Christians Struggling with what is Seen as Contradictions in Scripture

[Jonathan95]

How would you encourage new or maybe even long time believers who struggle with hard sayings in Scripture. If we were to look online I'm sure there are many cults and atheistic movements dedicated to flooding their websites with "Contradictions" in the Bible.

If a believer runs into these or something else in their reading that is difficult to understand, it might cause a good bit of anxiety. How have you handled this yourself in the past? How do you encourage a believer that feels like the ground dropped out beneath them?

Sometimes it's hard to sleep when you feel like your beliefs and worldview are being assaulted and you want to look things up and figure it all out but nothing is really clicking for you. I suppose we should just have faith that it all make sense somehow even if we don't really see how but it's disheartening to skip over texts in Scripture because you just don't get it, you know?

And sometimes you read all of these commentaries but the answers all seem cobbled together out of leaps in logic. Is the solution just frequent prayer that the Spirit gives you faith and/or illumines the text for you one day?

 

[py3ak]

Jonathan, this is a very real fiery dart that many people experience. There are several things to bear in mind, but ultimately it needs to be worked through carefully and honestly before the Lord. It's a sore trial, but one of the temptations that comes along with it is to catastrophize it, and make it bigger than it is, so that it's harder to deal with

1. Are the passages being interpreted correctly? Many "apparent" contradictions rise out of assumptions or taking something for granted.
2. Are we leaning on our own understanding or trusting in the Lord? Who defines a contradiction?
3. Does this difficulty change the identity of Jesus? Maybe you don't understand; but where else will you go?
4. Have you ever tied yourself in knots over nothing or been wrong before? There's a possibility that's happening again.
5. Do you want to find a solution? I have encountered people who will raise 34 objections, but won't listen to any of the answers because it's about defending a position or finding an excuse, rather than learning the truth. E.g., quibblers might say that orchid seeds are smaller than mustard seeds; but somebody who understands that the speech of Biblical characters conforms to the general way people talk will understand that this does not undermine the parable of the mustard seed in any meaningful way.
6. Are we qualified to sit in judgment over Scripture? Maybe the real root of our difficulty is not intellectual, but moral--a lack of humility and submission before the authoritative expression of God's will.

In terms of how things usually get resolved, what often happens is that you keep the question in mind and keep reading. Sometimes after a long while, but sometimes within just a little bit, the answer comes. Recently I watched someone go through this, and they came out on the other end with a deeper understanding and a renewed appreciation for the passage that just a couple of days before seemed like it was likely to be the place where faith shattered (this also included hunting through a number of different commentaries for good information and reasonable suggestions). Difficulties are designed to make us go deeper, and new interpretive light often arises because a text called for more and perhaps demanded the adoption of a different perspective.

Our faith in God's word is seasoned and strengthened by passing through the testing; the passage that's a torment today might be a great comfort next year. The first time I read Ezekiel I was left with a vague but strong sense that this book probably didn't belong in Scripture. The next time I read it I decided it was the best book of the Bible. The third time I read it I thought it was deeply weird and probably more inspired than profitable. Now that I've read it and worked with it more I recognize it as a wonderful book, with a distinctive contribution to the overall Biblical message.

 

[Jonathan95]

Jonathan, this is a very real fiery dart that many people experience. There are several things to bear in mind, but ultimately it needs to be worked through carefully and honestly before the Lord. It's a sore trial, but one of the temptations that comes along with it is to catastrophize it, and make it bigger than it is, so that it's harder to deal with

1. Are the passages being interpreted correctly? Many "apparent" contradictions rise out of assumptions or taking something for granted.
2. Are we leaning on our own understanding or trusting in the Lord? Who defines a contradiction?
3. Does this difficulty change the identity of Jesus? Maybe you don't understand; but where else will you go?
4. Have you ever tied yourself in knots over nothing or been wrong before? There's a possibility that's happening again.
5. Do you want to find a solution? I have encountered people who will raise 34 objections, but won't listen to any of the answers because it's about defending a position or finding an excuse, rather than learning the truth. E.g., quibblers might say that orchid seeds are smaller than mustard seeds; but somebody who understands that the speech of Biblical characters conforms to the general way people talk will understand that this does not undermine the parable of the mustard seed in any meaningful way.
6. Are we qualified to sit in judgment over Scripture? Maybe the real root of our difficulty is not intellectual, but moral--a lack of humility and submission before the authoritative expression of God's will.

In terms of how things usually get resolved, what often happens is that you keep the question in mind and keep reading. Sometimes after a long while, but sometimes within just a little bit, the answer comes. Recently I watched someone go through this, and they came out on the other end with a deeper understanding and a renewed appreciation for the passage that just a couple of days before seemed like it was likely to be the place where faith shattered (this also included hunting through a number of different commentaries for good information and reasonable suggestions). Difficulties are designed to make us go deeper, and new interpretive light often arises because a text called for more and perhaps demanded the adoption of a different perspective.

Our faith in God's word is seasoned and strengthened by passing through the testing; the passage that's a torment today might be a great comfort next year. The first time I read Ezekiel I was left with a vague but strong sense that this book probably didn't belong in Scripture. The next time I read it I decided it was the best book of the Bible. The third time I read it I thought it was deeply weird and probably more inspired than profitable. Now that I've read it and worked with it more I recognize it as a wonderful book, with a distinctive contribution to the overall Biblical message.

These are very good things to think on, thank you so very much!

I can relate!! Currently going through Ezekiel now haha. Thank you for your answer Sir! Very helpful indeed.

 

[BlackCalvinist]

How would you encourage new or maybe even long time believers who struggle with hard sayings in Scripture. If we were to look online I'm sure there are many cults and atheistic movements dedicated to flooding their websites with "Contradictions" in the Bible.

If a believer runs into these or something else in their reading that is difficult to understand, it might cause a good bit of anxiety. How have you handled this yourself in the past? How do you encourage a believer that feels like the ground dropped out beneath them?

Sometimes it's hard to sleep when you feel like your beliefs and worldview are being assaulted and you want to look things up and figure it all out but nothing is really clicking for you. I suppose we should just have faith that it all make sense somehow even if we don't really see how but it's disheartening to skip over texts in Scripture because you just don't get it, you know?

And sometimes you read all of these commentaries but the answers all seem cobbled together out of leaps in logic. Is the solution just frequent prayer that the Spirit gives you faith and/or illumines the text for you one day?

In my earlier days, evidentialism proved very handy. I still have Gleason Archer's texts along with several others which attack alleged bible discrepancies and explain them well.

Third Millennium has a website up on this: http://reformedanswers.org/

God allows folks like you and I to struggle with some of these alleged contradictions to help shore up our faith and prepare us for the next encounter coming up. I can absolutely say with 100% certainty this has been the case with me, as I seem to always end up either answering that same question for someone else later on or using one example of a supposed contradiction and its' resolution in some random conversation somewhere during life. LOL

On top of getting some good information in you on some alleged contradictions, you will want to spend a lot of time IN scripture itself. Sometimes, the 'contradictions' come from folks not knowing scripture, misquoting it, and hoping that the people they attack are just as ignorant as they are so they can win the argument and feel good about themselves.

 

[JH]

I think our divines summed it up pretty nicely in Chapter 1 of our confessions, paragraph 9:

The infallible rule of interpretation of Scripture is the Scripture itself; and therefore when there is a question about the true and full sense of any Scripture (which is not manifold, but one), it must be searched by other places that speak more clearly.