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| Questions and Answers About the Inside Story of the Bible |
Question 7: I’ve studied the Bible for more than 20 years. I found that although the Bible had more than 40 authors in different times, what they wrote has no mistake. This shows that God is the true author of the Bible. The Bible is from the Holy Spirit.
Answer: You mentioned the Bible had more than 40 authors. And you think there is no mistake. Is there really no mistake? Let’s fellowship about this issue. Actually, Christ of the last days, Almighty God, has disclosed these mysteries to us. Almighty God’s words say, “The genealogy of Jesus recorded in the Gospel of Matthew in the New Testament begins by saying that Jesus was a descendant of Abraham and David, and the son of Joseph.
The Gospel goes on to say that Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born to a virgin; in other words, Jesus was not Joseph’s son and was not descended from Abraham and David. But the record in the genealogy forcedly relates Jesus to Joseph. It goes on to describe the birth of Jesus, saying that He was conceived by the Holy Spirit and that His mother was a virgin, and so He was not Joseph’s son. But the genealogy clearly states that Jesus was the son of Joseph. Because it was meant to be Jesus’ genealogy, the Gospel lists forty-two generations. When it goes to the generation of Joseph, it hurriedly adds that Joseph was Mary’s husband in order to establish Jesus’ descent from Abraham. Isn’t this a contradiction? The genealogy, with a list of Joseph’s ancestors, is clearly Joseph’s, but Matthew insists that it is Jesus’; doesn’t that therefore deny the fact of Jesus’ conception by the Holy Spirit? So, isn’t the genealogy written by Matthew from human mind? It is even something ridiculous! From this it is obvious that the book was not at all wholly from the Holy Spirit” (“Concerning the Bible (3)” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). From God’s words, we know that the genealogy written by Matthew wasn’t something of God’s will. How can God have a genealogy? Matthew knew that Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit but still wrote a genealogy for Him, saying that He was the offspring of David and the son of Joseph. Wasn’t he denying that Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit? Jesus had nothing to do with Joseph. Matthew’s words are contradictory. Obviously, writing this genealogy is not from the Holy Spirit but from man’s will. Let’s have a look at John 8:58, “Jesus said to them, Truly, truly, I say to you, Before Abraham was, I am.” How can we explain this? Here we see that Jesus’ genealogy is from man’s will. It was written by Matthew after 50 A.D. The Holy Spirit didn’t directly instruct Matthew to write it.
The Gospel goes on to say that Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born to a virgin; in other words, Jesus was not Joseph’s son and was not descended from Abraham and David. But the record in the genealogy forcedly relates Jesus to Joseph. It goes on to describe the birth of Jesus, saying that He was conceived by the Holy Spirit and that His mother was a virgin, and so He was not Joseph’s son. But the genealogy clearly states that Jesus was the son of Joseph. Because it was meant to be Jesus’ genealogy, the Gospel lists forty-two generations. When it goes to the generation of Joseph, it hurriedly adds that Joseph was Mary’s husband in order to establish Jesus’ descent from Abraham. Isn’t this a contradiction? The genealogy, with a list of Joseph’s ancestors, is clearly Joseph’s, but Matthew insists that it is Jesus’; doesn’t that therefore deny the fact of Jesus’ conception by the Holy Spirit? So, isn’t the genealogy written by Matthew from human mind? It is even something ridiculous! From this it is obvious that the book was not at all wholly from the Holy Spirit” (“Concerning the Bible (3)” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). From God’s words, we know that the genealogy written by Matthew wasn’t something of God’s will. How can God have a genealogy? Matthew knew that Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit but still wrote a genealogy for Him, saying that He was the offspring of David and the son of Joseph. Wasn’t he denying that Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit? Jesus had nothing to do with Joseph. Matthew’s words are contradictory. Obviously, writing this genealogy is not from the Holy Spirit but from man’s will. Let’s have a look at John 8:58, “Jesus said to them, Truly, truly, I say to you, Before Abraham was, I am.” How can we explain this? Here we see that Jesus’ genealogy is from man’s will. It was written by Matthew after 50 A.D. The Holy Spirit didn’t directly instruct Matthew to write it.
Another passage of God’s word also talks about this. Almighty God says, “If the Four Gospels all came from the Holy Spirit, then why was it that Matthew, Mark, Luke and John each said something different about the work of Jesus? If you don’t believe this, then look at the accounts in the Bible of how Peter denied Jesus three times: they are all different, and they each have their own characteristics. … Carefully read the Four Gospels; read what they recorded about the things that Jesus did, and the words He spoke. Each account was, quite simply, different, and each had its own perspective. If what was written by the authors of these books all came from the Holy Spirit, then it should all be the same and consistent. Why then are there discrepancies? Is man not extremely foolish, to be unable to see this? … After … Matthew had heard the words of Jesus, and seen the work of Jesus, they spoke of their own knowledge, in the manner of reminiscences detailing some of the facts done by Jesus. Can you say that their knowledge was completely revealed by the Holy Spirit?” (“Concerning Appellations and Identity” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). We can see from the Gospels the records concerning Peter’s denying the Lord three times are different. Matthew 26:75 says, “Before the cock crow, you shall deny me thrice. …” But Mark 14:72 says, “Before the cock crow twice, you shall deny me thrice. …” The matter they recorded is the same but the time is different. If they were completely from the revelation of the Holy Spirit, there would be no mistake. The fact proves that they’re from man’s record but not the revelation of the Holy Spirit.
Through Almighty God’s words, we see that the Four Gospels are man’s records but not the revelation of the Holy Spirit. So there’re mistakes. If they were God’s words, they should be completely correct. Just as Luke says, “Most excellent Theophilus, for as much as many have taken in hand to set forth in order a declaration of those things which are most surely believed among us, Even as they delivered them to us, which from the beginning were eyewitnesses, and ministers of the word” (Luke 1:1). So, the Four Gospels were written according to what the authors saw and heard or what they investigated after they heard the preaching. They weren’t directly inspired by God. As books of history were written according to man’s memory and others’ preaching, there’re unavoidably mistakes and mixture of man’s will in them. Since the Bible isn’t all inspired by God or all God’s words, then who is the true author of the Bible? Let’s see what Almighty God’s words say, “In truth, the Bible is only a record written by man, was not named by Jehovah Himself or produced under His direction; that is to say, the Bible’s author is not God, but man. It is called the Holy Bible, which is only a respectful title man gives to it. Jesus and Jehovah did not confer with each other and then decide to call it that; the idea came just from man. For it was not written by Jehovah, much less by Jesus, but rather by many prophets of old, apostles, and foretellers, whose writings were compiled by later generations into a book; it was an ancient book that was seen as very holy, and as containing many unfathomable and profound mysteries to be unraveled by generations to come” (“Concerning the Bible (4)” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). Almighty God’s words clearly tell us that the author of the Bible is man, not God. There’re unavoidably some mixtures of man’s will and mistakes in man’s record. Today, if Almighty God didn’t come and disclose the mystery concerning the Bible to us, we would never understand.
from the movie script of Disclose the Mystery About the Bible
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