Fact: Bible cannot be compared to by others

Often people try to compare their "books of faith" to the Bible. This cannot be done; it is a physical impossibility. Why? Because the Bible is not one book written in one sitting. In fact it is a collection of writings that have been written in sequence over a period of thousands of years. It is like a book that was started over four thousand years ago, with the writing of the first chapters, and then chapters are added every few hundred years. The Bible is not simply spiritual teachings, but also a very accurate historical record. Each "book" of the Bible (chapter analogy) was written by someone who imparted spiritual direction while at the same time participating in and recording real historical events. Further, each book author that had an encounter with God was speaking to the very same God over that period of thousands of years. So no one can compare a book of faith that was written during one point in time and expounds someone's spiritual beliefs or theories with the Bible.

Here is a quick outline so you can get a feeling for how the Bible developed:

1900 - 1250 BC During this time the historic events documented in the first books of the Bible took place. The actual books themselves were written by Moses in the 1290-1250 period. It contains information that God revealed to Moses (such as the creation of the earth), Abraham and the early Patriarchs of Israel, and then the events that Moses lived during and therefore directly witnessed to, starting with the Exodus from Egypt.

1250-1020 During this time the history of early Israel's founding continues in what are called the Historical Books, Chronicles, and Apocrypha Books. These books lay down the system for selecting the holy (consecrated) Kings of Israel and relate the events such as the reign of King David.

1020-100 BC Books continue to be written by men who were sages (wise men), Prophets (men who spoke to God), and chroniclers (who recorded events such as the exile to Babylon of the Israelites). The latest book was written just one or two hundred years before Christ was born.

The above books are what Christians call the "Old Testament." After Jesus was born, lived, was put to death, and resurrected to heaven, his Apostles and disciples wrote the New Testament books of the Christian Bible, which, like the Old Testament, document both the spiritual beliefs and teachings and the historical events. These books were written between 40-100 AD. The books were written both by Apostles who were direct companions of Jesus (St. Peter, St. John), the disciples of the Apostles ("second generation") and also St. Paul, who did not know Jesus while he was alive but encountered face to face the resurrected Jesus Christ.

The New Testament heavily quotes the Old Testament books and the two are completely intertwined, as the New Testament events are fulfillment of events predicted in the Old Testament. Throughout the Bible, Old and New, the exact same God that spoke to Moses is the God who Jesus Christ calls "the Father." St. John the Baptist hears the voice of God when he baptises Jesus. So the Bible is totally unique in that it is consistent, steady, unwavering prophecy and witness of events about the same one true God written over a period of over two thousand years, one "chapter" (book) at a time.

So someone who references a book of faith that was written by one individual or group at one period of time cannot in any honesty compare themselves to the Bible even in a sense of infrastructure, say nothing of the actual content, which I am not commenting on regarding their validity.

The Qur'an is also entirely unique because while it was given "all at once" to "one man" the Prophet (PBUH), it references throughout the events and teachings chronicled in the early books of the Old Testament (Abraham to Moses, for example) AND events and teachings from the life of Jesus. Therefore other books, especially cult "revelations" cannot compare themselves to the Qur'an either, since while the Qur'an was revealed to one man, the revelation included the reteaching of what was already presented in the earliest books of the Bible and also the events in the New Testament regarding the birth and teachings of Jesus.

So when some cultist compares his or her book to the Bible or the Qur'an you can *roll your eyes* at how ignorant they are of the structure and timeframe of the Bible and the Qur'an. It's just more proof that they do not have a clue what is really going on and what they are talking about. The Bible is a constancy of real historical events and dialogue with the one Lord God conducted over thousands of years. While people are entitled to their beliefs, they have no intellectual right to compare their book to the Bible or the Qur'an, for the reasons I demonstrate above. An entire society of people lived out their relationship with God over thousands of years and this is what the Bible records AS IT HAPPENED. The Bible is not a "theory" or a "revelation," it is a chronicle of historic events and dialogue with God that transpired and took place over thousands of years with total consistency and numerous witnesses of actual events.

I hope this helps.

(On a lighter note, I just thought of a geek analogy. Imagine that the Bible is like the total documentation for the most complex system that you have to maintain, and that it was written by all the folks on the development, technical support, and QA teams. So it's like a hundred geeks have written and reviewed this total complete documentation for this system. Then some guy, a competitor, comes along with a sheet of paper and he tells you that it contains all the information you need about this system, even though he never looked at the system, but he had a "revelation" about how the system "prolly works." He then tells you his doc is just as good as yours, or even better, even though no actual developer or user of the system actually wrote any part of his "docs." Duh! If the single sheet doc makes this guy happy that's cool, but he has no right to tell you that his imaginary sheet can be compared to your complete set of tech specs and docs. Hope this helps.)