User talk:SouthWriter/sandbox/An atheist's objections/@comment-1777104-20100811025346

Yank, the assertion that the stories of the Bible were written down starting "around 382 AD" is the most ridiculous thing I have ever seen.

The First Council of Constantinople, which brought the East and West Churches together for the second time since the Edict of Milan, was in 381. At this time, the established church leaders hammered out differences in the beliefs concerning the Holy Spirit, thus finalizing debate on the nature of the Trinity. At the same time, the teachings of Arias were finally condemned in their entirety. The Nicene Creed that we have today was edited into its final form at this time. The church became strong enough to actually BE the official religion of Rome.

The Scriptures that they had were copies of things written at the true infancy of the church, along with the ancient writings of the Old Testament. Most of the New Testament was quoted in the writings of church leaders in the second century AD, and most of the canon had been agreed on by the middle of the third century (c. 250 AD). Athanasius, famous at the Council of Nicea in 327, produced a list of accepted books that included every single New Testament book. These were copies of copies, but as stated elsewhere, these copies were careful enough to preserve the text in its entirety.

The point about the birthday of Jesus, though, is quite right. The date was tied to winter solstice in ancient calendars, and thus the birthday of many ancient Gods. In order to distract from the often raucous festivals around that day, the date was co-oped by the church. This began to be done a lot in the years following this pivotal time. This has nothing to do with corrupted texts, however. It has a lot to do with "innate human weakness," though. As the leadership departed further and further from the inerrant scriptures, they made more and more mistakes.

God did not "write" the Bible, but He was there when His people wrote it. And He superintended the work of these writers - notably Paul and John in the first century, for instance - so as to write down the truth. These men knew God, and God knew them. Why would what they wrote not be accurate?

I am not sure where you get your information, Yank, but I would appreciate it if you would at least do some fact checking before you spout off such trite "factoids." I don't like my blog being a platform for such inaccurate assertions.