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by bolilla on April 6th, 2007

bolilla

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Christians: How do you reconcile direct contradictions in the Bible with your faith that the Bible is the exact, true word of God (interpretation or literal)? What about all of the evil that Bible verses seem to condone? Sexism, slavery, rape, etc ..

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Answers. 14 helpful answers below.

  • by ...trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. on April 7th, 2007

    ...trust in the Lord Jesus Christ.

    The Word of God cannot condradict itself because God is perfect and His Word is perfect. Those that claim that the Bible contradicts itself just simply don't understand it. It takes the Holy Spirit, study, prayer, and a personal relationship with it's Author, God Himself. I hope this helps. Thank you and God bless you!

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  • by The Galaxy Hitchhiker on January 7th, 2009

    The Galaxy Hitchhiker

    I've read and studied Scripture for 34 + years now and I'm not aware of any contradictions. Bible difficulties yes, but contradictions, no.

    The Bible does not specifically condemn the practice of slavery. It gives instructions on how slaves should be treated (Deuteronomy 15:12-15; Ephesians 6:9; Colossians 4:1), but does not outlaw the practice altogether. Many see this as the Bible condoning all forms of slavery. What many people fail to understand is that slavery in Biblical times was very different from the slavery that was practiced in the past few centuries in many parts of the world. The slavery in the Bible was not based exclusively on race. People were not enslaved because of their nationality or the color of their skin. In Bible times, slavery was more of a social status. People sold themselves as slaves when they could not pay their debts or provide for their family. In New Testament times, sometimes doctors, lawyers, and even politicians were slaves of someone else. Some people actually chose to be slaves so as to have all their needs provided for by their master.

    Some people claim that the following passage from the Holy Bible condones rape:--"If a man happens to meet a virgin who is not pledged to be married and rapes her and they are discovered, he shall pay the girl's father fifty shekels of silver. He must marry the girl, for he has violated (anah) her. He can never divorce her as long as he lives." Deuteronomy 22:28-29 NIV. There are two points to note here. First, even though the verse may seem to be instructing the rapist to marry the victim the passage nowhere sanctions, condones or even approves of rape. This is simply a gross misreading of the text. The injunction is intended to instruct the Israelites on how to deal with and address a rape situation "if" and "when" it occurs. Second, by taking a careful look at the context and consulting the original languages of the Scriptures a strong case can be made that this is citation isn’t even addressing a rape case at all. We must remember that the Holy Bible was not written in English. The OT was written in Hebrew, with parts of it being written in Aramaic. The NT was written in Koine or common Greek. This means that if we want to know whether an English translation has faithfully and accurately translated the inspired author’s intended meaning we must turn to the original language of the sacred text. Once this is done, it will become quite apparent that the Holy Bible does not sanction rape at all.

    Sexism is one gender, usually male, having dominance over the other gender, usually female. The Bible contains many references to women that, in our modern minds, sound discriminatory towards women. Does this mean that God, and therefore the Bible, is sexist? We have to remember that the Bible describing an action does not necessarily mean that the Bible is endorsing that action as I stated above. The Bible describes men treating women as little more than property, but that does not mean the Bible indicates approval of that action. Again, as I stated above.

    The charge of the sexism of the Bible is based upon a lack of knowledge of Scripture. When men and women of all ages have taken their God-ordained places and lived according to "Thus says the LORD," then there is a wonderful balance between the genders. That balance is what God began with, and it is what He will end with. There is an inordinate amount of attention paid to the various products of sin and not to the root of it.

    It is also very important to understand that the Bible's ascribing different roles to men and women is not sexism. The Bible makes it abundantly clear that God expects men to take the leadership role in the church and the home. Does this make women inferior? Absolutely not. Does this mean women are less intelligent, less capable, or viewed as less in God’s eyes? Absolutely not! What it means is that in our sin-stained world, there has to be structure and authority. God has instituted the roles of authority for our good. Sexism is the abuse of these roles…not the existence of these roles.

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  • by vew573 on December 20th, 2010

    vew573

    ARE THEY DISCREPANCIES?
    When encountering difficulties in reading the Bible, critics are all too ready to take a negative view, jumping to conclusions. Those who treasure the Bible as God’s gift to man, however, are positive in searching out the answers. Consider how the harmony of scriptures can be explained.

    Who sold Joseph into Egypt? Genesis 37:27 says that Joseph’s brothers sold him. But the next verse states: “Now men, Midianite merchants, went passing by. Hence they [half brothers of Joseph] drew and lifted up Joseph out of the waterpit and then sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites for twenty silver pieces. Eventually these brought Joseph into Egypt.” So, did Midianite merchants take Joseph from the pit and sell him to the Ishmaelites who took him to Egypt? No, even Joseph later confirmed that his own brothers had sold him, saying: “I am Joseph your brother, whom you sold into Egypt.” (Gen. 45:4) So what are we to conclude? Either that the Midianites (who were related to the Ishmaelites) were also called Ishmaelites or that the Midianite merchants were traveling with the Ishmaelite caravan. And Joseph was sold to them by his brothers.

    How many Israelites died for having immoral relations with the daughters of Moab and for engaging in the false worship of the Baal of Peor? The apostle Paul stated: “Neither let us practice fornication, as some of them [Israelites in the wilderness] committed fornication, only to fall, twenty-three thousand of them in one day.” (1 Cor. 10:8) However, with reference to the same incident, Numbers 25:9 reported: “And those who died from the scourge amounted to twenty-four thousand.” Possibly the number slain was between 23,000 and 24,000, so that either round figure was satisfactory. On the other hand, the book of Numbers especially mentions the fact that “all the head ones of the people” who had an attachment to the Baal of Peor were killed by judges. (Num. 25:4, 5) There may well have been 1,000 of these “head ones,” making a total of 24,000 when added to the 23,000 mentioned by Paul. The apostle wrote under divine inspiration and, hence, did not err. Also, whereas 23,000 apparently were direct victims of the scourge from God, all 24,000 in general experienced Jehovah’s scourge inasmuch as they all died under God’s decree of judgment.—Deut. 4:3.

    When King David improperly registered the people, how many armed men were there in Israel and Judah? According to 2 Samuel 24:9, Israel had 800,000 men and Judah had 500,000. However, according to 1 Chronicles 21:5, there were 1,100,000 men of Israel and 470,000 men of Judah. It is unwise to consider this a scribal error, for the two accounts may have reckoned the numbers from different viewpoints. For instance, possibly members of the standing army and/or their officers were counted, or omitted. Also, different methods of reckoning may have resulted in a variation in listing certain men, that is, as to whether they were under Israel or Judah. First Chronicles 21:6 mentions that Levi and Benjamin are not registered in among them, whereas no such notation is made in Second Samuel, also suggesting, therefore, such a variation.

    How much did David pay for the threshing floor where he built an altar to Jehovah as the means of ending the scourge provoked by David’s registration of the people? Apparently Araunah, or Ornan, the owner of the threshing floor, offered the place, along with cattle and wood implements for the sacrifice, without any charge. But David insisted on paying, and 2 Samuel 24:24 shows that he purchased the threshing floor and the cattle for 50 silver shekels. However, 1 Chronicles 21:25 speaks of David’s paying 600 gold shekels for the site. It appears that the writer of Second Samuel dealt only with the purchase of the altar location and materials for the sacrifice made at that time, and that the price he refers to was restricted to these things. Contrariwise, the writer of First Chronicles discussed matters with regard to the temple later built on that site, and he associates the purchase with that construction. (1 Chron. 22:1-6; 2 Chron. 3:1) The entire temple area being quite large, apparently the sum of 600 gold shekels applied to the purchase of that large area rather than to the small portion required for the altar first built by King David.

    This is just a sample of the seeming contradictions in the Bible and how one can reconcile the differences. I could provide many more, but this will suffice to make my point.

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  • by vew573 on December 20th, 2010

    vew573

    A writer who examined many of the so-called contradictions and “problems” of the Bible came to this conclusion: “When we consider the real grandeur of the Bible and the power of its influence through the ages, the quibbling ‘errors’ which skeptics hope to prove in it pale into insignificance.” (Does Inspiration Demand Inerrancy? by Stewart Custer) This is true. Moreover, when all the facts are available, the “errors” prove not to be errors after all.

    Consider: if you were able to speak to people who lived in Jesus’ day, and you told them that you had seen a man walking on the moon, that you could speak with people living on the other side of the earth, that you or your friends had flown through the air, and that machines existed that could record things and perform complicated mathematical calculations. What would they say? That you were an imaginative storyteller! Such things did not happen in Jesus’ day.
    Yet modern technology makes such marvels possible. And surely, the existence of an Almighty God makes all the miracles recorded in the Bible equally possible.

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  • by 19kid was born in89 on July 17th, 2009

    19kid was born in89

    This can be reconciled through faith. I used to think some parts of the Bible were contradictory and false, but once i grew in the faith God started revealing the true meaning behind the verses. Everything is not as it initially appears in the Bible. The Bible even says in James 1:22
    "Do not merely listen to the word, and so decieve yourselves. Do what it says"

    Do what the Bible says and then God will start revealing the true meanings of everything you dont understand right now. The word is perfect. There are no contradictions.

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  • by IamViolet on April 8th, 2007

    IamViolet

    Good question! Someone "entering into Christianity" versus being "born into via their family" must face this dilema, given the lack of "faith" that they were taught.

    My opinion is this...the Bible cannot (and should not) be viewed as "God's words". Why? Because "the Bible" as we refer to it...is nothing more than a collection of letters written to and from men of God. In fact, the Catholics have 'canonized' more books than the Protestants (they have more books in their bible than Protestants do). For better understanding, buy a New American Standard Bible (my fav), it will tell you at the beginning of the book who the letter is written by and who the letter was addressed to (the Ephesians, the Colossians, the Romans, etc.).

    Not only are they a collection of letters...but, some of them (particularly those from the Old Testament), are 'oral traditions'...meaning they were stories passed down from generation to generation as "campfire stories" or "lessons passed down". Thus, they took on all of the local customs and mores of that culture in that time period. They weaved the rules and laws that were present at the time and they changed everytime one person told them to another. Until they were finally written down and added to the accepted version of the Bible. Many, many, many letters and "books" were left out of the accepted Bible. There was just recently some discussion of a book written by Jude...causing a huge uproar in the Christian world.

    So, then, what is the Bible? It is a written or transcribed collection that gives us a good idea of how to behave and what happened before video cameras were invented. It tells us of how men of God lived, the struggles they encountered, and the pain that they endured. It gives us stories of hope, stories of pain, stories of enlightenment, and tells of a man (for those religions that believe in the New Testament) who was said to be the Son of God. It describes how he lived and what we should believe in order to meet his Father after death.

    Unfortunately, most people (because of the corruption of "religion") take the Bible and mangle it into rules, codes of ethics, and standards. Some even create rituals that 'must be done' to obtain salvation. This saddens me.

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  • by migarce on April 6th, 2007

    migarce

    Don´t forget that when the bible was written it was other times and cultures involved. That´s why some practices would be banned today because of the advancement in the legislation and more exigent ethics.In the future our descendants would wonder about many of our customs we consider "normal" today.

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  • by MegumiS on January 3rd, 2011

    MegumiS

    You should not ask such a question, unless you are prepared to be bored by long apologies for the hundreds of obvious blatant contradictions, scientific errors and condoning barbaric actions. The apologists' feeble excuses are so overly-contrived that they collapse under the sheer weight of nonsense in them. If God wrote the Bible and it is so complex, it entraps many logical men and gives God a feeble excuse to torture them forever for not believing in him. That means God is really a Devil who is a sadistic psychotic who designs the Bible so that many people will see contradictions and refuse to believe in him, and thus, they can be tortured forever in this cruel game. Oh well, he and Lucifer had an adolescent chinko-measuring contest that killed Job's family and tortured him cruelly. Occam's Razor cuts away all of the apologists' complex evasions and shows the Bible was written by ignorant, barbaric men, not a wise and benevolent deity.

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  • by bolilla on April 9th, 2007

    bolilla

    Thanks for your answer! I’ve written a few questions about religion, but it always just seems to make ppl mad and they downrate me :( that’s my whole problem is that I just don’t agree that the Bible is the direct word of God. It’s been proven by carbon dating that the NT spans across 4 centuries … then, they found those other books buried in Egypt! I mean for how many thousands of yrs were ppl taught that Mary M was a whore and Judas evil ... My main problem is that so many intelligent ppl seem totally blind when it comes to these things, and if I’m not given a rational explanation, then I just can’t agree. The world is only 6000 yrs old … seriously? like, I just don’t get how ppl believe that. Do they think science only exists to test their faith? but, I mean, I really don’t judge them, I just know that I can’t follow that. And, I really am looking for something. I have many theological ‘issues’ from not being raised with any education on the subject. And, though I don’t blame my parents, I want to be sure to have some sort of idea before I have children of my own (if I do …). I just have to find one that I can agree with (put my faith in).

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  • by flames of fire. on August 3rd, 2009

    flames of fire.

    God is God he can preserve his own word.

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  • by katy2 on January 25th, 2011

    katy2

    As a Christian, I find it more relevant for me to read NT, which shows what Jesus came to teach us. (Revelations too confusing, and about the "future", OT historical). I know exactly what you mean about confusing etc. Some Christians quote verses where Jesus said he has not come to alter the old laws in any way; and yet he prevented a woman who had been found in adultery, from being stoned to death. He made a verbal change about divorce. He was criticised by the religious leaders of the day, for healing a man's crippled hand on the Sabbath. Hm, so is Jesus FOR all the laws, or not? And, as a Christian, we are saved by our faith in Christ, and good works; not by the laws. For me, I live by the spirit of the NT. I try to abide by what Jesus referred to as the two greatest commandments: "Love the Lord your God.....and love your neighbour....". Trying to understand EVERYTHING in the Bible is too confusing. Did God really create the world and everything in it in 6 days (for anyone who would contradict me and claim 7, you need to remember that God rested on the 7th day)? Was it the same kind of day that we have now (24 hrs)? I have to ask myself: Would researching the answer to that question be a good use of my time as a Christian? Would finding out the answer (which is never going to happen anyway) make me a better person/Christian? I really doubt it. To me, it'd be kind of like reading books/searching the net to find out how to live your life, instead of "actually" living your life. I am a Christian (a follower of Christ), and as such I try to do the best I can with each day God blesses me with. From Pinoccio: And always let your conscience be your guide.

    Peace be with you :-)

    Unitarian girl

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  • by HShawaybei on April 27th, 2011

    HShawaybei

    With a lot of reading and study. You have two options, twist scriptures and quote things out of context or with ignorance to the rest of the book to fit your own opinion, or do it the reasonable way. Here is a reasonable way to do it:

    First consider the lowest layer, the words, such as simple phrases and passages.

    Then go to the next layer, the concepts or basic reasons behind certain passages being in the bible.

    Then go to the next layer, the principles, laws and truths. These are made up of the previous layers concepts.

    The final layer of the word of God is the entire book as being a complete authority of God, unable to be changed or added to.

    Once you work your way through all those layers and keep track of them as you go, you will find out whether the bible is wrong/evil or not. It is said that atheists are on average more intelligent than theists. Right through the bible we find balance. If such a book were written by God, I believe he would write it in the middle of human thinking ability. It is my opinion that those who have a little less thinking ability want to understand it but struggle to, and those who have a great thinking ability struggle to want to understand it.

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  • by my2cents--Vote for Paul on July 21st, 2009

    my2cents--Vote for Paul

    The rule I go by is this. "God IS GOOD"
    If I read something that does not fit this then the problem is not with God it is more that likely with the misunderstanding of the scripture rather that God being bad.--We must also remember that every word in the Bible is not God speaking. Sometimes it is man, sometimes it is the devil, sometimes it is stating what happened but not condoning the happening.

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  • by Randoley on August 3rd, 2009

    Randoley

    I see no contradictions. I see some things that don't fit into our culture, but with study you can see that there is no evil in the Bible.

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