Is it really true that the Bible contradicts itself? "Oh! I can't believe it," you say! Well, that's what we're being told. We'd better look into that, don't you think? Stay tuned; we will.
A hearty greeting to you, my friend, and, welcome to our Bible study program In Search of the Lord's Way to become and to be a Christian, all of which is revealed in the Bible. S-a-y, it's good to have you with us, and we pray we'll both be blessed by our study together.
Unbelievers and critics are fond of pointing to what they perceive to be inconsistencies --or discrepancies --or contradictions in the Bible, the Word of God. You see, if it's true that one writer or one biblical passage contradicts others, --well, they can't both be truthful, and that proves the Bible is not the word of God, therefore, it's unreliable; and unworthy of your trust and obedience. That kind of treatment of the Bible is neither new or surprising in academia; it's even expected a-n-y-m-o-r-e. However, it is surprising --and disappointing --and y-e-s, it's even discouraging when it's taught in American religious institutions --when it's advanced by and among professed Bible believers. Many a faithful Christian youth has been influenced to abandon his or her faith in God and Christ and the Bible by a lack of preparation for that kind of teaching when they leave home for higher education. It's with the intention of helping them and helping to preserve their faith, that we present this program today.
Should you like a free printed copy or audio cassette tape of the program, either for yourself, or if you have a child about ready to leave for college in the fall who's not listening now, you may have it simply by writing us: In Search of the Lord's Way, P.O. Box 371, Edmond, OK 73083. Our e-mail address is Searchtv@searchtv.org. Or, if you prefer to call, you may use our toll-free telephone number (1-800-321-8633). Ken Helterbrand's going to lead us in singing, then I'll be back for Bible reading and prayer.
In their 1999 book, "Surveying The Religious Landscape: Trends In U.S. Beliefs, George Gallup, Jr. of the Gallup polling organization and D. Michael Lindsay say on page 36 that: "More Americans are moving toward an interpretation of the Bible as a book of fables, history, and moral precepts...Attempts at demythologizing the Bible that have been ongoing in the academy for years seem to be moving more and more from the classroom to the pews...As recently as 1963, two persons in three viewed the Bible as the actual word of God, to be taken literally, word for word. Today, only one person in three still holds to that interpretation." There's no doubt about it, that has to be one of the basic reasons for the looseness and laxity in today's churches with regards to teachings on faith and morals.
The biblical passage we red awhile ago says very plainly --"All Scripture is given by inspiration of God." That's the King James and the New King James versions, and in both, the little word "is" is italicized, meaning it was added by the translators to make the thought clear and complete in English. Otherwise, the verse would read, "All Scripture --given by the inspiration of God, --is profitable for doctrine..." as though there are portions of scripture not given by the inspiration of God --and could possibly be interpreted to mean some parts of the Bible are not inspired. In the minds of many, that would explain and perhaps confirm what they perceive to be discrepancies.
However, the word "Scripture" in this verse is a word that appears in the King James Version 32 times, and always refers to the volume we call the Bible or a specified part of it. For example, in Mark 12:10, Jesus asked His critics, "Have you not even read this Scripture?". Then He quoted Psalm 118:22-23. Matthew records the same event in his narrative of the life of the Messiah (21:42) and has Jesus asking, "Have you never read in the Scriptures?"
The plural form, "Scriptures" is found 21 times in the KJV and is always a reference to the Bible, and we just quoted one of them. What I'm saying in all that is simply this: if "Scripture" is used in our text as it is in all the other passages (and we have no reason to believe otherwise), it means the Bible (all of it or every part of it) is inspired of God. The book says, "All Scripture is given by the inspiration of God." All the Bible is given by the inspiration of God. That means, then, that no part of the Bible is not inspired of God.
N-o-w, the word "inspiration" appears in the Scriptures only twice in the Bible (in this verse and in Job 32:8), and it means "God-breathed." So, what we've said to this point is that all the Bible (all parts of it), from Genesis to Revelation is the God-breathed Word of the Living God. And you don't have to be a scholar in the Bible languages to know that. It's only necessary to "search the Scriptures" as in Acts 17:11, and as we've done here today, to know whether these things are so, or to study (KJV) or "Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth" (2 Tim. 2:15). God's word is truth (John 17:17). It is impossible for God to lie (Heb. 6:18). (You sometimes hear it said that nothing's impossible with God. Well, it is impossible for God to lie. You can count on it.) Anyway, David said of the part of Scripture he wrote that "The spirit of the Lord spoke by me, and His word was in my tongue" (2 Sam. 23:2). And, the apostle Paul, who wrote more of the New Testament than anyone else, said in 1Corinthians 2:12-14, "Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. These things we also speak, not in words which man's wisdom teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual [words KJV]." And in Galatians 1:11-12 he says, "I make known to you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man. For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but it came through the revelation of Jesus Christ." The conclusion as it relates to our study today must be obvious by now: Since every word of Scripture is inspired or God-breathed, there are no contradictions or inconsistencies in the Bible. What the Bible says is the way it was --and is --and always will be.
"But," scholarship objects, "That's verbal inspiration or inerrancy," he says. And to him t-h-a-t is unacceptable! It's extremism! However, there are others, honest and sincere students of God's word, like the person who e-mailed us recently seeking help with harmonizing two passages in the Old Testament. And we'll discuss these as an example of (1) the presence of passages that do seem to conflict, (2) and to show that when studied carefully and prayerfully any Scripture is in perfect harmony with all other Scripture. Let's consider as many of the alleged contradictions as we can in our short time.
Ezekiel 18:20 says, "The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not bear the guilt of the father, nor the father bear the guilt of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself." And, Exodus 20:5 is a quote of God when He's announcing the Ten Commandments: "I, the Lord your God," He said, "am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate me." In one verse God says, the son shall not bear the guilt of the father, nor the father, the son. The other says God will visit the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generation. Contradiction? Nooo. Let's see.
All Scripture must be understood in its context. The Exodus passage relates to the giving of the law (the Ten Commandments) to Israel. (1) "You shall have no other Gods before me. (2) You shall not make for yourselves a carved image. (3) You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain. (4) Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy." These four commandments all had to do with their revering God. And verse five speaks of the consequences of the their breaking those commandments --the consequences the nation would suffer if they took to worshiping and serving other gods (which they did do later). Their children, although they had not shared in the guilt, themselves, would --and did, suffer the consequences for generations.
The Ezekiel passage came hundreds of years later and can't be interpreted in the Exodus context. It must be considered in its own situation. The children of Israel were about to go into bondage to a heathen nation because of the sins of their evil kings. They even had a proverb about it. They were saying, "The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge" (Ez. 18:2). And Ezekiel replied in verse 3, "As I live, says the Lord God, you shall no longer use this proverb in Israel...The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not bear the guilt of the father." --The guilt, no! The consequences, yes! A timely example: a person may be promiscuous, become infected with an STD, a sexually transmitted disease, and his offspring for three or four generations may suffer the ill effects. But they will not share his guilt. See? There's beautiful harmony in what seemed at first to be a contradiction.
This subject recently came up in our Sunday Bible class at Edmond church. We were studying the book of Galatians. We came to chapter six, verse two which says, "Bear one another's burden and so fulfill the law of Christ." Then, verse five says, "Each one shall bear his own load [burden]" KJV. Is there a contradiction there? No, of course not. Instead of forcing a discrepancy between verses 2 and 5, with just a little study of the setting, we learned that Christians can and should help one another in the time of distress, whether it's spiritual or emotional or physical, or --well any other. But we must also know every one must bear the burden of responsibility of his own guilt before God. No one can bear that for another person.
Probably the verses I've found most commonly believed to be in conflict are Ephesians 2:8-9 and James 2:26. Some very recognized preachers have even been known to reject the entire book of James as being inspired of God, in order to evade this seeming conflict. W-e-l-l, the first of these, as you probably know, says, "By grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast." And the other passage, James 2:24, says, "You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only." Now the careless student, or the prejudiced soul will find a contradiction here. But, if there is, one --or perhaps both verses are in error. One is false or maybe both are false --if there's a contradiction. But, in this case as in all others, a little unbiased study reveals the harmony.
In the Ephesian passage Paul is saying, that salvation's scheme or plan didn't originate with man. Reconciliation with God is not the sinner's idea. It isn't of our working that we can be reconciled with God. It's God's doing. God invented the salvation and He initiated it in the gift of His Son as an atonement for our sins. Furthermore, there's absolutely nothing you or I can do --we can't feed enough hungry people or clothe enough needy people or any such works as that to earn our salvation or to put God in our debt to save us. Salvation is not by meritorious works, or works of merit; it's a free gift of God. Whereas James is saying, the same thing Jesus said in Matthew 7:21: "Not everyone who says to Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven." Again, in Mark 16:16 Jesus said, "He who believes and is baptized shall be saved." You see? Jesus was saying to be saved a person's faith has to be real enough, strong enough, --there just has to be enough genuineness about it to obey what God commands, or it isn't any good. Not everyone who simply says, "I accept Jesus as my personal Savior" is really saved. Now, I just know you can understand that. If I can, I just know you can. Since you can understand how to turn on your TV set, you're bound to be able to understand that. And that eliminates any supposed contradiction between Paul in Ephesians 2:8, 9 and James in James 2:24. Well, there are other alleged contradictions in the Bible, any one of which simply evaporates just as these have, with some careful study. Try it before you abandon the Bible and reject God, will you?
This problem with "inerrancy" is causing trouble in about every group that claims any affiliation with Christianity. You see, "Faith [in Christ] comes by hearing the word of God [what we believe the Scriptures to be]" (Rom. 10:17). But, if a person has no confidence in --or if he loses confidence in the authenticity of the Scriptures, he will --inevitably be --or become a disbeliever in Christ. That's one reason I said earlier that it's surprising, even discouraging that some professed Christians are denying inerrency. If the devil through his agents can convince people, especially ministerial students, that parts of the Bible are inaccurate, the victory is his. Bible believers and preachers will be held in ridicule as "extremists" and "traditionalists," and the church will become a mere social club. Society will go into a state of rot, and the nation will die.
It's impossible in a message the length of this one, to study all the perceived errors in the Scriptures, even if we were disposed to do it. We've only tried to demonstrate how easily such criticisms of the Bible can be overcome by a little honest open-hearted study. It's time for one out of three of us who believe the Bible is the inspired word of God, to take a firm stand on it. I pray we've been helpful.
If you'd like a free copy of this program, either on audio cassette tape or in printed form, please request it by writing to In Search of the Lord's Way, P.O. Box 371, Edmond, OK 73083. Or if you're into e-mail, our address is Searchtv@searchtv.org. Or you may use our toll-free telephone number (1-800-321-8633). They're free. They're provided by churches of Christ in this area. Say, if you'd like to attend a Bible-believing church, you should investigate the church of Christ nearest you. If you need help in locating one, please let us be that help. Use that address or telephone number we just gave you. We'd like to be that help. If you'd be interested in a personal systematic study of the Bible from beginning to end by correspondence, we'd like to enroll you in our course. It's free, too. Use the same address. If you'd like someone to come to your house to study the Bible with you personally and in the privacy of your home, tell us that. We'll send some one by. We won't send anyone to see you, unless you request such a visit, so if that's desire, please tell us.
It's been my experience in years of study and preaching that when I come upon a Scripture, or someone calls my attention to a one, that seems to contradict some other passage with which I'm familiar, more study is required to understand it. And when I've given it that study, the conflict seems to melt away and disappear like steam into the air. Please remember that every Scripture, to be properly understood, must be interpreted in the light of all other Scripture. It may sound scholarly to some to argue that there are contradictions or fallacies in the Scripture, but it's folly, pure foolishness. God's word is true (John 17:17). It's never been proven wrong about anything on which it speaks. Join our study again next week. God bless you. We love you.
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