Dr. Jack L. Arnold

ISN’T THE BIBLE FULL OF ERRORS?

The fifth question starts out, “How do you reconcile your faith with the fact that the Bible is so full of errors?” The reliability of Scripture is being challenged. At the outset we need to ask what particular errors the person has in mind. 99% of the time people can’t think of any. They’ve heard someone else say that the Bible is full of contradictions and they’ve swallowed the assumption. But sometimes a person has a specific problem in mind. If you don’t have the answer to his particular questions, don’t panic. Instead smile casually and tell him, “I don’t have the answer to that one, but I’ll be glad to find it for you.” Volumes have been written on some of these topics. After two thousand years, no one this week is going to think of the question that will bring Christianity crashing down.

If the person hasn’t read the Bible, that’s a fair indication of his insincerity in questioning it. But don’t press this point with him. Under no circumstances should we make fun of anyone or try to argue by ridicule. This is deadly behavior when we’re talking to someone about these important issues. Some of the greatest damage to the Christian faith has been caused by those who, though meaning well, attempted to win their case by ridiculing the other person’s position. They only brought the gospel into disrepute.

The Bible does contain some apparent contradictions. However, our friend probably doesn’t realize that time and time again an apparent contradiction has been vindicated by the discoveries of modern archaeology. Dr. Nelson Glueck, an outstanding Jewish archaeologist, makes the remarkable statement, “No archaeological discovery has ever controverted a biblical reference.” And this phenomenal statement comes from one of the world’s leading archaeologists. For those still unreconciled conflicts between the Bible and history, our logical attitude should be to wait and see what further evidence will disclose. We don’t have all the answers to all the problems. But all the vindicating data thus far certainly suggest that we can trust the biblical record about those details that still appear questionable.

Evolution is a problem in evangelism only insofar as it leads to an atheistic conclusion. It is unwise to get involved in a technical discussion about evolution because it isn’t the real issue. I usually ask, “What conclusion are you drawing from your evolutionary position—that the universe happened by chance? Or are you saying that God created the universe and did so by using certain evolutionary processes? I’m not convinced about that particular position, but let’s assume for the moment it’s correct. What conclusion are you drawing?” From there I direct his attention to what Jesus Christ has said and done. How God brought the universe into being is not so important as that He did it.

One’s presupposition and not the actual evidence often determines his conclusion. If the person is trying to suggest that God is not the author of creation and the universe did happen by chance, then we need to discuss this problem with him. An apparently strong case for a naturalistic position can be made by ignoring the evidence for Jesus Christ. But if a person is going to be intellectually honest, he must come to grips with Him. An amazing number of thinking non-Christians have never really thought about the evidence for Jesus Christ.