Week 8

Conclusion

Diagnosing Bible Difficulties and Contradictions

Opening Prayer (5 Minutes)

Example (5 Minutes)

Questions about Verses, Passages, and Concepts (10 Minutes)

Lois – Acts 17 – to the unknown God

Femi – what about dreams in the Bible? Some are good some are bad. Are there ones from the devil as much as there are from the Lord?

Dreams – Jeremiah 23:28

Femi – minor doctrines and doctrines made up from one or two verses

Discuss Questions (50 Minutes)

How I Address Bible Difficulties

Are my concerns modern ones? Sometimes the Bible will not answer my modern concerns. Did it satisfy ancient concerns?

Are my concerns theological, historical, cultural, dealing with language, contextual, dealing with time, or dealing with synoptic issues?

What resources will help me address my concerns?

Bible Dictionaries

Bible Handbooks and Encyclopedias

Commentaries

Archaeology Resources

What if I still can’t find an answer?

Prayer

Pastors and Bible teachers

Bible scholars

How I Address Bible Contradictions

When I am asked (usually by atheists) about contradictions in the Bible they Almost always tell me their contradictions. But they don’t give me any specifics.

The first question you ask when somebody asks about Bible contradictions is for a specific contradiction they see.

You don’t want to deal in vague shadows or examples. Them I would you do, you acknowledge that there are Bible contradictions.

If there is an example, be aware that the Bible is both a simple and complex Book.

It’s so simple a child can understand the gospel message.

It’s so complex scholars spend a lifetime understanding the Bible.

The Bible was written by about 40 Writers over 1600 years. It spans many cultures, time periods, and empires and nations. Only a good handle on the histories, cultures, and languages of the Bible can you understand it in depth.

So any “contradiction” in the Bible can deal with these issues:

Theological understanding

Cultural concepts

Time or calendar issues

Historical “inconsistencies’ or understanding of ancient history

National and Empire histories

Language concepts and interpretations

Interpretation of passages and concepts

Macro narrative Issues – understanding the basic message of the Bible, major and minor themes and how they fit into the whole

Genre recognition – the questions a genre answers and the questions it doesn’t answer

Modern and ancient expectations – we often have modern questions to ancient texts. The ancients would not be concerned with what we are concerned with.

Religious focus of the Bible – while the Bible has history, science, and other subjects in it, they are subject to ancient rules and not modern ones. The Bible is not a science textbook. The Bible is not a history textbook. But when it speaks to these subjects it is authoritative based on the ancient expectations.

Application (15 Minutes)

Closing (5 Minutes)