What We Have Here Is A Failure To Communicate
The skeptics love to point out all the contradictions in the Bible and of course the defenders will say that there are no contradictions and then the skeptics will roll their eyes back in their heads with disbelief that the believers actually think they have a leg to stand on. And so the battle continues.
To me it is sad that so many believers don’t understand how idiotic they appear to the honest skeptic. I say honest because the vast majority of Bible skeptics have not done their due diligence and are just God or Christian haters because they like their sin and think Christianity and God are just going to rain on their parade. But there are those who do have more than a couple of brain cells to rub together and unfortunately hardly anyone in Christendom throughout history has given them adequate answers to their honest questions.
So is there an answer? I believe there is and if the vast majority of self-proclaimed Christians were not so dogmatically tied to their denominational traditions and historical Christian tradition and actually believed the words on the pages of their Bibles, they would have answer that might satisfy many of the skeptics or at least give them cause to doubt their skepticism.
Here’s the thing. I don’t think God is the least bit worried that the Bible, his Word, doesn’t hold up to the criticisms of the cynic. The problem is the people who claim to believe it and are trying to defend it are so full of hypocrisy they make God and the Bible look bad. And I don’t mean hypocrisy as far as the lives they live, although I’m sure that’s an issue as well, I know it is with me but I mean they simply don’t believe the words on the pages.
For some reason, when it comes to the Bible and how people interpret it, they throw all the rules of proper grammar out the window. God chose the written word to communicate with us and if there are not hard fast rules then how can the communication be clear? Of course it cannot.
Words mean things and different words mean different things. Now this brings up the issue of translation, which I’m not going to delve deeply into here however, all the modern translations are guilty of muddying the waters, not only for the skeptics but the believers as well because the Greek and other languages from which the English is translated were very precise and the reason the early translators used the type of English they did was because, although it was not as precise as the Greek, it was much more precise than even the modern English of that day, let alone the English of today which is pitifully inadequate to articulate thoughts in a precise manner.
Let me give you an example of what I mean using a verse from 2 Timothy 2:15 – Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. You see the words, “rightly dividing” denote that the word of truth, must be rightly divided, ergo there must be divisions.
Modern translators tell us that “rightly dividing” means the same thing as correctly handling or correctly understanding, etc. The problem with that is that the Bible uses those terms elsewhere so why would it not use the same terminology here if that was the meaning it was trying to convey? It says “rightly dividing” because the Greek words it was translated from do not mean correctly handling or any of the other words the modern translations have put in their place. This should be obvious but I know it won’t be to many but I will not belabor the point.
So What About the Contradictions?
Okay, you’re probably wondering when I’m going to talk about the Contradictions. Here we go. Yes there are contradictions in the Bible and there is a good reason for that. It’s because of this little thing called Dispensations. Yes, I know that is a big word and it is the lack of knowledge concerning that big word that there is so much confusion even though it is a biblical word.
(By the way, alleged contradictions in the graphic with respect to the two accounts in Genesis is ludicrous. It’s clearly understood that the account in Genesis 2 is a filling in of the details of chapter 1. Anyone who can’t see that clearly lacks the acumen to be making such judgments or is purposely reading into the text things that are not there to bolster their false assertions)
I’m not going to explain all about Dispensationalism here. I have a pdf you can read HERE for further study on the Contradictions issue and Dispensations. But I will give you an example of what I referred to earlier in regard to the hypocrisy I spoke of above.
In the book of James, which is what scholars call a Hebrew Epistle, that is, a letter written to Hebrews, the first verse says: James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting. Okay now, pay attention. To whom does James say that this letter is addressed to? Does it not say “to the twelve tribes…” ? I believe it does, so then why would anyone who is not a member of one of the twelve tribes think that this is addressed the them? This is what I mean by NOT BELIEVING THE WORDS ON THE PAGE. The Bible means what it says and says what it means to whom it says it.
For example the faith that James speaks of in his letter, has works attached to it for salvation whereas the faith Paul speaks of does not. So do James and Paul disagree? Yes and no. What they each have is different information for a different audience. James’ is for Israel, the Bride of Christ and Paul’s is for the Church, The Body of Christ. Paul “body” James and the other Apostles the “bride” which is and forever Israel.
Now the Apostle Paul tells us that he is the Apostle of the gentiles and of the uncircumcision and it’s interesting to note that all of Paul’s letters are after the Gospels and Acts which up until the middle of Acts, when Paul comes on the scene, is all about and for Israel. Then, as Paul let’s us know in his letter to the Romans, Israel is fallen, so now you have a new program instituted by Christ, through Paul, called the Dispensation of Grace. Now then, you see, after Paul’s letters we then again have the Hebrew Epistles. This is very logical because after the Dispensation of Grace, God reinstitutes his plan with Israel and the “Time of Jacobs trouble” or the Tribulation, which began in Act 2 but was shut down due to Israels blaspheming of the Holy Spirit at the stoning of Stephen at which time Paul also appears on the scene, will be started up again. Now isn’t that interesting?
So I’ve said all of this to say that if we don’t believe the words on the page and follow the rules of grammar we will miss a lot of truth and that is exactly what has been going on for the last 2000 years. Paul indicates very clearly that many believers were already way off track. In fact he spent most of his ministry trying to straighten out all the false doctrine and explaining that there was something new going on which, as Paul puts it, was a secret which God kept hid in himself having not revealed it to anyone, not even the angels until it was revealed to him. Yes Paul was God’s special apostle and he was not one of the twelve who preached a different Gospel and were a part of a different church and program which has been temporarily postponed.
The contradictions in the Bible are not contradictions really, they are different information and instruction for different people at different times. In other words different Dispensations. At one time God told man he could eat anything, at another only vegetables and then at another only certain meats and vegetables. God’s plan is not static. It moves from one thing to another and the revelations he gives to men are progressive according to what he wants them to have at a particular time. Even Paul’s revelations were progressive which is why you also have to “rightly divide” Paul as is apparent when you look at things he said and did early in his ministry but discontinued later.
For those of you who are true skeptics I hope you will keep searching for those who are not, you need to be. There’s nothing wrong with skepticism so long as you don’t stagnate in it.
Enough said. Without further delay here is the link to the pdf book by David W. Reid:
Are There Contradictions in the Bible?:
Questions & Answers about Dispensationalism