There are any number of reasons why people don’t believe the Bible is inspired by God. They may have been taught from childhood that it was a book of fairy tales. They may have never taken the time to open a Bible and therefore don’t know of or are indifferent to its content. Perhaps they’ve watched their “Christian” neighbors behave in ungodly ways that expose their hypocrisy and have decided they don’t want any part of that group. Some undoubtedly have opened the Bible and know some of what is in it, but don’t want to live up to it; they don’t want to be told what to do. They choose not to believe because they’d be compelled to change their behavior.
All of the above reasons might be given by every culture since the Bible was completed almost 2000 years ago. Possibly the most frequently cited reason for rejecting the Bible is because of Bible errancy. It is alleged that it contains mistakes or contradicts itself. There are numerous websites that list hundreds of alleged mistakes of a historical, geographical, or scientific nature. It’s no wonder that many don’t accept the Bible as inspired when they read statements like “Every analyst of the Bible should realize that the Book is a veritable miasma of contradictions, inconsistencies, inaccuracies, poor science, bad math, inaccurate geography, immoralities, degenerate heroes, false prophecies, boring repetitions, childish superstitions, silly miracles…” (The Encyclopedia of Biblical Errancy), or “the basic writings of the Christian religion are so full of absurdity, contradiction, and discord that the only way to maintain the truth of Christian doctrine is to ignore the Bible itself” (The Atheist’s Introduction to the New Testament). Sadly, but likely true, the author of that book goes on to write “…fortunately for most Christian churches, this is not a problem, because most Christians do not read the Bible seriously, and are woefully unaware of its contents…”
I’d be the first to admit that if the writers of the Bible made mistakes in their writings, then they were not guided “by inspiration of God” as Paul wrote in 2 Timothy 3:16. The question is: did the writers of the Bible make mistakes, or are these alleged mistakes or contradictions just misinterpreted? One who is honestly trying to understand any document written centuries ago from a culture far distant from their own will consider some basic principles of interpretation that allow for a fair and reasonable analysis of the work.
The world is changing every day. I’m 68 and have traveled around the world multiple times, but I might as well be hearing Greek when listening to some of the modern-day questions asked these days on my favorite TV show, Jeopardy! I often have to pause the show and ask my wife what “this or that word means.” In our daily lives, we often say or hear things that make no sense to us or those listening to us. Sometimes I ask myself, “did I hear that right?” Sadly, too often I assume I did understand it and berate the speaker for saying something wrong or illogical. When we say something that is misunderstood, we want the chance to clarify our statement. In order to be as fair with the Bible writers as we would want others to be with us, there must be some fair means of interpretation.
For example, is it possible that more than one interpretation of an event is correct? Matthew and Mark recorded that “robbers” insulted Jesus while He was on the cross (Mt 27:44, Mk 15:32), whereas Luke wrote that “one” of them blasphemed Him (Luke 23:39). These accounts are different, but are they contradictory? Did Luke err, or can all three be true?
Another item to consider is the context of a statement. If you read the statement “that guy is on fire!” you can’t know what is meant without understanding the context. Was the speaker watching Michael Jordan in the 1990s, or might he have been watching a 1960s newsreel of the Vietnam war? In Matthew 24:29, Jesus said “the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.” Then a few verses later Jesus said, “Truly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place.” I read where a man said this text alone was the “straw that broke the camel’s back” for convincing him the Bible was wrong because 2000 years have come and gone and “the sun is still shining, the stars still twinkle in the sky.” Is it possible that Jesus was not talking about the Judgment Day at the end of time, but rather used figurative language to describe what the Roman army under Nero and Vespasian would do to Jerusalem forty years later in 70 AD? The events of 70 AD happened in time for the generation to whom Jesus was speaking in Matthew 24 to witness them. This apparent contradiction is easily explained with a little study.
For some reason, many people forget about the need to understand a statement that on its face appears to be contradictory when it comes to the Bible. In reality, statements that appear “different” are what we would expect to find in a book compiled from over sixty separate books, authored by forty men from different cultures across a time span of 1500 years. In the next two weeks I will examine a number of “alleged Biblical contradictions” to demonstrate how they are not mistakes, but merely contain statements that are misunderstood or different, not contradictory.
Please feel free to contact me about this article or any question you may have about the Blanco Hills Church of Christ.
Buz Turk
830-554-0701
blancohillschurch@gmail.com