Why would God want to make man look perfect? Why would he want to put in there evidence that man is flawless in some way? The details of the Bible are astounding in their detail. All of the flaws of the people are pointed out. Stupid questions from Jesus followers are pointed out. His followers abandoning him and scattering. God didn't want us to look at his followers and say I need to be like him. God wanted us to look at his followers and say... wow... they are as srewed up as I am but they did great things. The question the Bible leaves you with after seeing their flaws is... why were they doing great things? Why did they believe so much in what Jesus was saying that they would lay down their lives for it. God is brilliant in his design to point out those flaws so that it can point back to him.
No, God doesn't make Paul's writings look unreliable. God makes paul look unreliable. There is a difference. If you were to write a love letter to your significant other and say that you loved her deerly. Would those feelings be any less just because you spelt the word wrong? The message that God is sending is no less significant just becuase he is using fallible people to send it. Many people choose not to trust it because we look at those examples God gives us and we associate their failures with what they wrote. The thing that people forget is that it got wrote down. Despite of all of their flaws the message got preserved for millenia and it has survived. If I were to see a story where everyone was perfect and shiny where no one made mistakes. I don't know that i would trust it. What I see is a bunch of people who were screwed up and they show it but what they are saying goes beyond the flaws that they show. We see the flaws and relate to the people so that we can trust what they say. Yes God cold have made everyword perfect but would that make it anymore trustworthy? People would still scoff. If God's own hand had wrote it, people would still try to say otherwise.
AdminPD is right I am a bit off topic but I do think that if someone determines that the word of God is fallible that they will not take it literally. So to tie in the topic I will say that in order for God to get his message out to everyone then he needs to have people trust in what his word says. PaulK seems to think that the word is fallible because fallible man wrote it. So he will never take anything in it literally. God being an All Knowing, All Powerful God could serve his purpose through fallible people and still have everything in it literal. I see God in nature and can trust that if he did all of that then him telling me about himself in the Bible is just as awe inspring. The things he talks about in there are to far fetched for our minds to wrap around because they aren't things we have seen. So to most people most of it can't be literal becuase they can't fathom that God could do what it says. I say he can and when I look at something as well planned and designed as humans are. I can take every word exactly as it says.
How could I be misrepresenting you when you are going against what Greg says in his article. Which basically states that the word of God is infallible. You are taking the position that Greg is wrong. Hence you think the Bible is fallible and can't be taken literally. I am simply deducing your stance based on your actions. If I am incorrect then I apologize. You sir are misrepresenting. I would never put the word of man over what the Bible says. You see the Bible only points out the flaws of man. It never points out that it has flaws. It never says not to trust it. On the contrary several times throughout the new testament Jesus...The Son Of God ... points to the scriptures and says have you not read. Which clearly means that if you believe that he is the Son of God that you should trust what was written before. 1 Timothy 3:16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness. So the Bible basically calls itself Holy in a sense.