Sometimes you have to laugh at these skeptics like when they say the Bible's bunk because the Gospel of Matthew says shepherds visited Jesus and the Gospel of Luke says the wise men visited Him. Duh, both of them!
Or when they say the same thing because one Gospel says an angel appeared to Joseph and another says an angel appeared to Mary. Again, duh, both.
They'll claim the word virgin should be rendered young woman. No, man, the translation is still correct because at that time young, unmarried women were assumed to be virgins. Besides, if Mary wasn't in fact a virgin why didn't Joseph break the engagement like he intended to in the first place?
They'll aroniously claim one Biblical account says Christ was born in a manger and another says he was born in a house. Actually, He was born in a manger, then Mary and Joseph moved into a house in Bethlehem where they were visited by the magi when Jesus was about two. The whole notion of the whole story of Jesus birth and the visits by the shepherds and wise men and the wrath of Herod taking place all in the space of twelve days is not Biblical.
They'll point out another apparent contradiction of the two lineages of Christ, 28 generations in Matthew and 41 in Luke. Duh, one affirms His humanity, one His status as God.
Skeptics will say there was no one named Jesus Christ. First, He wasn't officially known as Christ (as in Mr. Christ) when He was here on earth. Christ is as much a title as it is part of His name and 2000 years ago very few people recognized Jesus was the Messiah. Second, there are numerous historical sources that show Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth existed, just none of the sources these skeptics have studied.
Speaking of studying, these people obviously haven't studied very much. Any good book on this subject, and there are many, will answer a lot of the things mentioned in this post.
What do these people expect to happen? Do they think they'll go up to a new believer and use one of the arguments and cause the believer to give up their faith, in many cases their only reason for living, because of a few apparent contradictions?
2 comments:
Any suggestions on understanding the bible? I have tried to read it, but it is so dense.
The best thing I can suggest is praying for guidance. As silly as it may sound, a person needs the guidance of the Holy Spirit to understand Scripture.
Materially speaking, there are lots of good resources on the internet for the whole Bible, specific books or verses.
Also, there are good Bible commentaries you can purchase or get from your local library. Matthew Henry is one of the commentators with the best reputation.
Additionally, if you have any questions about specific Biblical things you can always ask me by leaving a comment or emailing me.
Hope this helps.
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