According to Dei Verbum the authors inspiration comes from the Holy Spirit and hence the Bible teaches without error that which God wanted to put into sacred writings for the purpose of Salvation. But because this happens through humans in a human way we have to search out their meaning, understand literary forms and customs, culture, situation and vernacular of the authors

Holy Scripture must be read in the spirit with which it was written, so no less attention must be paid to the unity and context of the whole scripture.

Read Chapter III Dei Verbum

http://www.crossroadsinitiative.com/library_article/38/Dei_Verbum__The_Dogmatic_Constitution_on_Divine_Revelation_of_Vatican_II_.html

Bosk. Everyone knows Pontius Pilate didn’t want to crucify Jesus. It wasn’t the Romans who wanted him dead it was the Jews. The Good News of Jesus Christ, if true, is the pivot of all history. Even without faith it is monumental history. You must take your own advice with regard to understanding scripture and history.

Coach explained before I could, Matthew (19:3-12)

Coach was much more generous than I would have been after the last line of your post.

Godbless Bosk

Bosk:Not totally wrong at all,Christ did away with the following - Aaronic priesthood, the Temple [Yeeeees! I know many new Christians continued going to the Temple but they did not have to for salvation]including the Holy of Holies, the ten commandments,the Sabbath, clean and un-clean food, the Holy Days, animal sacrifices etc etc.
They saw the miracles and as Nicodemus said "WE that's the Sanhedrin know you are from God". They did not want to believe He was God. Judaism had become a man made man led religion by this time.
Most didn't follow the new way but thousands did including many Pharisees.
Little mo was, by our standards, a stinking steaming pedophile. Married a six year old girl whome some claim he constantly fondled had full blown sex when this lass was nine. Bosk you neither know the Scriptures nor the power of God.
Jesus was executed because He claimed to be the Son of God. Was handed over the Romans on a trumped up charge so He would be crucified. By the way Psalm 22 describes death by crucifixion which was unknown in those days - strange that eh?
Again wives could be divorced on trivial excuses in those days.
Fellow_Human:So a pack of moslems told you as I did - so what? I can catagorically state that I do not hate moslems.
Aziliz: There are enough or more than enough fulfilled prophecies in the Holy Bible to prove that it is from God and the only book [both testaments] from God. numbat

Martin, Numbat & Coach
Ok, let's go your route. Who wrote the Gospels?

If Matthew was a former tax gatherer (actually a telones, a customs collector, who became a follower of Jesus why did he need to borrow so much of his material & even his wording from Mark who wasn't one of the 12? Why did Matthew make stupid mistakes like calling Pontius pilate Procurator when he was the Prefect of Judaea?

If the Gospel of Mark was written by John Mark why'd he make so many mistakes concerning geography, the people & the language? He'd lived in the area all his life.

If the Gospel of John was written by John the Galillean fisherman then why did he leave out every event in which John was supposedly an eye witness? John even starts out his gospel with a quote from Parmenides' the way of truth. Did John study Greek philosophy while he was waiting to pull the nets in? :)

How about the accuracy of the Gospels regarding the crucifixion. Was it the 3rd hour as Mark 15:25 declares? Or was it the 6th hour as John 19: 14, 15 says?

Let's examine THE doctrine of Christianity - the resurrection. No two gospels agree on who found Jesus' empty tomb.

Mark says 3 women & who see a young man.

In Matthew two Mary's approach the tomb when an earthquake occurs, an angel rolls away the tomb & sits on it.

Luke's women already find the tomb empty & two [not one] men in shining robes.

While in John mary Magdelene is the first to find the tomb empty & she finds it ALONE.

They can't all be true!

And what are we to make of this? In John 20: 17 Jesus orders Mary Magdelene NOT to touch him. Yet according to Matt 28:9 she held him by the feet. So did she touch him or didn't she?

Fact is the gospels were NOT written by eyewitnesses [otherwise they would not be riddled by contradictions] & therefore you gentlemen know NOTHING about what Jesus said or did!

Bosk,

Who wrote the gospels ? what do you care bosk?

For a christian that lives by Grace "in-Christ" we don't have to prove anything to pagans who cannot understand God's mind because they do not have that connection through the holy spirit. What is clear to us will always remain a stumbling block to you because of your lack of faith.

Grow up and don't try to explain God.

______________

Fellow Human,

That's right when the argument is two direct for you take a detour or two, right?

Philosophy - you bet - at least Christian CAN question their own beliefs. We don't always have all the answers, after all if we did we wouldn't need God.

Here's a philosophical question for you:

If God and Allah are one and the same - as you pretend - how come the same God is turning Bush and Bin Laden against each other?

Now how to respond. :D

Ok Martin, Numie & coachie here we go.

The new testament is a collection of Myths & therefore you CANNOT know anything that Jesus said only what a writer says he said. Big Difference. Want proof?
http://www.sof-in-australia.org/fundament.htm

How about all the prophecies concerning jesus you ask? Just bad methodology I'm afraid.
http://www.bibleorigins.net/OTPropheciesFlawedMethodologies.html

As for you coachie let me quote what I said earlier. If you are still a human being then you are fallible just like the rest of us. That being so perhaps you should look into ALL evidence which concerns your faith & NOT just the evidence which agrees with you. That is unless the God which you truly worship is named EGO & NOT Jesus at all. So are you more interested in proving coachie's interpretation of scripture correct or in getting to the truth? Which will it be coachie?

Aziliz
A genuine pleasure. I found your link concerning NDE's very interesting & am going to print myself a copy. If I may express a personal opinion for the moment I have found your arguments both intelligent, informative & logical. And I'm not easily impressed! :)
I'm toddling off myself, but if you're staying to battle it out with these fellows then may I offer an ancient Egyptian blessing?
May God stand between you & harm in all the empty places where you must walk.
Bye for now
Bosk

Bosk,

Without scrolling through earlier posts (haven't got time and so prefer not to unless I have to). Your comments caught my attention.

You said there are 'a number of' inconsistency and contradictions in the Gospels. True, but then you said they are 'riddled by contradictions'. That's not the same thing, is it?

Worst, then you presume those gentlemen know NOTHING about what Jesus said or did. Are your assertions even remotely coherent?

I'm sure none of us even know whether Jesus is left or right-handed. Does that mean there can be no faith in Jesus?

Quite on the contrary, if the Bible is 100% void of inconsistency then I'd be worried. Because that could be strong indication that scriptures had been doctored to perfection by a very sophisticated enterprise. In fact given the size of the Bible, they probably need a computer to do that even in those day.

Your judgement is very common and hence is not surprising. But I have noticed inconsistency in the Bible that actually made me glad because they are indications that those who put together the scriptures (and who no doubt had problems recognising some writings in the original scripts) probably DID NOT make assumption one way or another. They probably DID NOT make alteration just so the words or numbers match up between two sources or chapters. Those are left to you and me to read and decide for ourselves. I certainly have no problem with that.

Had someone like you been involved in the writing then the disaster could have been unthinkable - A PERFECT BIBLE.