Contradictions and Consistency in the Bible: Part One

Contradictions and Consistency in the Bible: Part One

Commentary by Andy Pope | FāVS News

Earlier on this site, as I described why I have made the Bible my holy book, I glossed over a very important component of that decision.

This has to do with the notion that the Bible is “full of contradictions.” All I said was that I have not found this to be the case. This I speak from over 40 years’ experience with reading the Bible pretty much every day.

I do not believe there are any significant contradictions in the Bible. I believe the entire text is “God-breathed.” (2 Timothy 3:16) God is perfectly powerful to have guided the evolution of his holy book. God presided invisibly over the Council of Nicea, and God made sure that over 250 prophecies in the Old Testament were fulfilled in the three year ministry of Jesus Christ.

In short, this book, if approached with reverence and an open mind, is a great gift to anyone embarking on a personal spiritual journey. Everything that appears to be a contradiction is a smokescreen designed by the god of this world, whom Jesus called the “father of lies,” also known as Satan.

The reason why the smokescreen is there is to keep people hung up on all the things that seem contradictory. That way they’ll never get past the confusing stuff, and they will never come to realize that the Bible is actually an amazingly consistent book, with a coherent thread from start to finish, and an incredible display of parallels between events that transpired thousands of years apart.

Every now and then, someone approaches me with an apparent contradiction they find particularly disturbing. Usually I am able immediately to explain why the passage is not contradictory. Not always, however, do people hear my explanation.

Moreover, this is no big specialized skill of mine. I’m certain if you were to approach former FāVS columnist Danielle Stephens or any other Bible-believing Christian on this site, they would do the same thing. This is because we’re not coming from the preconception that the Bible is full of contradictions, so we’re not looking for them. As a result, we tend see what the Scriptures intend to communicate, free of obfuscation. 

God and Satan

In some cases, as I endeavor to defend the veracity of a seemingly contradictory scripture, the person who brought up the passage appears to have shut off their intellect completely. While they may have been quite reasonable before I began my explanation, they now look as though none of my words have any impact.

This happened once when someone pointed out two Old Testament scriptures, one claiming that God was angry at some group of people, the other saying Satan was angry at that same group:

“And again the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel, and he moved David against them to say, ‘Go, number Israel and Judah.’” (2 Samuel 24:1)

“And Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number Israel …” (1 Chronicles 21:1)

“God equals Satan?” my friend objected.

Now I must admit this sure looks like a contradiction! In order to understand why it is not contradictory, we need to examine the roles of God and Satan in Scripture. 

We think of Satan as having no aspect of the mind of God. Satan epitomizes all that we humans would be if God had no influence over our lives. We would think that if God were angry about something, then Satan would be overjoyed about it.

But let me make this very clear. Satan is not the “opposite of God” nor is he of equal power. Satan is a created being. God created him for a purpose, in accordance with his plan.

Furthermore, throughout Scripture, God sends angels to do things that need to be done, but that he in his holiness cannot do. Satan is a fallen angel, but he’s still an angel.

Who delivers the plagues referenced in Revelation? Seven angels. God does not come down himself and shoot holes in the ozone layer.

It is also written that as Judas was about to betray Jesus, “Satan entered into him.” (Luke 22:3) In order for something as horrible as the earthly death of the Son of God to take place, Satanic power was needed.

In a situation where Satan and God are angry over the same thing, it is because Satan is taking care of some aspect of God’s plan that requires fierce, violent anger uncharacteristic of God. God would not have entered into Judas to empower him to betray Jesus, but it was at the same time God’s will that Christ should suffer, and be “bruised for our iniquities” (Isaiah 53:5), thereby succeeding in providing the propitiation for our sins. 

As I explained all this, I got the distinct impression this person was more concerned about having offended me than he was about actually listening to my words. I told him I was not offended, but I was frustrated that my response was not being grasped. This refusal to take in unwanted information is a universal phenomenon already brought forth in Scripture:

“In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” (2 Corinthians 4:4)

When a person is in this condition, they will see the same words in the Bible that I see, and they will interpret them completely differently. And yet, whoever has had the experience I had in 1983, commonly called the “born-again experience” — will suddenly the see the Bible the same way I do.

I repeat: suddenly. This includes people from all over the globe. People who don’t even speak the same language. People who have never met each other. People who have never stepped inside a church, nor prayed in its pews. They have had an experience — and then all of them, millions of them, find their experience confirmed in a book called the Bible.

How likely is it that such massive synchronicity is a coincidence?

Not too likely.

Reality Check

Still, there was a part of me that was uneasy after the interaction. I wondered if my rebuttal was being seen as a rationalization — an instance of confirmation bias, perhaps. To me, it was an easy answer. Had I run across the two passages myself first, I’d have thought exactly what I thought, and I’d not have batted an eye.

So to check myself, I approached a number of people with the same story. One of them happened to be my therapist.

My therapist at the time was not a Christian, but when I offered my explanation, she clearly understood.

“Of course that doesn’t equate God with Satan,” she said, looking puzzled.

“Yeah I know,” I replied. “Of course.”

The next person I approached was an uneducated blue collar worker. I was beginning to wonder if these brilliant guys had their minds blinded, not so much by Satan directly, but by all the trappings of academic intellectualism.

The blue collar guy also understood, and I was somewhat relieved. In fact, no one with whom I discussed those verses failed to grasp my explanation, except for that one guy. And he happened to be a highly educated, brilliantly creative, diligently studious man.

“Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know Him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe.” (1 Corinthians 1:20-21, emphasis mine)

The Angry Blogger

I once read a very angry blog post in which the writer cited a contradiction between John 3:16 and the latter verses of Romans 1 – arguably the most hated passages in the Bible.

“How can God claim to love the world and send every gay person to hell?”

Well, I don’t suppose he can. But do these Scriptures actually say that?

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him shall not perish, but shall have everlasting life.” (John 3:16, emphasis mine)

This famous verse references the destiny of those who believe.The horrible picture of wanton debauchery and orgiastic revelry depicted in Romans 1:18-32 references the destiny of those who are condemned. Paul’s reference to homosexual acts are but two items on a lengthy list of actions that evidence a love of sinful pleasure having replaced the love of God.

The thrust of 2 Timothy 3:2-3 is similar. There is a long list of evils, depicting a depraved state of humankind. These are those who “hold the truth in unrighteousness.” They know the truth — but they do not care. They act in direct opposition to the truth and in fact encourage others to do the same.

“They received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion, so that they will believe the lie.”  (2 Thessalonians 2:10-11)

So, the two passages the angry blogger found to be “contradictory” refer to two different groups of people. The first refers to believers, who will be saved on the basis of their faith. The second refers to those who know the truth, but who cast aside the truth in order to indulge the sinful pleasures of life — even to the point of devising new forms of evil, when they tire of the old.

In any case, it nowhere says “every gay person is going to hell.” The condition of homosexuality that one is born with is not a choice. In order to sin, one has to make a choice. There are people who have that condition, and yet they do not sin.

There is, in conclusion, absolutely no contradiction between the two passages. I am again sorry the angry blogger had to get so bent out of shape over it all.

Full of Contradictions?

I was talking on the phone with a dear old friend of mine who happens to be a Kabbalistic Jew. As I spoke the words of the following verse, he nodded assent.

“Do not be overly righteous, and do not make yourself too wise. Why should you destroy yourself?” (Ecclesiastes 7:16)

“I feel that,” said my friend. “We’re not supposed to be perfectionists. That’ll drive us to an early grave.”

Then I quoted the next verse: “Do not be excessively wicked, and do not be a fool. Why should you die before your time?” (Ecclesiastes 7:17)

What was my friend’s response?

“The Bible is full of contradictions!”

I almost feel I need not address this one, neither logically nor biblically. It’s too obvious the two Scriptures back-to-back point to two extremes, and the point of the couplet is balance.

Why It All Bugs Me

The reason why all this stuff bugs me so much is that, while I pray and open up my holy book looking for truth and guidance, there appears to be a contingent of people who open up the Bible looking for contradictions. Well if that’s what you want to see, you’ll see it — whether it’s there or not.

And while I can’t exactly say I’m offended, it is hurtful that a book I revere so highly is routinely mocked and mistreated by people who don’t even care to give it a fair shake.

Of course the horrible parts are horrible. But the horrible parts of this world are horrible. The Bible in many places reflects that horror. But why do people get hung up on pointing out the bad stuff, and not open themselves to the good stuff, which is exponentially more beautiful than the ugly parts are ugly?

It’s because they are not interested in finding the Spirit of Christ in his word — so they are looking for something else.

Conclusion

When I was a child prodigy, at about the age of seven, my dad saw me reading the family Bible. He lost no time in warning me: “Andy, that Bible is just full of contradictions! ”Naturally, I began to look for the contradictions. But I couldn’t find any. When I told my dad that, he got really mad and confiscated the family Bible, forbidding me to ever read it again.

Of course that didn’t last too long. But I did veer from the course when I was in college, and it wasn’t until I was about 28 that I began reading it again. This time, for the first time, I felt a sense that some benign spirit was guiding me and teaching me through the reading of this particular book.

Then, when I was 30, something happened that confirmed the truth and power of Scripture beyond all reasonable doubt. Foregoing details till a future column, I got down on my knees and shouted something along these lines:

“God thank you for writing this book! No human being could have possibly come up with all this!! I believe in you – and I give my heart to you – because you have given me this book!”

At that, I accepted Christ, in the spring of 1983. Any previous reading of my family Bible was nothing compared to the reading I was about to do.

So the next column in this two-part miniseries will address why I have found the Bible to be so amazingly consistent — and what the reaction of some of my unbelieving friends has been to my discovery. 

The views expressed in this opinion column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of FāVS News. FāVS News values diverse perspectives and thoughtful analysis on matters of faith and spirituality.