What do you say to those trying to justify sin by making the blanket statement that men had to have changed the bible over time?-)

?

Let them provide some evidence that it has been changed. And not some link to an atheist forum.

Rev 22:18-19 For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.

They have been adding and taking away from the Bible for a long time.... They are the ones will have to pay the cost.

Joshua 24:15 ...As for me and my house, We will serve The Lord.

Basically if we don't have the Bible we have nothing.

Not even the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit?
Without that, we have nothing.

What do you say to those trying to justify sin by making the blanket statement that men had to have changed the bible over time?

Click to expand...

What you say is "You are full of hot air".

Anyone who justifies sin, either without or with the Bible in his hand, is either gone astray or lost.

I would turn their comment back on them and say "Not true as they did not have to as no one was forcing them to. If they did, it does not make any difference because a full exegesis of sin shows quite clearly that a perenial theme in scripture is that all have sinned and come short of God's standard so we ALL need to confess our sin and receive the salvation that God offers through Jesus Christ.

Only a person who does not want or cannot face the truth will try and brush off the reality of sin, the same as some people say God does not exist and the reason they say that is because they do not want him to exist because if he does, it has consequences they want to avoid.

God gives the Holy Spirit to those who believe. What would you believe with out the scriptures?

The same things they believed before the Scriptures were written?

I didn't get saved reading the Bible, I got saved hearing the Gospel presented to me.

You're assuming that the gospel would have made it to you, Over the 2000 years and however many miles, having never been written down, and translated into every language of earth, and delivered to every location of the earth. Therefore it weren't necessary to preserve the scriptures, and translate them, and copy them, and transport them all over the globe in order for Christianity to proliferate.

Not every Bible version/translation is created equally. Some versions are either partly or mostly corrupted from the original texts.

There are high quality english translations that match the earliest known texts of the Bible.

So there isn't a good reason to not trust the authenticity of the correct version(s) of the Bible.

The first questioning of the authority of God's word was by the serpent in the garden of Eden, and it began with "Yea, hath God said...?"

And so it continues.

Those who are blinded by Satan will always question the authority of God's word, just like their spiritual father did many, many years ago.

I've actually told some people who have questioned the authority of God's word just what I finished stating here. That's one approach, but it won't win you too many invitations to parties unless you're what's on the menu.

We could also, with Romans chapter 2 in mind, appeal to the God-given consciences of people even if they don't believe that the Bible is the word of God:

Romans chapter 2

[12] For as many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law: and as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law;
[13] (For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified.
[14] For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves:
[15] Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another)
[16] In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel.

After explaining to people that God has given them a conscience, and that the word "conscience" literally means "with (con-) knowledge (science)", I have sometimes coupled this with the reminder that we're all going to die one day. I then explain to them that their own consciences have convicted them of sin, and that the wages of sin is death, and then attempt to bring the gospel into play. When reminded of the reality of their own mortality, some people will listen. Others, unfortunately, will not.

My normal approach, however, is to just preach the gospel to them anyway, whether or not they believe that the Bible is true. The word of God is "the sword of the Spirit" (Eph. 6:17), whether or not people believe it to be so, and it will still "pierce even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and be a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart" (Heb. 4:12) even if people claim not to believe in it. I've known MANY unbelievers whom I've spoken the word of God to, and the "sword" that I stuck in them years ago is still stuck inside of them today. I've literally had people comment on things that I told them 20 years earlier as if I had just told them 5 minutes ago. God's word is effective...even in unbelievers.

If someone is a little more open to God's word, but is simply unsure of its authenticity, then I usually go the route of sharing Biblical prophecy and its fulfillment with them. Lately, that has been my primary method of trying to reach unbelievers because, even if they're not willing to admit it, a lot of people are scared by what they see transpiring in this world, and they're looking for some sort of hope for the future.

By the way, I love your username.

The Pharisees changed scripture, giving their interpretation of scripture as scripture. Today's church has changed scripture: One person saying God cancelled the law and another saying God did not cancel His law. One speaks for saved persons to have a will not to sin, another saying that all work is not for the Lord, but work is only trying to be justified by that work. All these people say they are led by the Holy Spirit, yet we know the Holy Spirit never disagrees with God, and Christians are disagreeing for both sides can't be truth.

I agree with that totally. Which I why the scripture is so important, so we can go to the written word. Man gets stuff in his head and calls it the Holy Spirit when it's not.

The word is the third witness

It is interesting that recently i have come upon a couole of people wrestling with wrongs committed against them by men and children making woke choices with some church background but not real word study based background, other than to find people who tell them what they want to hear. So they think they are christians, maybe they are? But their actions as otherwise and this hatred of men and so why the word can’t be trusted? So sad.

Actually God gives the ability to believe so that no man may boast of his own doing in this matter.