What different beliefs do Christians have about the Bible?

Answer 1

This is a bit of a quagmire of a question. Some believe that the Bible is allegorical (symbolic) and some believe that it is literal, like I do. There are also beliefs that The Bible isn't completely true, or that only certain parts are, with other parts being lies or halve-truths. I believe that each and every word of the Bible is inspired (God-breathed), which is called plenary verbal inspiration. Some believe that the Bible was inspired by the Holy Spirit dictating the men of God to write the Bible, which I don't believe. There's another theory that says that only the ideas in the Bible are true, which I don't believe, and that is called conceptual inspiration. There are, of course, even more theories about this and other related topics. Then, there are theories about Christ, His tomb, and His resurrection, as well as every other main even in the Bible.

Answer 2

There are some Christians who believe in the Bible as the infallible and inerrant (ie - it cannot be wrong) Word of God, dictated. almost, by God himself to the writers of each book of scripture. These Christians almost accept scripture as their 'god' and will neither question it, nor allow others to do so, and will go to all lengths possible to preserve its unquestioned authority - even if it means that common sense or love or compassion are dispensed with as long as the devotion to scripture is not jeopardised. Sadly, these misguided Christians do more harm than good in taking such a stance.

As for most Christians, they regard the Bible as a collection of works by various human authors some of which are to be taken with more authority than others, but with the overall belief that all the workds, though written by fallible humans, are inspired by God and written with God in mind.

This may mean that even 'historical' accounts such as the Gospels, will have subtle differences between each account of jesus' life as they are written by different people with different agendas from a diffrent viewpoint and so events will necessarily not agree to the letter. This will mean that allegorical accounts of the end times in Revelation and in Creation in Genesis, will be written from an allegorical perspective and are not to be taken literally. This will mean that the mythological literatire of the Bible like Jonah and Job needs to be read in that very light - and the moral of the story seen as more important than the story itself.

Therefore most Christians see the Bible as God's revelation to us through human eyes and fallible human minds, and, whilst it needs to be read carefully to discern what is literal and what isn't, it still needs to be taken seriously, as the B I B L E is the following: - "Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth!

Answer 3

The majority of Christians today believe the Bible is the inspired word of God and completely true - the instruction book for humanity. Others believe some of the stories in the bible are metaphors or allegories to teach a lesson and never really happened. Lastly, there are some who believe the Bible is a nice collection of stories that never really occurred as they perceive contradictions which they have not or can not explain/reconcile.