Difficulties in the Bible

Who of us has not found things in the Bible that have puzzled us? Yes, that in our early Christian experience have led us to question whether the Bible was, after all, the Word of God? We find some things in the Bible which it seems impossible to reconcile with other things in the Bible. We find some things which seem incompatible with the thought that the whole Bible is of divine origin and absolutely inerrant. It is not wise to attempt to conceal the fact that these difficulties exist. It is the part of wisdom, as well as of honesty, to frankly face them and consider them. What shall we say concerning these difficulties that every thoughtful student will sooner or later encounter? The first thing we have to say about these difficulties in the Bible is that from the very nature of the case difficulties are to be expected.

Some people are surprised and staggered because there are difficulties in the Bible. For my part, I would be more surprised and staggered if there were not. What is the Bible? It is a revelation of the mind and will and character and being of an infinitely great, perfectly wise and absolutely holy God. God Himself is the Author of this revelation. But to whom is the revelation made? To men, to finite beings who are imperfect in intellectual development and consequently in knowledge.

The wisest man measured on the scale of eternity is only a babe, and the holiest man compared with God is only an infant in moral development. There must, then, from the very necessities of the case, be difficulties in such a revelation from such a source made to such persons. When the finite try to understand the infinite, there is bound to be difficulty. When the ignorant contemplate the utterances of one perfect in knowledge, there must be many things hard to be understood, and some things which to their immature and inaccurate minds appear absurd. When beings whose moral judgments as to the hatefulness of sin and as to the awfulness of the penalty that it demands, listen to the demands of an absolutely holy Being, they are bound to be staggered at some of His demands; and when they consider His dealings, they are bound to be staggered at some of His dealings. These dealings will appear too severe, too stern, too harsh.

It is plain that there must be difficulties for us in such a revelation as the Bible has proved to be. If someone should hand me a book that was as simple to me as the multiplication table, and say, “This is the Word of God; in it He has revealed His whole will and wisdom,” I should shake my head and say, “I cannot believe it; that is too easy to be a perfect revelation of infinite wisdom.” There must be in any complete revelation of God’s mind and will and character and being, things hard for the beginner to understand; and the wisest and best of us are but beginners. The second thing to be said about these difficulties is that a difficulty in a doctrine, or a grave objection to a doctrine, does not in any way prove the doctrine to be untrue. Many people think that it does. If they come across some difficulty in the way of believing in the divine origin and absolute inerrancy and infallibility of the Bible, they at once conclude that the doctrine is exploded. That is very illogical. They should stop a moment and think, and learn to be reasonable and fair. There is scarcely a doctrine in science generally believed today, that has not had some great difficulty in the way of its acceptance. arose, as most all of those in the Bible.

Another lie that critics make is, they quote something from the Bible that is clearly against God’s laws. They don’t look to see who is speaking. And example of that is that Satan said, “you shall not surely die.” What it is, is that God is recording what others said and inspired Moses (in this case) to write it. God records what others said or did. Depending on the situation, mortal man might be right or might be wrong.

An example is, statements that we attribute to world leaders. Yes, they really said it but that is not what they believe. They are just quoting what others said. Case in point, “If you tell a big enough lie others will believe it.”

Most critics of the Bible, parrot what another critics said without doing any checking themselves. Some critics might say, “I read the Bible and couldn’t understand it.” In other words, they read it one time, like some cheap novel, and think that they are an authority on it. If you were to tell them that the Bible needs to be studied, they would say, “I don’t have the time.” Well, if they don’t have the time, why talk like you are an expert on it?!

Then you have critics who “go with the flow.” They don’t want to labelled a nutter, a religious zealot and they don’t want to be ostracized by friends.

Another type of critic, and I’m talking about an honest one and not a Pharasee/Edomite, is a person who thinks that because they don’t know the answer the Bible must be wrong. It would be like someone who can’t figure out a math problem and think that the formula is wrong without going to the math teacher to find what where they went wrong.

Then you have a critic who looks at the smallest difficulty and ignores all the other truth that is in the Bible. The critics do the same whether they are arguing about WWII, 9-11, medical fraud or the flat earth.

Speaking about the flat earth, have you notice that critics disregard the physics of ‘water seek its own level’ as if that is of no importance and pick another aspect? Then, when you try to answer them, they immediately talk about another ‘difficulty’ of the flat earth. In short, they are afraid of having their questions answered.

Sad to say, there is a group of flat earth believers do not believe in the God of the Bible. They point out the Bible verses to support the flat earth, but become like the rest of the Bible critics and don’t believe the rest of the Bible. Can you figure that one out! Eric Dubay is one person that comes to mind. The last thing we need is a the flat earth movement taken over by people who don’t believe in the Bible and the answers it has to solve everyday problems here on earth.

I believe that one reason why there are difficulties in the Bible is for God to test His people; to see if they have faith or not. An example is, that of certain cities mentioned in the Bible that could not be found. This was what the ‘higher critics’ of the 19^th century used as an argument; these men who pride themselves on the degrees they have from prestigious universities. Then, some archaeologists discovers the city where atheists said never existed. Then another city was discovered, and another one. Such reports were put in a book that was printed in the 1950s. I believe the title was ‘The Bible as History.’