What do you think of these Bible contradictions?

Bible Contradictions? — Or your presuppositional bias?

The following article is my response to a question submitted to me on Quora:

What do you think about the following bible contradictions?

What I think is boldly written . I just want to know what you think as well. I am an atheist by the way.
Peacefulness of God:

• Exodus 15: God is a God of war.
• Romans 15: God is a God of peace.

I think God can be a God of both war and peace. They dont have to be mutually exclusive. Especially if after war comes peace obviously not for the defeated but for those he fights for.

Jesus vs God:

• John 10: My Father and I [Jesus] are one.
• John 14: My Father is greater than I [Jesus].

I think Father and Jesus can be one but the father can also be greater than Jesus. 2/3 + 1/3 = 1 while 2/3 > 1/3. Or you can think about how Christians view heterosexual marriages man and woman become one but the man is greater than the woman.

Animals on the ark:

• Genesis 7: 7 of each clean animal into the ark.
• Genesis 7: 2 of each animal [clean or unclean] into the ark.

I don’t know what to say about this one.

Personality of Moses:

• Numbers 12: Moses was a meek man.
• Numbers 31: Moses had all the men killed so he could keep the women and children for himself.

I think a meek man doesn’t have to be a 100% meek. I am a good girl but I do bad things sometimes doesn’t mean I am not a good girl.

Fate of the righteous:

• Psalm 92: The righteous shall flourish.
• Isaiah 57: The righteous shall perish from the earth.

Well everyone eventually dies (perish) but first we live (flourish)

Last words of Jesus:

• Matthew 27: The last words of Christ: “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”.
• Luke 23: The last words of Christ: “Father, unto thy hands I commend my spirit”.
• John 19: The last words of Christ: “It is finished”.

I don’t know what to say about this one. Perhaps he was mumbling and got misunderstood.

My Response:

PEACEFULNESS OF GOD

• Exodus 15: God is a God of war.
• Romans 15: God is a God of peace.

Answer: Exodus 15 doesn’t say “God is a god of war.” This is an inaccurate summary. What the text actually says is God is high above all others, a savior of His people, a warrior who fights for His people, a victor over His enemies, majestic in holiness, one of lovingkindness, redeemer, mighty, great. His enemies tremble, have dismay, they will flee or be destroyed. In Romans 15:33 He is called the God of peace, for the Christians. In Romans 15:13 He is called the God of hope, that fills His people with all joy and peace as you trust in Him. This isn’t a contradiction. I would even say this isn’t even a paradox at all. God offers a wonderful future and peace to all those who are His people, and those who are His enemies will not last. Takeaway point: The very thing that makes a being God’s enemy in the first place is their rejection of God’s holiness and His sovereign authority.

JESUS VS. GOD

• John 10: My Father and I [Jesus] are one.
• John 14: My Father is greater than I [Jesus].

Answer: This isn’t a contradiction, but it is a paradox. The Father and Jesus are the ONE God in completeness and unity (as well as the Holy Spirit). There is only one God. The entire Scriptures, including all of Jesus’s teachings, are very clear about this. (Deuteronomy 6:4, Mark 12:29) Jesus is BOTH God and man. He existed in eternity as the Word of God (the very expression and action of thought proceeding from the Father) (John 1:1–14). In this sense, in His divinity, He is fully equal with the Father in likeness. However, He also choose to lower himself and be born of a human, in this sense, in His humanity, He is fully equal with us in likeness. In his humanity He subjects himself in every way to the Father to be our example and perfect role model. Philippians 2 describes this detail. Takeaway point: Jesus is fully God but He is also fully man. Because He is man the Father is greater. By lowering Himself and fulfilling all that He did in order to save us, and then to lead us into eternity in our likeness, He has become the Father’s greatest glory.

ANIMALS ON THE ARK

• Genesis 7: 7 of each clean animal into the ark.
• Genesis 7: 2 of each animal [clean or unclean] into the ark.

Answer: This isn’t a contradiction or even a paradox. It’s actually very clear. He told Noah to take 7 pairs of every clean animal (I.e. 14 total), and 1 pair of every unclean animal (I.e 2 total). I’m not sure why this is discussed so much. It’s mostly brought up by liberals who are just parroting bad arguments and haven’t even read the Bible themselves. You probably just heard this and assumed (since we all know the Bible is FULL of contradictions!) that it was true but the text doesn’t contradict itself at all.

PERSONALITY OF MOSES

• Numbers 12: Moses was a meek man.
• Numbers 31: Moses had all the men killed so he could keep the women and children for himself.

Answer: Meekness in the Bible rarely means timid in the sense of timid in character towards everyone. It means humble, reverent, timid towards God. In fact, the meek shall inherit the earth. (Psalm 37:11, Matthew 5:5) It is the high reverence and esteem for God that calls us to be meek in regards to our own sin and shortcomings. It is this meekness that roots us in deep confidence in God and faith that He is for us and not against us. This now makes it easier to understand how in Numbers 12:3 it says, Moses was meek/humble/etc – more than anyone on earth at that time. The most sensitive and weak person on the earth? The one who God just used to go up against Pharaoh and free the Israelites from Eygyt, and lead them into the desert? Not likely. But he was the closest to God, with the most faith in His promises. Additionally this last quote is just inaccurate conclusion as well. By just reading Numbers 31 it is evident that Moses DID NOT “have all the men killed so he could keep the women and children for himself.” Instead of destroying the city of Midian completely (which they could have because of how they tempted the Israelite men to trespass against God) Moses had pity on the children and spared them and any virgin women so that they could marry the unmarried Israelite soldiers. There were 32,000 women, they weren’t for Moses himself at all.

FATE OF THE RIGHTEOUS

• Psalm 92: The righteous shall flourish.
• Isaiah 57: The righteous shall perish from the earth.

Answer: Isaiah 57 never says the righteous shall perish. What Bible are reading from?? The entire chapter 57 is about the wickedness on the earth. It is so wicked that the evil flourish while the righteous die and no one seems to care. This entire chapter is God sharing His anger about how corrupt it is on earth and His promise to do something about it. And He did. And He continues to do.

LAST WORDS OF JESUS

• Matthew 27: The last words of Christ: “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”.
• Luke 23: The last words of Christ: “Father, unto thy hands I commend my spirit”.
• John 19: The last words of Christ: “It is finished”.

Answer: Matthew and Luke weren’t there. John was. John’s gospel was also the last to be written. John had years to read what the other apostles had written and circulated. He knew that many of the details and events had been shared already, so he wrote a more personal and spiritual account of the life of Jesus. Unlike Matthew, Luke, or Mark, John was one of the “inner circle”, the 3 that Jesus had the most intimate, personal relationship with. (Peter, John, James) He and James were the young men of the group. John perhaps as young as 18–19. He refers to himself as Jesus’s beloved disciple and several stories suggest that Jesus likely thought of him as a younger brother. Anyways, these aren’t a contradiction. If I died today, at 35 years old, and the last thing I wrote publicly was this article, and you were to tell others about this article 20–50 years from now, you could say “my last words were…” several things. It could be a summary of this entire article. It could be “He said that John was one of the “inner circle” of Jesus. It could be very last few words I finish typing. All are true depending on your frame of reference. All are true (none is a lie or wrong) but one is the most precise version of the truth. It is the absolute truth.

Takeaway: Jesus said all of these things in His last few moments before He died. An educated and logical guess on which was the likely order is the very way you have arranged it. First, He died spiritually (He experienced the pain as the Father/God that He knew for all eternity had actually abandoned Him for the first time). This was likely not a momentary thing. Scripture tells us that God had to actually sever the relationship and strike Him with His fully wrath as though He were the lowest evil in existence (because He actually was when He bore all of the sins of humanity). Second, later, He gave what was left of His faith and His final spirit unto the Father. Third, He reflected on all that He did and went through up until that point, and all that was accomplished. His death on the cross was the pinnacle of His defeat of the powers of Satan, sin, and death against us. It is finished.