Biblical Contradictions Part 1

How many times have you heard “You can’t trust the Bible, it’s full of contradictions”?

I’ve recently become enlightened on exactly what a contradiction is thanks to a new series from the Answers in Genesis folks.

A contradiction is a proposition and its negation (often written as A and not A). A genuine contradiction cannot be true, even in principle. In other words, you can’t have a sunny night or a married bachelor or dry water. So the charge that the Bible contains contradictions is a serious one since Christians believe the Bible is without error.

There’s a difference between a contradiction and an objection, a category into which many of the accusations against the Bible fall. Just because the Bible contains miracles is not a contradiction, but an objection based on the assumption that miracles are impossible. Someone who objects to the miracles in the Bible and calls this a contradiction is in essence saying the Bible is false because the Bible is false. Miracles are a psychological problem for this person, not something that’s illogical. If God is all-powerful, he can perform any of the miracles we read about in the Bible with room to spare. The argument that something in the Bible isn’t plausible needs no refutation since that stance is merely an opinion.

A contradiction is something else entirely. If the Bible makes a claim and then asserts a contrary claim, they can’t both be true at the same time. Just one of these genuine contradictions could seriously challenge our faith so it’s important we understand how this works.

One type of alleged contradiction turns out to be the use of a word in a different sense, so that it’s possible to have what appears to be A and not A at the same time. A man can be a bachelor and married -- if you’re using the word in the sense that he’s married to his job. The controversy over James vs Romans when it comes to works vs faith offers just such a case. James is teaching about justification before men while Paul in Romans is talking about justification before God. So there’s no contradiction.

Other so called contradictions in the Bible are simply false dilemmas. One example is the idea that the Bible was given by the inspiration of God vs that it was written by men. The implication here is that only one of these can be true. But there’s no reason why the Bible can’t be both at the same time.

Taking things out of context is another place where contradictions in the Bible end up not being contradictions at all. The Bible includes many statements that are not true or that it doesn’t endorse. This occurs in Psalm 14:1 where it says ‘there is no God.’ Of course, it’s the fool who is saying this in his heart. The Bible isn’t claiming there’s no God, but if you lift out this one line, you can try to prove otherwise. Same thing in Judges when it says “everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” This is an indictment, not a directive. The Bible certainly isn’t condoning this type of behavior as a positive lifestyle.

(to be continued...)