Christians insist the Bible is the Word of God. How can they maintain that when the Bible is full of errors? How can any of us accept their claim? If God didn’t talk to the Bible’s authors, how could what they wrote be the Word of God? What if the Bible is simply its authors’ interpretation of God’s Word? Christians claim, and reason establishes that our creator unconditionally loves all its created and wants its created to love it unconditionally. If you doubt this claim, assess the reasoning in the Meaning of Life Video Series. Does it not make sense that, because our creator wants us to freely love it, it must make itself known to us without unempowering us by showing itself or speaking to us directly? As you consider this question, you might explore the thinking in Why Our Creator Keeps Itself Hidden From Us and Is Your Creator Awaiting a Response to its Constant Outreach. Is it not clear that God must put His Word directly into the Bible’s authors’ (and our) minds? Might their errors be the result of God’s Word not having been put into words? Must what God put into their minds not be His Word?
Let’s look at the Bible’s errors as misinterpretations. The Bible’s authors interpreted God’s Word as His punishment of Adam and Eve, the restriction of His love to Abraham and his descendants, his instruction to Moses and Joshua to expel the Canaanites, His wrath towards His people, His punishment of them whenever they strayed and His instruction to them to commit barbaric genocide. Might His Word have been better interpreted as Adam and Eve’s self-inflicted punishment in rejecting God and His will, God’s first revelation of His love to Abraham’s people, God’s Promised Land being eternal life rather than others’ land, His love as unconditional (as Christ later taught) and His commandment to love Him alone rather than to wipe out those who didn’t? Do these re-interpretations not make it clear that what is written in the Bible may well be simply the misinterpreted Word of God?
What about the fallacy that the world was created in six days. Would God lie? Is it not clear that a few billion years for God is like a short afternoon for us? Could God have been using days rather than eons to explain the Big Bang and evolution to a people with no scientific knowledge? When we read Genesis 1 and 2 in this light, does “the earth was formless and empty ” not describe creation from nothing? Does “Let there be light” not sound like the Big Bang? Do Day 2 through Day 4 not simply describe what primitive peoples could see of creation? Do Days 3, 5 and 6 not sound like evolution?
When we speak to children, we use language to which they can relate. Wouldn’t God do the same? If so, wouldn’t the creation story assuredly be the Word of God?
Do these questions prompt new thinking about the Bible? If so, you’ll find expansions of this thinking in Chapters 14 and 16 of Discovering Life’s Purpose and in Meaning of Life Video Series by scrolling down to Video 21 – Is our creator really the Christian God and the Bible His Word? – and viewing Videos 21-23.
When we discover that Genesis is consistent with the scientific discovery of the Big Bang and the Theory of Evolution and that the Bible’s errors are simply human misinterpretations of God’s Word, is it not likely the Bible is the Word of God? When we realize that God must put things into the Bible’s authors’ (and our) minds for us to freely love Him, is it not clear that the Bible must be the Word of God?
Case closed?
Del H. Smith conducts research into life’s meaning and is the award-winning author of the AMAZON Best Seller, Discovering Life’s Purpose.