Does the Bible Contain
Errors?
Other seeming contradictions in the
Bible
are related to times and dates. One
example of
this is that Israel used both a civil
and a sacred
calendar. The civil year began in the
autumn
with the month of Tishri, while the
sacred year
began in the spring with the month of
Nisan
or Abib. When two writers seem to
disagree
regarding the timing of a particular
event,
the seeming discrepancy can be clarified
by
ascertaining which of the two
calendars they
are using.
In another matter of timing, John
19:14
seems to disagree with Matthew 27:45.
John
described events that occurred
before
the
crucifixion and says that they took
place at
about the “sixth hour.” Matthew
agrees with
Mark 15:33 and Luke 23:44 when he
says
darkness covered the land
after
the crucifixion
from the sixth to the ninth hours. Is
there a
real discrepancy between these
accounts?
No! The answer lies in the fact that
the
Jewish state was then under Roman
control
and John used the Roman reckoning of
time,
which began at midnight. The “sixth
hour” in
John’s reckoning was 6:00 in the
morning.
However, the Jewish method of
timekeeping
started from that time of the
morning, counting it as the first hour of the day. So the sixth
hour of the day according to Jewish
reckoning
was noon.
The crucifixion occurred between the
sixth
and ninth hours of the day—Jewish
time.
Thus, the four Gospel accounts do not
contradict; instead they complement each other.
Answers may not be readily apparent
What about other scriptural passages
that
contain apparent discrepancies? Some
of
these are the result of faulty
translations;
some Bible translations are simply
more accurate than others in rendering particular verses.
With other passages the difficulties
may be
more substantial.
In any case, one should not be
alarmed at
what appear to be errors in the
Bible. There
are answers and solutions to these
passages
that may not be readily apparent. As
noted
Bible scholar Gleason Archer writes:
“As I have dealt with one apparent
discrepancy after another and have studied the alleged contradictions between
the biblical
record and the evidence of
linguistics, archaeology, or science, my confidence in the trustworthiness of
Scripture has been repeatedly
verified and strengthened by the
discovery
that almost every problem in
Scripture that
has ever been discovered by man, from
ancient times until now, has been dealt with in a
completely satisfactory manner by the
biblical
text itself—or else by objective
archaeological
information .
.
.
“There is a good and sufficient
answer in
Scripture itself to refute every charge
that has
ever been leveled against it. But
this is only to
be expected from the kind of book the
Bible
asserts itself to be, the
inscripturation of the
infallible, inerrant Word of the
Living God” (
En
-
The Bible is the Word of God, and we
can
depend upon it as the Book that
illuminates
the pathway to salvation. It is
reliable. The
apostle Paul wrote that “all
Scripture is given
by inspiration of God” (2 Timothy
3:16). Jesus
said that “the Scripture cannot be
broken”
(John 10:35).
This is a promise from Jesus Christ
on
which we can rely and in which we can
place
our complete confidence. So, when we
read
the Bible, let us be assured that we
are indeed
reading a book that is inspired of
God and
contains the full backing of the
Eternal God
who desires to give us the salvation
the book
promises us.
A little research with commentaries
and
other Bible helps can usually resolve
Bible
difficulties.
The Bible and You
...
Is the Bible True?
Faith and choice
What is different about
those who respond compared with those who
do not? It is usually
several things. One is a conviction that the Bible is
indeed the Word of God.
Another is the exercise of free will. God has
allowed us the right of
free choice and doesn’t force us to do things His
way. Some people use
their free will to respond positively when God
calls; others reject this
calling. The choice is always ours.
But there is another
factor that figures heavily in how we react to the
Word of God. In this
booklet we have confronted the issue of whether
the Bible is true and
therefore a reliable guide to human behavior. We
have presented solid
evidence confirming that it is. Although substantial,
the evidence that the
Bible is true is not enough to satisfy every agnostic
and atheist. If it were,
no one on earth would be an atheist or an agnostic. Every rational person would
exercise his free will to at least believe,
if not obey. However, the
Scriptures remind us that even the demons
know
God exists, but simply
choose to disobey Him (James 2:19).
It is God’s purpose to
give us a choice as to whether we will exercise
a measure of faith. As
American statesman and orator Daniel Webster
noted, the Bible is a
book of faith. If we had evidence sufficient to refute
every skeptic’s
misgivings, we would have no need for faith. This is not
the way God has chosen to
work. Everyone from Adam to the present
has been called on to
live by faith.
And what is faith? “Faith
gives substance to our hopes and convinces
us of realities we do not
[yet] see” (Hebrews 11:1, REB). Concerning
faith, the apostle Paul
tells us that Abraham “praised God in the full
assurance that God was
able to do what he had promised” (Romans 4:21,). God wants us to have this same
trust in Him.
The Bible and the present generation
While some insist on hard
scientific evidence before they will believe,
others fall into the
other philosophical ditch. They are not interested in a
God who meets them
through scriptural revelation; rather, they desire a god
who meets them where they
are in their own personal view of the world.
Some have termed this a
quest for a designer god or boutique religion.
Author Wade Clark Roof
notes that baby boomers, those born
between the end of World
War II and about 1964, “have grown up in a
post-sixties culture that
emphasizes choice, knowing and understanding one’s self, the importance of
personal autonomy, and fulfilling one’s
potential—all
contributing to a highly subjective approach to religion”
(
A Generation of Seekers,
1993, p. 30). They tend
to steer away from
structured religion. They
are less apt to belong to an organized church,
and they are less likely
to regard the Bible as objective truth. They are
not sure where to turn
for answers to religious questions.
Unsure of what truth is
or whether it even exists, such people tend to
look for a church that
meets their personal
preference
rather than a place
where objective biblical
truth is to be found. It is more important for
them to
feel comfortable
with their church or
congregation than to participate in a church whose teachings and practices are
firmly anchored
in the Bible. Experience
in their formative and young-adult years has
contributed to a feeling
of alienation from societal institutions, including
religious institutions.
As members of the first
television generation, baby boomers were conditioned for what Roof calls the
“mentalizing” of salvation. Their parents
gained most of their view
of the world through reading. Boomers were
largely educated through
the use of images on television. “In a print culture, priority was given to the
objective, to the rational use of the mind,
which encouraged
religious discourse with logically ordered content.
Doctrinal debate and
theological reflection flourished under these conditions .
.
.
But in an image culture
the
subjective
takes precedence over the
objective”.
The result? Recent
generations have taken a different philosophical attitude toward God, churches,
religious experience and the Bible.
Whether the Bible is true
apparently isn’t that important to them.
This view is held by some
professionals as well. “There is no lack
of scholars—among them
historians, theologians, philologists, and
archaeologists—who have
come to the conclusion that fundamentally
it is of secondary
importance whether the facts reported in the Bible are
correct or not” ,
But it doesmatter.
Biblical archaeologist George Ernest Wright expressed
the opinion that “in
Biblical belief everything depends on whether the main
events actually took place”
If the main events of
the Bible didn’t take
place, then how can we believe anything it says?
The life stories of the
Old Testament patriarchs are the foundation on
which the historical
record of the Bible is based. If the God who claims
to have inspired the
Bible gave us a collection of myths and legends, then
how could we have
confidence in anything He says?
According to the New
Testament, the patriarchs and prophets of the
Hebrew Scriptures were
real people. Consider Abraham as an example. He
is listed in the ancestry
of Jesus Christ (Matthew 1:1). In a discussion with
the Pharisees, Jesus
referred to Abraham as a real historical figure (John
8:56-58). If Christ were
mistaken, then He was nothing but a man and a
rather uninformed one at
that. In that case He could not be our Savior, and
our faith would be in
vain. So the accuracy of the Bible
does matter!
If Abraham were not a
historical figure, millions of Jews and Arabs
The Bible and You
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