Contradictions in the Bible

[Walter Kovacs]

I think of denominations as beautiful homes, where each personality can find a comfortable spot, and people at different phases of understanding can find people who are thinking along the same lines.

I like that...I wish more folks thought like that.

 

[BondiHarry]

But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know [them], because they are spiritually discerned. (1 Corinthians 2:14)

the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. (John 14:17)

Are there contradictions in the Bible? I've gone to some of the web sites which list what are called 'contradictions' and have found that invariably the 'contradictions' result from taking things out of context and a fundamental lack of understanding of the words beings used ... and not a little hostility or outright hatred for God. The Spirit of God which dwells within those who have truly come to Jesus gives the believer a hunger to study God's word, to meditate and pray on it and as we do this we come to understand it (some of it at least, God is beyond our understanding and many of the teachings of the Bible are difficult to grasp) ... every believer should understand that God is holy and wants us to be holy and to know what holiness is.

Thus far every 'contradiction' that others may cite in the Bible I've found not to be a contradiction at all once we get a sufficient understanding of God and the context in which He speaks.

 

[JesusChristLives]

If we spend our time debating things that nonbelievers won't understand because they have never experienced the Holy Spirit, then we will accomplish nothing.

This is where debating gets us, as Christians, who are called to the Great Commission: Nowhere.


We are to plant the seed, then the rest is up to them, we cannot prove anything to them, they must come to the realization for themselves.

If they reject it, then they reject it. There is no need to persist, you will only further turn them away. God will work with them in some way and give them other opportunities, whether it be through you or someone else. BUT LET THEM COME TO YOU. The best you can do for them is pray.

 

[BondiHarry]

If we spend our time debating things that nonbelievers won't understand because they have never experienced the Holy Spirit, then we will accomplish nothing.

This is where debating gets us, as Christians, who are called to the Great Commission: Nowhere.


We are to plant the seed, then the rest is up to them, we cannot prove anything to them, they must come to the realization for themselves.

If they reject it, then they reject it. There is no need to persist, you will only further turn them away. God will work with them in some way and give them other opportunities, whether it be through you or someone else. BUT LET THEM COME TO YOU. The best you can do for them is pray.

One of the best lines I've ever heard about witnessing is: "preach the gospel and, if you must, use words". There is something profoundly different about a Holy Spirit filled person that others notice. There will be holiness in their lives but more than that there will be a peace which transcends all understanding. We must "[be] ready always to [give] an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear" which requires we can give Biblically sound reasons for our faith in and love of God but we should also keep in mind that one may plow the field, another will sow the seed of faith but it is God who waters it and will bring it to bear fruit. The woman who led me to Christ led many to Him at the place where we both worked yet she rarely spoke of God by words ... she spoke of Him in how her life was lived and the serene peace she projected in even the worst of times.

 

[Kaitlin08]

Judging from what you've written in the OP, Hakan, I think this man does not understand implicit meanings, a strange thing since he is an accomplice, an accomplice to the mediocre. If he were asking about ethical contradictions, then there are a breadth of topics he could have raised with you, even though as it stands he chose to raise the topic of literary contradictions, which are easily solved if a person knows that to read a text, there is an above-text, much as seeing heated words and flushed faces at the bar, a person can tell that a fist will be thrown.