(07-07-2024, 07:17 AM)Ali Imran Wrote: I am not sure how you tied Jesus to the veracity of the Bible today. The Bible we have today didn't come from Jesus. It wasn't in existence when Jesus was walking on earth. For surely, Jesus didn't give us any assurance that the Bible is reliable.
Christians have been adding and removing stuff from the "authorized" Bible since the beginning. In the first 500 years after Jesus, there were like 30 Gospels from different authors in circulation. A group of men sat down and took some (more than 4) of the Gospels to be canonized. How did they decide which of the 30 to be canonized? And that has changed over time. For example, the Gospel according to Barnabas was in the Bible, as seen in Codex Sinaiticus, a 4th-century Bible. But we don't see that Gospel today. How come? Somebody removed it. Another example is the verse in 1 John 5:7, which was not found in Codex Sinaiticus. It wasn't there at first. The first time a Bible was seen with that verse was a 15th-century Bible. And now, that verse is no longer found in most modern-day Bible.
Who adds and removes books and verses from the Bible? Do we know why they did that, or more importantly, who were they? What was their motivation for adding or removing stuff from the official Bible? What is their methodology for determining which books to include or exclude? And last question, if the Bible is from God, can humans tamper with it?
I see you're well-prepared to shoot the Bible down in flames. Armed with anti-church materials gathered from the Web and from decades of participating in theological debates, you certainly lack for nothing, having dogged perseverance and the patience of a saint while also having ready-made ammunition to try and demolish the Holy Book and its core beliefs. Sometimes I wonder what your hidden agenda is. You should know by now that getting your Bible-believing nemeses turn away from their beliefs is tantamount to them making you renounce your Islamic faith. Let's not kid ourselves, we're all fundamentalists refusing to budge in inch on our sacredly-held beliefs while continuing to stand our ground no matter what.
If your agenda is to win converts, then I think you lack a good strategy for converting others to your way of thinking. A theological sales pitch that makes relentless fault-finding analyses of others' sacred cows can be likened to a retailer constantly faulting his competitors' products. You've taken this counterproductive route. Our beliefs are dear to our hearts, but not to the disbelievers. Nothing we argue about is sacred to them, and our constant squabbles about doctrinal contradictions and discrepancies are putting many of them off. I think you need a new plan of attack. To make people listen to your sales pitch and like it, the good qualities and features of your product should be made.
If you get your jollies from attacking other's faith, then I'll entertain you with my last hurrah. Regarding the supposedly lost books of the Bible that have been found, the so-called gospels of Philip, Thomas, and Magdalene weren't lost gospels. They were pseudo gospels that the early church rejected as uninspired, spurious writings. The Christian church was acquainted with these documents but intentionally left then out of the Bible because it recognized they weren't divinely inspired. These books do not belong to the Bible as they weren't written by any of the apostles, such as Luke or Mark. Most scholars date these Gnostic gospels to the second and third centuries, long after the time of Christ. These writings contradict authentic texts. Christians are absolutely certain that God who inspired the men to pen the words of the Bible saw to it that none of the inspired writings were lost.
We can debate those issues ad nauseam without reaching an agreement. We'll never agree, so leave it at that. I'd prefer chatting about less prickly things like the battle of the sexes and worship.