felixomor:
The Bible does not contradict itself.
Over the centuries past, Numerous Agnostic and even some atheist professors who have thoroughly studied the entire bible have on many occasions, come to that conclusion, even despite admitting they dont believe it. Although many came to later believe after a complete study of it.
I would like to first define what a contradiction is according to the Oxford English dictionary;
A combination of statements, ideas, or features which are opposed to one another:
A good example will be thus:
"John went to school "
To contradict or oppose this statement,
I will have to say;
"John never went to school"
In the light of the aforementioned definition;
"John went to market"
would not even by any means, be a contradiction to
"John went to school"
Why? You may ask.
The answer is simple;
John may have gone to both school and the market, but at different times.
Both statements can be correct, and so will not be qualified to be regarded as opposed to each other. Hence not contradicting nor inconsistent with each other.
Another example would be:
1. "John met a girl called Mary at school"
2. "John met many girls at school"
These two statements coming from 2 different authors can be correct.
How?
The answer is simple;
John could have met Mary at 8am and subsequently met Patricia, Rose, Bolanle and Rukky at 9am, 10am, 11am and12noon respectively.
So it would obviously have been foolish to call both statements contradictions of each other, or to say both statements are not consistent with each other.
It would have been a different scenario if the original statement was;
"John met only Mary at school"
In this case,
"John met many girls at school"
would be a contradiction.
The word "only" would clearly be the changing factor.
And Still on this example, It will even be more foolish to ask,
"how many girls were at John's school?"
Why is it foolish to ask so?
The answer is easy too.
The subject of the statements was not the total population of girls at John's school.
The subject was rather based on the fact that John met girl/girls at school.
A last example would be;
"John said we could come"
and
"They said we could come"
These 2 statements coming from 2 different authors are not by any means contradictions, neither are they inconsistent, as there are numerous possible ways both could happen and still be true as follows;
1. John could be the spokesman of "they"
OR
2. John and "they" could have said so at different times.
OR
3. John and "they" could have also said so at the same
time in unison
4. And so on and so forth
The only way I could have contradicted
"John said we could come"
Is to have said
"John never said we could come"..
Thats that for buttressing the explanation of what contradictions are.
Coming Back to the bible and the issue of young internet users who claim to be atheists today, its quite unfortunate that many seem to throw around the word "contradiction" all in an attempt to discredit the bible for their personal fleshly gain.
They usually use the internet for this by posting falsely titled articles that make them appear like well researched bible skeptic sholars.
The Parts of the bible where they usually do this, are where different authors give accounts of the same biography or events.
For example, the gospels, 1st and 2nd Kings, Chronicles, Samuel etc.
I will, for the sake of this article, pick one from the popular ones they throw around.
Luke 24:4-5
And it came to pass, as they were much perplexed thereabout, behold, two men stood by them in shining garments:
5. And as they were afraid, and bowed down their faces to the earth, they said unto them, Why seek ye the living among the dead?
AND
Mark 16:5-6
And entering into the sepulchre, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, clothed in a long white garment; and they were affrighted.
6.And he saith unto them, Be not affrighted: Ye seek Jesus of Nazareth, which was crucified: he is risen; he is not here: behold the place where they laid him.
Firstly, Take note, Luke says what happened
"as they were perplexed"
Mark says what happened
"as they entered"
As we can see, Two different points in time
Just take note.
Secondly, also take note
The subject topic of both scriptures is NOT the total population count of men or angel messengers that were inside the tomb.
As a matter of fact, if you observe, carefully, none of those two parts of scriptures mentions the total number of angels that were at the tomb.
The subject of both scriptures was what transpired at different points in time while the women entered and also while they were within the tomb.
Just take note.
But guess what
These two portions of the bible are boldly and wrongly pointed as contradictions to each other on an anti-christian bible quiz website that was featured on one article written by Seun above
You can check it here:
http://exchristian.net/3 (link also above)
To tell you the extent of their insincerity and utter dishonesty,
They did it by asking the question
" How many men were in Jesus' tomb when the women arrived?"
A careful look at this question would show you that the subject of this question is based on the total population count seen by the women on arrival.
Hence the phrase "How many men"
Moreso, the quiz question also specified subject time; "on arrival"
However and contrarily, none of those bible verses highlighted above had the subject of total population counts.
And also, Mark was the only one who decribed in detail what happened as "they entered" which is synonymous with "on arrival"
They intentionally used a question with a different subject and subject time to arrive at the conclusion that both portions of the bible contradicted each other.
When in actual truth, their question (based on "arrival" was generated from a momentary description from Mark.
They devilishly picked another momentary description for another point in time, from Luke and arrived at the false claim of "contradiction".
Just As illustrated in our earlier example,
"John met a girl at school"
Vs.
"John met many girls at school"
Also, For clarity sake, no portion of the bible talks about the total number of angels that were at the tomb.
Unfortunately, This is not the only portion of the bible they have dishonestly represented as contradiction before.
They have done so on many other verses, as I said before.
For example, the bible never mentioned the number of wise men who came to present gifts to baby Jesus.
But what we find commonly today even among Christians is "three wise men".
This is Wrong!
Another example; the bible never mentions the age of the earth despite the fact that many people go around saying the bible says the earth is 6000 years old
Thank God for bible explanation websites today that can easily be found using search engines like google.
As a result, These verses can now easily be researched.
A good one is www.biblestudytools.com
Such websites are free for everyone to use.
And most importantly, thank God for the Holy Spirit Who reveals these things to us.
Whenever a sincere truth-seeking person is in doubts, he should pray for understanding and the Holy Ghost would open his eyes to understand God's word.
You could also search bible verse explanations on google and youtube.
There are many other free resources online.
Bible explanation is not meant for only theologians and seminarians.
It is sad that many of these young folks who have not read the bible completely before, fall for this "bible contradiction" gimmick and begin to call themselves atheists.
When u Ask them "why?" they would scream "bible contradiction".
The "bible contradiction" gimmick is a plot by the devil directed towards young people of today, to discourage them from approaching what he fears the most, which is the Sword of the Word of God.
He makes them to Forget what the term "contradiction" means in the first place. Giving them a false sense of protection for their sins.
As a result, they never get to ask God for forgiveness.
The devil also makes them forget the fact that being skeptic doesnt necessarily make you an atheist.
My prayer is that, may the Lord Open their eyes to the truth and deliver them from this grand deception.
Amen. God bless u sir for this write up |
Education › Re: 2019/2020 PTDF Local & Overseas Scholarship- Check If You Have Been Shortlisted by GodDey01: 7:55am On Dec 17, 2019
