Interesting topic.. Just thought I should chime in here... I have received some feedback from users thinking this is a very heretical topic and perhaps against the forum rules. The title is misleading in my opinion. I think what my brother is really trying to get at, is that because minor translation mistakes, and Biblical "contradiction" should we consider the Bible 100% word of God? My personal opinion is that the Bible is 100% inerrant in terms of Theology, doctrines and teachings of Jesus Christ. What really needs to be debated is the term "WORD OF GOD" lol.. If I were to give an oral message to a friend to relay to another friend.. "I have a new car" and my friend relayed the message as "Joshua just bought a new car".. Can we say that my friend spoke the word of Joshua... Well sure. Of course with this simple statement, I am making a much LESS complex comparison. However, the theory is still the same. I do not believe that God dictated every single word to the writers, but instead inspired the teachings, theology, and even history. The meaning of my words are still the same in the relayed message. God gave his AUTHORITY to these writers to create scripture. With the guidance of the Holy Spirit, these writer wrote down scripture with the Authority of Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and God. For those who believe that the authors were dictated word for word, then it is clear that there were mistakes while writing them down. I could start listing them, but I am not sure that would really serve to edify any one. Also in regards to percentage of the bible which contains scripture. I believe that some of the books could have even been written without expecting it to be part of the "Bible" at all.. Yet, the Holy Spirit inspired several councils to enter the writings into the Bible. Hense, inspired still yet.. Even further, the writers could have been inspired to write the books and still yet NOT know it was going to be part of scriptures. Now thru translations leads us to another interesting topic.. IF there were errors in translation, or error in which books should be in the Bible or not be in the bible is a whole other topic lol. But Whether you believe there should be more or less books in the Bible, does not take away the fact that scripture is inspire by God. Most of the books in the OT were quoted by Jesus himself. Many books in the NT are quoted and confirmed thru non Christian scholars or historians. We could almost complete a copy of the bible from the writings of the historian "Josephus" because he quotes scripture so much. To me, there is no conclusion other than the fact that the Bible, CAN be considered the Word of God through inspiration, but that includes God's teaching, theology, and our doctrine only. I do not believe it is inerrant word for word. Now if any one has a good argument other wise I think this debate can be a big help to any one struggling with this question. Certainly Justin is NOT the only member who has thought of this, or heard these arguments before. My $0.02

Well... it seems that I am up against the Twin Towers here. (FYI - Joshua and Justin Holmes are twins) Josh, I would almost be okay with your post. I think that you are on track for the most part. However, you can not say that Scripture was not "word for word" inspired. I agree that maybe as the authors wrote it, they did not even realize that they were being guided by the Holy Spirit. I have been used by God in situations where I did not even realize that He was using me, although I only wrote the first book of the New Testament :) JK So, yes, the authors may not have known that they were being guided by Him. However, the real question here is "WHAT ARE WE TALKING ABOUT?!!!??" Are we talking about the Bible as we know it today? What version? What language? Are we talking about the original text? -We don't even have all the original text Are there errors in translations? Sure there are! (Except for the KJV). Are there errors in the original texts, well, that would mean that God Himself were fallible, so if you believe in a Sovereign God, then it is impossible. If, however, you reject a Sovereign God, then you can start believing and saying anything you want. B) -Matt

Well... it seems that I am up against the Twin Towers here. (FYI - Joshua and Justin Holmes are twins) Josh, I would almost be okay with your post. I think that you are on track for the most part. However, you can not say that Scripture was not "word for word" inspired. I agree that maybe as the authors wrote it, they did not even realize that they were being guided by the Holy Spirit. I have been used by God in situations where I did not even realize that He was using me, although I only wrote the first book of the New Testament :) JK So, yes, the authors may not have known that they were being guided by Him. However, the real question here is "WHAT ARE WE TALKING ABOUT?!!!??" Are we talking about the Bible as we know it today? What version? What language? Are we talking about the original text? -We don't even have all the original text Are there errors in translations? Sure there are! (Except for the KJV). Are there errors in the original texts, well, that would mean that God Himself were fallible, so if you believe in a Sovereign God, then it is impossible. If, however, you reject a Sovereign God, then you can start believing and saying anything you want. B) -Matt

[b]MaddMatt wrote:[/b] [quote]Well... it seems that I am up against the Twin Towers here. (FYI - Joshua and Justin Holmes are twins) [/quote] If In_Christ_alone would get on here more often, you could have "twin towers" on both sides of the discussion. B)

Post edited by: Silent_K, at: 2007/11/03 06:15