BiblicalInsights.net

     Recently, Dan Barker (atheist) debated Kyle Butt (theist) on the proposition, “Does the God of the Bible exist?”  The debate is available from Apologetics Press.org. on DVD.  When Barker began his remarks, he listed 14 alleged contradictions that he believed refuted the notion that the God of the Bible existed.  These alleged contradictions can be properly explained and have been many times, but they seem to trouble some people.
     Wayne Jackson in his new book, The Bible on Trial, discusses what  a contradiction is and then proceeds to show that many of the alleged contradictions in the Bible are no more than semantic problems, time problems, or people problems.  Jackson states, “When one is confronted with an alleged contradiction, he must ask himself these questions: (1) Is the same thing or person under consideration?  (2) Is the same time period in view? (3) Is the language that seems to be self-contradictory employed in the same sense?” (The Bible on Trial, 60).
     Jackson illustrates the problem by analyzing two statements: Robert is rich.  Robert is poor. “Do these statements contradict one another?  The answer is–not necessarily!  First, two different people named Robert could be under consideration.  Second, two different time frames might be in view; Robert could have been rich, but, due to financial disaster, he became poor.  Third, the terms “rich” and “poor” might have been used in different senses: Robert could be spiritually rich but economically poor.  The point is this: it never is proper to assume a contradiction exists until every possible means of harmonization has been fully exhausted” (The Bible on Trial, 61).
     For example, Kyle Butt dealt with one of the proposed contradictions made by Dan Barker.  Jesus said, “If Ibear witness of myself, my witness is not true” (John 5:31).  Jesus said, “…Though I bear record of myself, yet my record is true:” (John 8:14).  The explanation for this alleged contradiction is easily made.  There is a special sense in which Jesus uses the word “true” (John 5:31).  He uses it in the Jewish legal sense that a matter can be established to be true in the mouth of two or three witnesses (Deut. 17:6).  This does not mean that the personal testimony of one was necessarily false.  It does mean that the legal minimum required to establish a matter to be true was at least two witnesses.  In John 5, Jesus gives five witnesses to His true identity as God’s Son and as Messiah (John the baptist, the miracles He did, His Father, the Scriptures and Moses)!  Of course, He told the truth about Himself as well.
     All skeptics of the Bible need to take note.  You cannot prove that the God of the Bible does not exist by using these alleged contradictions.