- Some say to just look at Creation in Genesis of the Old Testament and there are two accounts. How could they both be true, they ask?
- Others say to look at the New Testament and ask why details in the Gospels are different if they are describing the same events.
"Contradictions" From A Different Perspective
There is more than one way to respond to this so-called "dilemma."
1. In responding to the New Testament question first, one way to respond to this is by examining Lee Strobel's book "The Case For Christ."
His book outlines reasons why a person should believe that Jesus is actually who he claims to be, which is the Son Of God. He states an example of multiple people who described the same thing and were trying to have their fictitious stories match. Stroebel contends they would try to match up every detail, as much as they could, to make it believable. He further asserts that since the four Gospels do not match exactly, that they were not fictitiously trying to get their stories to be the same. Rather, they were telling their own versions of the events.
2. Explaining things in different ways is another way seemingly contradicting stories could be genuine. For example, regarding the two different stories of Creation, one was written from the "Priestly" version and one was written from the "Elohist" version. In the Priestly version God appears as a supreme being, while in the Elohist version God appears as close to human being. Different attributes are emphasized.
3. There is another way to try and explain what appear to be contradictions in the Bible. A concept to a person at one age might be very different than it is at another age. A person's concept of something can change a great deal in, say, a few years of time. For example, if Saint Paul wrote about a topic, such as marriage, his points of emphasis might be different at different ages. As one ages priorities seem different and one can view things much differently.
4. This is other way to explain contradictions, by applying things to modern examples.
Let's say five people watched a Browns game. If you asked them separately to describe the game, would they all ave the exact same story, emphasizing the same things? Unless it was a spectacular play there is a good chance they would not. Would that mean, then, that they did not watch the same game or that they contradicted each other? They merely describe the same event differently.
5. On top of all of this is the nature of the Bible itself. One reason the parables are difficult to understand at first is that they are designed for people to ask questions. For those people who ask questions to clergy, etc. there are satisfactory answers which do not contradict. God wants to know the people who are interested in his word, as opposed to those who just read it and say it doesn't make sense to them.
As these are just a few perspectives the point is that things are not always as easy as they seem on the surface. Further examination can show things that did not seem that way at first glance.
So when someone says the Bible contradicts itself there are other ways of looking at it to draw different conclusions.
This adds meaning to life because: Just because something appears to be unexplainable, it does not mean there is not a sufficient answer if you look far enough.
Sources: The Case For Christ, by Lee Stroebel, Bible
