Hello,
the question : " Is the bible a fake ", with only the 4 possible answers, is deceiving because other answers are possible.
So here I go : The bible are 66 books (or 60, depending what kinda bible you take) put together, of which the most pages in the first part of the combined book are called "the Old Testament" and "the latest books" in the bible are called. "The New Testament." As far as I heard and read, indeed an emporor Constantine decided along with some bishops which books would be a part of "the bible" and what books wouldn't be part of the bible and in his whole empire he decided to make "thรฉ one church in his empire the "Roman Catholic Church" that claimed its existance on several things written in the bible.
Now, there are an enormous mistakes in the bible (thousands), of which 250 fundamental mistakes (according to a writer in the end of the 20th century there would be 250 fundamental mistakes in the bible, something what is widely known by theologians now).(due to translation errors etc..) and also lots of wrong interpretations.
Anyhow you find in the bible the following things a.o. : There existed a city called Jerusalem,there existed a city called Bethelem, there existed a village called Nazareth.
THE EXISTANCE OF THESE CITIES ARE "HISTORICAL FACTS" and NOT "FAKE". The letters that Paul has written to several parishes, DID EXIST and were written by him or a writer wrote them for him.(dictation).
THAT MEANS you can't say that EVERYTHING written in the bible is a FAKE, or that the bible"as such" or is "entirely fake".
Lot's of archeological findings sustain a lot what is written in the bible.
There were also non-christians, at the time that wrote about a person Who called Himself Jesus Christ and claimed to be God. The FACT that there were other persons who wrote that such a person existed, is a FACT.
And there are also books part of the bible that don't write about things that happen, but are prayers (f.i. the psaums), and lot's of things are also predicting some things.==> And several of these things DID really occur.
Lots of things written in the bible claim to have a spiritual meaning. In the book it is said that God is a "Spirit",and Jesus says that we have to be spiritually re-born" (note : there are christians in evangelical and other churches.that claim to be "re-born christians", but this doesn't proof that they really are "spiritually reborn" in the sense Jesus Christ meant. (I lack time to elaborate on this).
CONCLUSION = Saying that "the bible is a fake" or "the bible is fake". is NOT TRUE.
ONLY certain things that are written in the bible are not true.(a.o. by false translations,or even deliberate mistakes, etc...).
NOW IMPORTANT =>
I myself don't believe in the existance of "punishments that would be for eternal/forever and ever in Hell". This would be in contradiction with the claim of Jesus that He is LOVE eternal.
The doctrine of the RCC of the eternity of punishments in Hell, is contradicted by Origen (Origines) and his circle back then (3rd century or so after Christ). Sadly the RCCh , decided to follow a different path, than Origen (Origines) at the time, and claimed / decided that the punishments in Hell are eternal (the view of Augustines -one of the churchfathers- circle).
(When exactly this doctrine became an official teaching of the RCCHurch I don't know exactly).
This (the claim that punishments in Hell will be eterenal) has been one of the most AWFUL THINGS the RCChnurch has TEACHED and is still TEACHING (and most protestant, evangelical, etc... churches have copied that), and is WRONG.
This goes back to the wrong translation out of the bible in Greek of the word 'aionos' or "aionios". which CAN mean "eternal"
but also CAN MEAN "a period of time that is restricted and once will stop". The word "aeon" can be found in there. It is similar to the word , an "age" or an "era". This means "a period" , mostly not defining how long this period lasts, but is a limited period and "not eternal".
The consequence is that once everybody will be in Heaven, although this can still take an enormous amount of time, because part of the souls will first be in Hell for a certain LIMITED period after which they still can come in Heaven.
(several prophets of the last two centuries claim the above, as Origen (Origines) did so many centuries ago, but the RCCurch hasn't changed their doctrine, and most of the Protestant and Evangelical Churches follow this doctrine also -sometimes even more severely than the RCCh). (And of course : Some of these recent prophets writings are banned by the RCChurch or put on a list of "wrong books").
Anyhow => I wrote that suddenly the bible was made or became a book with 66 books
in it, and that there were people who decided what would come in it and what not. (and the books weren't written by Jesus Himself, but by people, who can make mistakes -some even deliberately-, and translations also can result in mistakes).
That's why the bible as such shouldn't be called "the infallible Word of God", as it's not written by God or Jesus Christ, but by people ABOUT GOD, and ABOUT Jesus' teachings.
THIS (because there can be found mistakes in the bible) DOENS'T MEAN (the fact that there are mistakes found in the bible) THAT THE BIBLE DOESN'T CONTAIN MUCH INTERESTING AND TRUE THINGS. But read
with caution.
ANYHOW => Lots of texts are called "apocrypha" (or biblical apocrypha). These are texts (sometimes called gospels) that didn't made it in the bible, but ARE KNOWN and DO EXIST). Some of those texts should have made it into the bible. Some others (because they are incomplete f.i., are not in the bible with a good reason, but other texts should have made it into the bible).
You can find lots of these old texts on the website "
www.earlychristianwritings.com" (and there is also a website called "
www.earlyjewishwritings.com " ). i don't have read all these texts, and I know that there are/existed even more texts then the ones you see on these big websites.
Kind regards, and blessings to you all.
