All of it is on shaky ground.

But people will evolve and find God in their own way no matter what. They are doing that now. Churches are splintering and splintering until each person will be a church unto himself. (herself)

Each person's relationship to the divine will become personal. No prophet or priest will lord over them.

People will come into their own spirituality and realize that no one can lord over them except the one divine intelligence we find inside of us that is God Itself.... our connection to each other.

Back up what you have said with some facts!

There is proof(scientific at that) which prove the Prophesies.


Statements Consistent With Astronomy
The Bible frequently refers to the great number of stars in the heavens. Here are two examples.


Genesis 22:17
Blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies.


Jeremiah 33:22
“As the host of heaven cannot be numbered, nor the sand of the sea measured, so will I multiply the descendants of David My servant and the Levites who minister to Me.”
Even today, scientists admit that they do not know how many stars there are. Only about 3,000 can be seen with the naked eye. We have seen estimates of 1021 stars—which is a lot of stars.[2] (The number of grains of sand on the earth’s seashores is estimated to be 1025. As scientists discover more stars, wouldn’t it be interesting to discover that these two numbers match?)

The Bible also says that each star is unique.


1 Corinthians 15:41
There is one glory of the sun, another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for one star differs from another star in glory.
All stars look alike to the naked eye.* Even when seen through a telescope, they seem to be just points of light. However, analysis of their light spectra reveals that each is unique and different from all others.[1] (*Note: We understand that people can perceive some slight difference in color and apparent brightness when looking at stars with the naked eye, but we would not expect a person living in the first century A.D. to claim they differ from one another.)

The Bible describes the precision of movement in the universe.


Jeremiah 31:35,36
Thus says the LORD,
Who gives the sun for a light by day,
The ordinances of the moon and the stars for a light by night,
Who disturbs the sea,
And its waves roar
(The LORD of hosts is His name):
“If those ordinances depart
From before Me, says the LORD,
Then the seed of Israel shall also cease
From being a nation before Me forever.”


The Bible describes the suspension of the Earth in space.


Job 26:7
He stretches out the north over empty space;
He hangs the earth on nothing.

Statements Consistent With Meteorology
The Bible describes the circulation of the atmosphere.


Ecclesiastes 1:6
The wind goes toward the south,
And turns around to the north;
The wind whirls about continually,
And comes again on its circuit.


The Bible includes some principles of fluid dynamics.


Job 28:25
To establish a weight for the wind,
And apportion the waters by measure.
The fact that air has weight was proven scientifically only about 300 years ago. The relative weights of air and water are needed for the efficient functioning of the world’s hydrologic cycle, which in turn sustains life on the earth.[1] (If you are a physics enthusiast, please ignore our omission of the terms mass, gravity, and density from this comment.)

Archaeological evidence

The first proof we have testifying to the reliability of the Bible is the archaeological evidence. Nelson Glueck, a respected Jewish archaeologist claims: "It may be stated categorically that no archaeological discovery has ever contradicted a biblical reference." (6) The liberals made wild claims against the Bible a hundred years ago but now they are silent. This is not true of other religions. The Mormon claim for inspiration of the Book of Mormon has been categorically condemned by the Smithsonian Institute because of the fallacies shown by archaeology; this is not so with the Bible. A.N. Sherwin-White, a respected classical historian at Oxford says, "For Acts the confirmation of historicity is overwhelming...", although, not being a Christian, he still regarded it as being "propaganda."(7)

Historicity of Jesus

A case in point is the historicity of Jesus. Although many atheists state that Jesus never lived, He is mentioned by many contemporary, non-Christian historians. Let us look at the evidence.

Flavius Josephus, a first century Jewish historian wrote of Jesus and the Christians:


"so he [Ananus, son of Ananus the high priest] assembled the sanhedrin of judges, and brought before him the brother of Jesus, who was called Christ, whose name was James, and some others (or some of his companions) and when he had formed an accusation against them, he delivered them to be stoned." (8)

Other Jewish rabbinical writings, including Rabbi Eliezer and writers of the Talmud, talk about Jesus and his miracles. Surprisingly to many atheists, they never denied that miracles took place, but attempted to explain them as a result of evil (9). More information about Jesus in the Talmud can be found at Jesus Christ In The Talmud.

Cornelius Tacitus wrote about Jesus and the first century Christians in his Annals (a history of the Roman empire):


"Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus." (10)

Thallus, a Samaritan historian, wrote ca. 52 A.D. attempting to give a natural explanation for the earthquake and darkness which occurred at the crucifixion of Jesus. Mara Bar-Seraphon wrote a letter to his son in 73 A.D. which tells of the deaths of Socrates, Pythagoras, and of Jesus, "What advantage did the Jews gain from executing their wise king?...Nor did the wise king die for good; he lived on in the teaching which he had given." Jesus is also mentioned by Phlegon, a first-century historian, Lucian of Samosata (in The Passing Peregrinus), and Plinius Secundus, (Pliny the Younger).

Scholars have made statements such as, "no serious scholar has ventured to postulate the non-historicity of Jesus ." (11) The latest version of Encyclopedia Britannica says in its discussion of the multiple extra-biblical witnesses:


"These independent accounts prove that in ancient times even the opponents of Christianity never doubted the historicity of Jesus, which was disputed for the first time and on inadequate grounds by several authors at the end of the 18th, during the 19th, and at the beginning of the 20th centuries." (12)

Even the atheist H. G. Wells spoke of Jesus, "...one is obliged to say, "Here was a man. This part of the tale could not have been invented." (13)

Scientific evidence

Recent scientific evidence is adding to the evidence supporting the reliability of biblical chronology from the scriptures. This study demonstrated the reliability of the Biblical record regarding the Egyptian plagues and demise of Jericho.

Drs. Hendrik J. Bruins and Johannes van der Plicht reported in the prestigious British journal, Nature (14), that the destruction of Jericho was dated to 1580 (+/- 13 years) B.C. (using 14C dating). This date is significant, since several archeologists have insisted that Jericho was destroyed by the Egyptians between 1550 and 1300 B.C. The recent study discredits the Egyptian theory, since the date is much too old.

What is even more exciting is that scientists, using 14C dating and tree rings, have found evidence of a volcanic eruption from the Aegean island of Thera, which recently has been dated to 1628 B.C. (15). This would place the eruption at 45 years prior to the destruction of Jericho, at a time which coincidentally corresponds to the time of the plagues the Lord unleashed upon Egypt. Check out Exodus 10:


Then the Lord said to Moses, "Stretch out your hand toward the sky, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, even a darkness which may be felt." So Moses stretched out his hand toward the sky, and there was thick darkness in all the land of Egypt for three days. (Exodus 10:21-22)

Even the researchers commented that the 45 years difference in events was "rather striking."

The Bible's Uniqueness and Unity

The next proof is the Bible's uniqueness and unity. The Bible was written by over 40 authors who came from just about every walk of life conceivable, including fisherman, kings, a butler, priests, and a tax collector. The 66 books of the Bible were written over a 1,500 year span in three languages on three continents with one theme and no contradictions. C.J. Sharp captures this miracle well:
•"If a fragment of stone were found in Italy, another in Asia Minor, another in Greece, another in Egypt, and on and on until sixty-six fragments had been found, and if when put together they fitted perfectly together, making a perfect statue of Venus de Milo, there is not an artist or scientist but would arrive immediately at the conclusion that there was originally a sculptor who conceived and carved the statue. The very lines and perfections would probably determine which of the great ancient artists carved the statue. Not only the unity of the Scriptures, but their lines of perfection, suggest One far above any human as the real author. That could be no one but God (16)."

Prophetic evidence

Yet another reason Christians believe God is the ultimate author of the Bible is the predictive prophecies in the Bible. This aspect is unique to the world's religions because if one predicts something will happen and it does not, they are proven to be phony. The Bible is literally filled with detailed prophecies that have been fulfilled with 100% accuracy. Here is a list of 85 Messianic prophecies (click here for a more complete list) along with their fulfillment through the life, ministry, death and resurrection of Jesus:

angel120756,

Your cut and paste posts have seen these forums in the past and have been discussed a lot. Most of it has been debunked in my mind and I personally don't have time to go back over them point by point.

Flavius Josephus, a first century Jewish historian? I doubt it. The term "Jewish" did not even exist in the first century. There is no proof that Flavius Josephus was anything more than a pen name.

If you want to discuss any prophecies you think have been predicted and then fulfilled name the best one and we can discuss it from there.

Thanks for posting, and welcome to Mingle

Planet Earth could not even begin to support that many people.

All you've done is post crystal clear evidence that whoever wrote Genesis had absolutely no clue how many stars there are in the universe.

Obviously the author was trying to be poetic and had no clue about either the limited size of Planet Earth nor the actual expanse of the universe.

The very fact that you think this verse somehow proves that the Bible is reliable just shows that you have absolutely no clue what you are even talking about.

Truly. Even I can look up into a night sky and see what looks like a lot of stars. And yet by looking, I have no idea how many.

Truly.

The prophecies of the Old Testament state that the messiah will be handed the throne of King David by God.

Yet Jesus was never handed any throne and was never officially proclaimed to be the King of the Jews.

Therefore it is simply false to claim that all prophecies had been satisfied 100%.

The Jews themselves reject that Jesus was the messiah for this very reason, along with some others.

It's a Christian lie that Jesus fulfilled all the prophecies about a supposed messiah. The Jew have never accepted that lie.

" handed the throne of King David by God. "

..and the existence of King David (or the God Jehovah) can not be verified.

Jesus is king.

You have to prove that King David existed before you can make that claim. He is supposed to be blood related to King David but there is no proof that King David ever existed.

However, if Jesus existed at all, he was probably an alien or a cross breed human/alien.