Addressing Alleged Bible Contradictions And Exposing Bible Corruptions: The Apologetic Series, #2

How I Know The Bible Is Reliable?

(Book Introduction)

Is the bible trustworthy or not? At first glance the title of this book may seem like a paradox, but is it? The primary focus of this book is to show that the bible narrative as a whole (the thousands of underlying Hebrew and Greek manuscripts) are trustworthy, but this does not mean that every translation of those manuscripts are reliable.

The bible is an amazing book. It is the best selling book. It is the most hated book. It was written by forty or more authors over the coarse of over fifteen hundred years. Why should you trust the bible however? After all it does contain hard to believe (for some at least) accounts of talking snakes, a man being swallowed by a whale, Jesus walking on water, people being raised back to life, etc. With such fantastical tales of miraculous proportions, the bible better give us some good reasons to  trust it. Well, in my last book I gave 300 such reasons as to why you should trust the bible, believe that God exist, and believe that the earth is young (this book is part 2 in a hopefully three-part series). For the Intro of this book I will be giving you...

Five Reason’s You Can Trust Scripture.

1. Available Manuscript Evidence.

The first reason that I would like to give as to why you should trust the bible is because it has more manuscripts that are written more closely to the originals than any other ancient text. Consider the following examples:

Title  / # Manuscripts  / Originally written  /  Earliest Copy

Caesar Gallic Wars  251   100 to 40 B.C     9th Century

Plato Tetralogies  210   400 B.C   895 A.D

Herodotus History  109 480 to 425 B.C  10th Century

Greek NT   5,795 50 to 100 A.D  130 A.D

for a few more examples please see link below.

https://www.toughquestionsanswered.org/2012/12/11/how-do-other-ancient-texts-compare-to-the-new-testament/

2. It’s Textual Agreement and Scribes Accuracy.

Another remarkable thing about the bible is that the supporting manuscript evidence lines up with amazing accuracy. According to The Identity Of The New Testament Text 2 by Wilbur Pickering. 100% of the MSS agree as to, say, 50% of the Text; 99% agree as to another 40%; over 95% agree as to another 4%; over 90% agree as to another 2%; over 80% agree as to another 2%; only for 2% or so of the Text do less than 80% of the MSS agree, and most of those cases occur in Revelation.

https://puritanboard.com/threads/what-is-the-authentic-new-testament-text.15134/

The scribes who wrote the bible were exceeding careful when creating the manuscripts. They were not permitted to write any letter or word from their memory, and they had to read aloud and pronounce the words that they were writing. If there was even one mistake on the sheet, it was condemned. If three errors were found the whole manuscript was denounced. The manuscript was destroyed if one letter touched another or if there was an absent or extra letter.

Diane A. McNeil, Ruth 3,000 Years of Sleeping Prophecy Awakened, Xulon Press, 2005, p. 226-227

3.Bible Prophecy.

In my last book An Overwhelming Case For Christian Worldview I list only dozens (out of hundreds of Messianic) prophesies that Jesus has fulfilled. According to the book Science Speaks by Peter Stoner and Robert Newman the odds of someone fulfilling just 8 prophesies is 1 in 100,000,000,000,000,000, or 1 in 10¹⁷. To get an idea of what that would be like imagine Texas being covered in two feet of silver dollars, mark one of them and blindfold someone. Tell them they can go anywhere in Texas but must pick just one silver dollar. This would be the chance of that person getting that one silver dollar on his first try.

Of coarse, someone may claim that the NT writers new the OT prophesies and made of the fact that Jesus fulfilled them. The problem with that is, the apostles had no motivation to do so. They were persecuted and put to death for their belief in Jesus, why would they go through all that if it wasn’t true.

4. It’s Scientific Accuracy.

I have given many of these examples in my last book, so I would relist all of them here. However here are a few examples of where the bible was way ahead of it’s time in terms of scientific discovery (because of divine revelation).

•  Life of the flesh in the blood, Leviticus 17:11.

•  Rotation of the Earth, Job 38:12-14.

•  Washing under Running Water, Leviticus 15:13.

•  Springs in the Sea, Job 38:16.

•  Letting the Land Rest one year in seven, Leviticus 25:2-5.

•  Waste Management, Deuteronomy 23:13.

•  Air Circuits, Ecclesiastes 1:6

5. It Contains NO Contradictions.

There are hundreds, if not thousands of alleged so-called bible contradictions out there, but no genuine ones. A contradiction is when something is said to be A and not A at the same time and/or in the same sense. It is my sincere desire that my book will equip believers with the knowledge and know-how to answer said supposed contradictions. Once you have gone through these 330 plus examples it shouldn’t be hard at all to answer most any other supposed bible error, since they’ll probably be the same kind of alleged discrepancy.

Chapter 1: Genesis-Deuteronomy

It should come as no surprise to us Christians that unbelievers will not understand the bible, they will say that it has contradictions but it is due to their lack of understanding, and not because what they are saying is true. The bible tells us that the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit (1 Corinthians 2:14, this makes sense because why would God give wisdom, and understanding to his enemies? Let us begin our study on the many misunderstandings that skeptics have of the scriptures, beginning in Genesis.

1. Gen 1:1  In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. Eph 3:9  And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ: 

This isn’t a contradiction since Jesus is God.

2. Gen 1:25  And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good. Gen 1:26  And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. Gen 2:19  And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof. 

The supposed contradiction is stated as, did God make man or animals first? Animals were made first, Genesis 2 is a retelling and a more detailed account of what happened in Genesis 1. God could’ve remade an extra set of each kind of animal and then brought them unto Adam, hence no contradiction.

3. Gen 1:27  So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. Gen 3:22  And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever: 

Was Adam made in or did he acquire God image? One is dealing with his physical appearance, the other his mind.

4. Gen 1:29  And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. Lev 11:3  Whatsoever parteth the hoof, and is clovenfooted, and cheweth the cud, among the beasts, that shall ye eat.

So is man only permitted to eat plants, or some animals? These are different points in time with different rules.

5. Gen 1:31  And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day. Gen 2:4  These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens, 

How long did it take God to make earth? One or six days? He did it in six literal days. The word day in Chapter two doesn’t mean a literal one 24 hr day. The word day can have multiple meanings. Example: back in my day we had to walk 20 miles to school.

6. Gen 2:7  And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. Deu 12:23  Only be sure that thou eat not the blood: for the blood is the life; and thou mayest not eat the life with the flesh. 

Does life come from breath or blood? You need both.

7. Gen 2:17  But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. Gen 5:4  And the days of Adam after he had begotten Seth were eight hundred years: and he begat sons and daughters: 

Adam died spiritually that day (as in separation from God). Thus he began to die physically also, though it took 8 centuries. God sacrificed an animal to cloth Adam, (a foreshadowing of Christ death for us).

8. Gen 3:9  And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou? Joh 21:17  He saith unto him the third time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? Peter was grieved because he said unto him the third time, Lovest thou me? And he said unto him, Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee. Jesus saith unto him, Feed my sheep. 

So is God Omniscient? He is. God knew where Adam’s physical location was, God was calling out to Adam in respect to his relationship with him. Since Adam was hiding due to his sin.

9. Gen 6:3  And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years. Psa 90:10  The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.

There are two explanations to what may be the answer here, either in the Psalms it is speaking of what generally is the case of man’s lifespan, and Genesis gives the maximum or (the more likely) Genesis is speaking how long until God floods the earth.

10. Gen 6:19  And of every living thing of all flesh, two of every sort shalt thou bring into the ark, to keep them alive with thee; they shall be male and female. Gen 7:2  Of every clean beast thou shalt take to thee by sevens, the male and his female: and of beasts that are not clean by two, the male and his female. 

How many of each kind did Noah bring? The answer: two of the unclean animals and seven of the clean.

11. Gen 7:12  And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights. Gen 7:24  And the waters prevailed upon the earth an hundred and fifty days. 

These numbers reflect different events, the one being the rain fell, the other was referring to the waters prevailing. After 150 days the waters started to decrease (Gen 8:3).

12. Gen 7:4  For yet seven days, and I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights; and every living substance that I have made will I destroy from off the face of the earth. Gen 8:2  The fountains also of the deep and the windows of heaven were stopped, and the rain from heaven was restrained; 

Did the water come from heaven only or from the earth as well. The came from both, nowhere in the text says that only the rain caused the great flood.

13. Gen 8:4  And the ark rested in the seventh month, on