Doubt Busters

Theologians have placed Bible difficulties and contradictions in various classifications in order to unravel their problems. For instance, some problems are due to sequence, such as the events following Jesus’ death at the end of each of the gospels. They don’t follow the same order of events nor include the same details. Yet some groups have assembled perfectly plausible sequences of events from the four chapters.

Another classification is scribal error. Copying a document by hand day after day is bound to introduce some errors, such as repeated words, missed words, missed or miscopied letters, or repeated or dropped lines. By comparison of manuscripts and careful analysis, we’ve been able to detect these types of errors.

Our English Bibles are translated from the existing (called “extant”) manuscripts, and are frequently not word-for-word translations. Mistranslations have introduced complications between verses, especially in earlier Bible translations, where none really exist.

People have introduced difficulties due to their own interpretations of the Bible text. Correcting their understanding usually resolves the so-called difficulty.

Another classification deals with the compression of events. Details are omitted to condense the story or focus on key points. For instance, in Matthew 20:30 we read of two blind men calling out for Jesus to have mercy on them. In Mark 10:46 we find only one blind man calling out for mercy, and we are given his name. They are either two separate events or Mark’s retelling of the story leaves out one of the blind men. Mark’s quick-moving narrative is noted for its sparse detail.

The Bible authors have arranged their material to suit their audiences, and that introduces another series of Bible difficulties. Matthew included details in his gospel that concerned his audience of Jews. Mark and Luke audiences were different, so those details were omitted, since they were not necessary.

Another classification concerns geography. In one case, Jesus is said to leave Jericho to go somewhere. In another gospel of the same event, Jesus enters Jericho. Which is correct? Both are! In the first case, the writer references the old Jericho site to place Jesus, while another author uses the new Jericho site. Hundreds of Bible difficulties have been cleared up by archeological digs. Historical figures and places thought to be made up have been uncovered over the centuries that verify the biblical accounts.

The Bible’s arithmetic has been called into question. For instance, we are given the circumference of a large bowl in 2 Chronicles 4:2, and its width. Yet the width does not exactly match a bowl of that circumference. In this case and others, that’s because our tools make exact measurements to several decimal places while they used their fingers, hands, arms, and crude sticks. Their measurements were of necessity approximations.

We encounter other Bible difficulties when we apply our present-day thinking or customs to the ancient times and mores of the Bible. In some cases, what is wrong to us today was acceptable in their times.

Other Bible problems arise from thinking of God as a two-dimensional cardboard character. In one place he loves; in another place he hates. Well, don’t we all love something and hate other things? God’s character is complex, like our spouse’s!

Many, many knots have been unraveled over the centuries, but some stubborn tangles still remain. Thankfully, many solutions have been offered for the remaining problems, though they do not convince all.

The main contention people have is that if God is so perfect, and he’s the one who wrote the Bible, then why would there be any contradictions at all? Why can’t every event be perfectly synchronized among the various writers? Why can’t all arithmetic figures be exact to the decimal point? Surely he should have anticipated all the problems that would arise today.

Actually, today we have more resources for proving the accuracy of the Bible than ever before. Witness the explosion of Christian books from the perspective of archaeology, science, ancient manuscripts, and theology that are successfully putting to rest centuries of attacks. Because literally thousands of objections have been raised and thoroughly and convincingly refuted over the centuries, I have no problems with any remaining issues.

As seen in other places in this book, God has provided us with more than enough helps for us to intellectually accept what he has written. Remember that the Bible was written for God’s people. You can expect his enemies to try to find reasons not to believe. No matter how much evidence comes up to verify the Bible, they’ll always find another problem. Web sites gleefully list the many “problems” they’ve found. If they are looking for problems, they will always find them. This book is not for them. Do not argue with them.

On the other hand, there are those who want to believe, but cannot because of the difficulties they’ve read about. These difficulties are surmountable for a believer, but to someone who knows little about the Creator, they are a strong barrier to the truth of God. If any of them really wants to know the truth, the Lord will guide them there, as he has been doing for thousands of years to others.

For those who love arguments, books like this one in your hand will be worthless. For those who are seeking answers to Bible difficulties, this and similar books will help fill the need.

What Do You Think?

a. Many skeptics do not consider the Bible divinely inspired because of inconsistent details among the gospel accounts. If the details of all gospels perfectly dovetailed with each other, why do you think skeptics would still not consider them divinely inspired?

b. Some believers are able to put aside any contradictions and wait to see if any answers crop up later. Others decide to stop believing everything about the Bible when they find a problem area. What do you think about these two approaches?

c. When you get contradictory information from two acquaintances, how do you resolve the issue – do you heckle them, simply believe the most trustworthy person, do more research independently, or use another method? Do you deal with Bible difficulties the same way?

I used to interpret my Bible that way. When I trusted Christ, God imputed his righteousness to me. Therefore I thought the verses referring to the good, wise, and righteous I applied to myself. Everything evil I applied to the unregenerate … until I found those same negative verses in the NT being applied to the believer.

Wicked
“Therefore ‘put away from yourselves that wicked person’ ” (1 Corinthians 5:13). Here, Paul applied an OT verse (Deuteronomy 13:5) to a man in the church who had immoral relations and was corrupting the others. He was pronounced “wicked” and ordered removed from the church until proofs of repentance were seen. He was still a Christian, though, and was allowed back into the church meeting when he repented.

Evil
“For he is God’s minister to you for good. But if you do evil, be afraid; for he does not bear the sword in vain; for he is God’s minister, an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil” (Romans 13:4). Many verses warn us about stopping certain bad behaviors. This verse was directed to Christians in Rome. Be assured that if we willfully continue in the way God has forbidden us, he will not call us righteous. “Little children, let no one deceive you. He who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous” (1 John 3:7).

Good and Evil
“Let him turn away from evil and do good; Let him seek peace and pursue it. For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and His ears are open to their prayers; but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil” (1 Peter 3:11-12). In this verse, Peter does not only quote the OT (Psalms 34:15-16), but applies the positive and negative consequences to the believer. The Lord makes a difference between believers who are good and bad according to their works.

Proud and Humble
“Likewise you younger people, submit yourselves to your elders. Yes, all of you be submissive to one another, and be clothed with humility, for ‘God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble’ ” (1 Peter 5:5). Peter encourages us to be humble, using an OT teaching (Proverbs 3:34). He hopes the negative consequences will carry enough force to alter our behavior so that we may receive grace.

Wicked and Lazy
“His lord answered and said unto him, Thou wicked and slothful servant” (Matthew 25:26a). After returning to his home, this lord asked his servants to give an account of how they fared with his goods. The third servant stepped forward and admitted burying the goods in the ground. For that, he was called a wicked and lazy servant. This was an analogy, for the Lord is telling us what will happen at the judgment when his people will give an account of their service performed while he was gone.

We will stand before God at Judgment Day, and he will evaluate our works. In the character we have when we die (or are raptured), in that state we will appear before him. We may have the righteousness of God imputed to us by faith, but God will judge our characters by our works. Paul did not rest on the theology of having Christ’s righteousness imputed to him, and warned us: “Therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to Him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad” (2 Corinthians 5-10).

What Do You Think?

a. How do you reconcile verses on imputed righteousness and those on righteousness based on conduct?

b. The master who listened to his servants give their account considered all of them servants. However, only a few lived up to the name honorably. We may be call righteous by faith, but is that the same as living up to the name honorably?

In Revelation chapters 2 and 3, our Lord encourages the churches to overcome the issues he raises. Did Jesus intend for his warnings to refer to believers, or unbelievers? Do the blessings in these chapters apply to all believers, or only certain ones? Let’s look at an example of some warnings before we answer the question:

“Indeed I will cast her into a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation, unless they repent of their deeds. I will kill her children with death, and all the churches shall know that I am He who searches the minds and hearts. And I will give to each one of you according to your works” (Revelation. 2:22-23). Is this warning for believers?

“Remember therefore how you have received and heard; hold fast and repent. Therefore if you will not watch, I will come upon you as a thief, and you will not know what hour I will come upon you” (Revelation 3:3). If you are saved, can you safely ignore this?

These warnings have presented problems for some believers. Because of the severity of the punishment promised, some readers insist that Jesus was addressing unbelievers in the congregation. They insist that all the saved are overcomers and have no need to fear or repent. They point to 1 John’s usage of overcomer to justify their case. Here are the verses in 1 John:

“I write to you, young men, because you have overcome the wicked one. … I have written to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the wicked one” (1 John 2:13, 14).

“You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world” (1 John 4:4).

“For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world – our faith” (1 John 5:4).

The conclusion people have presented to me from these passages is: overcomer = saved. According to this train of thought, since John addresses the saved people in his epistle as overcomers, then all the saved people in the Revelation churches are also overcomers. The warnings therefore are directed to unbelievers. Are these conclusions correct?

Actually, Jesus separates the people in the troubled churches into two groups, but not as believers and unbelievers. Some may insist, “Yet are not today’s churches composed of believers and unbelievers?” The question’s logic is unsound, because biblically, the church is composed of a called-out people, Christ’s body on earth, not the building in which his people gather.

Let’s briefly consider John’s use of overcomer in his epistle. Then we’ll see that the groups in the Revelation churches are composed of two groups: of those who repent and those who don’t!

A person needs to overcome something before he can be called an overcomer. He needs to win a contest before he is called a winner. The readers of John’s epistle were formerly slaves of the wicked one and the world. As long as the readers had believed the lies of the Devil, they were captives. Through the gospel they believed God’s perspective of sin and escaped the enemy. They learned to detect the work of the enemy, resist the Devil, and maintain their relationship with God. Their overcomer status reflected a change in their attitude toward sin and God as a result of faith in the word preached to them.

So, overcomer = saved should be: overcomer = one who responded by faith and repented.

The churches in Revelation 2-3 are facing enemies in their midst and in their hearts. If they respond to the serious issues raised in the messages by faith and repent, they will be worthy of the term overcomer and of the rewards promised only to overcomers. The terrible dangers cited by the Lord are therefore for those believers who will not repent.

The warnings to the churches are to strike fear in our hearts in case we wish to pursue sin. The promises to the ovecomers are to remind us that God has something great in store for us who forsake our sin.

What Do You Think?

a. Are you overcoming sin, or do you treat sin indifferently?

b. Do you make sure to live in such a way as to obtain the promises Jesus gave, or not?

Many resources, written and digital, are available to help us understand the Bible. Here are a few resources I use:

Vine’s Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words. This book gives us the meanings of the Greek text. Like English words, Greek words will have different shades of meaning based on how they are used. This book gives the various rendering of the words and where they are used in Scripture, and gives the contextual meaning in those places.

Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible. If you are familiar with your version of the Bible, such as the King James Version, then get the concordance for your version. This book is good if you can’t remember a verse, but you know a word or two of the verse. You look up the word (like in a dictionary) and following the word is a list of every verse in the Bible containing that word. You could also do a word study with the list – just look up each verse to see how the word is used. This will often deepen your understanding of the doctrinal term. This book also cross-references with a Greek and Hebrew dictionary at the back so you can learn the original definition of the word.

The Interlinear Greek-English New Testament and The Interlinear Hebrew-English Old Testament. These books give you the actual Greek (or Hebrew) words with the English translation right above the word. You can see the word order chosen by the writers. You’ll also be able to tell which Greek or Hebrew word was used, and from there look it up in Vine’s or Strong’s.

New Bible Almanac. This book gives you the historical and cultural setting of the Bible, such as the money, marriage customs, government structure, weapons, agriculture, and so on. A very important book that helps us understand why the Bible characters did what they did, and illuminates some of obscure passages in the Bible.

Bible Dictionary. The Bible is full of words we don’t use in regular life. It’s important to understand them and not guess at their meaning when we come across them in the Bible.

The New Evidence that Demands a Verdict. This book outlines the many proofs that validate what the Bible says. It builds up a solid case as to why we know the resurrection of Jesus is true, for example.

Bible Handbook. This book gives a summary of every book of the Bible, including charts, maps, and timelines, outlines, keywords, key verses, and special considerations. If you are new to the Bible, this is a handy book to have at your side.

Commentary. A commentary is an author’s comments on almost every verse in the Bible. Many commentaries exist, from concise one-volume works to 30-volume sets. Some commentaries cover only a single book while others cover all sixty-six books. The Bible Knowledge Commentary (2-book set) is a good place to start for your first full-Bible commentary.

Parallel Bible. This resource contains two or more versions of the Bible in one volume so you can see how the translators have interpreted each passage. This book can give you a deeper or broader perspective of each passage than one version alone could do.

These are just a few helps I’ve used over the years. Many other books will cover apologetics (how to defend your faith), marriage and family, prayer, worship, prophecy and the end times, and many other topics. Visit your Christian bookstore or go online to find these and many others.

What Do You Think?

a. If you’ve never used a Bible study help before, which one of the above would you pick first, and why?

A parable is a story using everyday events to illustrate a truth. This was Jesus’ main mode of teaching the public. “But without a parable He did not speak to them. And when they were alone, He explained all things to His disciples” (Mark 4:34).

The disciples asked the question many Christians have asked, “Why do You speak to them in parables?” (Matthew 13:10). Jesus gave a full and fascinating answer over the next several verses. We usually think that a parable is used to explain a truth. Jesus’ reason is surprisingly different.

“Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand. And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive: For this people’s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them” (Matthew 13:14-15).

Jesus used parables to tell the public about the kingdom of God to fulfill prophecy. Prophecy states that the Jewish people will hear but not understand. They will listen to truth about the kingdom, but not know how to apply it. Let’s look at an example.

In the Parable of the Sower, Jesus tells us why the seed (teachings about the kingdom of God) do not produce results. In one case, it’s because people are distracted by the cares of this world or decieved by riches, and these prevent the word of God from making a difference in their lives (Matthew 13:22).

How many of you are not growing in your faith because you are more concerned for the things of this life, or for wealth, so you have little time for the word of God? Then you are hearing the word, but not understanding it – you don’t see your precarious position and repent of it. The truth always demands change on the part of the hearer.

Only to his disciples does he explain everything: “Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given” (Matthew 13:11). How can you tell if you are one of these privileged people?

Jesus explains: “For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath” (Matthew 13:12). If you put the kingdom teaching to use and change, God will add more to it. If you apply those new words, God will add even more to it, and you will grow in understanding and wisdom. If you are not growing, it is because you are not applying the word and, according to Jesus’ teaching, God is taking away even what little you had. This was the state of the Jews at the time Jesus came, and it is the state of many today in the churches.

“But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear” (Matthew 13:16).

What Do You Think?

a. Do you think about what the word of God means for you, and how it should affect your life? Why or why not?

b. What is so important in your life that you choose it over studying the word of God?

As a whole, the texts are amazingly well preserved. Some modern Bibles use a variety of manuscripts to translate the text. In choosing some manuscripts, Bible translators will leave out the parts not contained in other manuscripts. You may look at the bottom of the pages of many modern Bible translations to read the variant readings for yourself. You’ll find that the readings are very slight and do not change the meanings of the texts. No Bible theology is changed with the minor word changes you will find.

You can still base your whole life on the Word of God. If you are suspicious, simply read several versions of the Word when you do your daily Bible reading. Many students of the Bible follow this practice.

What Do You Think?

a. If someone tells you to keep track of all the emails that did not reach your email box, how could you possibly do this if the emails did not get through? Similarly, if verses did not appear in the original manuscripts, how could somebody claim they were missing?

Christians who quote the Bible for perspectives in life are saying that God’s perspective is unchanging and trustworthy. Your parents say one thing, your experience teaches something else, your teachers have other perspectives, and your friend goads you in yet another direction. You grow up and your values change. What was important to you at nine years old is not the same at nineteen or fifty-nine years. Your perspective can also change with your mood. So, how do you know which view to follow? God’s view is consistent and will always hold true across time and culture. “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever” (Hebrews 13:8).

A manufacturer of a widget is often the best source to consult for advice on their widget, so God, being the Creator of all, his manual, the Bible, is the best source to consult on how life works. As we see in the book you hold in your hands, the Bible addresses and answers some of life’s toughest spiritual questions.

We believe that we were born sinners and that this world will show us how to live sinful lives. But only the Bible will teach us how to live this life in a way that pleases God. The world will tell us one thing about sex, relationships, life and death, paying taxes, spending money, ordering our households, and parenting, and God will have something to say about them too. If we want to live lives that honor God, we turn to the Bible for instruction in all these things. “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16-17).

Christians are well able to form their own opinions on a wide variety of subjects – and they don’t all agree with each other! So we certainly can hold our own counsel; we have free will; we’ll evaluate and consider according to our present understanding.

What Do You Think?

a. Have you ever derived any good ideas worth keeping from books you’ve read?

b. Have you ever had ideas and opinions changed by anything you’ve read?

It helps to understand what Christians mean by the Word of God. The Word contains the words of saints and sinners, of men and demons. Although it quotes sinners and demons, it is the Word of God simply because God wanted those words preserved for us to read.

The words in the Bible are words God had moved men to write down. God chose the words, but let the writers’ personalities show through. Here is one way to see God’s hand in the Bible: imagine giving a quiz to forty students in one university class. Have them write down what they think about the meaning of life, about death and the afterlife, heaven and @#!*% , punishment, spirituality, God, and love. You would get a wide range of opinions, just like you would on any Internet bulletin board topic.

But the Bible is consistent in its view of these very controversial subjects. It was written by about forty men over a period of over a thousand years, in several languages and countries and cultures. Yet they are united in their views of God, life and death, heaven and @#!*% , and other biblical doctrines.2 This harmony is one of the most important aspects that point to the Bible’s authorship of God. God used fallible men to write a book that has outlasted the fall of civilizations.

What Do You Think?

a. Fallible men and women make amazing scientific discoveries all the time. Because fallible scientists developed the theory of evolution, should we discard it on that basis? Why or why not?

b. If you found out that forty students all wrote the same answer to an essay question, wouldn’t you suspect they had all borrowed from the same source, such as from each other or from the Internet?

2. McDowell, Josh, The New Evidence that Demands a Verdict. (Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville 1999.) p 6.

Here is the verse: “Then he made the Sea of cast bronze, ten cubits from one brim to the other; it was completely round. Its height was five cubits, and a line of thirty cubits measured its circumference” (1 Kings 7:23). These were the dimensions given for a large round vessel.

When my wife told me we were only getting twenty miles per gallon with our station wagon, she was rounding off the number. It would be unusual for her to say, “Guess what? I got 19.662 miles per gallon on my last tank!” We know when someone is just rounding off the number.

In the same way, someone would be amused if I answered their question of, “How old are you?” with, “I am 48 years, 11 months, 4 days, 12 hours, and 23 minutes old.” Anyone would be satisfied with “48 years old,” “Almost 49 years,” or even, “I’ll be 49 this month.” Using a whole number just comes naturally to us.

The Bible supplied whole numbers for the diameter of a vessel and its circumference. Pi is the ratio of circumference divided by diameter, which is always 3.1415. When you do the math regarding the recorded circumference (30 cubits) and the diameter (10 cubits) of a giant bowl, it appears that pi = 3. To be accurate, the 30-cubit figure should have been 31.415 cubits.

I believe the Bible rounds off the measurements, just like we do with many of our measurements. At that time, in a non-technological age, the people measured in whole numbers. In some cases, they would measure something with the span of their hand, which is the width of a hand with the fingers spread apart. How accurate can you get with that?

What Do You Think?

a. Is it reasonable to insist that people in ancient civilizations must have decimal-point accuracy in their measurements?

b. If you can respect the cultural differences of less-advanced nations, including their makeshift measuring devices, can God be faulted for doing the same? Why or why not?

I remember watching kids playing the game of Telephone, where the teacher whispers a message in the ear of the child at one end of the line, and the children pass it on to the other end of the line, whispering the message from child to child. Of course, by the time it reaches the last child, the message ended up hopelessly (and comically) garbled. Isn’t that what happened to the transmission of the Bible texts? Well, no. The difference is that the Jews treated the text as the Word of God reverently, to be preserved carefully. How do we know the texts were preserved faithfully?

Enter the Dead Sea Scrolls. Some of the scrolls date back to 250 B.C. So scholars were able to take the later manuscripts and compare them to the same biblical books dated a thousand years earlier. Their findings indicate that the Hebrews treated the words of God with the care they deserved. For instance, “of the 166 words in one chapter, Isaiah 53, there are only seventeen letters in question. Ten of these letters are simply a matter of spelling, which does not affect the sense. Four more letters are minor stylistic changes, such as conjunctions. The remaining three letters comprise the word ‘light,’ which is added in verse 11, and does not affect the meaning greatly. Thus, in one chapter of 166 words, there is only one word (three letters) in question after a thousand years of transmission-and this word does not significantly change the meaning of the passage.”3

Today you can get some versions of the Bible containing the variations between the manuscripts in the margins of those versions. You can read for yourself that the differences are minor. The Bible texts have been preserved very well indeed!

What Do You Think?

a. Nowadays digital files can be duplicated perfectly, pixel for pixel, with a few mouse clicks. The ancient world, however, had to copy things the hard way. The Hebrew scribe double-checked his work by counting across so many letters and down so many letters to arrive at the same letter in the middle of the manuscript as the original. If the next person had to copy your entire page letter-for-letter by hand, what steps would you take to ensure absolute accuracy?

b. Would you expect the next person to copy the manuscript accurately if he did not believe in the text’s importance?

3. McDowell, Josh, The New Evidence that Demands a Verdict. (Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville 1999.) pp78-79.

It is historical, not symbolic, for several reasons:

The story is treated as a straightforward, literal account in Genesis, and acknowledged in the epistles, such as here: “For Adam was formed first, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived, fell into transgression” (1 Timothy 2:13-14).

• Real consequences (sin) came from the interaction of Adam and Eve with the Tempter.
• Real offspring with stories of their own came from Adam and Eve.
• Adam’s name is part of Jesus’ genealogy in Luke 3:38.

In every case, Adam and Eve are treated as real people who knew God, received instruction from him, disobeyed him, and suffered the consequences of their sin – bringing death into the world. Through their story we understand that God gave them dominion over the earth and the free will to accept his rule over their lives or reject it. Because of their fall, God gave a beautiful promise of salvation through the offspring of Eve (Genesis 3:15). The rest of the Old Testament follows her offspring, the lineage that leads to the promised deliverer, Jesus Christ.

What Do You Think?

a. Just as some people believe Adam is a mythical person with an existence having no basis in fact, some people believe the same for Santa Claus. The Saint Nicholas figure who actually formed the basis for the symbol we revere is little known. Can you believe there are other symbols whose origins are now obscure, but were based on fact?

b. Even now scientists and nutritionists are trying to figure out why we all can’t live twice as long. Death seems to be alien. Did you know that because of Adam’s sin, we all die? Jesus came as the second Adam, so that through his death and resurrection, we who believe in Jesus may all be made alive with him.

The Bible is composed of several different types of literature. For instance, the books of Moses up to Psalms are historical records of literal events. The Psalms are poetical in many places. Proverbs is wisdom literature. The prophetical books record prophet’s speeches, many of which include many instances of symbolism. The Gospels are a narrative which focuses on Jesus, the central character. The epistles of Paul are his message to churches. Revelation is prophetical, or apocalyptic literature.

In our everyday reading and writing, we may use figures of speech of every kind, and we usually know when to take them literally or not. We can usually detect a simile (“he’s as sly as a fox”), figures of speech (“it’s raining cats and dogs”), irony (“as clear as mud”), sarcasm (“yeah, that’s really going to work”), and euphemisms (“passed away”). We don’t take them literally; and in the same way we don’t take similar word treatments in the Bible literally.

Perhaps this question is referring to the many stories told in the Bible. Do we take them literally? When a miracle occurs, do we accept it at face value? Did God really create Adam and Eve, or is the account a metaphor?

One of the reasons we’ll have a hard time taking such stories literally is because we don’t believe in a God who is working in the world. In that case, understandably, any miracles would be hard to believe. What is fascinating to me, though, is that all the stories in the Bible, occurring over centuries, have a running theme through them all.

We may get bored reading all the genealogies, but they follow the bloodline to Jesus Christ. Therefore, every person in those genealogies is an actual, historical figure. God allowed some prophets to perform miracles, and such acts cemented their calling in the people’s eyes. When Jesus did miracles, he proved that the promised kingdom was at hand – a kingdom with no death (so he raised people from the dead), nor physical impairments (so he healed many infirmities and sicknesses), and no more spiritual oppression (so he cast out demons).

Keep in mind, too, that not everyone believed in the miracles that occurred. I speak especially of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. When the women told the disciples that they has seen the risen Christ, they refused to believe – until Jesus appeared in their locked room on day. Such human reactions lend credibility to the miracle accounts.

It’s not narrow-minded to take the Bible literally where it’s supposed to be understood literally, and figuratively where appropriate – it’s just good sense.

What Do You Think?

a. If you can’t accept the idea that God exists and can work miracles, are you narrow-minded?

The Bible has several fascinating traits that some claim are the fingerprint of God in the book. Some claim that one such discovery is the Bible Code. This method seeks to find hidden messages that relate to modern events by using the computer to find equidistant letter sequences, or ELS. That is, by noting every fourth letter, or every fifth letter, and so on, in the original Hebrew of the OT, one will inevitably find messages or words spelled out.

Another way to investigate the Bible for hidden meanings is by checking the meaning of the proper names. For instance, Adam means Man. Enoch means Teaching. Noah means Rest. Chuck Missler reported an astonishing message that was spelled out by the genealogy from Adam through Moses. First, take the names in order: Adam Seth Enosh Kenan Mahalalel Jared Enoch Methuselah Lamech Noah. Now put their meanings in order: “Man (is) appointed mortal sorrow; (but) the Blessed God shall come down teaching (that) His death shall bring (the) despairing rest.” That’s remarkable – the Gospel is spelled out in the names of these men.

Some scholars have noted the recurrence of the number seven (or multiples of seven) throughout the Bible. The Sabbath on the seventh day; the seven years of plenty and the seven years of famine in Egypt; the seven priests and seven trumpets marching around Jericho; the Sabbath Year of the land are well-known examples. Even more astonishing, though, is the occurrence of the number 7 behind the scenes. Look at some of the amazing discoveries made by Dr. Ivan Panin:

For example, the first 17 verses of Matthew deal with the genealogy of Jesus Christ. The number seven figures predominantly in many ways:

The number of words which are nouns is exactly 56, or 7 x 8.
The Greek word “the” occurs most frequently in the passage: exactly 56 times, or 7 x 8.
There are two main sections in the passage: verses 1-11, and 12-17. In the first main section, the number of Greek vocabulary words used is 49, or 7 x 7.
Of these 49 words, the number of those beginning with a vowel is 28, or 7 x 4. The number of words beginning with a consonant is 21, or 7 x 3.
The total numbers of letters in these 49 words is 266, or 7 x 38 – exactly! The number of vowels among these 266 letters is 140, or 7 x 20. The number of consonants is 126, or 7 x 18 – exactly.
Of the 49 words, the number of words which occur more than once is 35, or 7 x 5. The number of words occurring only once is 14, or 7 x 2. The number of words which occur in only one form is exactly 42, or 7 x 6. The number of words appearing in more than one form is also 7.
The number of the 49 Greek vocabulary words which are nouns is 42, or 7 x 6. Of the nouns, 35 are proper names, or exactly 7 x 5. These 35 names are used 63 times, or 7 x 9. The number of male names is exactly 28, or 7 x 4. These male names occur 56 times, or 7 x 8. The number which are not male names is 7.
Three women are mentioned – Tamar, Rahab, and Ruth. The number of Greek letters in these three names is 14, 7 x 2.

Still another Bible oddity occurs when you realize that every Hebrew and Greek letter has a number equivalent (the Greek or Hebrew equivalent of A = 1, B = 2, C = 3). What happens when you add up those numbers? Let’s take the passage of John 21:11: “Simon Peter went up and drew the net to land full of great fishes, an hundred and fifty and three.” Does the figure of 153 have any parallels? Yes: In the record of the miraculous draught, the word for “fishes” comes to 1,224, or 8 x 153, and the words for “the net” have the same value, 1,224. “Multitude of fishes” is 1,069, or 16 x 153. The numerical equivalent of verses 9-11 gets 28,460, or 186 x 153. The letters added up for all of verse 11 is 15,758 or 103 x 153.

These are not the only methods of seeing messages behind the words. But do let us remember that what God has plainly written is to be taken of greater value than the hidden meanings.

What Do You Think?

a. Do these amazing Bible facts convince you that the Bible was inspired by God? Why or why not?

Resources:

http://www.biblecodedigest.com/

http://www.khouse.org/

http://www.khouse.org/

http://www.asis.com/

http://www.wordworx.co.nz/

In a Bible study I attended, we read a chapter ahead of time and jotted down our impressions. Then we met and shared our findings as we were called upon. In this way we marched through the Bible chapter by chapter in order. Many who participated found something pertinent in what they studied that applied to their current life situation.

Perhaps you have never read the Bible in a way that would make sense to you. Let me give you a practical way to read the Bible. Following this format, you may be surprised to find God working in your life. Some newcomers who are not Christians were asked to just follow these steps and they have discovered God on their own – and gained the value for reading the Bible themselves.

Some people follow this method of Bible study daily. Three steps are involved. Let’s take them in order.

Chapter breakdown
First we read the chapter from beginning to end, just like we would for any other book. (Also like any other nook, we start at the beginning of the book.) Each chapter has passages divided up into numbered sections called verses. As you read the chapter, pay attention to natural divisions. Then jot down those divisions and summarize them. Note every division so every passage has been included. Try not to skip this step. It’s purpose is to help you consider a passage in its own context. Yep – people misunderstand the Bible because they take verses out of context. (Many modern Bibles already break up the chapters with suheadings. Ignore those and make up your own.) Here is an example.

1 Corinthians 3 Sample Chapter Breakdown

1-4 Paul considered them to be babes in Christ, carnal, not spiritual. (They had set one minister of God as better than another and divided the church.)5-7 Paul and Apollos are merely ministers. (So the Corinthians should not divide the church over them.)

8-10 Paul had his work and Apollos had his. They are equally valuable and work together.

11-13 We build our faith on Jesus, not on his ministers.

14-17 We will be rewarded or not based on our results – what we did with Jesus …

18-23 … So don’t boast in men, but in God.

Meaning
In this phase we ask ourselves, “What does this mean to me?” Go back over the chapter and see if there is any section that stands out. Think about what it is saying. Write down your thoughts in a few sentences. Many people find this one of the most important parts of their study.

Application

On this final step we ask ourselves, “What am I going to do about it?” Here is where you consider what action to take based on what you wrote. This is one of the most important steps and one people neglect the most – responding to what they read.

If you are one of those who think the Bible has nothing to offer for daily life, try the steps above for a whole book and see if it changes your life for the better. Just start with the gospel of Matthew (look it up in your Bible’s Table of Contents if you have to) and work your way through the Bible from there.

Why should it change our lives? Because the Bible is the means through which God himself communicates to us. When you respond to his Word, then God responds in kind.

What Do You Think?

a. If the Bible is the most important book in the world – because through it God speaks to us – should we study it carefully? Why or why not?

b. Will the Bible change our lives if we did not respond to it’s teachings? What does that say about the importance of our involvement?

When we interpret a Bible passage, we are trying to find out what the writer originally meant to say. At that stage, we are not trying to figure out what it means. It’s important to learn the interpretation before we make an application of the verse. When we misunderstand the interpretation, we may make wrong choices about what we should do, or form wrong doctrines.

“Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost” (2 Peter 1:20-21). God has set the interpretation. We don’t make up our own to suit our times. Every word, every letter written, was exactly what God intended to put down, so we should study them carefully with the respect they deserve.

We can discover a writer’s original meaning, its interpretation, by using several common-sense approaches. Here are a few of them.

Start with the plain sense of the word. Another way to put it is, “If the literal sense makes sense, seek no other sense lest you get nonsense.” If the Bible writer used the word “day,” then we should accept that meaning unless there is a strong reason not to. That strong reason should be found in the Scripture, not from our times. This means we are to accept the literal meaning whenever possible, unless the Bible shows otherwise. In this way the Bible interprets itself.

The Bible uses figurative language. Sometimes the Bible will plainly state that it’s not to be taken literally, such as the use of the word “like” in the passage.

Keep the historical setting or usage in mind. For instance, we use the word “church” to mean the place where we gather, as in “go to church.” However, the literal meaning of the word is “called-out ones.” The believers are the church, not the building where they meet.

Keep a Bible dictionary handy, and don’t take for granted your understanding of the many specialized words you encounter. The Greek or Hebrew Interlinears are handy too; they show the English translation of the term right above the Greek or Hebrew word used. A Bible Almanac is also handy; it sheds light on the customs and times of the various cultures. Fortunately, good software exists with many excellent tools.

The Bible is about Jesus. He is the central theme. Make sure no interpretation dishonors him.

Check the context. Read the passages before and after the verse being studied. Just as you would not read at random through a mystery novel and expect to understand the story, so you should read the Bible and its books and chapters straight through. Many verses are more reliably interpreted when the entire chapter and surrounding chapters are read.

We can learn more about a word by finding out how it is used in other places in the Bible. Beware, though: if the usage of the word is in a very different context, then it may not apply. For instance, “house” would be different in “he went into the house,” and “all the house of Israel.” Many, many misinterpretations have come about because unlike passages have not been taken into account. Just think – our own words have more than one meaning, and the Greek and Hebrew do to. “Will,” for instance, is someone’s name, is a legal document, and indicates intent. The context will determine which meaning to use.

The Bible does not contradict itself! Though it was penned by about 40 authors over 1500 or so years, God has the same views throughout of heaven and @#!*% , life and death, God and man.

Don’t make up ideas where the Bible is silent. Don’t read into passages of Scripture words or meanings it doesn’t support. Don’t base a doctrine on a single passage of Scripture. It’s hard to be certain without corroborating texts.

Don’t try to force the interpretation to accept modern ideas or science. We look at the world through the Bible, not the Bible through the world.

What authority do we use to interpret the Bible? The Bible is the best authority and interprets itself plainly if we use common-sense rules like the above.

What Do You Think?

a. When you read a novel, do you read a sentence here and there, skipping pages as you go along? If not, should you read the Bible this way? Why or why not?

b. The Bible has its own meanings for “priest,” “church,” and “saint,” that you may not have. What is the usual understanding of these terms and how does the Bible differ?

c. Do you agree that the steps above are common-sense ways of getting to know what a text is saying? Why or why not?

References:

http://www.bible-truth.org/

www.carm.org/

gracethrufaith.com/

People have made many attempts to show that the church has corrupted the early texts in order to play up Jesus as a phony Messiah. There are several problems with this approach.

1. Surely the early church would have portrayed its adherents more heroic in the gospel accounts. Instead, we have Jesus’ followers misunderstanding him, doubting him, even fleeing from him when he was taken to court.

2. We have a male-centric community made into a laughing-stock as Christ appears to Mary before his disciples. Also, the women believed in Jesus more readily than the apostles did!

3. We have the foolish words of Jesus’ disciples intact. Peter’s denial if Jesus is there. Why would the early church want to preserve his story? We have the disciples words for when they wanted to rain fire down on a city. We have disciples who proudly argued among themselves who would be greatest in the kingdom. Why are these words still there?

4. If Jesus did not indeed die on the cross and rise again, why did the disciples not produce the body to escape death? Eleven of the disciples died cruel deaths (crucified upside down; limbs tied to separate horses and pulled apart; beheaded; tied up to the back of a horse and dragged to death on the streets). All of this could have been avoided if they had recanted and told the torturers where they hid the body. Not even Jesus’ enemies could produce the body. But the body was nowhere to be found. Jesus had risen from the dead and will give eternal life and an inheritance untold to those who would persist in faith to the end.

What Do You Think?

a. If your aim in an autobiography was to elevate yourself through the inclusion of untrue accounts, how would you deal with the people who knew you and who could expose your stories as fabrications?

b. How would you change the Bible accounts to make Jesus more heroic than before? Would you keep the OT in place? Why was the Bible written the way it was?

c. Doesn’t the inclusion of imperfect people in the gospel accounts lend an element of truth to the stories?