https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RB3g6mXLEKk
Ok, the poster says he's done his research and the contradctions are pretty convincing. And it's kind of creeping me out.
If you can give me good anwsers, I'll have explanations done in my comic Modern Christians and it would be awesome to use in stories that involve athiests debating the Christian characters. And I may just credit you in the acknowledgements if I get manage to get a book out of Modern Christians.
I really do want to use Modern Christians to prove to the world that Christanity is the only way no matter what, even when theres doubts, theres always anwsers.
Replies
Micah/Jeremiah argument- God's anger... In Micah, God is talking about His chosen. In Jeremiah, God is not.
Genesis/James argument - God tempting... Incorrect assumptions... In Genesis 22:1 God tests, In James God will not tempt... If God is Justice, which He is, God must test... Yet God is Holy also, therefore God cannot tempt
Faith/Works argument - Smarter men than I have a better answer... Hebrews 11...by faith people of the past did all those things... works somehow come out of faith... and in faith people desire to do what God says. It is almost as if you could say there is a 'living' faith... that with the Holy Spirit... and a 'dead' faith... that without the Holy Spirit... the 'living' faith compels action from you, while the 'dead' faith does nothing. Scripturally, even the demons have faith... a dead faith... they believe and shudder... but their faith is not a living faith where they are compelled to obey God's commands in living for God through Jesus.
Seeing God's face argument - This argument was weak. As I looked it up, it was amazing to me that he even put it in there. I dare say the comic art gives validity where there is none. We know these things... If a man sees God's face... in his natural form born of a woman... that man will die. No questions. A man may see an angel, and a man may see Jesus, but only the back of God has a man ever seen... and that being Moses. Everyone else, even in visions, saw Jesus... even before Jesus came on the earth. For Jesus said before Abraham was, I am. (Jn 8:58) Therefore we know that if men would have died if they had seen God's face, for scriptures tell us this, and we are sure we can rule out an angel, which we cannot in his example of Gen32:30, then we know it would have been Jesus they saw.
I hope that's helpful. I don't have time to say more right now.
Thanks for posting this. Although I only watched the first 2 minutes of it, I find it interesting how fast they were presenting the seeming contradictions and moving on. I have not seen the film "Zietgiest" (not sure I'm spelling it right) yet, but I heard the same thing happens there:An argument is put forth, and then they quickly proceed to the next point.
Some of the them seem like contradictions (I need to look at those scriptures again), and at least one I saw was definitely not a contradiction (being saved by works). The question the host asked was "can we be saved by works?" One guy said no, you're justified by faith and not the law. The other guy said well Jesus said in order to enter life, obey the commandments (Matt 19:17). It makes sense to brush over these "contradictions" and move on quickly, otherwise things like context would come into play. In Matt 19:17 Jesus was speaking to the rich man, and was trying to prove a larger point. After the rich man said he obeys all the commandments, Jesus told him to do something else, something that required faith (sell his possessions and follow Him). To me, the evidence suggests that although Paul and James spoke about the importance of faith and works respectively, neither of them prioritized one over the other. On the contrary, they warned about the consequences of purely relying on one versus the other. If we have faith in Christ, then logically it'll follow that we'll want to do our best to model our lives after His, and he spent a great deal of His life loving and service others. And although He didn't rely on the commandments alone, He obeyed them to the point of being without sin.
Ok, enough of my mini-rant, lol. I just feel like if someone's going to argue that there are contradictions in the bible, then justice should be done to the scriptures they are arguing are contradictory (e.g., acknowledging the context, and not assuming that being a Christian means blindly following everything in the bible). Just my take...
The reality is that James was one of the sons of Joseph and Mary (making him, along with Jude, Jesus' half-brother, humanly speaking), and that his verse does not contradict the fact that, as Paul wrote, "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast" (Ephesians 2:8,9). However, that faith is dynamic, and works will surely result from God-given faith. Faith without works is dead, because true faith is active, just as "Agape" is God's love in action; it is not passive.
Our Lord Jesus enjoyed these paradoxes when dealing with proud unbelievers, as shown in the passage where He asked the Pharisees, "Whose Son is the Messiah?" They answered, "David's." Jesus put this 'mystery' to them, "How is it that David wrote by the Spirit, saying, "The LORD (God) said to my Lord (Messiah), 'Sit Thou at My right hand until I make Thine enemies Thy footstool,''" quoting Psalm 110:4. The Pharisees could not answer. We, being under the New Covenant, understand this mystery; we have been given the revelation that the Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit are the Triune God, eternal, and yet Jesus took on humanity, being miraculously born of Mary after the Holy Spirit caused her to conceive a Child, and she (and His stepfather Joseph) was in the lineage of David, as the prophets said Messiah would be.
ALL of the seeming contradictions have answers like these, "for those who have ears to hear." "He taketh the wise in their own craftiness" (1 Corinthians 3:15).
"FOR EV ER"
"FOOOOOR EVVVVVVV ERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR"
Ecclesiastes should not be read like the other books in the Bible. The writer of Ecclesiastes often dons the role of the ancient naturalist, he often assumes a bunch of premises he doesn't believe in to reach their logical conclusion and show everyone how vain everything is. Anyway, we can easily avoid going through the mood and mindset of the author however by simply stating, which is probably true anyway, that "for ever" (owlam) can mean an 'indefinite amount of time', as opposed to a strict "IT WILL ALWAYS BE AROUND FOREVER, AND BY FOREVER I MEAN AN INFINITE AMOUNT OF TIME WITH NO POSSIBILITY OF NOT BEING THE CASE". And it would not be grasping at straws to maintain that the Ecclesiastes writer is being hyperbolic and exaggerative anyway. Jews, particularly ancient Jews, are hyperbolic and exaggerative. Their literature was not meant to be and is not meant to be an instruction manual or purple prose - they and we are far more interesting. We are Christians, and Christians always used words like 'always', 'all', and 'forever' far more liberally than all skeptics would have us use them.
Matthew 21:12 17-19, Mark 11: 12-17 What happened first? Jesus cursing the fig tree or Jesus throwing the merchants out of the church?
I've heard this since forever (BUT NOT REALLY SINCE FOREVER, I WAS JUST BEING HYPERBOLIC! *wink* *wink*), and this is a point often used to harmonize the fig passage, that Matthew is more topical than sequential in regards to how he lays out the narrative. Figs and the Jewish nation often are symbolically linked (as in the Old Testament), and His cursing the fig tree for not producing fruit, is most probably a symbolic condemnation of the Jewish nation at that time, underscored by the fact that God's Temple had become a place of commerce. Matthew organizes everything, so it is argued, so that this correlation is the most poignant. Mark organizes everything according to when it occurred.
The only thing that leads us to believe that the cursing of the fig tree occurs after His Temple tirade in Matthew, is that the fig tree curse occurs sequentially after the cleansing of the Temple in the narrative. It is argued that the "Now in the morning as he returned into the city. . ." does not TECHNICALLY necessitate that He did it the morning AFTER He cleansed the Temple. And it technically does not. But does it PROBABLY mean that? Well no, not necessarily. First, 'Now' or sometimes 'And' (de) often means in the Greek that a new account is being brought up (this is the case with both Mark and Matthew), as opposed to a continuation of the account before. Second, Matthew is known for plopping accounts that underscore a point Christ makes directly AFTER that point, even if the event did not occur directly after. Take, for instance, Matthew chapter 12 and so on, wherein the author recounts all the healing Jesus did on the Sabbath, after one Sabbath where the Pharisees criticize the disciples for eating corn. Mark reads more as a story; Matthew reads more like a book that sifts through the speeches and ideas of some visionary, supplemented with anecdotes.
John 1:18, Exodus 33:20, Exodus 24 9-11, 1 Timothy 6:16....If no one is allowed to see God face to face because they will die, then why were Abraham, Moses, Jacob and the 70 Elders spared?
If I recall correctly, 'face to face' as an idiom to the Hebrews did not mean what it means to us now. Talking face to face now means that two people literally talk to each other while staring at one another in relatively close proximity. Then, it meant that they were on the same level, so to speak. If President Obama came to my house, which happens to be a hut made out of poop, and sits on a barrel I use for a chair, and speaks to me about foreign policy (I would advise him to..), that would be his talking to me face to face. If he does not come into my hut, demands my attention with an air of arrogance, but still looks at me, mind you with contempt, the Hebrews would not have seen that as talking 'face to face'. BUT SVEN, I hear you asking, HOW DO YOU KNOW? Well, we know that when Moses spoke with God "face to face", only some five or so verses later God informed him that no one could see His face. Moses could only look at His back. So we know that 'face to face' probably doesn't mean they've actually stared at each other, unless the writer is so incompetent and incoherent that he can't keep his story straight within five verses. And Jacob wrestled with an angel of God, a theophany of God at best. And in that instance, the Bible doesn't explicitly state that Jacob even ACTUALLY saw God face to face.
Lately I've been kind of researching the stories of former Christians and what made them reject Jesus.
They rejected God because God rejected them.
2 Peter 3:10/ Ecclesiastes 1:4 About the earth being destroyed. Though I have wondered if what it really means is, the earth will still remain even if it's in ruins. Wouldn't destroyed mean the earth is completely gone and doesn't exist anymore? Or just in ruins like how the earth was "destroyed" by water in the story of Noah.
Matthew 21:12 17-19, Mark 11: 12-17 What happened first? Jesus cursing the fig tree or Jesus throwing the merchants out of the church?
John 1:18, Exodus 33:20, Exodus 24 9-11, 1 Timothy 6:16....If no one is allowed to see God face to face because they will die, then why were Abraham, Moses, Jacob and the 70 Elders spared?
I was stressed out earlier by some more of these "contradictions" but then I remember the stories I read or was told from different people, friends or family that prove God's existance. Such as one of my friends being allowed to go through heaven for a bit and wanting to stay but God told her she hasn't done her purpose yet on Earth, stories of angels protecting a Christian, my own father given visions, different stories about how people say they saw God right before they died and miracles that happened. Lately I've been kind of researching the stories of former Christians and what made them reject Jesus.
I'll address a few things: "No man has seen God at any time." The Greek word for "seen" means "fully comprehended" (the height, width, and depth of) Him. All of the times that Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Solomon, Ezekiel, etc. saw Him, they saw Jesus prior to His birth to Mary, and they also saw HIm in a form where less than His full glory was manifest (or they would have surely died). That's why Moses, who spoke to our Lord face-to-face, as to a friend, had to see Him from behind when God caused all of His goodness to pass before Moses (Exodus 33), as per his request to see His glory.
As for how much David paid for the threshing floor of Ornan, I haven't examined that one, but just taking a stab at it, I'd say the different shekel amounts in different books may reflect an adjustment for inflation, as 2 Samuel and 1 Chronicles were written at different times.
God is always vindicated when He or His Word is called to account. "To the world the Word shall appear as folly (foolishness)." In the Proverbs is it written, "My son, be wise, and make My heart glad, that I may give an answer to those who reproach Me." Read your Bible daily, David, until you've read it from cover to cover, and do it again and again until the Lord comes or until you die, whichever comes first. Grow in grace, and let the engrafted Word of God mature you in all areas, as you surely will be, and be quickened by the Holy Ghost.
If there's any area in that video that really throws you, or causes you to stumble, just verbally transcribe the seeming "contradiction" here on this thread, and one of us---Ralph Miley, Lee Weeks, myself, or some others---will give you an answer of peace, by God's grace. I'm not thrown by any of this; I know the Lord. His ways are sure. You can trust Him with everything.
Ironically, this Aussie's video is intended to discredit the Bible, but it may well stir unbelievers to crack open the Bible to see if those things are really contradicting themselves, and guess Who can speak to a seeking heart whilst in His Word?
I love our Lord Jesus! He is wonderful---there's no (super)hero, no noble character who does all things well like He does. It is such a privilege to be born again! Let Him breathe in you afresh, and remove all doubt, for such is not of His Spirit. At various times in my 45 years on this earth I've personally seen amazing miracles of His grace and glory, just like the kind you read about in the Scriptures. Let your heart be comforted.
To paraphrase David Wilkerson: "No faith, no rest. No prayer, no strength." May we all have faith (which comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God) and continue in an attitude of prayer, and that rest and strength will surely result.
Kind regards in Christ Jesus,
Alec