[completed on 3 June 2023; 140+ pages; all biblical citations from RSV; available for FREE via linked installments this page (in progress) ]
Table of Contents
Introduction [read below]
Chapter One: How Do Atheists Define a “Biblical Contradiction”? [read online]
Chapter Two: Critics’ Misunderstanding of Biblical Idiom, Language, Theology, or Culture (#1-35)
Chapter Three: Alleged Factual and Historical Discrepancies (#36-89)
Chapter Four: Supposed Contradictions and Errors with Regard to Science (#90-95)
Chapter Five: Manufactured “Contradictions” Based on Ignorance of Logic (#96-120)
Chapter Six: God’s Revealed Nature and Character (#121-134)
Chapter Seven: Reputed Moral Difficulties and Internal Confusion (#135-141)
Chapter Eight: Allegedly Contradictory Accounts of the Infancy of Jesus (#142-145)
Chapter Nine: Supposedly Clashing Reports of Jesus’ Passion and Crucifixion (#146-165)
Chapter Ten: Claimed Inconsistencies in the Stories of Jesus’ Burial and Resurrection (#166-198)
Appendix: Anthropomorphism and Anthropopathism
Subject Index
Scripture Index
Introduction
Atheists, particularly of the “anti-theist” variety: those who specialize in a constant criticism of Christianity, Christians, and the Bible, are very fond of asserting ad nauseam that the Bible is chock-full of alleged “contradictions.” This, of course, is a disproof, as they see it, of Christian claims that the Bible is God’s inspired revelation, and/or infallible and inerrant. If it’s full of such errors, then clearly (I agree) it couldn’t and wouldn’t be inspired revelation. And then Christians would have a huge problem, since our faith is based on this Bible.
Christian apologists like myself, as a result of these polemical and aggressive, even relentless attacks, have a duty to respond and to disprove a great number of the accusations of alleged massive self-contradiction. This duty flows not only from intellectual principle and the courage of one’s convictions, but also from the responsibility to those within the Christian community who may be stumbled or even lose their faith as a result of these attacks. And we need to be assured and confident that our faith and our Bible are harmonious with reason, including logic.
I have taken up this challenge, and my solutions or resolutions in this book came about and were stimulated as a result of direct challenges from atheists: either personally to me or expressed in articles that I have (I think) refuted. The material found herein is entirely of that nature: based on becoming familiar with a charge made by an atheist and then responding to it with a rebuttal.
There are no “hypothetical” atheist objections in this book. What is here was actually expressed by an atheist or other sort of biblical skeptic. Readers will see for themselves, how such critics reason, and (here’s the good news) how invariably weak – very often, downright foolish and silly — their reasoning is, again and again and again.
I respond in part because Christians, generally speaking (but especially Christian teachers, apologists, catechists, priests, pastors, theologians, etc.), are commanded to defend the faith and by extension, the Bible when they are attacked:
1 Peter 3:15 . . . Always be prepared to make a defense to any one who calls you to account for the hope that is in you, yet do it with gentleness and reverence;
Jude 3 . . . contend for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.
And I enter into a controversy like this with a robust faith in the power of Holy Scripture to bear witness to itself:
Hebrews 4:12 For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
That makes my job much easier. If indeed a set of books is inspired revelation, and therefore, powerful and moving, due to the fact that they are ultimately the product of not only an omniscient but an all-loving God, then in a sense this collection of canonical books, the Bible, can in effect fully defend itself. It is what it is. The work I am doing, though assuredly necessary, is merely laying out the internal consistency and coherence in the Bible that has always been there, as an inherent aspect of its majesty.
In other words, what I present is nothing new. People simply had to become aware of it. It’s a matter of “revealing the hidden treasures.” When a thing is true, it’s easy to defend, and I have found that to universally be the case in the course of this work (not to deny that some aspects of biblical defense involve more complexity and labor and probing than others). Truth possesses intrinsic power in a way that falsehood never can.
My book, The Word Set in Stone: How Science, History, and Archaeology Prove Biblical Truth (Catholic Answers Press, 2023) was devoted to external objective, scientific and historiographical verification of biblical accuracy and trustworthiness. This one is sort of a companion-piece or parallel work in relation to that volume, and it examines the internal objective logical verification of the Bible.
Is Holy Scripture able to “pass” both of these tests? I think it does so with flying colors! And I have provided readers with 198 separate arguments and abundant intellectual justification and warrant for believing this to be the case.
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Photo Credit: Direction Paradox Contradiction, by CDD20 (12-3-21) [Pixabay / Pixabay Content License]
Summary: Book by Dave Armstrong (6-3-23), in which he examines 198 examples of alleged biblical contradictions and demonstrates that they actually aren’t that at all.
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