Daniel 13

[milby]

A friend of mine who is Catholic,

although he doesnt know exactly what that means but his family is hard core Catholic and he was raised being taught that Baptists' are bad,

has recently been becoming interested in the bible. I have been trying to be a gentle witness to him without getting into debates. Anyway today he told me he read an interesting story in Daniel 13. Well I looked in my bible and of course it wasn't there. So while looking into why, I learned about the Apocrophyia.

I had no idea that Catholics added all this. Any advice on how to get him to see the truth. Remember he was taught that Catholics are the only way and Baptists' are bad.

 

[Van]

Rather than attack his efforts to find the truth, i.e tell him his Bible has uninspired additions, I would attempt to discuss what he found interesting and then point to scriptural references to similar circumstances. Jesus was falsely accused. Paul was falsely accused. Or talk about the applications that could be drawn from this (Daniel 13) and similar stories found in other accounts in scripture. Testing the "spirits" checking what people say against what scripture says, rightly dividing the word of truth, etc.

What I say next might hit too close to home, but we must cling to what we believe is the truth. Other stories presenting biblical principles have been added to the Bible, at least in the opinion of modern scholars. Thus John 7:53 - 8:11 are bracketed in modern translations because the account of the Adulterous Woman does not appear in the early and reliable manuscripts. So what we do is try to find where the same principle is taught in passages that are not under a cloud, and when we do we can say that this story illustrates this biblical principle because it is found and then cite from unchallenged passages.

In other words, teach rather than tear down.

God Bless.

 

[milby]

Very Good advice. Thank you very much. Sometimes we or at least I get caught up in proving other denominations wrong (catholicism) instead of just talking about what I know to be true.