@The Submitter,
Sword of God, plenty of Christians I know ask those questions. Then again, the Christians I talk to tend to be Jesuit priests.
Let's begin, shall we? I can't anwer some of them, but I can answer a lot of them.
1.) "Who actually wrote it? "
A lot of people. Most of whose names are lost, of course. But generally, many people, over many centuries, contributed. Many of the portions were originally orally transmitted, other parts were historical documents, sometimes potentially from court historians, and a lot of it was edited in Babylon. But there's no single person.
Doesn't take away the inspiration from God, however. But God certainly didn't dictate!
2.) "What was the original language of the Bible?(Hebrew? Aramaic? Koine Greek?)
NOTE:- The Bible was never in English during the time of any prophet (not even Muhammad)- because English did not exist until after 1066 AD! "
Multiple languages, and multiple forms of languages. Ancient Hebrew, Aramaic, sometimes Greek. What we have now are translations of translations of translations most of the time. We certainly don't have the original documents, though perhaps some in their original language.
3.) "Does the Bible exist in the original form anywhere on earth?(No)"
We dont' have an original copy of ANY of the books of the Bible. (Which were, of course, put together later.)
4.) "Why does the Catholic Bible has seven (7) more books than the Protestant Bible? "
This one takes a little history, which I may get wrong:
There were multiple forms of the Old Testament, that is, multiple different translations and compilations. The Septuagint, made in Alexandria, which included those extra seven books known as the Apocrypha, was eventually the form used by the Church after it formalized the books that were to be canon during the Council of Niceaea. (sp?) The Septuagint was the main source used in creating the Vulgate, the Latin translation used by the Church for a long time.
Anyway, however, the seven books were not considered canon by the Jews, and in fact, due to differing reasons, could be considered not inspired.
When the Protestant Reformation occured, the Apocrypha, as those seven books were called, were considered by the newly minted Protestants as not in the same league as the rest of the Bible, and were at first put into a separate section, before being omitted entirely.
5.) "Why do these two Bibles have different versions of the same books?"
I'm not sure about which books you refer to, but if I remember correctly, some books had things added which could be considered apocryphal, and those things were changed at the same time the Apocrypha were taken out of the Protestant Bible. (less certain of this one, honestly.)
6.) "Why are there so many mistakes and errors are from the very first verse right up to the very last verse?"
Depends entirely on which mistakes you mean. If you mean contradictions between and within books, that's easily explained by the fact that many of the books, such as Genesis, were compilations of many different stories, including variations on the same story, etc. Between books it's even easier, as, well, they were written at different times, by different people with different outlooks and differing sets of facts to work with.
If you mean more minute errors, it depends entirely on the errors, your statement is a little too vague for me to comment on effectively. But errors aren't a big surprise, due to the age of the texts, and the nature of their compilation.
7.) "Why do 'Born Again Christians' teach concepts that are not from the Bible?"
Not a Born Again Christian, and so am not comfortable talkign about beliefs I could be wrong about. However, every form of Christianity has things that are not directly IN the Bible. Such as...
8.) "There is no word "Trinity" in the Bible in any version of any language "
... the Trinity. There was a huge debate in early Christianity about what Jesus actually was, and his relation to God. A lot of groups would be considered heretical now, and there was a lot of conflict. The beliefs which seemed most popular, and became standard after much discussion, debate and soul-searching, was the Trinity, that God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit were all both separate individuals AND the same. This, of course, was decided upoin, among many other reasons, to deal with the problem of whether or not Jesus WAS God made Flesh, or just some Son of God, or what? It was not an easy time, but the final decision has stuck, and I, at least, accept it.
9.) "The oldest forms of Christianity do not support the 'born again' beliefs "
Again, unable to talk much about born again beliefs. Really, I haven't studied their beliefs well enough to be comfortable discussing them in relation to early Christians. Also, WHICH early Christians do you mean? There was a lot of variety in early beliefs.
10.) "Jesus of the English Bible complains about the 'crucifixion'("Eli! Eli! Lama sabachthani?- My God! My God! Why have You forsaken me?")[Mk 15:34] "
Actually, it's probable Jesus was quoting one of the psalms Mark's Gospel. I forget which one off the top of my head, and I don't have my Bible with me at the moment, so I can't be more specific.
11.) "How can Jesus be the "Only Begotten Son" of John 3:16? When in Psalms 2:7 David is God's "Begotten Son?" "
First, the psalms were poems, and they were not even in the same genre, or going for the same kind of meaning as the Gospels. Second, those psalms were not made by Christians, but by Jews, long before Christ's coming. Third, beliefs and understandings changed over time. Besides, it was freaking poetry from centuries earlier.
12.) "Would a 'Just' God, a 'Fair' God, a 'Loving' God -- punish Jesus for the sins of the people that he called to follow him? "
Depends. This is now philosophy and theology, not Bible studies, so its harder for me to say. A person's conclusion to this depends on their point of view, definition of just, fair, and loving, and also what they think of the philosophy that goes into the belief. Namely, that the Covenant God had made with Israel had essentially been broken, that God didn't want humanity to be punished anymore, so he created a new covenant, etc etc etc. A lot of different thoughts go into it. But a person's view depends on what they believe about it. It's not simple at all.
13.) "What happens to people who died before Jesus came? "
The Bible was never quite clear on that, or maybe it was and I missed the part where it mentioned that.
Presumably, if Christ did open the gates of Hell, the righteous dead would be allowed then to assume to heaven. But it depends entirely on your theological beliefs. I don't think it's made clear in the Bible, and thus the answer varies between people. No one alive was there to see it happen, after all.
14.) "What happens to those who never hear this message? "
Depends on what God wants to happen to those people, I suppose. I dunno. IT's not really made clear, so see above as to "the answer varies."
15.) "What about innocent children who die although their parents are not Christian? "
See above. The answer varies.
16.) "Didn't God create Adam from dirt?-- So, why does he need Mary to make Jesus? "
Well, because he felt like it, obviously. It served a different purpose.
17-21.) And what about God? ---> Yeah?
How can God create Himself? ---> Who knows?
How can God be a man? ---> If God's omnipotent, why can't he?
How can a man be a God? ---> see above.
How can God have a son? ---> see above, redux.
22.) "The Bible says "Seth (is) the son of Adam" and that"Adam is the son of God."[Lk 3:36] "
I don't have my Bible with me, but I'd have to look that up. It depends entirely on what Luke was meaning in that statement. And Son of God is a phrase that has more than one meaning, so you can't assume it all referrs to the same idea, necessarily.
23.) "Can't God just forgive us and not have to kill Jesus?"
Perhaps. What of it? If the New Testament is anything to go by, that's just the way He wanted to do it. Is there a problem with God having a sense for good drama?
24 and 25.) "Jesus did not even carry the cross -- Simon Cyre'ne, a passerby did![Mk 15:21]
Jesus of the Bible was NOT on the cross for longer than six (6) hours -- NOT three days --(from the 3rd to the 9th hour)[Mk 15:25 & 15:33] "
Okay, these are technical points I have to look up. I'll get back to you on those. Still, how do these technical points change anything? Why do they matter, precisely?
26.) J"esus of the Bible did not spend three days and nights in the tomb -- Friday night - until Sunday before dawn -- is not 3 days and nights! "
Well. Depends on your definition of day, as the Jewish definition was slightly different, and anyway, it doesn't matter too much anyway, it's just one of those cool dramatic thingies.
27.) "Jesus DID NOT claim to be God - or even equal to God!"
Depends on the Gospel you're reading. But it's probable that he himself didn't, in all history. Doesn't mean He wasn't, though.
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