Your talk was interesting but I have a few questions...

What do you say about Bart Ehram's comment in his book "Misquoting Jesus" where he states that there are as many variants as there are words in the New Testatment i.e. New Testament variants = number of words in the New Testament; and therefore it is difficult to accept that the scriptures have not been tampered with, both intentionally and unintentionally.

If this is what God wanted for us as the rule book and as the standard for living then why did he not preserve the originals - the new testament is made up of copies of copies of copies of differing manuscripts.

There were many thousands of books and letters written during the early church age - isn't it possible that many of these were left out or not found when the new testament was compiled. Therefore is it not possible that some real and/or controversial writings were left out because they did not match or align with the beliefs of the people compiling them

If this is God's word, then how could he allow even a single questionable thing to be included in it - he did not compile it, people did e.g. the 12 last verses of Mark, errors in geneaology in the gospel, trinity/divinity related word differences in the various manuscripts etc. With the variance in stories, words etc. we still take the scriptures lierally, even to the extent of dwelling on a single word and making a doctrine out of it - check out the contemporary interpretations aka "revelations" of this on christian tv channels for examples.

Could you comment about the fact that for the last many years there is a whole lot of intellectual debate about the various world religions, Christianity and the Bible but when it comes to the demonstration of the power of God, we only find a whole lot of excuses e.g. you are not healed because of sin, or unbelief or it is not God's timing or it is part of God's plan - just accept it etc.

The Bible says, that those that are in Christ are a new creation - old things are passed away and behold everything is new. Yet when we are born again, it is easy for us to accept that our sins are washed away and we are clean (because no human can veriy that for a fact) but we see that the person remains the same with the same habits, characteristics, faults etc. So where is the new creation - here again we answer with excuses that we continue to remain the same with some intellectual redefinitions and rationalization of the word "new creation". If Jesus cannot make us new in small things that we can see and experience then how can we believe in the big things that we cannot verify i.e. heaven or hell after death, salvation etc.

I have been a Christian for over 20 years but am a bit tired of living just on faith and believing it is real without seeing the real evidence of the supernatural parts of the scriptures that demonstrate the difference between just another religion that teaches the morally good things and one that shows the real power that is difficult or imposible for a man made religion to imitate/duplicate.

Intellectual satisfaction lasts for a short while and is useless - Jesus came to give life but so far the evidence that differentiates it from other religions is not seen at all. Christians seem to be "practicing" healing or prophecy or words of knowledge - this is required for "human effort" based things like sports, work etc, not for things that God would do - even through a sinful, human being - because he did that during the time of Jesus. Why don't we see what he did 2000 years ago, today. It is easy to talk and that is what all the TV channels are all about - no action. no real evidence.

I'm not trying to find fault but am seeking for the truth - not intellectually - not just in word but as a real, tangible experience of God's power as taught and demonstrated in the scriptures. I am fed up of living a sub-standard christian life where every body is ok with being called a christian, going to church, being stressed out, sick in body and not seeing the power of God to overcome all he did and said we would.

Somebody said this - man can say a thousand words and there will only be debates, arguments and ill feelings - one act of God and there is life.

I apologize for the length of this post. I would appreciate your thoughts on this.

Thanks

-Steve