Message #2925

[saundthorp]

Jan and JJ,
I think you guys and gals are taking the ****. or to use a phrase a famous tennis player used to scream at the umpire,
"You can't be serious"

Pardon??

I said "The Bible is a collection of ancient scriptures written by many different people over a long time period. Some parts may or may not be true.  It is not 'evidence' !!"

the above statement happens to be quite true Saundy - it is not 'taking the ****'.

Why do you think it is 'taking the ****'?

Jan,
I thought this discussion board was broadly Christian so I was quite taken aback by what you said, because it was so dismissive of the Bible.
Christians don't regard the Bible as just a collection of ancient writings.
How do you react to this statement taken from the Catholic Encyclopaedia, regarding the Bible?

The Bible, as the inspired recorded of revelation, contains the word of God; that is, it contains those revealed truths which the Holy Ghost wishes to be transmitted in writing. However, all revealed truths are not contained in the Bible (see TRADITION); neither is every truth in the Bible revealed, if by revelation is meant the manifestation of hidden truths which could not other be known. Much of the Scripture came to its writers through the channels of ordinary knowledge, but its sacred character and Divine authority are not limited to those parts which contain revelation strictly so termed. The Bible not only contains the word of God; it is the word of God. The primary author is the Holy Ghost, or, as it is commonly expressed, the human authors wrote under the influence of Divine inspiration. It was declared by the Vatican Council (Sess. III, c. ii) that the sacred and canonical character of Scripture would not be sufficiently explained by saying that the books were composed by human diligence and then approved by the Church, or that they contained revelation without error. They are sacred and canonical "because, having been written by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, that have God for their author, and as such have been handed down to the Church". The inerrancy of the Bible follows as a consequence of this Divine authorship. Wherever the sacred writer makes a statement as his own, that statement is the word of God and infallibly true, whatever be the subject-matter of the statement.

Trusting that you don't have the same antagonism towards Catholicism that other posters have, I have used a Catholic source. I could have used a non-Catholic quote, which apart from the reference to Tradition, would have been very similar.