Take a moment and imagine a world where there is gold scattered beneath every inch of the earth’s surface, and everyone knows that it is there. But the catch? No one is willing to dig through the mud and dirt to find the buried treasure.
Sounds like a crazy world, right? But what if I told you that we live in a world much like the one we just imagined together? This week, during the second installment of “Does the Bible Contradict Itself?,” Dr. Tim Chaffey says that skeptics have been asking questions about alleged Bible contradictions for years, but they aren’t willing to dig for the answers that have been there all along. The tendency has been to pull verses out of context and put them in the worst possible light instead of trying to find a reasonable explanation.
Like last week, Dr. Chaffey walks through more common “contradictions” critics point to in the Bible, like the number of kinds Noah brought on the ark, whether or not Joshua and the Israelites captured Jerusalem, and who the father of Joseph, husband of Mary, was. He even pointed out that the question of who Joseph’s father was has been around for 1,700 years or more, and the answer is just as old! I guess the people of the internet aren’t as original as they thought. But I digress.
The cherry on top of this episode, however, was the nine principles Dr. Chaffey recommends when approaching alleged contradictions in the Bible. I won’t spoil the list for you, but one of the principles was that the easy answer may not be the best answer. Dr. Chaffey challenges believers to seek knowledge and dig into God’s Word personally when confronted with confusing verses that can seem contradictory. Answering supposed contradictions is not always a simple task. It requires a genuine search for truth, not just a quick listen to sound bites from an internet “scholar” that supports your belief.
If you want to learn more about how to respond to skeptics and even find answers for your own questions, make sure to schedule a time to sit down and watch this show. And be sure to bring a pen and paper, because you won’t want to forget any of this valuable information.
