Myths About the Bible - UPDATE = Add Myth # 8 - doctors of Mythology respond?

Myth 1. The Bible is a single book
McConkie points out that the Bible is a collection of books which were gathered together by men over thousands of years. The Jewish Bible consists of 24 books that Christians call the Old Testament. The actual books that are agreed upon by Jews came from a council in 90 A.D. in Jamnia (near Joppa, Israel). At his council, it became so contentious that it resulted in bloodshed.
Christians have divided these 24 books into 39 and ordered them differently. Their version of the Old Testament comes from the Greek Septuagint, which was rejected by Jews, because of the influence of Greek thought and the inclusion of the Apocrypha. Catholics accept the Apocrypha as scripture because they sustain otherwise unscriptural doctrines, such as masses for the dead and the existence of Purgatory.

The origin of the New Testament begins with two second-century heretics. Marcion, a bishop's son and a wealthy ship owner, was the first to create a canonical list of books. His list rejected the Old Testament entirely as scripture and "was closed to all but ten of the epistles of Paul and the Gospel of Luke." Macrion's false teachings caused him to be excommunicated from the ancient Church. Macrion's excommunication was so final that the Church gave him back all the money he had donated.
The second "heretic" was Montanus who declared that he was the incarnation of the Holy Ghost promised by the Savior to come. He denounced the absence of revelation in the church and the lack of spiritual gifts. To counteract his claims, the church began to teach that there would be no further disruptive revelations and that the canon of scripture was closed.
Over the next two centuries, Origen of Alexandria divided the books in his New Testament into classes of acknowledged books and disputed texts. The list of disputed books included James, 2nd and 3rd John, 2nd Peter, Jude, the Letter of Barnabas, and the Shepherd of Hermas. This constituted the oldest Greek manuscript, consisting of 29 books.
Eusebius of Caesaria omitted not only the Shepherd and Barnabas from his list, but also the Book of Revelation. Most Greek manuscripts omit it also. Other disputed books which Eusebius rejected were the Acts of Paul, the Revelation of Peter, and the Teachings of the Apostles.
In 367 A.D., Athanasius sent an Easter letter to the churches of his diocese, listing the books approved for reading in the church. This list matches the current-day New Testament. Thus it wasn't until the fourth century that there was any consensus on which books comprised the Bible.

Summarized from "Here We Stand" by Joseph Fielding McConkie.

Myth #2. The Bible preceded doctrine
Since the Bible didn't exist in its current form in the time of the Bible, how did it then form the basis for the doctrines taught by Jesus, Peter, Paul and the other apostles? "The book was created by the church, not the church by the book."  An example of doctrine preceding the Bible would be the Nicene Creed, which was devised by a council in 325 A.D. The doctrine of the Trinity emerged from this council, which took place after the church had declared that revelation had ceased, but before the time that the canon of the Bible was agreed upon.

The whole book is a fairy tale, I read it to my daughter every night, it's like a horror movie she tells me, but she likes getting scared, so she likes it. She has it with all her other books like Harry Potter, The Lion King, Cinderella, etc.

"The book was created by the church, not the church by the book.


WOW ..... that is so true. I will be using that saying a lot.
Thanks again.

Texas Governor Ma Ferguson, est. 1924. Quoted in All Pianos Have Keys, 1994

If English was good enough for Jesus Christ, it ought to be good enough for the children of Texas.

Affirmative, knowing the truth about the deception is a good first step towards uncovering what the Lord really wants us to know.

Your user number 711466 bears a resemblence to the MOST significant day of April 6th, or rather a great place to purchase a slurpee.

Last Edited by Tru Blu no more on 07/09/2009 06:30 AM

Nice to see both common myths busted for those that didn't know. Any more?

Also, I too dislike how some use the Bible and 'select' verses to back up their own agendas and omit others... The Bible does not contradict itself, everl yet some seem to think it does and omit additional information that they deem doesn't match, due to their own erroneous interpreations.

BRAVO! You come across as a great parent, and your daughter as extremely intelligent. Your post has really cheered me up.
Thanks!

LMAO!!!

That girl does like scary. Does she beg you to read the Old testament ? That would probably cause a few nightmares... at least the new testament contains some cute, cuddly, loving litle stories about doing good and loving one another..... AHEM

Which most bible thumpers tend to forget in preference of that human tendency to judge and asign their God the same temperment and values they have. Just freaking amazing.

GOOD POST!!

WOW!

Good thread magi
I saw a documentary called "banned from the bible" a few years ago which described how the bible was compiled from many texts, and more interestingly the texts that were first considered, and removed.

Such texts described things like giants that wandered the earth and created all sorts of problems for humans, so were removed from the planet.

There was much more but I forget it now

LOL

Jesus (modern english version of name) did NOT speak english...

LOL

At times, I admire Christians for their Zealous defence of something sacred, but hope that they can obtain "true zeal" based on the true gospel, which accepts the Bible as the word of God, while recognizing it's limitations.

The Catholic Encyclopedia --
Zeal, being love in action, just on that account tends to remove as far as lies in its power all that is injurious or hostile to the object of its love; it has thus its antipathies as well as its attractions. Moreover, since, though itself appertaining to the will, it presupposes an exercise of judgment as to the appropriate means for the attainment of its object, we must further distinguish true and false zeal, according as the judgment guiding it is sound or unsound. Thus St. Paul's zeal was zeal throughout, but it was false zeal in the days when he persecuted the Church, true zeal when he became its Apostle.
[link to www.newadvent.org]

Last Edited by Tru Blu no more on 07/09/2009 08:56 AM

Actually, if you read the main historical books in order...

Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings...

it is more like a vast and epic tragedy.. the rise and fall of Israel.

Then you are a total retard, for even the elite of the Illuminati knows that the Bible contains the secrets of their destruction. It is a spiritual book that needs the true author, the Holy Spirit, to be able to aid the reader into it's proper interpretation.

Spiritual retards cannot understand this and just dismiss it as a "fairy tale" but the elite fear it and there is good reason that they do.

They also send mind controlled monkeys like you to try to rebute it, only to fail as retards always do.

Your masonic mormon religion has failed you. Why must you mislead others?

Any Bible reading person knows the OT comes from the Hebrew not Greek (Strong's).

Fact #1) The fact of the four-fold gospel is reflected in the "Muratorian Fragment" that Irenaeus was writing, around 170 A.D. The Muratorian Fragment lists for us basically the whole New Testament canon and it shows us that the four-fold gospel was an established fact by then.
[link to en.wikipedia.org]

Fact #2) We have approximately 50 manuscripts of the New Testament that PRE-DATE the Roman takeover of the established church in the 4th century.

Fact #3) We have more than 32 THOUSAND New Testament quotations from the early church writers of the 2nd and 3rd centuries. In fact, we could recreate virtually the entire New Testament just from the quotes of the early church writers of the 2nd and 3rd centuries. We can be QUITE certain that the New Testament we have today has come down to us just as it was from the earliest days, and we can be QUITE certain what they considered to be scripture.

Yes, the Roman government came along in the 4th century and corrupted and paganized the institutional church. There were many Christians who resisted this, and they were persecuted brutally. However, Christianity and the Bible were doing JUST FINE before Rome ever came on the scene.

Myth # 3. True religion is Bible religion
Since the Bible didn't exist in the time of Peter and Paul. "No one who lived within the time period of the Bible ever had a Bible." Therefore, their religion was not "Bible religion." The Bible is the testimony that God interacts with man via revelation and spiritual gifts, directly and personally. It was not based solely upon the words of God to ancient prophets, but to living ones. Why should it not be so today.

If I may be so bold I would like to suggest a bible myth # 4:

Myth:
The church has always upheld the innerancy of scripture.

TRUTH:
The modern belief in biblical inerrancy arose between 1900 and the 1920s, and was developed into the 1970s, as a defense against historical skeptics who were launching some very scathing attacks against the authority of Scripture from the perspective of historical positivism and scientific naturalism. However, in the zeal to defend Scripture, many simply capitulated to the rationalistic mind set and tried to defend the Bible on that alien turf by ground rules set by the critics.

The scientific premise that forms the basis for modern historiography, and the basis for challenge by skeptics, is that only empirically verifiable events can be accepted as true. They contended that since many biblical events could not be verified by external documents or records or empirical data to have happened, then they never happened. Therefore, the accounts were not true and were therefore in error.

The defenders, on quite different grounds than empirical evidence, assumed that the Bible was true as a starting point. Since they argued the Bible is true as an assumption, and since only verifiable historical events can be true (thus accepting the premise of the rationalists), then the Bible must contain only actual and verifiable historical events and can contain no error. Thus inerrancy as a very rationalistic response to the rationalists was born.

You're a clear thinker MC.
Thanks for the post.

Keen insight enabled you to forsee Myth # 3.

The goal is to recognize the baby, and appreciate the baby, then carefully extract the baby as best we can, then discard the creeds and other filth that has invaded the bath water.

False doctrines must be removed as a neccessay step towards restoring the truth.

Excellent post, when will you other satanic animals quit attacking the bible and Christianity........when your dead and in hell thats when.

Why is it always Christians you attack? hmm because you are doing the work of your father the devil.

Learn to read the original texts and see how the bible we have now is twisted.

An example would be one of the ten commandments about adultery. Guess what? It's the wrong word translated. The actual word is adulterate. It is vastly different in meaning.

FYI, I was a baptist pastor and opened my eyes and realized that I was living a lie and now understand who God is for myself.

why? because we have a couple million nutcases running around claiming direct inspiration from the Holy Spirit in spouting their pet causes through supposed divine revelation!

the canon is closed. for whatever reason I believe God has chosen the 66 books I have right here translated just so as directly inspired by Him.

He has His reasons and I don't question Him. I also don't judge the Bible anymore -- I did that for years and it got me in nothing but trouble. I now allow the Bible to judge ME -- and believe me I fall way short.

only in Christ am I righteous. the Holy Spirit edifies, educates, comforts, inspires, and helps me discern -- all the while encouraging me -- but He never does any of these things contrary to established Biblical doctrine.

going outside of scripture for supposed revelation is inherently dangerous. how many presumably "restored" churches do we already have?

there is nothing wrong with the Nicene creed. by the 4th century the church was under tremendous assault by various false teachings -- some of whom were killing Christians for their true faith.

these early church fathers were still close enough timewise to the first advent to know exactly whom Jesus was -- God in the flesh -- why He came -- to take away the sin of the world -- and where we as believers stand -- fully redeemed by grace through faith.

whatever anyone imagines the Gospel message to be it's actually quite simple: Jesus died for our sins, and rose from the grave. when we believe this we are saved period. adding to or taking away from this simple message constitutes grave error.

the creeds are very useful for sound doctrine. presenting a different gospel where Jesus is not the Lord is subject to a curse. in Him dwelt all the fulness of the godhead bodily. He is equal to God and the Holy Spirit is also God. these Three agree as one.

once again I'll point to the carm.org doctrine grid for anyone who is not clear on apologetics. as Christians we are known by our love for the brethren -- in Christ. we can also lovingly correct those who have unfortunately given heed to fables without becoming quarrelsome

yet we must be apt to teach.

false teachers come under even greater penalty -- teaching is good but we absolutely must be intimately familiar with sound doctrine before we take this responsibility upon ourselves.

once again I apologize for not becoming better acquainted with my faith before spouting off on here.

the 66 books we already have can easily facilitate a lifetime of study -- and even then I can only scratch the surface.

love peace and joy

rb

7/11/2009 Lotus, your TIMING is impeccable, and exactly relevant to Myth # 4 about the Bible.

Thread: City of Asses the Donkeys are singing....HEE-HAW
  
Myth # 4. Everything in the Bible is the Word of God
The Bible is the word of God so far as it is translated correctly, but every word in it was not uttered by God. The Bible contains the words of the devil to Adam and Eve in the Garden and to Jesus Christ during his temptation in the wilderness. It contains the words of Adam, Eve, a serpent, angels, prophets, apostles, and their scribes. It even contains the words spoken by Balaam's mule, who chastened him for his cruel treatment. All these are in addition to the words of God spoken to prophets and the words of Jesus Christ himself. 

"often, the Lord's timing"
[link to 74.125.155.132]

One who takes lessons from the events of life, gets vision, one who acquires vision becomes wise and one who attains wisdom achieves knowledge.

PEACE 2 U ALL!!!

I was too sensitive as a kid to be able to read the Bible, my parents too. We just stayed with the Bible stories books for children, much nicer stories.

Being on the road the last few days limits my abilities to post.  Today's timing of Myth # 4, and now 7-11 offers free Slurpees on 7/11.  

Has 7-11 done that before?