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Um...not exactly.  The Communist government of China may have simplified lines (and dropped some pieces) in 1949, but the basic characters have been in use for over 2,000 years.  (And in numerous Asian countries, not just China.)  Not the time of the Flood or Babel, but not exactly "modern" either.  And the standard Chinese still evolved out of the older characters and their meanings.  I couldn't find the exact words referenced earlier, but here's a nice chart showing the evolution of generic words and you can see some of the same shapes/components in words millennia old.

Sorry for being a little late to the party that is my own thread.  Thank you very much for coming in and joining us.

I must disagree with the bulk of your first (and subsequent) posts.  Also, we must have learned about a COMPLETELY different God and Bible.  As I understand the orthodox Christian view of the Bible - that it is THE literal, inerrant, UNCHANGING word of God, from the first letter of Genesis to the last period of the New Testament.  

I could not profess more awe at your example that it is Paul and NOT God commanding that women be silent in church.  Are you saying the only parts of the Bible we should take as literal, inerrant and unchanging are the actual words spoken by Jesus during his time on Earth?  I thought God spoke THROUGH the authors of the Bible - and that every word of the Bible are HIS words, NOT the words of sinful, error-prone humans.

Also, in explaining "Paul's command" that women be silent in church and defer to their husbands with all questions, you didn't really address my main point, you just restated the reasons (e.g., context, to quell disruptions, etc.) that I gave as excuses people employ to explain away Biblical passages that don't pass muster with modern sensibilities. 

It seems to me a person either buys it lock, stock, and barrel, or they are just another cafeteria Christian.

Marc

A few years back, I went to an old palace in China with some Chinese friends. Dating back from the 17th century, it was still in fantastic condition. I asked them to translate what was carved into the rocks and on the old scrolls and they had great difficulty doing so. I asked them why, given that one of the reasons people in China give for still using a pictograph language is to be able to connect to the past, and they said that the writing had changed so much, they were unable to read it. This was writing from only 300-400 years ago. If one line on a Chinese character is off by a small amount, it can be very difficult to read. Even though the ancient characters have morphed into the modern ones, it doesn't mean they are readable by anyone but scholars.

I have also asked about the shapes and figures in writing and it is true that the earliest words were formed this way but nobody alive now (again, other than scholars) know the origins of more than a few of the modern characters. They don't think of them like that.

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Koroush, I see evidence of God everywhere--in nature, in history, in language, in my daily life.  I can't get through a day without God proving Himself to me.  To me, evidence of His existence and love is everywhere--there's so much of it, it just spills over into things like the Chinese written language.  I presented that as just a fun "Hey!  Look at that!  Isn't that cool?" example.

God spoke to the Israelites at Mt. Sinai, and the power of it horrified them.  So, He switched to speaking through the prophets, and the people killed them.  He then came in human form ("He" being the Son/Word part of the Trinity), born humbly as Jesus ("The Image of the Invisible God"), speaking words of love and performing acts of healing--and they were still horrified and killed Him.

The seeing-Him-clearly time you wish for is promised for the future in Revelation 21:3-4--

And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Look!  God's dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them.  They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.  He will wipe every tear from their eyes.  There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away."

Why is that just for then and not for now?  Who can say for sure?  I see this world/this time as a middle ground--it's not Heaven and it's not Hell, though we experience a little bit of both.  Good things can happen to bad people here and bad things can happen to good people.  Seems unfair to the good people, but it is certainly a time of mercy for bad people--a time when they can turn.  (And, really, we're all bad people, in different degrees.)  Now, there can be bravery and self-sacrifice--not so in a perfect world.  Now is a time for Faith, which is a beautiful thing.  Then will be a time of Knowing, and that will be beautiful too.

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Marc, don't get me wrong--that IS what I believe.  But it takes nothing away from the inerrancy of the Bible to look at the context.  I take the Bible so literally that I look at every word.  It DOES depend on who is speaking and who is being spoken to.  For instance, Jesus told the rich, young ruler to leave everything behind and follow Him; but to the man of the tombs whom he healed (exorcised), He told him to go home.  "Leave your life" to the one who had everything, but "Go back to your life" to the one who had nothing.  An obvious, if extreme, example is that promises are given to the Devil that I don't want.

To the Israelites, God said "Do not commit adultery."  To His followers, Jesus said "If you lust in your heart, you've already committed adultery."  Those are not contradictory, it's just that God revealed more later, to a people more ready to hear it.  Likewise, to "the descendants of Jacob," God said to tithe 10%; to the Christian believer, He says to give all (but with more freedom in how to do it)--or at least "the man with two cloaks should give one to the man with none."  To the Jew, He gave the Sabbath; to the Christian, every day was to be kept holy ("The believers met in each others' houses every day").  To Adam, He gave only one prohibition; to the Jews, He gave Ten Commandments (and about 300 related laws); to the Christ-follower, even thoughts can be sins, but we are forgiven without the periodic animal sacrifice, because we are "In Christ" who paid all penalty on the Cross.  There is a progression there (as mankind and believers matured) but not contradictions.

God is unchanging and the Word of God is unchanging.  But God chose to give us His Word over a 2,000-year period.