I’ve been discussing with a friend about his belief in God, Jesus, and the Bible. He believes in all three, but in regards to the Bible, he does not believe everything in it. He also believes that some parts of the Bible are missing, saying it’s in history that some parts of the Bible have been burned. That’s why some of the characters in the Bible appear and disappear.<\/p>\n
I would like to know your thoughts on this. Where can I find credible information on this?<\/p>\n
Thank you, sir.<\/p>\n\t
To claim to believe in the Bible but not everything contained in it is a contradiction. “For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all. For He who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not murder.” Now if you do not commit adultery, but you do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law<\/em>” (James 2:10-11). Picking and choosing what parts of the Bible you wish to believe means that you are judging God’s law. “But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge of it. There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the One who is able to save and to destroy<\/em>” (James 4:10-11).<\/p>\n Your friend claims that history proves that portions of the Bible were destroyed. I would assume then he can list what was lost, which generally means it isn’t missing — just not accepted. The article\u00a0How We Know We Have All the Bible, with No Books Added and No Books Lost<\/a> gives a simple explanation of why we are certain we have all the books of the Bible. If some book was completely destroyed, then there would be no historical record of that book. Further, most people forget the large number of copies of the Bible that existed from the early days of the church. To edit all the copies would be an impossible task. See:\u00a0Can We Trust the Text of the Bible?<\/a><\/p>\n In regards to characters appearing and disappearing in the Bible’s text, I would like to see an example of what your friend has in mind. However, the Bible does not claim to be a complete history of the world. It is a historical document and its recorded history has proven to be highly accurate; however, its purpose is to teach men about their God and the need to be saved from our sins. Thus, only selected events from history are given to illustrate the points being made.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Question: I’ve been discussing with a friend about his belief in God, Jesus, and the Bible. He believes in all three, but in regards to the Bible, he does not believe everything in it. He also believes that some parts of the Bible are missing, saying it’s in history that some parts of the Bible…<\/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":[219],"class_list":["post-5358","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-bible"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":18707,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/will-just-one-sin-such-as-adultery-keep-you-out-of-heaven\/","url_meta":{"origin":5358,"position":0},"title":"Will just one sin, such as adultery, keep you out of heaven?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 22, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: A lady with a Baptist background asked me if I thought one sin would keep her from Heaven. She said \"suppose a person was living in an adulterous marriage, but done everything else right such as attending church, studying the Bible, etc. Would this person go to Heaven?\" Could\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":7946,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-arent-we-following-the-holy-spirit\/","url_meta":{"origin":5358,"position":1},"title":"Why aren’t we following the Holy Spirit?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 4, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I believe that the word of God is truly inspired and is the divine authority in every aspect of our lives today. The one problem I see in this answer to this question is that you seem to assume that everyone who believes that God speaks today does not\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":9730,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/did-abraham-visit-prostitutes\/","url_meta":{"origin":5358,"position":2},"title":"Did Abraham visit prostitutes?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 12, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have read your article \"Why Sex Outside of Marriage is Wrong\" to develop my understanding. I value your referring to the Bible for answers and will take all the knowledge I can from this particular piece. 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I did not agree with him,\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":44714,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/children-and-the-bible\/","url_meta":{"origin":5358,"position":4},"title":"Children and the Bible","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 19, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"by Doy Moyer Somewhere along the line, it seems to me, there has been an assumption that all the stories in the Bible have to be something for children. 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