How Old Is The Earth and Is the Bible reliable?
First I want to address the question of how old the earth is. No one can really establish how old the earth really is…not scientists, nor Bible scholars, nor anyone else. There are several modern methods scientists use to estimate the Earth’s Age. Of all the methods used, C-14 and potassium-argon are the two methods considered to be the most reliable according to most scientists. Yet, these methods are completely dependant on the assumption the production rate of C-14 in the outer atmosphere had not changed at all in all of history and the decay rate was the same in the past as it is today. They also depend on the assumption that there were never any major cosmic events at least in the past 45,000 years that could possibly change the C-14 production rate or decay rate. This causes much doubt as to the reliability of these methods.
What we know for sure is that the historical period of man goes back only to about 5,000 to 7,000 B.C. as scientists accept it. Most scientists believe that intelligent man has been on the earth for about 1,750,000 years. If this is true, what has he been doing all that time? Man’s historical record only goes back about half of one percent of the alleged time scientists think man-like creatures have been on the earth.
For many years, archaeologists did not believe that the Hittite nation, which is mentioned in the Old Testament, really existed. Then, not long ago, they uncovered ruins and found the Hittite nation did in fact exist. Archaeology continues to do nothing but find more evidence to support the accuracy of the Bible in History.
Now as for the legitimacy of the Bible, let’s first point out that there are 66 books of the Bible and was written by approximately 40 men over a period of nearly 1,600 years. The 1st books of the Old Testament were written by Moses, about 1,500 B.C., and the last book of the Bible was written by the apostle John, approximately A.D. 100. The writers used different languages primarily, Hebrew and Greek, with small portions in Aramaic. In many instances the writers had no access to the other books of the Bible dealing with events of their own time, yet they wrote in perfect unity, each complementing that which the others had written.
The unity of the scriptures could not have been achieved except that God guided the various writers. In other “sacred” books of the world, there is nothing that can be properly called history. They are for the most part jumbles of heterogeneous material, loosely placed together, without order, continuity, or unity of any kind. The Bible on the other hand, is a history with a beginning, a middle, and an end. There is nothing like this, nothing even approaching it, in any other collection of sacred books in the world. It is filled with prophecies in the Old Testament that were fulfilled in the New Testament. Many were not possible to be forced to happen. Example; Psalms 22:18 predicts that the Christ’s garments would be divided. It was fulfilled by the Roman soldiers in John 19: 23-24. No bones of the Savior would be broken; Psalms 34: 20. This was fulfilled in John 19: 33-36.
What are the chance possibilities of making over 85 prophecies concerning Christ hundreds of years before His birth and having them all fulfilled in the life, death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus?
Hebrews 11:1;
1Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
Faith is the "substance" of things we hope for...substance tells me it is NOT subjective, nor is it blind. the "evidence" of things not seen...tells me that faith is built on solid proofs. A comment someone made to me was wrong. I told someone that I KNOW what God's view on homosexuality, sex outside of marriage, and many other worldly practices are because the Bible tells me. This person's response to me was, "You only 'think' you know...you believe you know, but you don't really know." The problem I have with that statement is that I really do know...I would not believe if I did not know. I do not believe the Bible is the Word of God and it is without error just because I was raised to believe it and "blindly" believe it. I looked for EVIDENCE to support the claims the Bible itself makes about being inspired by the Holy Spirit and without error.
What puzzles me is that we only have a handful of ancient copies of the writings of Socrates...no originals...and yet, no one doubts the acurracy of the copies. There are more ancient copies of every single book of the Bible than any other ancient written work ever discovered. The consistency of all these copies is nothing short of absolutely amazing. Yet, many doubt the accuracy and reliability of the Bible. Many who claim to be Christian even doubt the accuracy. One thing I can guarantee though, most of the people who doubt the accuracy of the Bible are not avid readers of it and may not have ever read more than a handful of verses in their entire lives.
What we know for sure is that the historical period of man goes back only to about 5,000 to 7,000 B.C. as scientists accept it. Most scientists believe that intelligent man has been on the earth for about 1,750,000 years. If this is true, what has he been doing all that time? Man’s historical record only goes back about half of one percent of the alleged time scientists think man-like creatures have been on the earth.
For many years, archaeologists did not believe that the Hittite nation, which is mentioned in the Old Testament, really existed. Then, not long ago, they uncovered ruins and found the Hittite nation did in fact exist. Archaeology continues to do nothing but find more evidence to support the accuracy of the Bible in History.
Now as for the legitimacy of the Bible, let’s first point out that there are 66 books of the Bible and was written by approximately 40 men over a period of nearly 1,600 years. The 1st books of the Old Testament were written by Moses, about 1,500 B.C., and the last book of the Bible was written by the apostle John, approximately A.D. 100. The writers used different languages primarily, Hebrew and Greek, with small portions in Aramaic. In many instances the writers had no access to the other books of the Bible dealing with events of their own time, yet they wrote in perfect unity, each complementing that which the others had written.
The unity of the scriptures could not have been achieved except that God guided the various writers. In other “sacred” books of the world, there is nothing that can be properly called history. They are for the most part jumbles of heterogeneous material, loosely placed together, without order, continuity, or unity of any kind. The Bible on the other hand, is a history with a beginning, a middle, and an end. There is nothing like this, nothing even approaching it, in any other collection of sacred books in the world. It is filled with prophecies in the Old Testament that were fulfilled in the New Testament. Many were not possible to be forced to happen. Example; Psalms 22:18 predicts that the Christ’s garments would be divided. It was fulfilled by the Roman soldiers in John 19: 23-24. No bones of the Savior would be broken; Psalms 34: 20. This was fulfilled in John 19: 33-36.
What are the chance possibilities of making over 85 prophecies concerning Christ hundreds of years before His birth and having them all fulfilled in the life, death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus?
Hebrews 11:1;
1Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
Faith is the "substance" of things we hope for...substance tells me it is NOT subjective, nor is it blind. the "evidence" of things not seen...tells me that faith is built on solid proofs. A comment someone made to me was wrong. I told someone that I KNOW what God's view on homosexuality, sex outside of marriage, and many other worldly practices are because the Bible tells me. This person's response to me was, "You only 'think' you know...you believe you know, but you don't really know." The problem I have with that statement is that I really do know...I would not believe if I did not know. I do not believe the Bible is the Word of God and it is without error just because I was raised to believe it and "blindly" believe it. I looked for EVIDENCE to support the claims the Bible itself makes about being inspired by the Holy Spirit and without error.
What puzzles me is that we only have a handful of ancient copies of the writings of Socrates...no originals...and yet, no one doubts the acurracy of the copies. There are more ancient copies of every single book of the Bible than any other ancient written work ever discovered. The consistency of all these copies is nothing short of absolutely amazing. Yet, many doubt the accuracy and reliability of the Bible. Many who claim to be Christian even doubt the accuracy. One thing I can guarantee though, most of the people who doubt the accuracy of the Bible are not avid readers of it and may not have ever read more than a handful of verses in their entire lives.
posted by Unknown at 3:43 AM
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