At North Village Church, we are always talking about the importance of Jesus, but what about all those arguments for how Jesus is a waste of time?
In our new blog series, ‘How to Respond When Someone Says’, we are providing you with Biblical ways to respond when some argues against your Faith in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Part 4: How to respond when someone says: The Bible is full of contradictions.
In our last discussion we discussed how to respond when someone says that the bible is violent. In this discussion we will explore the validity of the bible. After all, isn’t the bible full of contradictions?
The bible is full of contradictions.
- People will say, “How do we know religious leaders didn’t change the bible throughout history to fit the story they wanted?” This is commonly referred to as Revisionist History.
- People will say, “What about parts of the bible that seem to contradict itself?
- Proverbs 26:4, “Do not answer a fool according to his folly, or you yourself will be just like him.”
- Proverbs 26:5, “Answer a fool according to his folly, or he will be wise in his own eyes.”
- Matthew 5 Jesus speaks to the crowd on a mountain.
- Luke 6 Jesus speaks to the crowd at a level place.
- Abijah is described as a good king in 2 Chronicles 13.
- Abijah is described as an evil king in 1 Kings 15.
- Genesis 1 describes humans being created last.
- Genesis 2 describes humans being created first.
- And most of all, none of the original manuscripts have survived. As far as we know, they no longer exist, therefore, what we have today are copies.
These are all great concerns about the bible, but:
- The reason we have a bible today is because there were copies of the originals made over and over and over. Today we have over 20,000 copies. That’s a lot!
- But even more wild is that some of those copies were hand-written.
- And some copies were made from copies, not the original, which means errors are more likely.
- And some copies were made from some copies and some copies were made from those copies. Which even increases the chances for errors. This isn’t looking good!
- First, examining copies of Scripture today and any ancient writing is called Textual Criticism.
- Second, scholars have concluded that there are upwards of 300,000-400,000 variants in Scripture. Variants aren’t errors, but differences in copies. It could be a comma, it could be a change in a letter in a word.
- Third, and this is HUGE, if we only had three copies then 300,000-400,000 variants would be a concern but we have 20,000 copies and none of those variants change the message of God’s Word.
- Yes, there are missed commas here and there but there aren’t missed sentences, paragraphs and chapters. There is consistency in all those 20,000 copies which gives us confidence in God’s Word.
- What about those parts of Scripture that seem to be contradicting:
- First, look at the context in God’s Word.
- Second, a good principle to remember is “Clear Scripture Interprets Fuzzy Scripture.”
- A little digging, however, will show that proverbs aren’t written to give us universally valid principles (“I would always answer a fool according to his folly”), but rather they are true only when applied at the right situation. Depending on the “fool” you are talking to, you have to determine which proverb is relevant to the situation.
- The Gospels are not meant to be simply factual reports, but bring out the theological significance of real events for their intended contemporary audience. So Matthew places Jesus’ sermon on a mountain in order to bring out a connection for his original Jewish audience. Jesus speaking on a mountain about the law would remind them how God gave Moses the law on Mount Sinai (Exodus 19-24): Luke, written primarily for Hellenistic Christians, would not pick up on that connection so readily.
- The same is true concerning the account of Abijah in Kings and Chronicles. These aren’t just collections of data about a king named Abijah. The two histories are using the history of Israel and Judah to answer questions relevant to their time. The author of Kings writes to those who survived the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians to explain why they are in exile. They and their kings broke God’s law and suffered the consequences. Chronicles, on the other hand, was written to the post-exilic community and, among other matters, is interested in choosing events in the life of their kings that show their devotion to God.
- As for the two accounts of creation: While they both are interested in telling us who created everything, neither are interested in telling us how he did it. Neither one is telling us the actual sequence of creation, but describes creation to magnify God’s glory.
These are just a few quick responses to questions that might come up about God’s Word. There are helpful resources if you would like to explore this subject more thoroughly.
- Scripture and Truth by D.A. Carson
- Mamma Bear Apologetics by Hillary Morgan Ferrer
- Hard Sayings by R.C. Sproul
- 7 Reasons Why You Can Trust the Bible by Erwin Lutzer
Throughout this series we will explore different objections to following Jesus as Lord. Perhaps you have some objections you would like to recommend. If so, please email those objections to.
Did this help?
Check out the rest of this 6 part series.
Perhaps you have some objections you would like to recommend. If so, please email those objections to [email protected].
North Village Church
This article was written by Pastor Michael Dennis, Lead Pastor at North Village Church; a non-denominational church in Austin, TX, established in 2009 and built around Jesus and Bible teaching.
Are you looking for a church in Austin? At North Village Church we put Jesus at the center of our church family. We worship together every Sunday at 10:30am, encourage Christ centered fellowship through groups, and host special events such as Bible studies and Theological Training, to ensure that we are rooted in in God’s Word. We also serve our local community in association with several Austin based organizations.
North Village Church is made up of professionals, married couples, singles, and families who are wanting to experience the life-transforming power of Jesus. If you are a family with children or teens, we can support you with either or both our Kids Ministry and Youth Ministry.
Check out our North Village Church calendar highlights such as our Christmas Eve Service in Austin and Easter Sunday Service.
You are welcome to contact us if you would like more information, please call (512)-623-9272 or email [email protected]
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