christ will finally be restored in their relationship with Him. The books of the NT gain recognition within Christianity because they are deposits left to us from the Apostolic tradition. Therefore they are closer to the source of our beliefs, and therefore a more direct and reliable source of Christ's teachings.
Kurieuo.