When dealing with the inerrancy of Scripture, it is important to recognize that there are typically only 24 problems that people point to, and of these, only 12 are fairly serious.
Here are some examples:
- Genesis 1:11-12 says that the land produced vegetation, but in Genesis 2:5-7, it says that no shrub had yet sprung up from the land.
- Many people like to ask, “Where did Cain get his wife?” Genesis 4:17 says that he had a wife, but up to this point in the text, the only people on earth were Adam, Eve, and Cain (Abel was born, but murdered).
- Number 25:9 says that 24,000 died in a plague, but in talking about the same plague, 1 Corinthians 10:8 says that 23,000 died.
- In 2 Samuel 24:1, we read that God incited David to take a census of Israel, but 1 Chronicles 21:1 says that it was Satan who incited David.
How can apparent errors in Scripture be solved?
There are, of course, way more than just 24 problem passages in the Bible.
Guidelines for Solving Biblical Difficulties
There are some basic guidelines for solving all biblical difficulties. Here is what I was taught in seminary:
- Recognize that the existence of tensions and apparent contradictions is not something new in the study of Scripture.
- The admission of certain textual problems is an honest and open response that invites study and positive evaluation.
- Be clear about the distinction between actual and apparent errors.
- Realize that the resolution of these problems must take place within an interpretive framework that takes account of the Bible as a whole.
- Remember that the doctrine of inerrancy teaches that solutions to problems in Scripture do exist, but the doctrine itself does not guarantee a ready solution.
- Recognize that there are currently unexplained difficulties, but this does not mean that they will always be unexplained. Further research in linguistics, archaeology, science, and Scripture may uncover a solution in the future. Many of the difficult Scriptural problems from previous centuries have been solved this way in recent years to the satisfaction of both Evangelicals and non-Evangelicals alike.
What do you think of these six points? To critics of biblical inerrancy, it sounds like we Christians are making the same argument as this man uses:
Is this what we do with Scripture? Do we need to be right so much that we arrogantly blind ourselves to the errors of Scripture, and when we cannot “explain away” some of them, we simply say, “Well, someday the Bible will be proved right”?
Or is it true that we really, truly have a book which is absolutely, completely free of all errors?
In 2 Samuel 24:1, we read that God incited David to take a census of Israel, but 1 Chronicles 21:1 says that it was Satan who incited David.
This scripture doesnt conflict in these verses we see the truth exposed as God allows satan to have limited power over his people to test them as in the story of Job.So was it God who tested job by allowing satan to bring trails upon him.Or was it satan who was the one testing him.Both are involved but the motivations are completely different Gods purposes are to build up his people.Satan on the other hand wants to destroy there is this conflict at work all the time.brentnz
Number 25:9 says that 24,000 died in a plague, but in talking about the same plague, 1 Corinthians 10:8 says that 23,000 died.
heres one possibility on this verse.
Verse 9. – Were twenty and four thousand. “Fell in one day three and twenty thousand,” says St. Paul (1 Corinthians 10:8). As the Septuagint does not deviate here from the Hebrew, the Apostle must have followed some Rabbinical tradition. It is possible enough that the odd thousand died on some other day than the one of which he speaks, or they may have died by the hands of the judges, and not by the plague.
It seems the most likely scenario is that he married his sister or less likely his niece.The reasoning is that Adam and Eve lived alot longer and continued to have sons and daughters GEN5:4
aCTS 17:26 Paul tells us that the God who made the world hath made of one blood all nations of man to dwell on all the face of the earth.Cain didnt marry to another tribe or nation as every man and women was a relative and of the same bloodline of Adam and Eve.The importance of this is that sin entered through one man Adam and is past through the bloodline so redemption is only possible through the same bloodline.So for the formula to work the human genome had to stay the same no other tribes or nations just the descendents of Adam and Eve.It also solves another riddle in that satan at various times prior to the flood and after the flood tried to contaminate the bloodline by his angels having sexual relations with the women this created a type of alien in essence and would have not been able to have been redeemed by the blood of Jesus as it wasnt fully human.This is where the giants came from and why God wanted to destroy them as they had the potential to destroy the human race as they couldnt be redeemed by the blood of Jesus.Interesting? brentnz
I like this quote from Mark Twain;
It ain’t those parts of the Bible that I can’t understand that bother me, it is the parts that I do understand.
Neville great quote i read that he was an atheist from what i understand he certainly had issues with the established church and it seems that he may have had some kind of faith in God he certainly had a gift for writing.. Heres another of his quotes.he wrote a few quotes on the church
.
If Christ were here now there is one thing he would not be – a Christian.
Which seems to suggest that he was not anti Jesus as such but more likely that what he saw going on in the churchs of the day seemed rather hypocritical to what Jesus taught.
Genesis 1:11-12 says that the land produced vegetation, but in Genesis 2:5-7, it says that no shrub had yet sprung up from the land.
This one seems really easy fungus lichen grass vegetation were present but scrubs and trees developed at a later stage would be how i would read that.Dont see any confusion there either.brentnz