The Bible

Question:



I`ve been talking to my non-christian friend about God stuff and he asked questions I didn`t know the answer to:

Why there are so many versions of the Bible (King James, NIV, Living translation, Today`s International version etc)?

Who wrote the Bible? I know it was written by disciples and other people appointed by God, but then he proceeded to ask how is it 100% from God when those people`s personal opinions or insight slips in there? Then how do you know that what`s said in the bible is true?

If a person doesn`t know if they believe that God exists or not...what can I say to convince him that God does exist? I`ve already told him my life story.

He thinks he doesn`t need God in his life because he doesn`t think anything would change or be different...he`s one of those people that has everything together, very resilient, thinks logically, very positive and a good person all around...how do I convince him he still needs God even after I`ve told him that Jesus loves him and died for him so that he can have a relationship with God and spend eternity with God?




Answer:



These are some deep questions that your friend has, and for the most part not a lot of Christians really know how to address it off the top of their heads. For that reason I would encourage you to do some personal research. To give you some helpful tips, we have help websites that deal exactly with this issue. If you go to our website at www.freeourfamily.com you’ll find a link that says Resources. Under that link you’ll find a link that says Help Sites. Click on that and under the topics click on Biblical Accuracy. A good site under this is Bible Researcher. Mind you that this information is not the easiest read, meaning that it’s not reading for entertainment, but it answers your friend’s questions to the T.


I’ll give you some heads up though. You have to look at this from the perspective of God and not of man. Bottom line is God’s Word is God coming to man and showing Him how to have a relationship with Him. The responsibility is on Him to make His Word clear. He gave man the exact words He wanted them to write through His Holy Spirit over thousands of years and those do not contradict in nature. Jesus said Himself that not one little mark would fail from God’s Word. The heavens would fall apart before that happened. What you may not know is that there were Hebrew and Greek translators that were careful to translate every word pure to its form. If one made a mistake, they would throw away the whole portion and start over. They would match up their work with each to make sure they would not make any errors. There’s also the account of the Dead Sea Scrolls which have most of the book of Isaiah on them. They matched those documents up to what they had on Isaiah and they were a perfect match despite being written over a thousand years apart. There were also councils of the early church that examined the books that were known as God’s Word. They held up the books that we know today as written by God against those that were not. Those that were put to the side are known as the Apocrypha. I know what I’ve given you isn’t the whole thing but it’s good for you to do some personal study to learn this for yourself.


Ultimately, all the study is not going to convince your friend of his need for Christ. Now study will validate what God’s Word says, but this is an issue of faith. Your friend is making a claim on something he has not researched or gone to poor references for information he wants to think is true. God has to work on his heart to see his need for Him. For that you can be in prayer for him and that you be the witness he needs.


Don't forget, if you have a question you can send it to me at asktheyouthpastor@xtrlive.com plus you can talk to us tonight at www.studenthopeline.com.