Is The Bible Legitimate?

Question

Christians, can you prove the legitimacy of the Bible and its outrageous claims without using "evidence" presented in the bible. ?

Answer 1

Legitimate:

ADJECTIVE:

Being in compliance with the law; lawful: a legitimate business.

Being in accordance with established or accepted patterns and standards: legitimate advertising practices.

Based on logical reasoning; reasonable: a legitimate solution to the problem.

Authentic; genuine: a legitimate complaint.

Born of legally married parents: legitimate issue.

Of, relating to, or ruling by hereditary right: a legitimate monarch.

Of or relating to drama of high professional quality that excludes burlesque, vaudeville, and some forms of musical comedy: the legitimate theater.

TRANSITIVE VERB:

)

To make legitimate, as:

To give legal force or status to; make lawful.

To establish (a child born out of wedlock) as legitimate by legal means.

To sanction formally or officially; authorize.

To demonstrate or declare to be justified.

Absolutely yes.

Answer 2

The bible is a legitimate history of some people's attempt to understand God.

They went from obvious fairy tales, to mythological history, to some real history with moral rules thrown in, to a kind of humanism based on forgiveness.

Answer 3

They can't.

The only source for the Bible's legitimacy is the Bible, and that doesn't work.

Answer 4

What is outrageous is the premise that the Bible makes outrageous claims. There is plenty of outside evidence that verifies much of what the Bible says.

An authentic Catholic catechism, containing to true Catholic teachings, could be composed from the pictures and inscriptions on the tombs and walls of ancient catacombs of *the *first* three* centuries*.  (the Bible in book form did not exist before this time) Pictures, medals, and inscriptions in the catacombs identify the faith of the early Christians with the Catholic faith.

The catacombs prove that the first Christians believed that Jesus Christ is true God and true Man.  They also believed in the Real Presence of Jesus in the holy Eucharist, the divine institution of the papacy, the dignity of the mother of God, the intercession of the saints, purgatory, prayers for the deceased.

The emblem of the fish, ichthys, was frequently used in the catacombs.  It is a symbol of the Lord Jesus, for the Greek word ichthys means “fish” and its letters are the initials for “Jesus Christ, God’s Son, Savior.”  When Christians spoke of “receiving the fish”, they meant to receive Jesus in Holy communion.

Frequently, pictures of our Savior in the catacombs reveal him as the Good Shepherd., carrying the lost sheep on his shoulders.  This is the ancient biblical form which reveals the same message as our modern devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.  A number of people are sitting around a table on which is bread and fish.

Death and resurrection were often in the minds of the early Christians, as indicated by the pictures of Noah and the ark, Jonah and the whale, Daniel in the lions’ den, and the raising of Lazarus. Their faith in resurrection and eternal life gave them courage in facing death under persecution.  There is also the famous account of Tarsicius being martyred as he took the holy Eucharist, the bread of life, to Christian prisoners.

The eucharistic sacrifice of the Mass was offered in the catacombs on the altars under which rested the bodies of martyrs. Catholic altars even today have “altar stones” in which the relics of saints and martyrs were placed by bishops when they consecrated the altar stones.

A Catechism of the Catholic Church, by Robert J.  Fox.   Franciscan Herald Press, pgs. 20, 21

The catacombs can still be seen today, but one must open their eyes.

Answer 5

I don't see how the Bible could be legitimate, seeing as it was written by hundreds of different people over hundreds of years in a time where man had almost no scientific understanding. If I had to choose, I'd go with science.

Answer 6

There are a couple of books, by Josh McDowell, "Evidence That Demands a Verdict", which use secular as well as biblical sources to support Biblical claims. Too much for me to put here.

Lee Strobel has a few, too.