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.<\/p>\n
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.\u00a0 That is human nature, and Jesus and the disciples were human.\u00a0 His dad might have been God, but he was human. Isn’t that the point?<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Take care and well done Mr. Kill-thought-priest<\/p>\n\t
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.<\/p>\n
“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<\/em>” (II Peter 1:19-21).<\/p>\n“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<\/em>” (I Corinthians 2:9-13).<\/p><\/blockquote>\nThus, 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.<\/p>\n
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<\/em>” (John 14:26).<\/p>\nAgreement 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.<\/p>\n
While Jesus was born into this world as a human, the Bible doesn’t claim that he was merely human.<\/p>\n
“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<\/em>” (Philippians 2:5-8).<\/p>\n“For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily<\/em>” (Colossians 2:9).<\/p><\/blockquote>\nOne of Jesus’ names was Immanuel, “God with us.” The significance of Jesus is that God came into this world to live among His creation.<\/p>\n
“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<\/em>” (John 1:1-3, 10-14).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Question: I read with interest your response to the ‘missing books in the Bible‘ issue.\u00a0 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…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[20],"tags":[568,219,130,225],"class_list":["post-23096","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-accuracy-of-the-bible","tag-bible","tag-canon","tag-inspiration"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4346,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/are-there-study-bibles-or-commentaries-written-by-members-of-the-church\/","url_meta":{"origin":23096,"position":0},"title":"Are there study Bibles or commentaries written by members of the church?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 14, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Is there a study Bible whose commentator is a member of the church of Christ? I can't seem to find one. Maybe not a study bible but a commentary (maybe written in a separate book) written by a member of the church of Christ. Just as long as it\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":15179,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-have-some-books-been-left-out-of-the-bible\/","url_meta":{"origin":23096,"position":1},"title":"Why have some books been left out of the Bible?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 26, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: If the books in the Bible were written by apostles, was Moses considered an apostle? What of Isaiah and Samuel? Were they considered apostles? Is it not said in the book of Matthew that nothing was to be taken from the Old Testament? I'm just curious because if this\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":36781,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/are-christians-only-allowed-to-talk-to-christians\/","url_meta":{"origin":23096,"position":2},"title":"Are Christians only allowed to talk to Christians?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 27, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello, Does the Bible say that we're not allowed to talk to anyone who's not a Christian? If so, what happens if a Christian does talk to someone who's not a Christian? Thanks! Answer: I'm scratching my head trying to figure out where such an idea could possibly come\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":35233,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-it-sinful-to-make-marks-and-notes-in-your-bible\/","url_meta":{"origin":23096,"position":3},"title":"Is it sinful to make marks and notes in your Bible?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 11, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello brother, We've never met, but I've always appreciated the Q&A section on the LaVista church website and thought I'd bounce this off you since it's a somewhat unique question. What do you say to someone who takes a very literal view of Revelation 22:18-19, and thinks it's sinful\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Bible-with-notes-300x200.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":58765,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/do-the-dead-sea-scrolls-show-that-the-bible-was-modified-over-time\/","url_meta":{"origin":23096,"position":4},"title":"Do the Dead Sea Scrolls show that the Bible was modified over time?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 7, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hi, You have answered my questions before (thanks for that), and I hope you won't mind doing so again. I was researching the Dead Sea Scrolls and came across the following: How close is the Bible to the Dead Sea Scrolls? 6 Myths About the Dead Sea Scrolls The\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":23098,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/books-missing-from-the-bible\/","url_meta":{"origin":23096,"position":5},"title":"Books “Missing” from the Bible?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 2, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"by Ethan L. Longhenry In recent times we have seen an explosion of material alleging that the Bible that we have is not complete. Many theories have been advanced that speak of all kinds of other books that were \"banned\" from the Bible, \"taken out\" of the Bible, and other\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/BibleSearch.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23096","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23096"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23096\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23096"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23096"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23096"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}