Alleged Bible Contradictions #3

5. God is tired and rests
Ex 31:17
God is never tired and never rests
Is 40:28

God never gets tired. After creating the earth in six days, God "rested" in that He ceased working. He was not tired or unable to work further. This was done for our benefit, not His (Mark 2:27).

 

6. God is everywhere present, sees and knows all things
Prov 15:3/ Ps 139:7-10/ Job 34:22,21
God is not everywhere present, neither sees nor knows all
things
Gen 11:5/ Gen 18:20,21/ Gen 3:8

    God is omniscient and omnipresent. Adam and Eve attempted to hide themselves, and God questioned them for their benefit, not for His; one can ask a child who broke the lamp while already knowing full well what happened. God knew what was going on in Babel and Sodom, but addressed those issues at a particular time in history.

7. God knows the hearts of men
Acts 1:24/ Ps 139:2,3
God tries men to find out what is in their heart
Deut 13:3/ Deut 8:2/ Gen 22:12

    God knew what would happen; however, without putting Abraham and others to the test, they could have argued that they would have acted differently. God allowed them to act, and in so doing proved to themselves and to the word that their actions were either good or evil. Similarly, God knew that the Amorites would become thoroughly evil and worthy of judgement in Abraham's day, but allowed them enough time to manifest their wickedness (Genesis 15:16).

8. God is all powerful
Jer 32:27/ Matt 19:26
God is not all powerful
Judg 1:19

    The weakness in Judges 1:19 is not in God, but in Judah; they either failed to remain faithful to God, or they grew fearful when they saw the iron chariots. God could not drive them out, only because God would not violate His nature to do so.

Alleged Bible Contradictions #2

3.     God dwells in light 1Tim 6:16

God dwells in darkness 1 Kings 8:12/ Ps 18:11/ Ps 97:2

Two different metaphorical illustrations are used, but the same thing is being described. God is unapproachable by any natural means; because of this, the only way we can be near to Him is through the means that He has determined.

 

4.     God is seen and heard Ex 33:23/ Ex 33:11/ Gen 3:9,10/ Gen 32:30/ Is 6:1/Ex 24:9-11

God is invisible and cannot be heard John 1:18/ John 5:37/ Ex 33:20/ 1 Tim 6:16

While this appears to be two different pictures of God, in actuality there are many different issues being looked at in these passages, and the atheists who attack the Bible are lumping them all together as if they made two simple statements. The fact that two of these apparently contradictory statements are located within a few verses (Exodus 33:20-23) makes it clear that the passages are being misrepresented. The situation becomes much clearer when the passages are viewed in their contexts.

God the Father is invisible; nobody has ever actually seen God. However, God has chosen to manifest His power in certain ways throughout human history. Many of the passages that speak of seeing God deal with the manner in which His glory has manifested; God was not actually a burning bush, but He made something for Moses to see to make communication easier. When God withdrew that manifestation, Moses needed to hide, because even that fraction of God's glory was too intense for any man to survive. God did not say that it could not be seen (as the infidels have presented Exodus 33:20) but that Moses could not see His glory and live. Similarly, God is omnipresent, but made the sound of a voice in a single location so that Adam and Eve would have been able to communicate easier.

Exodus 33:11 does not say that Moses saw God face to face, but rather spoke to Him directly, rather than through a mediator. Isaiah 6:1 says that Isaiah saw the Lord, but John 12:41 clarifies this, to say that it was not the Father that he saw, but Christ. This can also explain the apparent contradictions in Genesis 32:30 and Exodus 24:9-11. John 5:37 does not primarily deal with the manifestation of God, but rather that these people had not been following God, and had not been "hearing His voice" through His Word.

Alleged Bible Contradictions #1

(This appeared in the 1/17/10 church bulletin. This will be the first in a series.)

"How can you possibly believe the Bible? Everybody knows it's full of contradictions." This is what you always hear when discussion the Bible with unbelievers. Countless self-described "infidels" have propagated lists of over one hundred pairs of verses which they claim are contradictory, and thus are evidence that the Bible is a work of men and should be ignored. Many people have blindly accepted the notion that there are contradictions in the Bible because they have heard it so often; these people are guilty of the same thing of which they accuse others. Psychologist William James said, "There's nothing so absurd that if you repeat it often enough, people will believe it."

Are there difficult passages in the Bible? Nobody will deny that; even Peter said that some things that Paul wrote were "hard to be understood" (2 Peter 3:16). However, there is a great difference between "difficult" and "contradictory." For there to actually be a contradiction, there would need to be two passages that could not be reconciled together. If there is a possible explanation, then there is no contradiction. Occasionally, there may be several possible explanations; we do not need to prove which is the correct explanation to show that there is not a contradiction.

1. God is satisfied with his works. Gen 1:31
God is dissatisfied with his works. Gen 6:6

This is a typical infidel attack. God was pleased with His creation after He created it flawless. Hundreds of years later, the great majority of the world's population had turned wicked, and He was no longer pleased. Few would consider this a true contradiction, unless they were already biased against the Bible.

2. God dwells in chosen temples 2 Chron 7:12,16
God dwells not in temples Acts 7:48

There is nothing in 2 Chronicles 7 that says that God would dwell in the temple. Rather, it was to be a house of sacrifice, a place for the people to come and worship. This was for their sakes, not for God's. This is contrasted with the pagan gods, who were thought to physically live in the temples, and needed their followers to feed them and provide for them.