Christians: would you still have come to the conclusion that Christianity is true?

you have to be a little more specific

I'm pretty much asking if the Bible's existence is the ONLY reason you *specifically* believe in the Christian God.

But are you saying that nothing in the bible happened? Or that no one has bothered to put it into a single book form? Or that none of the writings ever existed at all?

Wow, this is getting more complicated than it should be.

Assume everything is the same but there was no Bible book to read.

I guess that it would depend on how strong the oral tradition was. If it was the same as it was in Jesus's time, then yeah my beliefs would not change much.

suppose there was a bible but it was only written in Vietnamese.. would you believe in god then?

I'm curious as to how anyone could answer such a wildly hypothetical question honestly, and maybe that has something to do with the scarcity/ambiguity of responses.

For example, if someone asked me, "If you had grown up with Benny Hinn as your dad and had the most sincere Biblical teaching ever all the way through college, and the scientific method was never invented, would you still be atheist/agnostic?"

And the honest answer is: I don't know. Perhaps people underestimate how much their life experiences shape their thinking, but it does - a lot. I have no idea how to honestly put my mindset in that situation well enough to answer.

So, I'd raise an eyebrow to anyone that says, "sure, I'd still be a Christian if [reality altering circumstance X]" with certainty.

What I'm asking in the OP (this shouldn't be all that hard) is do Christians have a need for the Bible in order to believe what they do? Likewise, does Islam require the Koran for its religion to have followers?

In other words, if there were no holy books written/compiled, what conclusions do you think people would draw about God and what religion(s) would they most likely follow?

If Christianity is clearly the truest religion (as Christians claim it is), this should be evident without the Bible. Same goes for Islam (as Muslims claim it is) without the Koran, or Judaism (as Jews claim it is) without the Torah.

The religion which is most clearly correct should stick out like a sore thumb without any biased influences. Does it? If yes, how? If no, explain.

Hunh? what a dumb question?

According to who? You?

(this shouldn't be all that hard) Why? do you know the answer?

According to everything we've ever come to know or experience about this world. Read: logic.

Are you honestly suggesting that the most correct religion should be the one that appears to look like it's incorrect? What kind of hogwash is that??

well if your science book hasnt been written yet, would you still believe science is true?

Hello, Christianity is BASED on the bible. Without the bible you would have no idea as to HOW or WHAT to believe. You would not have God's inspired written words to follow.

To be very frank and honest, the truth is seldom believed by the majority and the masses. Numbers are no gaurantee for truth if that was the case then we should all become hindus or buddist. Because they probably have the most numbers. There are times in history when only a few people on the whole earth believed in God.

Act 17:6 And when they found them not, they drew Jason and certain brethren unto the rulers of the city, crying, These that have turned the world upside down are come hither also;

The truth does just that, it turns the world and its views and beliefs upside down, meaning it corrects them and and puts them rightside up. To these people at that time Christianity was not correct looking. True Christianity always goes against the grain and against the status quo!

Mainstream Christianity and (Christians also) which have some truth get very upset when true Christianity is presented because true Christianity shakes up their apple carts, it teaches things contrary to what they teach in the denominations and are unwilling to teach correctly because they fear the people and that thier money wont keep coming in.

So yes, truth can look incorrect according to the senses man who looks at things from a senses point of view and has been raised and fashioned to think according to the senses and the world.

You shouldn't be looking at religion for truth anyway. There is no truth or Godly power in religions. Christianity is not a religion. At least not how you understand and define religion. Biblically religion is a man made thing, and is according to the outward fleshy ordinances of man. Religion as a word is a negative subject in the bible.

Godliness and true Christianity is an inward thing, it is true vital spiritual relationship with the living God.

No fleshly works at all are needed to be loved or accepted "by grace are you saved and not by works lest anyman should boast" Jesus Christ accomplished all the fleshly works for us, we just freely partake of his accomplishments by believeing in his completed works. Known only through the bible.

Pletho

Either you're setting the thread up for something else or this is just too obvious. How could the information possibly survive over that long of a time period?

Go tell a co-worker a rumor and compare when it reaches the end of the office and then multiply that by couple thousand years.

Alterior motives I am sure are the reason for the majority if not all of this guys (our house) threads. He or she whatever they are do not believe and want to make damn sure that anyone they come in contact with gets so confused that they dont believe either.

This person has gone to all the wrong sources for truth or has been taught wrong for such a long time that they have come to deny the only thing that gives them truth. The Word of God, the bible. I have heard that one of the biggest groups of unbelievers are theologists.

Even people who go into the denominational theological seminaries who have believing hearts in God and His word and think that the only way to learn more about God is to go to some man made theological seminary usually come out most of the time with less simple fundamental believing in God's word than when they went in and many come out totally disbelieving the word of God, the bible.

So I understand why people dont believe but why do they have to go on a forum and spread all of their unbelief on others? They should just stick to talking about something they believe in, something they know about, dont you think?

Thats hypocrisy at its finest!

Pletho

Putting something in bold doesn't make it true.

This post is so full of fail I don't know where to start.

So I guess I'll just ask you a question.


Why don't you spend the next few years reading the Koran and praying to Mecca, etc - with all your heart?

Oh that's right, it's because you think you know everything and don't really want to see the truth.

That's hypocrisy at its finest!

Either I just got pwned by Pletho or my reading comprehension sucks.

I'll go with the latter.

Thanks for showing how the Bible is most likely errant. I'm sure the revelations, stories, and events of the Bible were written down immediately as they happened (over 1500 years of course) and exactly as they happened without any chance of wrongful memories, communication mishaps, translation mistakes, blatant falsehoods, or exaggerations.

We agree finally Our House! Except they were not written at the time they happened but at a later time by holy men of God who were inspired by God to write them and the original inspired word of God has no mistakes or contradictions, false hoods ect... Its perfect down to the last jot and tittle.

Butcho22

Why are there no perfect "God inspired humans" around nowadays?

I thought you and butcho22 were, am I mistaken?

On a serious note though, there are not perfect humans but their are perfectly inspired men of God that exist today who are inspired by God. They of course are not writing any new book additions to the bible, that job has been finished for quite awhile.

Quite a bold claim. Can you back it up with anything other than "your personal beliefs don't allow for any new books"?

I mean, how can you begin to assign a %age of knowing whether stuff like this is true or not without invoking the circular logic of "The Bible is true->I know this because the Bible says that...->The Bible is true"?