No.
Updating to modern language is one thing. Lying is another. Did you read the articles on NPR? Did you understand the very clever half-truths in them...clever enough to take in most people today. Something is either true or false. The best lies have some truth scattered throughout. Unless a person knows the truth, it's very easy to believe the lies. Why do you think so many in this country have a negative attitude toward Christianity? It's due to lack of knowledge, partial truth, and outright lies.
I read one of the articles....not both.
Why do I think so many in this country have a negative attitude toward Christianity? Because they can. It's allowed. Whether you like it or not....it is allowed. I'm a Catholic living in the Southern Baptist Bible Belt. Want to know how many times a righteous Christian has called me a heathen? or told me I'm not a Christian because I'm a Catholic?
In the beginning, the first books were given to Moses. Anyone who doubts this can read Genesis 1, no human would make up a story that implausible and try to pass it off as history...especially one raised to worship the sun as a god. Like a human would imagine that LIGHT came before the light source. After that, history was added, prophesy was added...but "stories" were NOT added.
Ok...I used the wrong word using "stories"....history and prophesy are better choices. Still the Word was passed from one generation to another....hundreds of years before it was ever written down in what was to become The Bible. Do you really believe there was never any interpretation of a particular situation or retelling of the circumstances? This history was verbally related by human beings....you cannot truly believe that there was never any interpretation done by the storyteller.
I can absolutely say that the books I referenced on NPR are largely untrue, without any doubt at all. I can also say that the books written by CS Lewis are largely true, again without doubt. I can say this because I took the time to study the TRUTH before I looked for lies.
Just for the record....there are 8 versions of the Bible. And thousands of translations into English.
I grew up with the King James Version, which is considered The Holy Bible, in the Episcopal Church.
The Roman Catholic Church uses the Latin Vugate, which is considered to be the most accurate version of The Scriptures.
While all 8 versions are similar, they are not identical.
Does that make one better than the other?
Is
version synomous with
opinion or
fact or
interpretation?
Is your TRUTH the same as every Christians? or is your TRUTH what you have learned based on how you interpreted the version?
I'm not trying to be difficult.
I'm just attempting to tell you that what you see as the TRUTH and nothing but, is not necessarily the same view that someone else may have.
Part of what makes each of us an individual...is that we each go through life
as an individual....with different experiences that shape us and our way of thinking, viewing the world and all parts of it.
No two people walk the exact same path in this world. While we may have situations that are eerily similar, they are not exact.
Religion is different for each individual. Just as each individual has a personal relationship with God that is not the same as another's. You and your very closest person, may have the same views regarding God and your church, religion, etc. But each of you will have a different relationship with God...simply because of your individuality.
I can tell you that I have had 2 very up close and personal encounters with God. I
know that He exists because he
spoke to me. Can I tell you what He looked like? Nope. But I can tell you what I felt when He held me. Was there a "white light" that some people have seen? Nope. But there was such a presence, that there was nothing else there but me and Him and my hospital bed. Was it drugs and hallucination? Maybe some people think so....but it doesn't matter ....because
I know. It's all about faith. And how each individual wishes to believe in it and practice that faith.....and most importantly it is between the individual person and God what is TRUE, A LIE, AN INTERPRETATION, AN OPINION.