[Faith-talk] is it wrong to question?

[Greg Aikens]

Questioning your beliefs is healthy.  How else would you be confident that they are true?  

You should be critical of the sources you use to answer your questions.  Be aware that every author has biases and experiences that shape the way they interpret scripture etc.  Good scholars attempt to limit the impact of these biases on their writing, but they are still guilty of it.  Two biblical scholars can examine a piece of historical data and draw extremely different conclusions from it.  For example, liberal and conservative textual scholars basically agree that for 97% of the text of the New Testament, we can be confident we have the same texts as the first century church.  Many liberal scholars will look at the 3% of texts where we aren't as confident and use it to question the accuracy of all of scripture etc.  Conservatives tend to say that the 97% demonstrates God's hand in preserving his word.  So be careful what you read about the Bible.  Make sure you understand the background of the person writing and prayerfully evaluate what you read.  

As for the development of the canon, the reading I have done describes the process as more of a recognition of the books that all the churches were using already, instead of a committee who selected books from a list.  As early church leaders like Paul and Peter wrote letters, and historians like Luke wrote histories, those writings were circulated to other churches.  The more accurate the text, the more useful for teaching etc, the more it was circulated.  By the time the early church councils made any official decree, they were basically acknowledging the list of texts that everyone was using.  There were gospels and epistles that were left out, some of which because they contained unorthodox teaching, others because they had not gained  universal acceptance.  As others pointed out, other gospels were left out because they were written to late.  Some might feel like this view either downplays God's involvement in the process or demonstrates how untrustworthy the canon is because of the high level of human involvement.  I believe that just as God revealed himself to men and inspired them to write the books of the Bible, he worked through the Church to identify that revelation as truth and guided the process of establishing the canon.  

I hope some of this information is useful to you in your investigations.  

Blessings,
Greg

On Nov 14, 2012, at 2:03 AM, Timothy Clark Music <timothyclarkmusic at me.com> wrote:

> folks - 
> this is going to get a lot of people hating what i have to say but let me ask, is it wrong to question the bible? most is going to say yes as it's the wholly word of the lord and I agree but why are their missing texts such as the book of thomas, peeter, mary, and more. I have read the devenchy code by Dan brown. it made me question and then a friend sent me a video about the missing texts. why is the texts missing and why were they band from the 66 texts of the bible? because they said things the roman governor Constantine didn't agree with so they disclosed them. well, more and more of the old texts are being found and compiled into the gnostic bible. i know a lot of you believe gnostics are wrong and even evil. what's wrong with researching the truth? now, in defense of our bibles of today the gnostics believe a bit differently. they believe that god is within you waiting to be found. 
> we accept that god is within us and we search to find the lord within us. 
> that's the gnostics point of view. the regular bible teaches we must accept god and then after that when we die we will be with the lord. now, here's a thought. we accept god into our hearts according to the bible, so in that case the lord is in us. so, where's the difference between the gnostic view verses the orthodox view? 
> anyway, these are thoughts i figured i would share with you. maybe it will make you think about your faith. it did for me. i would like to be perfectly clear, this doesn't make me question my faith. i'm doing research for a greater meaning of life and the lord.  
> Timothy 
> Your friend in the music industry 
> http://www.timothyclarkmusic.tumblr.com
> 
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