Why were only books which agreed allowed in the Bible? Wouldn’t writings by men naturally have variances?

Question:

I read with interest your response to the 'missing books in the Bible' issue.  I also wish to thank you for taking the time to respond to such a matter.

However, your response is brief at best, no... it is brief, and ultimately comes across as a veiled threat from a semi-benign dictator to 'shut-up' about something that the 'authority figure' (you) feels we have no right to question.

If anything, you present the image that various gospels were allowed into the Bible only if they all agreed on the same points and if they fit the dogma. Surely, if you have twelve different people presenting their unique view on a singular event, there is going to be some dispute.  That is human nature, and Jesus and the disciples were human.  His dad might have been God, but he was human. Isn't that the point?

However, I imagine most of the people who follow you are like you, really stupid, and will be reassured by your dictatorial dissertation that crushes all doubt, and the imagination, out of them and sadly their children.

Take care and well done Mr. Kill-thought-priest

Answer:

While there were approximately 40 authors involved in the writing of the Bible, working over a 1,500-year span of time, they did not claim to be writing their own words.

"And so we have the prophetic word confirmed, which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts; knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit" (II Peter 1:19-21).

"But as it is written: Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him." But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. These things we also speak, not in words which man's wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual" (I Corinthians 2:9-13).

Thus, the claim is that what is contained within the Bible is a book written by one author, God, who used various men to pen those words.

Yes, in books of human origin one expects different authors to have variances. Of the four gospel accounts, three are written from individual points of views and one is a collection of various witnesses' testimonies. The four accounts have variations in the selection of events and details recorded, but the accounts blend perfectly. They were able to do so because of the Holy Spirit. "But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you" (John 14:26).

Agreement with prior revelations from God has always been a criterion for the books of the Bible (Deuteronomy 13:1-5). It is one of the primary characteristics that a man was not speaking his own words, but the words of God. Since God cannot lie (Titus 1:2), a book whose origin is truly from God will not contain contradictions.

While Jesus was born into this world as a human, the Bible doesn't claim that he was merely human.

"Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross" (Philippians 2:5-8).

"For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily" (Colossians 2:9).

One of Jesus' names was Immanuel, "God with us." The significance of Jesus is that God came into this world to live among His creation.

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. ... He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth" (John 1:1-3, 10-14).

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