CONTRADICTIONS IN THE BIBLE?: Resources for Study

Many people believe that there are so many contradictions in the Bible that it simply cannot be trusted. Having examined these for myself over the past 35 years, I have found that most of these are quite easily answered and the others have solid answers if you are willing to look for them. Here are my recommendations for resources for finding the answers to those seeming contradictions in the Bible.....

Click on the title links to find the great resources listed below 
(and then check out my growing MASTER LIST OF APOLOGETIC RESOURCES)....

INTRODUCTORY
Videos
*Wretched. "No, the Bible Doesn't Have Mistakes." (4 minutes)
*The One Minute Apologist. "How Should We Handle Apparent Bible Contradictions?" (3 1/2 minutes)
*Inspiring Philosophy. "Alleged Bible Errors Refuted" (A series of 4 videos: 3-6 minutes each)
*Inspiring Philosophy. "Bible Contradictions Refuted" (A series of 10 more videos: 2-6 minutes each)

INTERMEDIATE
Videos
*"Answering Bible Contradictions" (66 minutes) by Lenny Esposito

Books
*Watson, Richard. An Apology for The Bible. (1880) FREE! at title link. "An Apology for the Bible is Bishop Watson’s answer to Thomas Paine’s book The Age of Reason, Part II, which is a sort of catalogue of standard gripes about both the Old and the New Testaments. Watson's Apology is surprisingly timely, as many of these objections are still circulating today on the internet. In a series of ten letters, Watson answers Paine’s criticisms virtually point by point. His answers are generally quite successful; he has little difficulty demonstrating that many of these criticisms arise from ignorance or demonstrably unfair interpretations of the text of Scripture." - Dr. Timothy McGrew
*Haley, John W. An Examination of the Alleged Discrepancies of the Bible. (1875) FREE! at title link. "Haley has done a great deal of research and presents some valuable references and information from earlier works. The organization of the book is simply awful, but good indices allow the reader to find material by chapter and verse or by topic." - Dr. Timothy McGrew
*Torrey, R.A. (1856-1928). Difficulties in the Bible: Alleged Errors and Contradictions. FREE! here.
*Whately, Richard. Essays on Some of the Difficulties in the Writings of the Apostle Paul and Other Parts of the New Testament. (1865) FREE! here. And here (second series).
*Winnington-Ingram, Arthur Foley. New Testament Difficulties. (1903) FREE! here.
*Spalding, Thomas. Scripture Difficulties Explained by Scripture References. (1877) FREE! here.
*Kaiser, Walter and others. Hard Sayings of the Bible. 
*Archer, Gleason. Encyclopedia of Bible Difficulties. 
*Geisler, Norm. The Big Book of Bible Difficulties.
*McDowell, Josh and Sean McDowell. The Bible Handbook of Difficult Verses.

*Thiele, Edwin R. The Mysterious Numbers of the Hebrew Kings. A summarized version of this book: A Chronology of the Hebrew Kings.

ONLINE RESOURCES
*Apologetics Press has an extensive list of articles organized by book of the Bible.
*"Bible Difficulties and Suggested Solutions" is a Facebook discussion group with nearly 1400 members (including some expert apologists). The group also hosts documents with answers to dozens of questions about Bible difficulties.


STILL LOOKING?....
there is AN EXTENSIVE BIBLIOGRAPHY here and ANOTHER ONE here.



INTERPRETING SCRIPTURE
One of the main sources of seeming contradictions is simply faulty interpretation (taking things out of context, etc.). Here are some solid resources for getting better at interpretation.

Books
*Exegetical Fallacies: Common Mistakes Every Student of the Bible Must Avoid by William D. Barrick (an 11 page ebook) FREE!
*Fee, Gordon D. and Douglas Stuart. How To Read the Bible for All Its Worth.
*Schultz, Richard. Out of Context: How to Avoid Misinterpreting the Bible. Currently only 99 cents on Kindle.
*Sire, James W. Scripture Twisting: 20 Ways the Cults Misread the Bible.
*Carson, D.A. Exegetical Fallacies.
*Virkler, Henry A. and Karelynne Ayayo. Hermeneutics: Principles and Processes of Biblical Interpretation.
*Unlocking the Scriptures by Hans Finzel. Currently only 99 cents on Kindle.
*The Bible In Its Context: How to Improve Your Study of the Scriptures by Dr. Craig Keener. An 82-page Word document that is FREE!


Online Courses
*Stein, Robert. "Biblical Hermeneutics." (18 hours) FREE!
*Understanding and Choosing Bible Translations: A FREE course covering how we got our English Bible, what the major translations are, two different approaches to Bible translation, why literal translations aren’t always more accurate, how we can be certain the Bible we possess is really God’s Word, four guidelines for choosing Bible translation.


STILL LOOKING?....
Check out this extensive bibliography by William Harness.

THE PROBLEM OF EVIL...or THEODICY: Resources for Study

If God is all-loving and all-powerful, why is there so much evil in the world? This is called "the problem of evil" or "theodicy." Here are my recommendations for resources for gaining a better understanding of this issue.....

Click on the title links to find the great resources listed below 
(and then check out my growing MASTER LIST OF APOLOGETIC RESOURCES)....

INTRODUCTORY
Videos
*Wallace, J. Warner. "Does Evil Disqualfy The Existence of God?" (3 1/2 minutes). The "One Minute Apologist" interviews famous L.A. cold-case detective J. Warner Wallace.
*Plantiga, Alvin. "Does Evil Disprove God?" (4 minutes). An brief interview with the world's foremost philosopher on the problem of evil.
*Plantiga, Alvin. "Will There Be Freewill in Heaven?" (1 1/2 minutes)
*Geisler, Norm. "If God Exists, Why Evil?" (2 1/2 minutes). The "One Minute Apologist" interviews expert apologist Norm Geisler.
*Craig, William Lane. "Argument of Evil and Suffering Against the Existence of God" (1 1/2 minutes). The "One Minute Apologist" interviews William Lane Craig.
*Zacharias, Ravi. "How Could An All-Loving, All-Powerful God Allow Evil to Exist?" (6 minutes) from the John Ankerberg Show

Tracts
*True Way Tracts (by Marilyn Joy Tyner). "Can a Loving God Allow Pain and Suffering?" Available as a full-color pamphlet or a tract.

Articles (& Book Chapters)
*Craig, William Lane. "The Problem of Evil"
*DePoe, John. "The Problem of Evil and Reasonable Christian Responses." Chapter 15 (p.206-224) of True Reason, edited by Gilson and Weitnauer

Books
*The Book of Job (in the Bible)
*Jones, Clay. Why Does God Allow Evil? (2017)
*Yancey, Philip. Where Is God When It Hurts?
*Lewis, C.S. The Problem of Pain. 
*Kreeft, Peter. Making Sense Out of Suffering
*Zacharias, Ravi. Why Suffering?: Finding Meaning and Comfort When Life Doesn't Make Sense
*Piper, John and Justin Taylor. Suffering and the Sovereignty of God
*Wiersbe, Warren. Why Us?: When Bad Things Happen to God's People



INTERMEDIATE
Videos
*Meyer, Jon. "Affliction: The Problem of Evil" (49 minutes)
*McDowell, Sean. "The Biblical Account Best Explains Evil" (51 minutes)
*Hall, Amy. "If God Is Good, Why Is There Evil and Suffering?" (40 minutes)


Audio
*Craig, William Lane. "09 The Problem of Evil" (Over 1 1/2 hours). Three lectures from Craig's "Introduction to Apologetics" course, which is comprised of 51 lectures. Scroll down the list there to "09 The Problem of Evil."
*Groothuis, Douglas. "God and the Problem of Evil". Lectures 43 & 44 of Groothuis' 44-lecture course on apologetics.

Articles (& Book Chapters)
*Dunn, Steven. "Alvin Plantiga's Free Will Defense". A brief but excellent overview.
*Koukl, Greg. "Augustine on Evil." Seasoned apologist (and author of the bestselling must-read book Tactics) gives an excellent explanation of the solution to the problem of evil which Augustine came to, including the idea that evil is not really a thing but rather a lack of a thing.
*Geisler, Norm and Frank Turek. I Don't Have Enough Faith to Be An Atheist, Appendix 1: "If God, Why Evil?" (p.389-401).
*Last Seminary hosts 38 articles on the problem of evil that can be download for FREE--with brief abstracts for each.


Books
*Geisler, Norm. If God, Why Evil: A New Way to Think About the Question.
*Plantiga, Alvin. God, Freedom & Evil.
*Feinberg, John S. The Many Faces of Evil: Theological Systems and the Problem of Evil.
*Van Inwagen, Peter. The Problem of Evil
*Stump, Eleonore. Wandering in Darkness: Narrative and the Problem of Suffering
*Rice, Richard. Suffering and the Search for Meaning. From the description at Amazon: "Richard Rice guides readers through the seven most significant theodicies―approaches that have been used to make sense of suffering in light of God's justice or control. He considers the strengths and weaknesses of each option, while always guiding us toward greater understanding and compassion. Rice goes further by offering guidelines for constructing a personal framework for dealing practically with suffering, one that draws from philosophy, ethics, theology and real-world experience."
*Carson, D.A. How Long, O Lord?: Reflections on Suffering and Evil
*Wright, N.T. Evil and the Justice of God
*Keller, Timothy. Walking With God Through Pain and Suffering
*Habermas, Gary. Why Is God Ignoring Me?: What To Do When It Feels Like He's Giving You the Silent Treatment. Read the first chapter for FREE!
*Little, Bruce A. God, Why This Evil?
*"Theodicy: God's Justice in an Evil World": An issue of the Western Reformed Seminary Journal. FREE!


ADVANCED
Video
*Plantiga, Alvin & Richard Gale. "The Existence of Evil and The Problem of God" (1 hour 35 minutes). A debate.
*Kreeft, Peter. "The Problem of Evil and Suffering." (1 hour 16 minutes)

Books
*Leibniz, Gottfried W. Theodicy: Essays on the Goodness of God, The Freedom of Man and the Problem of Evil (1710). FREE at title link and also here.


STILL LOOKING?....
*Check out these resources from bethinking....
OR....this extensive list of resources at Christian CADRE.....
OR....this long list of links at Another Slow News Day.

"The Scream" by Edvard Munch (1863-1944)

Image Source: Wikimedia Commons

MIRACLES: An Objection Answered

A reasonable objection that I have heard recently while interacting on Facebook (paraphrased):

In the Gospels, Jesus healed everyone who asked, but today we do not see everyone who asks being healed. Why don't we see everyone being healed?

But the situation is really much more complex than this. Here is my response:

(1) Jesus did not heal everyone.

a) He did not heal people who did not have faith. Matthew 13:58 makes that clear: "And he did not do many miracles there because of their lack of faith." (NIV; also see Mark 6:5)

b) Jesus's disciples were not able to heal everyone (Mark 9:17-29; Matthew 17:14-20).

c) In the Gospels, Jesus does generally seem to heal almost everyone. And in specific situations, it is stated that crowds came to him and he healed everyone who came to him--on those occasions. I think the clear purpose of this is to show that Jesus has complete sovereignty over disease and that he is the Messiah promised in the Old Testament, God in the flesh. But if we step back in time a little bit and make a few implications from the Gospel accounts, I think that we will see that there is more to the story. First, it would appear from the Gospel accounts themselves that Jesus's miracles started once he began his ministry and for that very purpose of revealing that he is the Messiah (see John 2:1-11 and pay special attention to verses 4 & 11). With that in mind, there was a period of 30 years in Jesus's life where he did no miracles (at least not publicly). More than that, it appears that Jesus's own father Joseph (actually stepfather) died before Jesus reached the age of 30.

So let me summarize it this way: Sometimes a lack of healing is related to a lack of faith. And sometimes it is related to God's timing and purposes.

Jesus feeding the crowd of 5000 men (heads of household) plus women and children--an account in all four of the Gospels for which there are undesigned coincidences (Matthew 14; Mark 6; Luke 9; John 6). Image source: Wikimedia Commons.