Hi Faith ...
Not dictated by God? Claims the Bible does not make about itself? What do they do with 2 Timothy 3:16:
All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness
ALL scripture... GIVEN BY INSPIRATION OF GOD. Some translations say "God-breathed."
"Inspired by God" is different than "Dictated by God". That difference allows the text to reflect the personalities and styles of the different authors. If it was all dictated by God, so as to be God's exact words, there would be much more consistency in style. Even the Gospels have significant differences in content and style, so much so that it is clear they have different authors.
You are using the word "inspired" in a casual sense; in the accurate sense it's the equivalent of God's dictating the original Greek and Hebrew. "The WORD of the Lord came to me" say the prophets. Not the concept of the Lord, the general idea of the Lord, but the WORD of the Lord.
If the prophet says ""The WORD of the Lord came to me" then you can assume that the words he quotes are the words that God spoke to him, but otherwise how do you justify that God was dictating the rest of the narrative?
Paul says in 1 Cor 7:12 - 14 "But to the rest
speak I, not the Lord: If any brother hath a wife that believeth not, and she be pleased to dwell with him, let him not put her away..." (KJV, emphasis added)
He explicitly states that his instruction was not from the Lord, so how can it also be dictated by the Lord? There are also other places where Paul explicitly states that he is giving his opinion, his advice, rather than receiving a command directly from God. Should these "uninspired" bits have been left out of an "inspired" Bible?
I also noted something else in your comment. When you typed "WORD" you used all caps, but when you typed "Lord" you only capitalized the first letter. The convention is to use all caps for LORD and only capitalize the first letter in Word. You probably only did this for emphasis, but I think it illustrates the problem I have with inerrantists. They seem to worship the Bible, the Bible goes on a pedestal and is regarded as being absolutely without error, which is an attribute that belongs only to God. We should not worship the Bible. I am not saying you worship the Bible, but it bothers me when people elevate the Bible to such a position that only God should occupy.
I am not sure about this, but it seems as if you are a King James only believer. Maybe it was because of this:
Christianity does require an inerrant Bible, and we have one in the King James, the others being corrupted in various ways unfortunately.
This position is even more tenuous. The KJV was translated from the Vulgate (Latin) which was translated from the Septuagint (Greek OT) and 2nd or 3rd generation copies of the NT (ie. copies of copies, not the original documents). What is the Biblical support that all those translations were inerrantly copied?
More recently, texts have been found that are a hundred years older than the oldest texts used to translate the Vulgate and have given us significant insight into some confusing passages. Also we have used Sumerian and other Ancient Near Eastern texts to clarify the meanings of uncertain words and phrases, none of which was available to medieval translators.
How can you be so sure that the KJV is inerrant and other, newer translations (such as NASB, my personal preference) are corrupted?
If you prefer the KJV version, that is just fine. But it is not really justified to suggest that those that use other translations are not "true Christians". (Don't think that you suggest that ? "Christianity requires an inerrant Bible ... all translations are corrupt except KJV ... " thus the implication is that you can't be a "true Christian" unless you use the KJV)
HBD
Whoever calls me ignorant shares my own opinion. Sorrowfully and tacitly I recognize my ignorance, when I consider how much I lack of what my mind in its craving for knowledge is sighing for. But until the end of the present exile has come and terminated this our imperfection by which "we know in part," I console myself with the consideration that this belongs to our common nature. - Francesco Petrarca
"Nothing is easier than to persuade people who want to be persuaded and already believe." - another Petrarca gem.
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