Hi Sidelined,
I have to say, your little signature really gave me a chuckle! It’s so illogical it’s cute. Such a statement makes no sense — just think of how many things have been true before they were proven: the world was round before it was proven to be so; the Earth was really at the fringe of creation before it was proven to not be at the center; there really are giant squids that could sink a small fishing craft and lead to the legend of the Kraken. To say something isn’t so simply because you choose not to see the proof of its existence is pure silliness. Especially in a case where proof is all around you and you need only open your eyes (and that means your heart and mind) and see it.
At any rate, the Christian Bible is a compendium of various writings. Different parts of it come from different stages of history, and its final form was compiled under political duress. The collection can be divided loosely into histories and stories. The histories are the long boring parts that few people talk about. The stories are the parts that generate all the hub-bub.
To say that the individual books of the Bible are the
‘divinely inspired words of God’ is accurate in the sense that the people who wrote them were inspired to record the divine happenings of their day. That being said, they were also never intended to end up in the form in which they have been presented to the world. So the book itself, as a compilation of divinely inspired writings, is manmade. With man’s intents and motives affecting its design.
But that doesn’t mean that the word of God is not contained within the Bible. One of the interesting things I’ve seen in my life about the way God works (if you will) is that it’s always indirectly, through an unbelievable set of circumstances. The important messages contained in the Bible are no different. If you read through each book, and take it on its own, at the time it was written (as best that’s known), trying to know the person who wrote it and their intent, then you can find valuable meaning in its content.
My favorite example of this is the Book of Luke. I call it ‘Luke’s Lament’. I think this is a classic case of misuse of intent. Luke’s intent was to write the story that one of his good friends had told him in a form that would be acceptable to another good friend of his; a rich, pagan friend who lived in another country but traveled from time to time to the area in which Luke practiced. Luke wanted to save the man’s soul, but knew he’d never believe the simple truth of the story. So he spruced it up to make it sound a bit more like a pagan god story. Little did he realize that his story, written to one good friend, would be duplicated a thousand times over... For when the rich friend received the manuscript, with its attached letter of introduction, he was so taken with the story that he sought to spread this knowledge to all of his countrymen. It was many years before copies began to make their way back to mainland from where the story had originated. But once that happened, people who had actually
been there began to hear and then read this story. They knew the dilemma: thousands upon thousands had been converted by this story so it could not be debunked; yet neither could it go down purely as the way things happened. So two individuals, individually, took it upon themselves to record the real story as much as possible without directly contradicting what was already written. One of them was particularly successful in also providing a bit of a roadmap for deciphering the story Luke had created. These three books together each represent divinely inspired writing at different times for different purposes and little of any of that has to do with how it is all seen today.
Now, I will say that all of that is speculation on my part — however, it is educated speculation and there is history which supports the possibility of it.
In the end, my views being correct, incorrect, or indifferent to the truth, I think the answer to your question is that the Bible is a compilation book of histories and stories, held holy in its various forms by a number of Christian religions, which contains meaningful content to those who wish to take the time and effort (doesn’t have to be a lot of either, either) to find it for themselves.
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