Is the Bible Inerrant?

[_Maksutov]

Mark Twain on the Bible:

It is full of interest. It has noble poetry in it; and some clever fables; and some blood-drenched history; and some good morals; and a wealth of obscenity; and upwards of a thousand lies.
- Letters from the Earth

The two Testaments are interesting, each in its own way. The Old one gives us a picture of these people's Deity as he was before he got religion, the other one gives us a picture of him as he appeared afterward.
- Letters from the Earth

The Christian's Bible is a drug store. Its contents remain the same; but the medical practice changes...The world has corrected the Bible. The church never corrects it; and also never fails to drop in at the tail of the procession- and take the credit of the correction. During many ages there were witches. The Bible said so. the Bible commanded that they should not be allowed to live. Therefore the Church, after eight hundred years, gathered up its halters, thumb-screws, and firebrands, and set about its holy work in earnest. She worked hard at it night and day during nine centuries and imprisoned, tortured, hanged, and burned whole hordes and armies of witches, and washed the Christian world clean with their foul blood.

Then it was discovered that there was no such thing as witches, and never had been. One does not know whether to laugh or to cry.....There are no witches. The witch text remains; only the practice has changed. Hell fire is gone, but the text remains. Infant damnation is gone, but the text remains. More than two hundred death penalties are gone from the law books, but the texts that authorized them remain.

- "Bible Teaching and Religious Practice," Europe and Elsewhere

When one reads Bibles, one is less surprised at what the Deity knows than at what He doesn't know.

- Mark Twain's Notebook

[_LittleNipper]

Mark Twain on the Bible:

It is full of interest. It has noble poetry in it; and some clever fables; and some blood-drenched history; and some good morals; and a wealth of obscenity; and upwards of a thousand lies.
- Letters from the Earth

The two Testaments are interesting, each in its own way. The Old one gives us a picture of these people's Deity as he was before he got religion, the other one gives us a picture of him as he appeared afterward.
- Letters from the Earth

The Christian's Bible is a drug store. Its contents remain the same; but the medical practice changes...The world has corrected the Bible. The church never corrects it; and also never fails to drop in at the tail of the procession- and take the credit of the correction. During many ages there were witches. The Bible said so. the Bible commanded that they should not be allowed to live. Therefore the Church, after eight hundred years, gathered up its halters, thumb-screws, and firebrands, and set about its holy work in earnest. She worked hard at it night and day during nine centuries and imprisoned, tortured, hanged, and burned whole hordes and armies of witches, and washed the Christian world clean with their foul blood.

Then it was discovered that there was no such thing as witches, and never had been. One does not know whether to laugh or to cry.....There are no witches. The witch text remains; only the practice has changed. Hell fire is gone, but the text remains. Infant damnation is gone, but the text remains. More than two hundred death penalties are gone from the law books, but the texts that authorized them remain.

- "Bible Teaching and Religious Practice," Europe and Elsewhere

When one reads Bibles, one is less surprised at what the Deity knows than at what He doesn't know.

- Mark Twain's Notebook

Twain became somewhat bitter in his later years, even while projecting an amiable persona to his public. In private he demonstrated a stunning insensitivity to friends and loved ones. "Much of the last decade of his life, he lived in hell," wrote Hamlin Hill. He wrote a fair amount but was unable to finish most of his projects. His memory faltered. He had volcanic rages and nasty bouts of paranoia, and he experienced many periods of depressed indolence, which he tried to assuage by smoking cigars, reading in bed and playing endless hours of billiards and cards.

Samuel Clemens died on April 21, 1910, at the age of 74, at his country home in Redding, Connecticut. He was buried in Elmira, New York.

[_spotlight]

Twain became somewhat bitter in his later years, even while projecting an amiable persona to his public. In private he demonstrated a stunning insensitivity to friends and loved ones. "Much of the last decade of his life, he lived in hell," wrote Hamlin Hill. He wrote a fair amount but was unable to finish most of his projects. His memory faltered. He had volcanic rages and nasty bouts of paranoia, and he experienced many periods of depressed indolence, which he tried to assuage by smoking cigars, reading in bed and playing endless hours of billiards and cards.

Samuel Clemens died on April 21, 1910, at the age of 74, at his country home in Redding, Connecticut. He was buried in Elmira, New York.

Too bad he wasn't born again. Then his bitterness could have been turned to pointing out how non-believers die in bitterness.

[_LittleNipper]

Twain became somewhat bitter in his later years, even while projecting an amiable persona to his public. In private he demonstrated a stunning insensitivity to friends and loved ones. "Much of the last decade of his life, he lived in hell," wrote Hamlin Hill. He wrote a fair amount but was unable to finish most of his projects. His memory faltered. He had volcanic rages and nasty bouts of paranoia, and he experienced many periods of depressed indolence, which he tried to assuage by smoking cigars, reading in bed and playing endless hours of billiards and cards.

Samuel Clemens died on April 21, 1910, at the age of 74, at his country home in Redding, Connecticut. He was buried in Elmira, New York.

Too bad he wasn't born again. Then his bitterness could have been turned to pointing out how non-believers die in bitterness.

Funny, but the fact remains that I have met very few if any bitter old Christians; however, I have met some very nasty old curmudgeons who had no desire to attend church nor read the Bible. While one is young it may seem rather cool to be contemptuous; however, when one has no future but fill an empty grave in a short time ---- it's rather sad indeed. And frankly, the thought doesn't seem to uplift such a person at all --- if anything it makes such an individual even more surly.

[_spotlight]

Funny, but the fact remains that I have met very few if any bitter old Christians; however, I have met some very nasty old curmudgeons who had no desire to attend church nor read the Bible. While one is young it may seem rather cool to be contemptuous; however, when one has no future but fill an empty grave in a short time ---- it's rather sad indeed. And frankly, the thought doesn't seem to uplift such a person at all --- if anything it makes such an individual even more surly.

I happen to be up there in age myself and have never been happier than I am now. Any sadness that I experience at this point in my life is the result of focusing too much on the past, on the amount of time and energy that I wasted being a deluded theist. Oh and like yourself, but on the flip side, I don't know personally any bitter atheists but I can rattle off a list of bitter theists. Perhaps because they sense that their Bible has not been fulfilled in its most significant prophecy, the return of the Jebus.

The fact that Christianity started as a Jewish apocalyptic movement is evidenced by the teachings of the Biblical Jesus concerning the end of days. Not only did he preach he would rise from the grave, but that he would also ascend to the Heaven and one day return to judge and rule over the world. When did Jesus say his return would be? While he said no one, including himself, knew the exact time of his return, he knew it would be before the end of his generation.

Obviously, no divine final judgement and end of days has occurred. Jesus isn’t sitting on some throne somewhere on Earth ruling over the planet. His first century followers had to find a way to make sense of the predicament of having devoted their lives to a prophecy that seemed to have failed. Over the past two millenia since the prophecy was supposedly uttered by Jesus, believers have come up with a variety of explanations for why he had not come back. If can be easily seen that all the explanations are rationalizations that don’t really work when compared to the Christian scripture. Yet they persist among the faithful to this day.

https://blacknonbelievers.wordpress.com ... is-return/

If you are very young then you can decide what percentage of the millennium that was to see Jesus reign on earth can be spent with him being a no-show for the Bible to remain "inerrant." At present the Bible is at least 2% errant in this matter.

[_LittleNipper]

“For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and will then repay every man according to his deeds. Truly I say to you, there are some of those who are standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom.“ (Matthew 16: 27, 28)

The very next story in each passage regarding HIS KINGDOM comes the transfiguration. The kingdom is here in part! Jesus is alive and reigning through His CHURCH and in the hearts of the Saints (all saved individuals). Because the Kingdom has an already/not-yet character. It has not yet come in its fullness, but it is here. When Christ returns after the catching away of HIS CHURCH (body of ALL believers) that will be the KINGDOM AGE. Peter/James/John witnessed in the transfiguration a preview of the fullness which is yet to come (Christ in His power and glory). At the end of the 7 year TRIBULATION, Christ will return with HIS CHURCH and rule for 1000 years. Hitler tried to establish an Antichrist counterfeit. I believe this to be a precursor to the re-establishment of ISRAEL and the coming of the Beast, the FALSE PROPHET and the Antichrist found in Revelation. The rapture is supposed to come within one generation of the re-establishment (coming together) of ISRAEL. One generation will not pass away----however, one generation could be 76 or even 100 years. The re-establishment of ISRAEL could be 1948 or 1967. The Bible is clear about two thing. People will say, "So, where is this return of Christ? Where is HE?" And secondly, no one will know the day or the hour of Christ's return.

[_spotlight]

“For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and will then repay every man according to his deeds. Truly I say to you, there are some of those who are standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom.“ (Matthew 16: 27, 28)

The very next story in each passage regarding HIS KINGDOM comes the transfiguration. The kingdom is here in part! Jesus is alive and reigning through His CHURCH and in the hearts of the Saints (all saved individuals). Because the Kingdom has an already/not-yet character. It has not yet come in its fullness, but it is here. When Christ returns after the catching away of HIS CHURCH (body of ALL believers) that will be the KINGDOM AGE. Peter/James/John witnessed in the transfiguration a preview of the fullness which is yet to come (Christ in His power and glory). At the end of the 7 year TRIBULATION, Christ will return with HIS CHURCH and rule for 1000 years. Hitler tried to establish an Antichrist counterfeit. I believe this to be a precursor to the re-establishment of ISRAEL and the coming of the Beast, the FALSE PROPHET and the Antichrist found in Revelation. The rapture is supposed to come within one generation of the re-establishment (coming together) of ISRAEL. One generation will not pass away----however, one generation could be 76 or even 100 years. The re-establishment of ISRAEL could be 1948 or 1967. The Bible is clear about two thing. People will say, "So, where is this return of Christ? Where is HE?" And secondly, no one will know the day or the hour of Christ's return.

I see you didn't bother to read the material from the link I provided. From the link:

Rationalization #1: Matthew 16:28 refers to Jesus’ transfiguration, not his second coming.
The transfiguration of Jesus is a story recorded in Matthew 17, Mark 9, and Luke 9. The first problem is that these Gospels place the transfiguration at different times. In Matthew, it occurs after Jesus made the prediction about his second coming. That might make it seem reasonable to think that it was a fulfillment of the earlier prediction. However, Mark and Luke place the transfiguration event before Jesus made spoke the prophecy. Laying aside the obvious discrepency in timing, we can say for certain that an event occurring before a prediction is made can’t be fulfilling the prediction. The “prediction” wouldn’t be a prediction at all.

The preceding verse (verse 27) starts off the description of Jesus’ coming by saying he would come “in glory” with angels to dole out judgment to “every man”. That is not what happened in the transfiguration stories. Therefore, the explanation doesn’t work. Some try to make it work by separating verse 28 from the preceding verse so that the two verses talk about different “comings”. This is a baseless tinkering with the passage in order to make a doctrine fit the scripture. The same Christians who do this will accuse other of taking verses out of context when they disagree with an interpretation. Yet, this is exactly what they do here.

[_LittleNipper]

“For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and will then repay every man according to his deeds. Truly I say to you, there are some of those who are standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom.“ (Matthew 16: 27, 28)

The very next story in each passage regarding HIS KINGDOM comes the transfiguration. The kingdom is here in part! Jesus is alive and reigning through His CHURCH and in the hearts of the Saints (all saved individuals). Because the Kingdom has an already/not-yet character. It has not yet come in its fullness, but it is here. When Christ returns after the catching away of HIS CHURCH (body of ALL believers) that will be the KINGDOM AGE. Peter/James/John witnessed in the transfiguration a preview of the fullness which is yet to come (Christ in His power and glory). At the end of the 7 year TRIBULATION, Christ will return with HIS CHURCH and rule for 1000 years. Hitler tried to establish an Antichrist counterfeit. I believe this to be a precursor to the re-establishment of ISRAEL and the coming of the Beast, the FALSE PROPHET and the Antichrist found in Revelation. The rapture is supposed to come within one generation of the re-establishment (coming together) of ISRAEL. One generation will not pass away----however, one generation could be 76 or even 100 years. The re-establishment of ISRAEL could be 1948 or 1967. The Bible is clear about two thing. People will say, "So, where is this return of Christ? Where is HE?" And secondly, no one will know the day or the hour of Christ's return.

I see you didn't bother to read the material from the link I provided. From the link:

Rationalization #1: Matthew 16:28 refers to Jesus’ transfiguration, not his second coming.
The transfiguration of Jesus is a story recorded in Matthew 17, Mark 9, and Luke 9. The first problem is that these Gospels place the transfiguration at different times. In Matthew, it occurs after Jesus made the prediction about his second coming. That might make it seem reasonable to think that it was a fulfillment of the earlier prediction. However, Mark and Luke place the transfiguration event before Jesus made spoke the prophecy. Laying aside the obvious discrepency in timing, we can say for certain that an event occurring before a prediction is made can’t be fulfilling the prediction. The “prediction” wouldn’t be a prediction at all.

The preceding verse (verse 27) starts off the description of Jesus’ coming by saying he would come “in glory” with angels to dole out judgment to “every man”. That is not what happened in the transfiguration stories. Therefore, the explanation doesn’t work. Some try to make it work by separating verse 28 from the preceding verse so that the two verses talk about different “comings”. This is a baseless tinkering with the passage in order to make a doctrine fit the scripture. The same Christians who do this will accuse other of taking verses out of context when they disagree with an interpretation. Yet, this is exactly what they do here.

And Jesus will at sometime in the future come with angels and fulfill THAT prediction , but at that time it was enough so reveal Jesus the Christ in His kingdom form to a select few and fulfill the prediction that some would not die until they saw Jesus so changed along with Old Testament Saints...

[_spotlight]

And Jesus will at sometime in the future come with angels and fulfill THAT prediction , but at that time it was enough so reveal Jesus the Christ in His kingdom form to a select few and fulfill the prediction that some would not die until they saw Jesus so changed along with Old Testament Saints...

So you are adding to the scripture. Good to know that Mormons aren't the only ones guilty of doing that then. Christians of a general stripe do it too. They add to the scripture by having their very own strained interpretations that go far beyond what is written. Then they blame it on the spirit of course. Too bad there are so many diverse spirits roaming around the planet.

[_LittleNipper]

And Jesus will at sometime in the future come with angels and fulfill THAT prediction , but at that time it was enough so reveal Jesus the Christ in His kingdom form to a select few and fulfill the prediction that some would not die until they saw Jesus so changed along with Old Testament Saints...

So you are adding to the scripture. Good to know that Mormons aren't the only ones guilty of doing that then. Christians of a general stripe do it too. They add to the scripture by having their very own strained interpretations that go far beyond what is written. Then they blame it on the spirit of course. Too bad there are so many diverse spirits roaming around the planet.

I haven't added to the Scripture. I'm seeking to understand it in light of what transpired. Joseph Smith added to the Holy Scriptures with his Book of Mormon, and when that didn't distort things enough for his fledgling religion, he added the Pearl of Great Price and other such books for clarification. Interpretations of scripture must at least harmonize with what is written in the Bible without contradiction.