Did the Bible Get This Wrong?

Hello everyone, welcome back to revealed apologetics. I'm Eli Ayala and today we are going to tackle an interesting topic relating to alleged

Bible contradictions specifically we're gonna look at one regarding Genesis and Kind of unpack that a little bit if you looked at the thumbnail

We have a picture there of Adam and Eve And so basically we're gonna be we're gonna be covering the question

Why didn't Adam and Eve die immediately after eating the forbidden fruit? okay, and so this question is often found as You know a possible

Contradiction within scripture for God says in the day that you eat you will surely die And of course when they ate they did not die.

So what is going on there? Well like the previous videos This was unplanned.

And so I kind of decided to do this just at the last second here again

I do apologize. I'm trying to get in as much content as I can Before I start up at work again so you guys those who follow what

I do know that my full -time job my real job is that I am a Teacher and so once my schedule my school schedule comes back in I don't know how frequently

I'll be able to post videos and things like that So, um, so that's why I'm kind of doing these unexpected episodes.

And so hopefully you guys are enjoying it. They're live I'm also because I don't have time to edit

So after I do a live video it just it's up there and I don't have to worry about it so So there you go so that is what we're gonna be covering today real quick as I always say at the beginning of every episode if you enjoy and have been blessed with Revealed apologetics and the content that that I've been putting out

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Well, let's jump right in a why am I doing a video on alleged Bible contradictions?

Well, let me tell you a little story As you guys know that my background I grew up in church okay, and I grew up in church reading my

Bible quite often being very familiar with The biblical story the biblical accounts and issues of theology that it was

Normal a normal thing that we would talk about in my family even sleepovers with my cousins

We would often stay up late talking about the things of God. So they were always on my mind now It wasn't until I went to college.

I went to a community college and I took a course called the literature of the

Bible and In this course, it was supposed to be a study of the the

Bible as literature And so to kind of look through the different genres and it's in the Bible's impact in history and and culture and things like that But I happened to get a professor that really was not a fan of Christianity nor a fan of the

Bible Which ironically he was teaching a class on the Bible But he didn't seem to be much of a fan of it because he would spend quite a bit a bit of time

Ridiculing the Bible and of course some of the other students in the class as well and so it was actually the first time kind of stepping out of my my own

Christian bubble where When I took this class like the first 10 15 minutes

Maybe 20 minutes was spent showing trying to show why the Bible wasn't the Word of God And the professor would bring up, you know, these

Bible contradictions and things like this And so of course that you know long story

To shorten the long story this kind of opened me up to Apologetics now, there's a lot more that goes into that story.

I'm skipping like a whole journey that I went through But but you know spoiler alert I came to believe that the to be confirmed in the belief that the

Bible is in fact the Word of God It is the inerrant Word of God without error and the original Autographer and I think that defending the integrity and consistency of the

Bible is an important aspect of Christian apologetics And so in terms of being a teacher

I think covering this topic is a great way to talk about the importance of being familiar with Principles of logic right as you guys know,

I believe that God himself is the foundation of logic God is the foundation of truth itself and Yeah, that's right, so Here we go here a little did that teacher know what he had created.

Yeah, that's right This this is the the person who started me on my journey to be more specifically apologetic minded.

It's a long journey But yeah, correct But anyway, this provides a good opportunity to talk about the principles of right reasoning

God is the is the ground of all truth He is the definer of all things Jesus says I am the way the truth and the life that's very important because he does not say

I have the truth But he actually equates himself with truth itself And so I think that's very interesting and when we think in terms of truth, one of the key ingredients to truth is

Consistency and so I think as Christians we need to be consistent in our

Our worldview we want to be able to understand things in a way that is logical and rational as understood

By by God and his word and things like that So I think this would be a great opportunity to kind of talk a little bit about the importance of logic in addressing

Bible contradictions now, this actually is a super important when someone says hey

You know, I found a contradiction in the Bible Okay, and this often is then a platform to then get into a deeper discussion about the issues

I think the knee -jerk reaction that a lot of Christians have To alleged

Bible contradictions. It's just to you know, well, no the Bible isn't contradictory and here's why you know

I think a very helpful way to address alleged Bible contradictions is to define what a contradiction is okay, a contradiction is not a tension in the text okay, a

Contradiction is not a tension in the text So if someone brings two texts of Scripture and says look there's that there seems to be a tension here that is not equivalent to a contradiction, okay a

Contradiction would be a violation of the second law of logic which states that a statement cannot be both true and false at the same time and in the same way and so when you define a

Contradiction and hopefully you can get an agreement that you know This is what a contradiction is then with that definition in mind you can take a look at the alleged

Bible Contradiction and then see whether that you know, those scriptures actually violate that principle

Which I think is a biblical principle as I know that I argue that Logic, of course can only be made sense of within the

Christian worldview And so if God is the ground of truth, the Bible is the Word of God We believe that the Bible will not contradict itself.

Okay. Now there are difficult passages in Scripture I for one do not have all of the answers, you know, if you were to you know

Give me a list of a hundred alleged Bible contradictions I don't I don't know if I'd be able to answer all of them but here's another thing a

Genuine contradiction is not demonstrated in the fact that I am unable to reconcile every single passage in the

Bible See my ignorance does not entail a contradiction and so often a skeptic will say something along along the lines of well

You're just kind of wiggle wiggle your way out and don't don't get upset. Mr. Skeptic. Okay I'm just pointing out that it's not that easy to demonstrate a contradiction because there are many things that need to be taken into consideration

Some of which I as an apologist am able to address and some of which maybe I'm not equipped to address

So so yeah, so so I think these are important things to keep in mind Now let's first talk about the role of logic in apologetics as Christians and more specifically the presuppositionalist, right?

We affirm that all truth is grounded in the nature of God Okay God is the source of all logic order truth and so forth and so when we encounter an alleged

Contradiction in Scripture our task is not to shy away but to use the tools of logic that God has given us and careful interpretation to understand and Explain what is going on that takes a little work in some cases

It also takes humility because when someone brings up an alleged Bible contradiction One of our kind of first response is to kind of engage in the text not really

Reading the text and understanding its context and all the details that go into proper interpretation So sometimes it's perfectly appropriate to respond in this way when someone brings, you know, an alleged

Bible contradiction Hey, I've know I have to think about that Let me go and read the context and think about it a little bit and let me get back to you

Don't succumb to the temptation to offer a quick off -the -cuff Response.

Okay, because you know That that's the temptation right we don't want to be caught off guard right and so sometimes things, you know answering

You know alleged contradictions are gonna some of them are easy You can just address them right there and some of them require kind of slowing down Reading the context thinking about a little bit and seeing how it fits together kind of putting a puzzle a puzzle together

Okay, so I think that's important to keep in mind but in terms of logic I think when we understand the importance of logic within this context

I think logic helps us to do a couple of things. It helps us to clarify our terms, right?

So basically it helps us ensure that we understand the precise meaning of words used in the Bible Because words in the

Bible can be used in different senses. Okay one word that often people Equivocate upon especially skeptics is the word faith

Okay, you know the word faith it can be defined in one sense by the skeptic

I mean then they'll they will impose that faulty definition of faith Upon the

Bible as though the Bible teaches that specific definition of faith You know, we often hear things like, you know, faith is believing things

You know ain't true or faith is believing something without evidence Well, if you're going to offer an internal critique of the

Christian worldview You're gonna have to operate on the biblical definition of faith Not the straw man definition that has been constructed that is now being foisted upon the

Christian position That's not going to be acceptable because that person will then create by using faulty definitions

You're going to create a contradiction where there is none because of course if you define things in this particular way

That's contrary to what the Bible is saying in its context Then yeah, obviously you're going to have a contradiction.

So we want to be careful of that logic helps us to clarify terms. Okay That's why when someone uses certain terms, what do you mean by that?

You know Can you define that and then you can see whether you know if you're familiar with the Bible and how it uses certain terms and concepts you can see whether the

Bible agrees with the Assumed the definition that's being put forth by the skeptic. I think logic also helps us do what we call

You know Contextual analysis, right? So we need to consider historical cultural literary context of a particular passage that can help us in clarifying whether a particular text or series of texts are contradictory and of course logic actually helps us resolve the contradiction so we can

Identify and reconcile any perceived and consistency within Scripture if we apply various logical

Principles. Okay. Now this is super important because a lot of the attacks upon the

Bible Especially with respect to this topic of logical contradictions are based off Fallacies.

Okay, they are and I'm not saying that Christians aren't are immune to that. Obviously everyone could

Be guilty of thinking along fallacious lines, but you know

People will say for example You know, it's either this or that and of course, you know, there's a third option, right?

It either means this or it means that it doesn't mean this contradiction No, right There are a wide range of things that need to be considered depending on what you are talking about to give an example one apparent contradiction is

That in on the one hand the Bible says no one has seen God in any time because he dwells in unapproachable lighting

That's first Timothy 6 16, but then in the Old Testament, it speaks of people Seeing God, you know seeing the face of God so on and so forth.

Okay, so which is it is it? No man has seen God or No, no man has seen

God or people have seen God Okay Now that's not the topic of this video and that warrants a discussion all in and of itself not because it's difficult by the way

But because there is a there is a rich Biblical context for theophany if you're familiar with that theophanies understanding of the

Trinity and how the Bible speaks of the Father and the Son who reveals and so Understanding the role of the persons within the

Trinity are relevant to answering those sorts of questions, but they're not contradictory in the sense that There is a sense in which no one has seen

God and there's a sense in which we see God in Christ And that's true of the

Old Testament as well as we Christians believe that Christ is in the Old Testament. So So super super Important.

All right Let's see, let's see here Okay So let's kind of tackle the specific thing that I wanted to cover today thinking in terms of logical principles

Which we just discussed so there's typically an issue that arises from Genesis 2 17 where God says

When you eat of it the eat of the tree you will surely die and Genesis 5 5 which states that Adam lived to be

You know 930 years old right you have this pre -flood Obviously the people lived for a very long age.

I do not hold to the position that Those numbers are symbolic. I know some people hold to that.

I have no reason to believe that's the case But this seems contradictory right? Especially when you juxtapose it with Satan's assertion in Genesis 3 4 you will not surely die

Okay, so so which is it did they die or didn't they die? Okay now you have to understand this in terms of Understanding the the phrasing certain words

Concepts theology. All of this is packed into how we Pardon how we understand these issues.

Okay. So for example, let's take a look at three key concepts Within this this scripture.

Okay, let's take a look at the concept of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil The phrase in the day and the meaning of the phrase you will surely die

Okay, all of those have baked into it a whole bunch of things that need to be picked apart.

Okay, and this is important because Reconciling Alleged contradictions require some precision in how terms and concepts are used.

Okay, that's super important Okay, so let's understand a couple of things about the the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

First of all, we don't believe That the tree has some magical properties right the tree didn't contain, you know a special substance that conferred knowledge, right

You know, I remember there was this the movie with I Think it was Jack Black Where I think it was called year one.

I think it's called year one something like that a very Stupid movie it mocks the scriptures. Obviously, it's not something that a

Christian would enjoy in that capacity But there's a scene where he eats from the tree and he he feels like oh,

I'm I'm smart He's like ask me a question, you know, because now I've eaten from the fruit from the tree

I have this knowledge right ask me a question and then they ask him a question. He's like Ask me another question, you know

That's not what we're saying eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil did not make Adam You know smart or anything like that.

I am of the position that the tree clearly functions Symbolically much like the elements of the

Lord's Supper in the New Testament. Okay. I know there are some views there as well I'm just kind of showing my hand in terms of how

I understand those issues the tree in essence Represented the test of obedience.

Okay, it symbolized the potential for humans to choose rebellion against God And so the real issue is not the tree itself

But what it represented the decision to obey or disobey God's command now I'm not gonna get into issues of free will and these sorts of things people know my stance on that this

You know as a Calvinist for example none of this vitiates against a reformed understanding of the nature of the will and so forth and libertarian free will and you know a

Compatibilism and all that kind of stuff. Okay, so just keeping that in mind But let's take a look at the phrase here in the day.

Okay in the day that you eat in the day So I think it's important to understand not to get too technical but understanding the Hebrew idiom was it is an idiom

The phrase in the day doesn't necessarily mean like within a 24 -hour period

Okay, I could indicate the certainty of an event Initiated on that day without implying it's me.

It's immediate execution This is not me kind of just using a rescuing device to get that's just the way the idiom can be used

I mean, this is not you know, weird. Okay, for example in first Kings chapter 2 verse 37

Solomon tells Shimei if you want to read that story First Kings 237 Solomon tells

Shimei the day you leave and cross the Kidron Valley You can be sure you will die.

And of course Shimei's death was not immediate Okay, he didn't drop dead the moment he crossed he crossed the

Kidron Valley. Okay, but it was certain upon his disobedience Right. So the consequence of Adam Neve sin was set in motion in the moment.

They ate the fruit okay, now let's take a look at the The phrase

You will surely die. Okay. Now death is a very rich concept within the scriptures got to understand the theology behind it

Right scripture speaks in essence of three types of death. Okay, we have obviously physical death in scripture

We have spiritual death, which is also all throughout scripture, especially in the

New Testament Then you have the second death which is eternal separation from God And so in this particular context spiritual death occurred immediately.

And so in that sense, yes, they did die again You can't understand this passage absence from the theology behind the very concepts of death.

Okay There is physical death, but there is also spiritual death. Okay, Adam and Eve were spiritually dead the very moment they disobeyed

God Okay, and this is evidenced by the fact in Genesis 3a. What do they do? They hide from God?

There is a separation and a break in their relationship Okay Now this spiritual death really is is the main killer here right leading eventually to physical death

And so they did die on that day in a spiritual sense and this spiritual death set the stage for their eventual physical death

Okay, this is not this isn't hard. Okay now Does the context of Genesis say all of the things that I've said?

No, there is an understanding of these concepts Broadly speaking I we do believe the

Bible is the Word of God so the the other portions of the Bible will fill in the gaps in terms of how those

Concepts could be understood but this isn't this isn't a difficult concept So so there is a sense notice what the law the second law of logic says, okay

The second law of logic says that a statement cannot be both true and false at the same time and in the same sense

Okay Did Adam die did they die the day that they ate in us in one sense?

Yes, and in other sense no, and so even Even if that's possible now,

I think that is what happened. But the very fact that that's possible Okay, whether you agree if that's the correct answer or not.

I think it clearly is given the context of Scripture Even if it's possible it logically follows that it's not a contradiction because a contradiction is impossible to be true

Okay, so so again, so when you kind of look and examine and break down some of the Phrases and terms and then the concepts the broader theology of the scripture

I think is a helpful way to understand That a particular text in question is not at all contradictory.

Okay. Now again, that's kind of an easy example There are other examples in Scripture that are more challenging and require, you know, there are some comments here

I will not be attempting to reconcile off -the -cuff Apparent contradictions that you might put in the text.

Okay. I'm just doing this to illustrate a specific point Although I will read let me see

Yes, I agree and I'm pretty good I Did surely die they died spiritual death.

Yeah, it's virtual death is is worse than physical death. Also, that's a important point to keep in mind

All right, yeah, okay. All right. So let me give another example, okay You know there another one that that comes up is this idea of whether God changes his mind

Okay, this this often comes up in Discussions on you know apparent Bible contradictions on the one hand the

Bible says God doesn't change his mind on the other hand It implies that he did change his mind or you know, whatever word they use that he repented or relented from from something

Okay, so those are kind of another example of an apparent contradiction, okay

And again, they're not contradiction right does he change his mind or doesn't he change his mind?

Well in one sense he doesn't another sense it appears as though he does and we have to consider in terms of how the authors of Scripture are communicating truths about the transcendent immaterial

God Interacting timeless God interacting with creatures in time Okay, so so how do we deal with this issue of God changing his mind?

Okay. Well again, let's just flat -out It's an apparent contradiction. It is not a contradiction.

I don't even think it's a tension. I think it's attention in the text I think it's clear that there are different senses in which this could be understood

Okay, so when talking about the idea of God changing his mind, let me start with kind of an important biblical concept and theological concept

I want to affirm. Okay. I want to affirm that God is immutable.

Okay. God has immutability. He does not change with respect to his nature Okay, this doctrine teaches that God is unchangeable in his nature his character and his promises and a big

Popular verse that is often referred to is the book of Malachi chapter 3 verse 6 Which tells us the

Lord says I the Lord do not change Okay, I'm a sick. Therefore the children of Israel are not destroyed.

Okay. In other words, the children of Israel are They warrant judgment but because God has made a promise and he doesn't go back on his promises, they're spared

Okay So the idea of God's immutability is unchangeable Ness so to speak is a great comfort for Christians It apart from the fact that it's also a super interesting theological concept, right?

But immutability in essence means that God's nature doesn't change his essence and his attributes are eternally constant

God's promises don't change his covenants and promises are unwavering God's character does not change his holiness justice.

Love mercy are Unchanged and unaltered and remain content constant, you know, if you were to ask the question, for example

That I'm sorry to read in the comments here

Lost my train of thought geez Louise it one of the hard things about doing YouTube is especially using stream yard is

Focusing on my screen my camera and the content of the comments

So it's hard to follow all three to make sure I'm looking in the right spots. So I do apologize if I'm Feel a little disjointed there

Yes, okay. Oh, yeah, I know what I was gonna say so this idea of God not changing oftentimes when

I teach my class I'll ask this question You know raise your hand if You think

God can right now right now send every single person to hell right now

Can God send every person to hell right now and most people would raise their hand.

Well, of course he can he's God Well, there's a sense in which he can and there's a sense in which he can't The sense in which he can is that God is omnipotent

There's nothing, you know with respect to his being that prohibits him from doing that. However, however

Okay, because God does not change and does not go back on his promises God would never send every single person to hell because he's already made promises, right?

It's for those who place their faith in Christ that they avoid that that aspect of his wrath, right?

So so in a sense God cannot go back on his word and in a sense, he doesn't lack

You know strength to do it. Okay, but the consistency the consistency of Of his character right provides the context for understanding that God would never go back on his and his word, okay

Let's see here Yes, so Josiah says here he can change his mind if he wants like the

Sodom and Gomorrah He would say that if there were right Yeah, if there were then of course that's going to be this again a very important metaphysical metaphysical

Assumption because then we get into possible worlds and counterfactuals and things like that. I'm not gonna touch that one

I don't think that he changes his mind in the ultimate sense Although the way in which he reveals himself to man we experience it as kind of a give -and -take relationship

But ultimately God does not change in his nature. He does not Move his purposes from one thing to another all these sorts of things.

But yeah, let me I don't want to get sidetracked There's a great great points and great things that are worthy of themselves being discussed.

Okay So so here so what is the apparent contradiction? So in Genesis 6 6 we read that God was grieved or We hear words in some translation

God repented that he had made man Okay, and so of course this raises the question about whether God changes his mind and so to reconcile this apparent contradiction

I think we need to dive into the meaning and usage of the term repent in Scripture Now what

I think is interesting is that the Hebrew root for repent or relent be sorry or grieved

Okay, which often conveys kind of a deep emotional response like sorrow or compassion or something along those lines when

Scripture speaks of God repenting Okay, I remember this is important because we need to understand kind of theology literary context and literary techniques and Things like this it is implying what we might call an anthropomorphic

Use of a term or a phrase, okay, basically using human terms to describe divine actions, you know, for example

God says let us go down. Okay. God doesn't go down. God is omnipresent.

He is everywhere present Okay, there's no such thing as over there for God literally speaking, but that language is used

Okay Now I know that there are some heretics out there who think that God has a human body In his nature and essence and I think that is incorrect and I think that is a heretical view

I'm not gonna get into there, but I know that there are people who might be wondering well What about people who believe I don't

I'm not addressing that specifically as I think that is a heretical view and not the topic specifically of Of this video, but I do think the

Bible uses anthropomorphism Okay, basically describing God with human characteristics, you know

God the Bible speaks of God's hand God's face so on and so forth. And then there's another phrase that a lot of people aren't familiar with and that's it an

Anthropopathism, okay an anthropopathism. I hope I'm pronouncing these correctly, but but basically an anthro an anthrop say that five times fast an

Anthropopathism describes God with human emotions. So God repented God grieved

So I would think that this idea of God repenting God changing his mind. These are our anthropopathisms

Which are related to anthropomorphism as well So on the one hand one describes God in human characteristics and the other describes

God with human emotions And I think these terms help us grasp divine actions in human terms

But we need to be they should not be taken to imply that God literally undergoes

Actual changes to his nature or his or his character. Okay, I may just adjust my my volume

Okay, all right So key examples, you know Genesis 6 6 God's grief over man's wickedness reflects his righteous response to sin, right?

That's true Not a change in his eternal plan or nature or Exodus 32 14

God relented from bringing disaster to his people after Moses's intercession on their behalf

Demonstrating God's responsiveness to human repentance and prayer. Okay So the idea that God does not change his mind does not negate the fact that God Ordains that prayer and interaction with him is the means by which he accomplishes his eternal purposes, right?

We believe that God ordains the ends. He also ordains the specific means which gives meaning To the things that happen in space and time

First Samuel 15 verses 11 and 29 God grieves making Saul King right over Israel due to Saul's disobedience

You all know that story if you're familiar with the Old Testament there yet Samuel emphasizes that God does not lie or change his mind like humans do

Okay, and that's wrapped up in God's character. Okay, so God when

God repents God's repentance I think signifies a real dynamic relationship.

He has with human beings. Okay, it reflects his consistent character also Responding appropriately to human actions.

I think God responds to us But this is not inconsistent with his transcendence his timelessness so on and so forth

So when humans repent God's relational stance changes not because his character changes But because his unchanging nature responds rightly to new circumstances when

I say new circumstances I'm I'm saying that from the perspective of an earthly perspective for nothing is new to God as I believe that God Decrees everything that comes to pass all of history is an unfolding of his perfect plan and purposes

So God's immutability and his character and plan are important theological concepts that are in themselves biblical to have when considering You know ideas like this.

Okay, God's holy and just nature Okay means he consistently opposes sin and responds to repentance okay, and God's eternal plan includes

Various contingencies that human actions that the people engage with human actions He got all of those things are incorporated within God's eternal plans

Okay, and so by understanding things like anthropomorphism and anthropopathism that kind of language

I think we see that God's repentance in for example 666 and other passages don't imply that God has changed right in the sense that he lacks the immutability the immutable the immutable characteristics that he has rather I think it highlights the reality of God's give -and -take relationship with his

Creation. Okay. So so yeah, I think these are important things to keep in mind.

They aren't an issue of Logical application as well as understanding the context of a particular passage and Understanding the theological context so it's not just literary context.

It's also theology So for for the Christian, we believe that God God's Word is true

And so we interpret scripture in light of scripture now Obviously we want to interpret certain texts in Genesis in light of the context in Genesis but we also interpret

Genesis in light of other truths that God has revealed and vice versa and so we want to be Mindful of that as well.

Okay. All right. So Let's see here All right, there we go.

Thank you for showing some love there. Okay loving these early streams Oh, yeah, I don't I don't

I wake up and I'm like man Am I gonna have time to do this and it's a you know You don't have time to promote it and share it and stuff so I have to take advantage of little pockets of time and just assume that people will go back and and And listen in I'm also just a step aside real quick from my main topic.

I just want to remind people Okay revealed apologetics is not my only YouTube channel, okay

I have a smaller channel. I think there's like three or four videos up there and It's called revealed apologetics plus where I basically just take five minutes to answer a question

So they're kind of more short firm form content with some basic questions kind of just on the lay level

So it's so weird because I teach middle school students and it's you know I talk to them in one way and then

I speak around the country and I speak to my audience in one way and then I come here on YouTube and Sometimes we can get into some pretty technical things and so it's hard to refer people back to this channel

Because it might be difficult for the average person to kind of find something that is at their level so to speak

So I've created that second YouTube channel revealed apologetics plus to kind of just be brief and more manageable

So if you haven't subscribed to revealed apologetics plus, please go do that And of course if you haven't subscribed to this channel, what's wrong with you, right?

All right. So let's take a couple of questions here. These are not the questions from the chap

These are questions that I have here, so Why is logic?

Essential in addressing alleged Bible contradictions, right? So we talked about this at the beginning, right?

So logic is essential Because it helps us to think clearly and I think it helps us to think systematically about the text and as we mentioned before Logical principles help us to clarify our terms analyze context identify various fallacies

And eventually to harmonize a text that we believe God is speaking consistently, right?

He's not contradicting himself Okay, it's a good good question here Yeah, so how does how does understanding the context of a passage resolve apparent contradiction

Okay. Yeah, by the way, I'm gonna I see a comment here That is correct people also use the word contradiction incorrectly

Yeah, very good. For example there people might equate contradiction with the word paradox

Paradox is not necessarily a contradiction Okay, so there's a difference between paradox and contradiction.

So yeah, some people will Will misuse those terms. Yeah, very good. Good good perception there.

All right, so How does understanding the context of a biblical passage resolve apparent contradictions?

Oh, this is important Well understanding the context helps us understand historical background right knowing the historical setting

I think clarifies the meaning and significance of certain events or statements in Scripture Cultural practices understanding the cultural norms and practices of the time right can explain actions and instructions that might seem

Contradictory or even weird today. Okay, I think cultural Context is hugely important because there are a lot of things in the

Old Testament that just at first glance don't seem to make sense But knowing a little bit about the cultural norms of the day are would you know help us understand the passage a bit more clearly

Understanding literary genre. Okay, like for example, this is people This is one of the reasons why one of the main reasons

I think people will find contradictions or problems in the text because they do not consider the Genre the literary genre that they're reading, you know

I've had some people I've heard some people like, you know on TV like, you know Commentators and people who are critical of the

Bible will be like well, you know The Bible is not meant to be taken literally or the Bible is just an allegory

It's like well, these people have no idea what they're talking about. Okay there are when someone says

Eli, do you interpret the Bible literally? Okay, as is always the case and as I did before when we talked about a contradiction

I said it's important to define a contradiction I think it's important to define what we mean when we say

I interpret the Bible literally When I say I interpret the Bible literally and I do

What I mean by that is that I interpret the Bible in accordance with its in accordance to its literature

Isn't that right? I interpret the Bible Okay in accordance to its literature, so I acknowledge the reality of Poetry in the scriptures.

I acknowledge the reality of Historical narrative I Rely, I recognize the reality of prophecy in the scriptures.

I'm sorry I'm not going to interpret the book of Revelation in the same way that I interpret the gospel of Luke There are different genres

Okay, I do not believe the Bible speaks of literal dragons and creatures coming out of the water, you know

There is the genre is going to impact how we interpret the text when the when the scriptures speak of the the trees

Clapping for joy. I don't I don't take that as trees literally clapping their hands, you know, literally, right?

So again, so when we talk about literal interpretation of Scripture What we mean by that is that we interpret it in accordance with its literature in accordance to its literature

Okay, and then there and in some areas there are some debate as to what genre a particular portion of Scripture is using and sometimes

Various parts of Scripture will intermingle various genres You'll have historical narrative mixed in with some poetry mixed in with some other things as well and that takes some some studying

You know, for example for me, this is a controversial one. But for example knowing that Genesis 1 is

Structured it's chronological It I think the particular context of Genesis 1 is

Yes, it's using various genres to explain creation But I do think that it's explaining not just that God created but I also think it's explaining that God created in Six days.

I mean that's what the text implies the fact that a text can mean something else Doesn't mean what we think it can mean is a better understanding of the text in what it appears to me

I do believe that a straightforward reading of the text is very very important. Although of course

It's not a universal principle, right? Sometimes a straightforward reading needs to be understood within its context

And when we understand the context the straightforward reading is not the best reading the contextual reading is the best reading, right?

So we want to keep those things in In balance. All right All right.

So let's see here. Another question is a great question What what are some common? Logical fallacies that people commit when claiming the

Bible contains Contradictions and how can we avoid them? Okay, so there are a lot of fallacies that people commit

Christians can commit this too when they're arguing for a particular interpretation and they draw conclusions from the text

And so we want to be very careful About of these fallacies. Okay, and these are common fallacies number one.

I think a lot of people will often Commit what's called the bifurcation fallacy or the fallacy of the false dilemma

When this basically presents two options when other options exist, okay And so the person who commits this valley's fallacy really avoids

Considering other explanations. Okay, and it's hard because when you're in a debate or in a conversation

You don't have time to say well to understand this passage You really need to understand some of the background a lot of people will say oh, well, there they go there

They're skipping around and they can't really answer and I think that's just a very disingenuous way of looking at I mean think about it

The Bible is comprised of 66 books 39 books in the Old Testament 27 books in the

New Testament written by over 40 different authors written by you know people from all different walks of life you know, the

Bible is a massive body of work and To understand it in a very shallow, you know looking for these quick responses

No, sometimes it's required. It's gonna require us to do a little work And so if people are raising objections against the

Bible, they're gonna if they're honest They're gonna have to be okay with saying, okay Well, let's take a look at this and you know takes take our time as we walk through these issues

Okay. So anyway the bifurcation fallacy, that's a big one the fallacy of the non sequitur, right people draw conclusions that don't necessarily

Logically necessarily follow from the premises. We want to avoid This fallacy it happens a lot but this avoids

Helping us draw the correct conclusions about certain things Okay, so someone will read a passage or they'll read a couple of passages and they'll draw a conclusion

That doesn't actually follow from the passage. Okay, so that's a that's a straw man is is another fallacy that people typically

Commit right a straw man fallacy. Most people are familiar with this But basically it misrepresents an opponent's position to make it easier to attack

I think a lot of people will summarize a biblical story or They will fill the biblical story with certain words that are biased towards the truth of the story

Okay, people will misrepresent Misrepresent the Bible all the time, you know, you know

The Bible is a is an old dusty book, you know as though dust and and age

Diminish the truth of something right, you know people do they'll misrepresent the

Bible in various ways You want to be careful with that? Of course the fallacy of equivocation right is a big one as well when we use a word in a different sense in an argument

We change the meaning of a word in the middle of an argument That is something that people

You know commit often Let's see here.

Did it do do Yes, I see you see this all the times yeah, but the big one that I often hear is you know

How did Judas die right that comes up? You know in various debates and discussion and and again,

I don't see how this is a kind of contradiction, right?

Falling headlong is not inconsistent with hanging So Judas hung himself and then in the book of Acts, I think it says he fell headlong and his body burst open

Those are not contradictions. Okay, can I reconstruct a perfect story of how the events culminated?

I guess not but that's that doesn't mean they're logically incoherent, right? they just just isn't the case

I have people bring this as kind of like a You know a contradiction. It's weird.

I I don't get it, you know It doesn't make sense to me. I don't think it's a contradiction at all.

Yeah, so Let's see here. I think that is the last one here

So what so what's the rub here? Okay when we are analyzing apparent

Bible contradictions it's important to identify and define what a contradiction is and Then evaluate the particular text in question to see whether it violates that principle and as you'll find it does not most

Most Bible contradictions can be resolved by just reading through the text the context more closely Some are more difficult than others, but you know context will will definitely clear things up when brought

An apparent contradiction is brought to your attention Okay. Now what are some resources that you can get there a lot of resources out there that help with Bible contradictions

I think I have one here in my library. Let me see if I can Share a resource that I think would be helpful to this end one second, right?

So if If you're interested Dr. Jason Lyle has been a guest on my show multiple times a

PhD astrophysicist and Christian apologist and Presuppositionalist he also has created

Courses and books on logic. So he's a super super helpful resource, but he has this book here if you haven't heard of it keeping faith in an age of reason and then the sub caption there is refuting alleged

Bible contradictions now what I like about this book is that You see if we get into the table of contents here real quick.

Okay, so The book does go through a bunch of Alleged Bible contradictions, but it also talks about the kinds of fallacies and the kinds of things that you know

People often mess up on so for example, he talks about you know possible contradictions with respect to names places and genealogies or You know things that are claimed to be contradictions, but you know the timing of the events need to be understood

Differences in details of certain accounts. I think this is a super super helpful You know book here's another was

Abraham justified by faith or by works. Okay, you know to some people that sounds well contradictory right because in the book of James Seems to be say that we a man is justified by works and when you read

Romans It seems to be the case that Paul is saying, you know Romans 4 5, right? But what's the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly his faith is counted as righteousness

What's going on there? How do we understand in a unified and consistent way? You know the thoughts of Paul and the thoughts of James Okay, so all of these are addressed in this book keeping faith in the age of reason highly recommended

It's so readable what I appreciate about it is it's perfect for you know Even a high school student college student or just a any lay person that's interested in this topic

I'm highly recommend this I think there's also a book out there the big book of Bible difficulties by Norman Geisler I think is a is a good one.

Yeah, do I agree with every attempted? Reconciliation probably not but I do think it's a good tool to kind of at least begin to think about these things in terms of How do we analyze?

Apparent contradictions and how do we apply logic and these sorts of things? There's also an old one

I think it's called Bible difficulties by Gleason Archer, it's an older text, but it's available out there good good resource as As well so all in all the

Bible is the Word of God it's true if it's true it's consistent if it's consistent It's of course logical and so while we find difficult passages in Scripture difficult concepts in Scripture I think it's important that we learn how to use the tools of logic

This is a tool that God has given us right and apply it to the

Word of God Okay, and demonstrate its consistency when the opportunity arises now ultimately speaking.

God is the Lord of Logic if the biblical worldview is not true. You do not have a foundation for Logic as a principle, you know universal its universality its applicability everywhere and at all times

And all these sorts of things that we've discussed on this channel before so Only within a

Christian worldview. Can you make sense out of logic anyway? but Given that presupposition of the

Christian faith We then apply the tools that God has given us to the text so that we could understand it rightly for ourselves as well as being able to share that with our brothers and sisters within the community of faith as well as respond to Skeptics who think the

Bible contradicts itself in various in various ways. So all right. Well, I hope this is

Helpful. Okay. I don't have time to read through all of the comments But I'll try to do so at a later time if someone brings up some good points

Maybe I could address it in a future video Once again, I do apologize for not Advertising this it was kind of a last -second which has been the case this past like week or two

I'm kind of just randomly doing these early live streams, but I hope you are finding them useful

And at least conversation starters, you know what I love about the things that when I when I talk about these things

I see some interesting stuff in the comments and it's like yeah, that's a great thing to talk about Hopefully, you know this topic encourages further discussion both between believers and unbelievers as well

All right. Well until next time guys Thank you so much for giving me 50 minutes of your time until next time.