The Old Testament is a combination of historical accounts of the deeds of the children of Israel and the writings of the prophets. In so far as the writings of the prophets are concerned, the writings are definitely inspired by God since He sent these prophets to the people of Israel so that they might follow His Laws.

So these writings were inspired by God! The same can be said of the writings of the Apostles in the New Testament. Having said that, being inspired by God does not mean written by God. This is a difference which absolutely must be taken into consideration. Just because someone was sent by God and inspired by Him does not mean that the writings of such an individual was at the same time directly written by the Hand of God.

Only a writing that is written by Jesus Himself or another Divine Envoy like Him can be absolutely said to be written directly by the Hand of God. Now since Jesus the Son of God did not write anything down Himself and since the prophets of the Old Testament were nothing but human beings themselves, then it must be averred that all the writings of the Bible could be considered only as God-inspired but not directly written by the Hand of God. 

Only that which is directly written by God’s Hand can be said to be free of errors and to be absolutely true in every way. All the other works are prone to all the errors that human beings are prone: poor memory and forgetfulness, lack of understanding and so on and so forth. This is not to say that these works are not of value; on the contrary they are of great value but with the caveat that sometimes the works were written down decades after the passing away of the original truth-bringer, as for example, the teaching of Jesus.

His Words were written down often by those who were not direct witnesses. Even those who were witnesses often failed to understand His Words. So in this particular case, lack of understanding was often made worse by poor memory. It must be realised that the Holy Spirit that descended on the Apostles did not at the same time repair their deficient memories.

Only Divinity is Perfect and as such a Work or Writing that proceeds from Divinity’s Hand would be perfect and all-embracing, devoid of any form of errors. Therefore no religious teaching of today can claim the absolute right to an unadulterated Message from God since none of the teachings have been written by God’s Hand Himself but only through His Messengers who as described above were human beings and as such prone to all the errors that we human beings are prone.

Having said this it must be noted that the fault for the errors in various religions do not at all actually stem from the prophets but often from those who came after them in the way they have interpreted the words of the truth-bringer. In the case of Jesus the Apostles who wrote some of the Gospels have merely written things down according to their lack of understanding and as such passed things down to posterity which were not the intentions of Jesus. These errors could have been easily recognised, however, if mankind paid more attention to these things and they would have have been corrected centuries ago.

A difference must indeed be made here between the writing of the Gospels and the works of great prophets like Mohammed, Buddha, Zoroaster, Lao-Tse, Krishna, etc. These great prophets fulfilled their missions but those who came after them did a great disservice in the way their words have been interpreted. As for the Gospels as mentioned before, a combination of poor memory and lack of understanding led to the errors. As a result it is doubtful if any of these teachings explain all that needs to be explained in human existence satisfactorily.

The works of the above mentioned great prophets certainly satisfied the prevailing level of maturity of the peoples they were sent to at that time but at the present time it is doubtful if they have been fully preserved and in any case at the present time needs to be completed by more revelations. 

It is therefore up to the individual to keep seeking, to find the Work that explains everything so that he has no more questions left. A Work which gives all the answers to questions of human existence without resorting to blind faith. Only that Truth will set us free.