DEALING WITH BIBLE “CONTRADICTIONS” (Part 1)

There are some people out there who would love to see the Bible discredited.  For some reason, they don’t want the Bible to be true.  Perhaps it’s because the Bible points out things in our lives that are wrong, and it exposes our weaknesses and sin.  But no one discredits a doctor if the doctor finds something wrong with him.  Actually, the patient would thank the good doctor for telling him the truth about his condition, so that it can be dealt with.  It should be the same with Scripture.  We should be thankful to God for His Word, which not only points to our many shortcomings, but it also gives us a way out of our sin problem.  But some say that they can’t trust the Bible because there are contradictions in it.  But is this really true? 

 

This will be the first in a series of articles addressing what some consider to be contradictions in the Word of God.  The Christian Bible is a large and multi-faceted book that was written by about forty different authors from different cultures over a period of about 1600 years.  It touches on many topics, yet it has an amazing consistency when studied.  We believe it is truly “God-breathed” (i.e., inspired by God), and it is extremely relevant to us today.  We also consider it to be the ultimate guide for the church (2 Timothy 3:16-17).

But what about these seeming contradictions within its pages.  Can they be explained?  We will now begin looking at these “contradictions” and attempt to clarify some of them, beginning with some that pertain to God’s nature and character.

SEEMING CONTRADICTION #1

Many people feel that there is a built-in contradiction between the existence of a merciful, all-powerful and all-knowing God, and the suffering found in this world.  If God really is aware of the horrible suffering in the world (especially among the innocent), then why doesn’t He do something about it?  Is He too weak to remedy the problem?  If so, then He must not be all-powerful, as the Bible portrays Him.  But if God really is all-powerful and He is also aware of all the evil and suffering here on earth, then why would He not wipe out all evil?  Does He enjoy seeing people suffering?  Of course not. 

 

But the question is, do we REALLY want God to wipe out all evil and its causes?  Remember, each and every one of us have caused suffering of one kind or another for someone else in our lifetime, in some way.  So, according to this logic (since we have been a cause of evil), God would have to destroy each and every one of us in order to “fix” this problem.  But rest assured, He has a better way.  Earthly suffering may not be pleasant, but it is temporary.  God is certainly aware of those who suffer, but He is not uncaring or unconcerned about it.  In fact, He is always working “behind the scenes,” doing things we cannot see, and touching the hearts of people we may not even know.  For those who trust Him, He is able to make all things work together for good (Romans 8:28), even “senseless suffering.”

This is certainly a tough topic, especially for the ones going through the actual suffering.  We can sympathize with these people.  It’s not a sin to humbly ask, “Why, God?”  But those who angrily shake their fist at God, demanding an answer, will be silenced and shamed when He reveals the work He was secretly doing all along.  Then with extreme embarrassment, they will whimper, “Oh, I didn’t know that…”  We need to always be careful how we approach the Living God.

It is much like Job, who questioned God’s fairness about his suffering and was greatly humbled (Job chapters 38-41).  Here is the answer to man’s suffering on earth.  God is sovereign AND merciful.  He will cause things to happen in each life according to HIS will.  But it will be fair and in everybody’s best interest.  So, let’s trust Him and let Him do His work.  For those who trust Him, it will end well.  That’s a promise (Job 13:15; 42:10-17; Psalm 9:10; Matthew 25:21; John 11:25; Romans 8:28).

See this link:

http://theresurrectionstillspeaks.blogspot.com/2015/10/do-suffering-children-prove-that-there.html

SEEMING CONTRADICTION #2

Scripture tells us that God is immutable, i.e., He is unchangeble (Numbers 23:19; 1 Samuel 15:29; Malachi 3:6; James 1:17).  But, on the other hand, there are verses that say that God repented, or changed His mind (e.g., Genesis 6:6; 1 Samuel 15:35; Jonah 3:10).  Does this mean that God lied, or that He’s wishy-washy?  Did He contradict Himself?  Can we, or can we not, trust what He says?

We can indeed.  When Genesis 6:6 says that “It repented the Lord that He had made man” (KJV), it simply means that He was sorry, or regretted it.  Does this mean that God made a mistake, or that He didn’t know what would happen?  Not at all.  If God ever changes His mind, it is never because of “new” information.  God never says, “Wow!  I didn’t see that coming!”  No, His immutability is tied into His sovereignty and His all-knowing nature.  But the thing is, God shares in our day-to-day victories and failures.  While He does indeed know everything before it happens, He is never sitting there, bored, saying, “Yeah, yeah, yeah, I knew that was going to happen; big deal…”  No, He is interested and involved in our lives, and He is always wanting us to make the right choices.  But mankind (as a whole) had committed itself to sin (Genesis 6:5).  That’s why He was grieved about creating man.  God already knew it would happen, but AT THIS POINT IN TIME, He was still moved with regret concerning that situation.  The situation changed, but there was no change in God’s character.  The same thing happened in 1 Samuel 15:35, where God regretted that He made Saul king over Israel.

Concerning Jonah 3:10, God changed His mind about destroying Nineveh.  But the destruction of Nineveh was conditional, i.e., it depended on Nineveh’s continued disobedience.  But they repented.  God set forth the conditions and He has not wavered or deviated one bit from His original plan, i.e., blessings for obedience, and punishment for disobedience.  Again, the situation had changed, but God has not changed in essence or character.  In fact, it is His consistent character that requires him to treat the righteous differently from the wicked, as this very informative article points out:

http://www.biblestudytools.com/bible-study/topical-studies/does-god-ever-change-his-mind.html

So, no, God does not change.

SEEMING CONTRADICTION #3

Does God remember sin?  Jeremiah 31:34 tells us that God says, concerning the sins of His people, “… and their sin I will remember no more.”  In Isaiah 43:25 He says, “I, even I, am the one who wipes out your transgressions for My own sake, And I will not remember your sins.”

But Exodus 34:7 says that God “visit[s] the iniquity of the fathers on the children… to the third and fourth generations.”  In other words, here He seems to remember their sins (or their fathers’ sins).

Why does there seem to be a contradiction here?  Does God remember your sins or not?  First of all, God is omniscient, or all-knowing.  He does not literally forget anything.  When it says that He won’t “remember” one’s sins, it means He won’t remember them against the person, i.e., He won’t hold him accountable for his sins.  That person is forgiven… but ONLY if the person is repentant.  If you don’t want God to remember your sins against you, then you, too, must repent and trust in the all-sufficient work of Jesus Christ on the cross.

Second, why would God punish the children and grandchildren, etc., for the sins of the parents?  That doesn’t seem fair!

The point here is that sin always has repercussions.  The sin of the parents can certainly affect the lives of the children, especially in those cultures long ago when families were much closer and social ties were much stronger than in today’s society.  In those days, it was much more likely that the customs, habits, and treasured traditions (whether good or bad) would be embraced by the children.  Out of family pride, the kids would be inclined to act just as their ancestors did.  If there were sinful patterns, they would likely be passed down.

But it’s not like the children had no choice, or that they’d be directly responsible for sins they didn’t commit.  No, in each generation, the choice is there to either allow the cycle to be repeated, or not.  They always had the option to confess their sins and the sins of their fathers (Leviticus 26:40-42).  But ultimately, each individual is responsible for his own sin (Deuteronomy 24:16; Ezekiel 18:20).  And God will only “remember” your sin that you refuse to confess.

So, in conclusion, these are not contradictions at all.  Scripture has a perfect balance.  We can be confident that the Bible is indeed the Word of God, and that we can trust it.  

We will continue with these seeming contradictions in upcoming articles from time to time.  Stay tuned and feel free to comment.

THE GAY CHARADE

Most readers will probably be familiar with the old, but popular, game of “charades,” where one person will act out a word or phrase (without speaking) and the others try to guess what that word or phrase is.  It is a game about acting.  Most of us enjoy some form of acting now and then.  But sometimes in real life people will fool us by acting one way, but their actions are hiding what’s really going on.  Their lives are simply a charade - an act or pretense.

We believe that such is often the case in the life of the gay person.  The gay crowd will often portray themselves as enjoyable, well-adjusted, happy and fun-loving people, often the life of the party.  According to them, the future of the homosexual lifestyle is bright.  But Jason Hill, author and Professor of Philosphy at De Paul University in Chicago, portrays gay life in a different light.  Hill, himself gay, is an intelligent and observant man who has written an article that is brutally honest about certain problems in the gay lifestyle.  His rebuke begins with the title of the article:  “Loveless, Narcissistic Sex Addicts:  A Gay Man Critiques His Community.”  See the article here:

http://thefederalist.com/2016/05/16/loveless-narcissistic-sex-addicts-a-gay-man-critiques-his-community/

Even though Hill believes that homosexuality is not immoral, he states:

“I also believe marriage between two men in our contemporary culture is a colossal waste of time, a hopeless undertaking doomed for failure, and, fundamentally, a naive endeavor profoundly at odds with the hypersexual, broken, and ethically bankrupt ethos [guiding beliefs] and nature of gay male culture.”

Since Hill himself is gay, why would he say this if it weren’t true?  He seems harsh when he says that the gay male culture is “ethically bankrupt.”  In the article, he asserts that “most gay men are sexual addicts,” and that “promiscuous sex and drug use… are an omnipresent force in every register, crook, and cranny of the gay world.”  Hill continues:

“If civilization were left exclusively in the hands of gay men and heterosexuals were eliminated from the earth, it is not only obvious that the species would die off – that is putatively obvious.  What is less obvious is this: we would live in a state of moral ferality”  (Emphasis his) - [“ferality” means “relating to, or resembling a wild beast.”]  Compare 2 Peter 2:12 with his statement.

These are not very flattering words for a gay man to use about his own community.  But even further, he calls the gay culture “nihilistic” (a viewpoint that traditional values and beliefs are unfounded and that existence is senseless and useless).

No wonder that, according to Hill, there is so much “disproportionate drug use, sexual promiscuity, sexually transmitted diseases, depression, and suicides” within this gay culture.  He describes today’s gay culture as an “age of loneliness” where they are trying to “fulfill an obvious emptiness at the epicenter of such individuals’ souls.”  Does this sound like happy, well-adjusted people?

Hill is brutally honest about the state of his community.  He recognizes the charade.  But why he still remains a gay man is a mystery after revealing all these things.  According to his own assessment of his community, there seems to be no happy ending for gays.  Hopefully, the “crossroads” mentioned by Jason Hill will cause him to look to God to escape this dead-end lifestyle and the heartache it brings.  The Corinthian church, in the time of the apostle Paul, had members who had previously been involved in wicked and vile sins (including fornication, idolatry, adultery, drunkeness and homosexuality), but Paul said, “…and such WERE some of you” (1 Corinthians 6:9-11).  You see, Jesus Christ had changed their lives and set them free. They were no longer trapped in these wicked and self-destructive lifestyles.

By the way, we ran across this interesting quote from a gay person:

“Marching in the gay pride Parade is less exciting now that my parents support my sexual orientation.”

This is very telling.  Apparently, this person’s core reason for marching in the gay pride parade was to rebel against his / her parents in the first place.  But their excitement had deflated now that the parents had approved.  Perhaps the parade seemed to ring hollow now.  There was no more resistance or reason to rebel now.

 

And rebellion it is.  A person is not born gay.  If he were, God would have never called homosexuality a sin.  A person’s beliefs, opinions, sexual orientation, and feelings are shaped by his experiences.  He is not born with sexual desires – that comes at puberty, not earlier, and it is established over time.

But throughout Scripture, homosexuality is clearly condemned, Old Testament and New, alike (Genesis 18:20; Leviticus 18:22; 20:13;  Romans 1:26-27; 1 Corinthians 6:9; 1 Timothy 1:9-10; Jude 7, etc.).  When the Pharisees came and questioned Jesus about divorce, He settled the issue by taking them back to God’s pattern at the beginning and showed them His original plan for marriage in Adam and Eve (Matthew 19:3-6).  This also answers the homosexual issue, since this pattern clearly shows that God’s intention is for one MAN and one WOMAN to be united in marriage.  Homosexuality has no place in God’s will, except that it be punished.

All sin is evil, but Scripture seems to indicate that homosexuality (or society’s acceptance of it) may very well be the “last straw” in a downward spiral of that society. (Genesis 18:20; 19:13; Isaiah 3:9; Romans 1:18-27)  There comes a time when God will no longer tolerate certain evils in society.

The conclusion is that no one has to be homosexual.  No one has to live the charade.  If you are one of those who are seemingly trapped in this lifestyle, there is only one way out… you must trust in the person of Jesus Christ and in His work on the cross, where He paid the penalty for every single sin.  He will change your heart and make you free indeed (John 8:32).

See also this article for some interesting statistics on the children of gay parents:

http://www.wnd.com/2012/11/my-2-dads-childhood-not-so-happy-and-gay/#!

WHAT WOULD IT TAKE?

Ok, so you’re an atheist.  You don’t believe in the existence of God, and you don’t see how anyone else could possibly believe in Him.  Or maybe, you’re an agnostic and you believe that there could possibly be a God or gods, but you don’t see enough evidence to justify that belief.  You’re thinking, “If there really is a God, then why does it look like He is hiding from us?”  Either way, you’re a rational thinker and you need hardcore evidence before believing in any “old man in the sky” fairy tales, right?

But the question has to be asked:  What kind of evidence would you require?  What exactly would it take to convince you of the existence of God?  Would you only be satisfied with purely scientific evidence?

But appealing to science brings up another issue:  Is science equipped to truly demonstrate God in a laboratory?  How would that work?  Look, we all know that you can’t measure the weight of something with a tape measure.  And we all know that you can’t calculate distance with an electrical volt meter, nor can you measure pressure with a microscope.  In other words, to measure or test something, you must use the correct tools for the job.  But using science to directly measure something metaphysical or spiritual (like God) is absurd.  Scientific methods are not equipped to directly determine the qualities or existence of God.  You can’t find Him in a test tube or see Him through a telescope.

 

Yet, atheists and other skeptics will often demand that God (if He does indeed exist) should make Himself visible so all can believe in Him… is that too much to ask?  He should “show Himself,” or maybe perform some great miracle, like giant writing in the sky for all to see.  You know, seeing is believing, right?  Yet no one has ever seen gravity, but no one goes around demanding that gravity needs to become visible before we can believe in it, do they?  By that logic, someone could also say that since your mind is not directly visible, it must not exist!  Physical visibility is not always necessary to prove existence.  Some things we don’t directly see, e.g., electricity, force, heat, pressure, energy, etc., but we can see their effects.  This is also true of God… although He is invisible, we can see His handiwork (Psalm 8:1; 19:1-2), His creation (Romans 1:18-20), and His affecting of our lives in many ways (1 Corinthians 6:9-11).  But we don’t need to directly see Him or directly hear His audible voice to know He’s there.  We can find Him through indirect evidence.

We find an interesting (and relevant) Bible story in the book of Luke, where Jesus tells us about two men who die, ending up in two vastly different places - the rich man in agony, and the poor man in bliss (Luke 16:19-31).  The rich man, after realizing the hopelessness of his eternal mistake, cries out for Abraham to send Lazarus (the poor man) back from the dead to testify of this horrible place to his still-living family, so that they don’t end up there with him.  But it is important to note that Abraham tells the rich man that if his brothers will not believe Moses and the prophets (Scripture), then they will not believe someone who comes back from the dead (v. 31).  Notice that Jesus, through this story, considered the testimony of Scripture as far more reliable than the witness of the dead coming back to testify!  The rich man wanted extreme evidence for his family to see.  But no one can demand the luxury of such extreme evidence.  Scripture is sufficient.

But the problem with skeptics, though, is that it seems that they are always able to “explain away” any evidence produced.  Medical miracles are simply written off as a hoax, and even if God were to visibly appear, they would claim that it was just an illusion or hallucination, anyway.

They ask for visible proof of God; but God already did show Himself, in the person of Jesus Christ (God becoming flesh), who did many, many miracles and even rose from the dead, yet many still didn’t believe!  But when skeptics demand evidence, what they are really asking is, “Why doesn’t He reveal Himself the way I want Him to?”  But God is not obligated to reveal Himself to skeptics, or to anyone, especially to someone who is not repentant nor willing to serve Him.  No one is promised a dramatic “Damascus Road” experience (Acts 9:1-9).

And God is not asking anyone to use “blind faith,” but faith resting on reliable historical evidence.  It pleases Him when we believe what He says – like parents who desire for their children to trust them without having to prove or explain everything to them – it’s about a relationship.  God wants us to learn to trust Him without having to give us every single detail, because we may not be ready for some details yet.

It is true that believers will often be biased, and they are not always willing to consider all the evidence concerning science.  But extreme bias can also be found in atheist circles.  The esteemed Professor Richard Lewontin (atheist geneticist at Harvard) writes:

“We take the side of science IN SPITE OF the patent ABSURDITY of some of its constructs… IN SPITE OF the tolerance of the scientific community for unsubstantiated just-so-stories, because we have a PRIOR commitment – A COMMITMENT TO MATERIALISM.  It is NOT that the methods and institutions of science somehow compel us to accept a material explanation of the phenomenal world, but, ON THE CONTRARY, that we are forced by our A PRIORI ADHERENCE to MATERIAL causes to create an apparatus of investigation and a set of concepts that produce MATERIAL explanations, NO MATTER how counter-intuitive, NO MATTER how mystifying to the uninitiated.  Moreover, that materialism is an ABSOLUTE, for WE CANNOT ALLOW A DIVINE FOOT IN THE DOOR.” (Billions and Billions of Demons, Prof. Richard Lewontin, New York Review of Books, January 9, 1997, Volume 44 [Emphasis added])

In other words, for the atheist, the existence of God must be kept out of the equation at all costs, no matter what the evidence suggests.

But ultimately, the issue is not whether God exists or not.  The answer to that is built into every one of us, atheists included.  Deep down inside, we all know He’s there (Romans 1:18-20), though some will not admit it.  God, in different ways, makes Himself known to all of us.  But are we willing to reach out to Him and let Him change our lives?  Are we willing to trust Him and submit to Him?

God is not obligated to provide greater evidence.  It’s not that skeptics need more evidence, the problem is that they are not believing the evidence that exists already!

See these articles:

http://www.str.org/blog/challenge-response-god-can-t-be-scientifically-quantified#.V1t65CG_J0w

http://christianthinktank.com/adam01.html

http://www.peterkreeft.com/topics-more/20_arguments-gods-existence.htm