Christians: Did God Write the Bible?

[angellous_evangellous]

I don't know of any Christian group that has a confession or creed which states that God wrote the Bible. Every Christian group that I know of recognizes that people wrote the Bible, and God was active in some mysterious way. There are many theories of inspiration - verbal (that God inspired every word), existential (that God inspired only what speaks to us today), and liberation (that only that which liberates is inspired).

What is your view?

 

[angellous_evangellous]

**bump**

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

I don't know of any Christian group that has a confession or creed which states that God wrote the Bible. Every Christian group that I know of recognizes that people wrote the Bible, and God was active in some mysterious way.

Would you consider it to be God "writing" if He ensured that the Bible exactly matched what He intended it to, but the actual pen-to-paper part was done by humans? It certainly seems like that's a belief of many Christians, but whether it constitutes God "writing" the Bible is a question of semantics and/or definition.

 

[Scuba Pete]

I have said this quite often, so I hope it doesn't become too repetitive, but the Bible is a blog of man looking for God.

Is it accurate? Sure. As much as it depicts our fascination and even obsession with finding God, it it incredibly accurate and insightful.

Is it historically accurate? As it presents only "one side" of the story, I don't see how this could be true.

Is it scientifically accurate? It was never intended to be a scientific tome. In fact it was largely written by a people who had no idea of the scientific process, much less the use of scientific terminology.

Is it spiritually accurate? Sometimes yes, and many times no. There seems to be a makeover of God from the Old Testament until now. I truly believe that God has always been a God of love and never a God of war. In their efforts to justify many of their actions, men have erroneously portrayed God as some sort of blood thirsty megalomaniac.

The TRUTH of the matter is, that while the Scriptures claim to be INSPIRED from God, and USEFUL for teaching, they never ever claim to be either written by God or infallible (without error).

 

[angellous_evangellous]

Would you consider it to be God "writing" if He ensured that the Bible exactly matched what He intended it to, but the actual pen-to-paper part was done by humans? It certainly seems like that's a belief of many Christians, but whether it constitutes God "writing" the Bible is a question of semantics and/or definition.

I said on another thread:

There's a pretty big difference in God writing something and God inspiring someone. Inspiration does not mean that the writing is perfect or that it should thoughtlessly be taken literally, because there are many different types of literary devices which are not supposed to be read literally (like metaphors, hyperbole, similie and metaphor, et cetera). In fact, the ancient views of inspiration are based on (a) the document's beauty (like the use of literary devices) and (b) the profound meaning found in it.

The process and meaning of inspiration have been up for debate for some time (since Plato).

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

I said on another thread:

Okay, but still, a claim that the Bible is inerrant or perfect implies an inerrant or perfect author, does it not?

What I was trying to get at is that there are many ways one can consider what "authorship" is. According to Christian and Jewish belief, nothing in the Bible was actually written down by God's own hand except the Ten Commandments; humans were the ones who put pen to paper. Whether the people who wrote the text of the Bible down were acting as authors or more akin to stenographers is the question. IMO, an inerrant Bible would necessarily require divine authorship. Since various Christian groups do claim that the Bible is inerrant and perfect, I believe that this is also an implicit claim that the author of the Bible is God.

 

[SoyLeche]

I said on another thread:

So, do you think that there is a difference between God "writing" it and God "inspiring somone to write it"?

(I'm asking the question that you answered in hopes that you will answer the question that was asked).

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

Whoops - I missed the "Christians" note in the thread subject. I'm bowing out of the conversation.

 

[angellous_evangellous]

So, do you think that there is a difference between God "writing" it and God "inspiring somone to write it"?

Of course I do. If God wrote it with God's hands, then the arguments surrounding the nature of inspiration would be a moot point. There are many theories concerning what inspiration actually is...

If God inspired someone, there is room for all sorts of things to occur between God's activity and the production and transmission of the writing. If God did it Godself, with God's own finger, then there is no room for any type of occurance to obstruct the intents of God.

In any case, both God's writing and human writing have to be interpreted.

 

[Terrywoodenpic]

I am not convinced God had any thing to do with writing the BIble.
There are undoubtedly many inspired passages in it; and we get most of our knowledge of Christ's life and teachings from it.
However this would be true whether or not God had a hand in its assembly, or was the primary inspiration of the original documents.

 

[SoyLeche]

Of course I do. If God wrote it with God's hands, then the arguments surrounding the nature of inspiration would be a moot point. There are many theories concerning what inspiration actually is...

If God inspired someone, there is room for all sorts of things to occur between God's activity and the production and transmission of the writing. If God did it Godself, with God's own finger, then there is no room for any type of occurance to obstruct the intents of God.

In any case, both God's writing and human writing have to be interpreted.

Shoot - it didn't work.

The question was whether you would consider it God writing it if the person who was inspired wrote EXACTLY what God wanted him to write. If God didn't write it with his own hands, but made the hands that did write it write EXACTLY what God wanted them to write - would you consider this God writing it?

 

[Terrywoodenpic]

Shoot - it didn't work.

The question was whether you would consider it God writing it if the person who was inspired wrote EXACTLY what God wanted him to write. If God didn't write it with his own hands, but made the hands that did write it write EXACTLY what God wanted them to write - would you consider this God writing it?

I don't see any evidence that God has ever worked in that way.
We have always had to rely on the content of the writings to supply the necessary understanding that leads to faith.

 

[angellous_evangellous]

The question was whether you would consider it God writing it if the person who was inspired wrote EXACTLY what God wanted him to write. If God didn't write it with his own hands,but made the hands that did write it write EXACTLY what God wanted them to write - would you consider this God writing it?

The question is here in the inspiration, like you said in the first part of this post.

"If the person who was inspired" is the difference between God writing it. No, I would not see it as the same thing, because as long as a person is involved, it is not the same thing as God writing.

 

[SoyLeche]

I don't see any evidence that God has ever worked in that way.
We have always had to rely on the content of the writings to supply the necessary understanding that leads to faith.

I don't either - I'm just trying to get AE to answer the question.

 

[SoyLeche]

The question is here in the inspiration, like you said in the first part of this post.

"If the person who was inspired" is the difference between God writing it. No, I would not see it as the same thing, because as long as a person is involved, it is not the same thing as God writing.

Ok, thanks.

 

[angellous_evangellous]

Ok, thanks.

That's basically what I said above, but I'm glad your happy.

 

[SoyLeche]

That's basically what I said above, but I'm glad your happy.

It's just that you were doing your best to hide it

 

[angellous_evangellous]

I don't see any evidence that God has ever worked in that way.
We have always had to rely on the content of the writings to supply the necessary understanding that leads to faith.

Yes, and whatever God did with those original autographs is a moot point now. All we have are thousands of copies and no two of them match - all we have now are clearly the work of scribes.

 

[Nick Soapdish]

I don't know of any Christian group that has a confession or creed which states that God wrote the Bible. Every Christian group that I know of recognizes that people wrote the Bible, and God was active in some mysterious way. There are many theories of inspiration - verbal (that God inspired every word), existential (that God inspired only what speaks to us today), and liberation (that only that which liberates is inspired).

What is your view?

I believe it is inspired through special revelation. However, it must be filtered as Scuba Pete said through the prejudices and ignorances of those writing it.

 

[Scuba Pete]

Think about it, if it had to be perfectly rendered, God would have done it just like on Mt Arafat... WITH HIS FINGER!

Throughout the Old Testament, you can see God bemoaning the fact that we needed these laws at all. There are plenty of scriptures which refer to him actually writing his Law on our HEARTS at some point. Finally, he sends down his son to tell us EXACTLY what he wants: LOVE. But still, we thirst for some sort of authority, and so we twist this blog, call it Holy and commence to killing our fellow man using it as our "reason". WHEN WILL THE MADNESS END???