136
BIBLE “CONTRADICTIONS” … ANSWERED (Part One – Introduction 1)
A Booklet by Brad McCoy, Th.M.
© Copyright 1985 Reprinted with
author’s permission. May be distributed freely but not sold.
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Note: I thought it would be
interesting for a few posts, to consider some alleged Biblical
contradictions. I hear this all the time, but no one who makes the
complaints will sit down with me and study them. Brad McCoy was my
Theology Professor in Seminary. He is an outstanding theological scholar
and teacher. At my request, he provided me with a booklet he
self-published in 1985. The booklet can be reproduced, but not sold. I
will return to the Calvinism/Arminianism series after awhile; maybe a couple of
weeks. - dh
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Introduction
This
booklet is a response to the pamphlet “136 Bible Contradictions” printed by
Crusade publications of Redmond, Washington.
This
writer begins with two presuppositions (1) God exists (2) God reveals. God has
revealed Himself and His truth through His creation (general revelation) and
through His writing, in the written Word of God, the Bible. Since God is true
and the Bible is God’s Word, it is concluded that the Bible is true in all it
affirms. The divine inspiration and inerrancy of the Bible applies exclusively
to the original manuscripts of the sixty-six individual books. The original
human authors wrote in Hebrew (Old Testament) and Greek (New Testament) therefore
it must be remembered that any English translation of the Bible is only as good
as its accuracy in rendering the Hebrew and Greek texts of the Old and New Testaments.
While
interacting with the “contradictions” adduced by Crusade Publications, this
writer quickly became aware that the individual(s) behind that pamphlet had
little or no appreciation for the fact that it is the original manuscripts, not
the translations of the original manuscripts that ultimately must be dealt with
concerning the issue of whether or not there exist contradictions in the Bible.
To make final, dogmatic judgments on the inerrancy of the Bible without
systematic reference to the Hebrew and Greek originals is akin to performing
major surgery without consulting a patient’s X-rays!
Also
it is clear that the “contradictions” printed are not a problem in the Bible at
all, but instead misinterpretation and/or misunderstandings of one or both
verses in question. A valid contradiction would exist if, and only if, two or
more verses correctly and contextually interpreted and fully understood had an
undeniable inconsistency. Despite thousands of years of hostile attacks (with
“136 Bible Contradictions” being just one of the more recent) against the reliability
of the Bible, no such contradictions have been found! None of the
“contradictions” cited by opponents stand up to detailed analysis by orthodox
scholars (in fact the presentations of apparent contradictions does the church
a favor by forcing her to look more closely and thus to understand more
precisely the interpretation of various verses/passages of scripture).
Before
beginning specific responses to the individual “contradictions” it is necessary
to deal briefly with several factors which must be kept in mind when seeking to
accurately understand the Bible. In revealing Himself and His truth in the
Bible, God clearly adapts Himself to man’s finite understanding. However (and
this is a vital difference) He never accommodates Himself to invite error. The
mechanism behind the writing of the Bible (termed “inspiration” by theologians)
as understood by orthodox Christianity is that God the Holy Spirit
superintended the human author (Moses, Daniel, Paul, etc.) such that they
composed and recorded without error God’s exact message in the words of the
original manuscripts of the books of the Bible. Thus the Bible is true in all
it affirms, but its statements do not necessarily seek to reveal everything
about every subject they deal with. This is important to know and to appreciate
because when one comes to the Bible he or she must recognize that any
particular book, paragraph or verse does not necessarily claim to be
exhaustive, and that such particular reports are not necessarily false reports!
To illustrate the point, imagine a four year old child who asks his father
where babies come from. The father not wishing to exhaustively describe the
biological and sexual details of human reproduction might choose to answer in
one of two ways. (1) He might choose to adapt himself to the child’s limited
intellect and maturity and thus tell his child babies come from “their mommy’s
tummy”. Such an answer would be a partial truth, true in it affirms as far as
it goes (and as far as it is intended to go!). It would not be a falsehood. (2) The father might instead decide to
accommodate himself to the child’s ignorance and gullibility telling him that
“the stork brings babies from the North Pole”. Such a response (however well meant) would
clearly be a falsehood/erroneous report. In the Bible, God often communicates like the
father in response (1) above. In
revealing truth He desires man to know, He adapts Himself to human limitations,
using human language (including figures of speech and literary devices).
However, He never accommodates Himself to human ignorance/gullibility
(packaging “kernels of truth” in the form of myth or error).
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I
thought I would continue with Part 2 of the introduction next.
Doug
