UNDERSTANDING THE CONTRADICTIONS IN THE BIBLE

Many scholars are caught nothing even astounded by the fierce arguments of a Muslim or an atheist, saying, the Bible is a corrupted document concerning the Word of God.  Both the antagonists, Muslim and Atheists, claim that the Holy Bible is filled with controversies and contradictions regarding the errors and ambiguities written in it!

On the contrary, some Christian scholars are just willing to die for their belief that the Bible is error free but are unable to contend for their faith.  Obviously, the Christian scholars do lack the knowledge and the understanding on why such errors and ambiguities are extant in the holy Bible.  Jimmy Swaggart and Stanley Sjoberg were both caught flat footed by the Ahmed Deedat when Mr Deedat presented the apparent errors and ambiguities written in the scriptures in the debates that took place.

At the outset, Mr Deedat is a Muslim apologist who claims to have the knowledge on both the Quran and the Holy Bible and the Vedas.  He would normally defend Quran as the Word of God and not the Holy Bible or the Vedas.  Deedat learns more from his debate experiences the weaknesses of every Christian apologist.   Matter of fact, he would use the errors presented by Jimmy Swaggart to Stanley Sjoberg in his debate with him later in Stockholm, Sweden in 1991.  Both Jimmy Swaggart and Stanley Sjoberg failed to convince or silence Mr Deedat.  Hence, Deedat is evermore confident of his scholarship in comparative religion.

Going back, this representation would like to make every human being understand on the reason why there are errors and ambiguities in the Holy Bible by way of attaining the spirit of understanding on who God is and what makes up the Holy Bible.

Along this point, I would like to lay down facts and events and circumstances and situations that affect the writing of the Holy Bible.  Let me, therefore, begin on God and Man point of view.

God is infinitely and eternally all-mighty and all-knowing and omnipresent in BEING while man is a creation of God finite in all aspects of its being.  Clearly, man has not the capacity to know God or be equal with God so that he can claim that he knows God.  To claim that a man knows God is a nonsense and a big red lie! All apologists that come in any form and substance already fail in this test no matter how they say that they know God and God is talking with them or is using them.

Firstly, God is talking to all men and even with Satan. I mean, there are many accounts of experiences written in the Holy Bible that He spake to Moses, to the angels in heaven, to the sons of God, to Satan, to the devils, to Pharaoh-nechoh king of Egypt, to king Cyrus, to King Abimelech of Gerar, to the King of Assyria, to Balaam the greedy prophet and to many other false prophets.  The point here is that what a creature knows of God as revealed to him in one place and to another creature whom God is talking in another purpose will clearly expose the potent reason why there are contradictions and ambiguities in the Holy Bible. 

Obviously, the revelations of God in one place to another people and to another purpose and will, and to another intent, and to another judgment, and to another time and to another counsel and to another pleasure, will create a big difference in the experiences of peoples as a whole.

To cite an example is the experience of men with God in the time dimension.  Moses was a man of God commanded to take out a people from Egypt and to fulfil the promise of God to Abraham saying,

Genesis 15:13  And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years;   

Genesis 15:14   And also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge: and afterward shall they come out with great substance.

Genesis 15:15   And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace; thou shalt be buried in a good old age.

Genesis 15:16   But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again: for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full.

The promise of God to Abraham to own the land of Canaan had an undertone which is to spew out the abominable inhabitants of the holy land.  Apparently, God was counting on the iniquities of the Amorites until it is full which took 430 years of waiting while Israel was in Egypt under great bondage.

Therefore, the time of Moses was the time to kill and to destroy nations and to receive the promise of God to own the holy land of Canaan of the Amorites who were the descendants of Ham the son of Noah.

In contrast and in another time, Jesus the Christ was commanded to bring and spread love to the world beginning at Jerusalem.  Jesus was commanded to die on the cross which is very much different from that of Moses until the times of the judges and the kings of Israel and Judah. The times of the judges and the kings were a time to kill and receive the promise but the time of Jesus was to create and reconcile a people in love purposely to use them to glorify the name of God in Jesus!

In both times of Moses and Jesus there is a truth to learn about God.  God has always a purpose and will and intent and time and judgment and counsel and pleasure for all men (P2WITJC).  Since the ancient times God is angry at sin so that he drowned the old world in the time of Noah, He used Israel to destroy the abominable nations at the land of Canaan which was also a promise of God to Abraham, and God killed Ananias and Sapphira in the time of the apostles for lying to the Holy Ghost! 

All the time Jesus was telling to people not to commit sin anymore.  Sin in both the Old and the New Testaments is clearly the subject for cleansing.  The manner of God which is his anger with sin is a truth the whole world misses to see.  This is the reason why many religion is teaching that God is merciful and kind and loving.

They missed seeing the truth about God that He is holy and perfect and being a Spirit there can be no way for him to forgive the sins of men because the Spirit is always against the flesh. 

Joshua 24: 19 And Joshua said unto the people, Ye cannot serve the LORD: for he is an holy God; he is a jealous God; he will not forgive your transgressions nor your sins.

          

           This is the reason why, ever since, God has been sending his servants to intercede for the men in the flesh and teach them the way how to make themselves holy and acceptable to God.  Men, however, refused to accept them but would kill them. In the same vein, God sent servants to intercede because of the absence of a man who is able and acceptable by God to intercede for them.

16
Isaiah 59:16  And he saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor: therefore his arm brought salvation unto him; and his righteousness, it sustained him.

          

           Now, to continue and to realign ourselves back to the main subject of this article, contradictions also abound in the Holy Bible because the Bible is composed of 66 books written by different authors of different times and places and intellectual capacities.  The numbers can easily vary (errors in figures) when put into writing by another person in another time and place because there is no internet or a database to keep the information and a system to proofread or edit a letter or a book as to keep its syntax or facts or contents or style as firmly the same or as correct, especially, so that these 66 books are separated by hundreds or thousands of years away and by distances on the ground by different language and cultures, to make the matter worse.      

          

          What is important are the transcribed events that took place and the witnesses who wrote the events.  What cannot be generally accepted today (by Muslims) out of the transcriptions are the miracles written that is being claimed to have happened then.  The Muslims simply deny the power of God. 

However, no one can tell today whether those things actually happened. Technically, no one can tell whether there was a Jesus or a Muhammad who ever existed on this earth because what remained as a proof of their existence is only a book.  No one ancient man ever survived long enough till today to witness for us that the Holy Bible and the Quran are really taken from the accounts of true events or experiences of old.

          Setting aside the mind of a skeptic and an agnostic let us continue on the reasons why contradictions appear in the Holy Bible.  As told earlier, the Bible is written by different witnesses who transcribed the events which they witnessed and experienced in a particular time and place. 

Take for example the death of Stephen in the book of Acts in which the witness just wrote what he saw and heard from Stephen just before and during the stoning of Stephen.  The witness of Stephen concerning Abraham and Jacob was erroneous.  The witness who wrote the event was just, too, honest and inspired  to write about the incident, hence, the errors. 

Even, Paul’s account on his way to Damascus was erroneous because of the absence of a proofreader and an editor when you read his testimony in another place!  One can only surmise that the sufferings and afflictions which Paul walked and lived during his lifelong ministry could have affected his memory, hence, the errors of his statements.  Obviously, however, not affecting the works and ways of God which he walked and lived in his spiritual life.

The Truth of God can be extracted from God’s actions, ways, works, manner, laws, commandments, revelations and from the testimonies of His servants the prophets as written in the Holy Bible. 

Now, the Holy Bible is a book of 66 books of various authors which coherence and consistency is only seen and understood in the eyes of Truth.  Unless, a man with the Spirit of God is come to expound and make the right interpretation, thereof, this world especially the Muslims will never come to agree with it.  They will eternally claim that the Bible is a corrupted word of God.  Notwithstanding that the Quran is a not a book of the Spirit Kingdom but is a book of the animal kingdom, so to speak!