Here, we continue our response to a challenge
presented by a contributor to an on-line
discussion group, who claimed that the Bible
contains contradictions and failed prophecies:
Chariots of iron:
Jer 32:27 "Behold,
I am the Lord, the God of all flesh: is
there anything too hard for me?"
- but -
Judges "1:19
And the LORD was WITH Judah; and he drave
out the inhabitants of the mountain; but
could not drive out the inhabitants of the
valley, because they had chariots of iron."
Reply:
Your claim appears to be (you don’t explain
it, or any of your arguments) that the failure
to drive out chariots of Iron is evidence
that some things are to hard for the Lord.
However, even on the surface, that would
be absurd. If it pleased the Almighty, he
could have caused fire to come down from
heaven and consumed them, as in the case
of Elijah. He chose not to. The “he” referred
to here, is obviously Judah. Yahweh chose
not to overthrow the chariots of Iron. Why?
See Psalm 106:34-36; Judges 2:1-3
The Righteous:
Rom 3:10 "As
it is written, There is none righteous,
no, not one."
- but -
Luke 1:6 "And
they were both righteous before God, walking
in all the commandments and ordinances of
the Lord blameless."
Reply:-
Romans 3:10 has a context! You are very
conveniently ignoring the context, and presenting
bits of Scripture against themselves - not
wise! The context is verse 9: “... we have
before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that
they are all under sin; as it is written,
“there is none righteous, no, not one .”.
So the writer is here citing another portion
of Scripture, and applying it to the case
in hand. The passage quoted is Psalm 14,
which reads: “Yahweh looked down from heaven
upon the children of men to see if there
were any that did understand, and seek God.
They are all gone aside, they are all together
become filthy: there is none that doeth
good, no, not one”. Here, the Psalmist is
speaking of a particular category: “the
children of men,” which in Scripture, is
a term used for those who follow the carnal
mind, as distinct from “the sons of God”
(Cp Gen. 6:2) who follow the ways of the
Spirit. Of this class then, there were none
righteous, no, not one.
Luke 1:6 speaks of some who had kept the
law, but yet they were still under sin (see
Rom 3:23), otherwise they would have had
no need for salvation through Christ. Paul
is proving that all have sinned; this couple
were “blameless” from the law, yet they
were still under sin, and in need of redemption
through Christ.
Face to face:
Ex 33:11 "And
the LORD spake unto Moses FACE TO FACE,
as a man speaketh unto his friend"
- but -
Ex 33:20 ..."Thou
canst NOT SEE MY FACE: for there shall no
man see me, and live."
Reply:-
Ah, that old chestnut! Moses did not see
the Almighty Creator literally “face to
face”. This is indicated by the following
New Testament passages: 1 Tim 6:16; 1 Tim.
1:17; Jno. 1:18.
It is clear from Stephen's exposition in
Acts 7 that Moses spoke face to face with
God’s accredited representative, an angel,
who bare the name of Yahweh (cp Zech 3:2
with Jude 9) and not to God, himself. Note
these verses:
Vs 30 - "there appeared unto him ...
an angel"
Vs 35 - "the angel which appeared to
him in the bush"
Vs 38 - "The angel which spake to him
in the mount Sina
Vs 53 - "who have received the Law
by the disposition of angels" (cp Gal
3:19).
(Taken from “Wrested Scriptures” by Ron
Abel)
Jealous love:
1John 4:8 "God
is love."
1 Cor 13:4 "Love is not jealous."
Exodus 20 "I, the Lord thy God, am
a jealous God."
Gal 5:19-20 "Now the deeds of the flesh
are evident, which are...jealousy..."
Reply:-
Please explain the point you are making
here ... the Lord is jealous in the sense
that He will tolerate the worship of no
other (see context of Ex. 20) whereas we
are commanded not to be jealous in the commonly
accepted sense ... with 1 Cor 13:4 plainly
speaking of the way humans are to love one
another ... what's the problem?
Stealing:
"Thou sall not
steal" and Lev 19:13 "Thou shalt
not defraud thy neighbour, neither rob him..."
- BUT -
Ex 3:22 "And
ye shall spoil the Egyptians" - defrauded
and robbed
Exo 11:2 Speak now
in the ears of the people, and let every
man BORROW of his neighbour, and every woman
of her neighbour, jewels of silver and jewels
of gold."
Reply:-
“Spoil” implies victories of war. The word
“borrow” in the Hebrew, signifies “to take”.
They were to take the spoils of war from
their enemies which the Lord commanded them
to have. Very different from stealing from
each other, which is the context of Lev
19:13.
Killing:
Ex 20:13 "Thou
shalt not kill"
-BUT-
Exo 32:27.. "Thus
saith the LORD God of Israel... slay every
man his brother.. his companion.. his neighbour."
Reply:-
So ... Israel lived under a Law which forbade
murder, yet permitted death as a punishment
for those who disobeyed it. Not unlike many
states today. And ... ?!
Returned to Egypt:
Deu 28:15 "But
it shall come to pass, if thou wilt not
hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God,
to observe to do all his commandments and
his statutes which I command thee this day;
that ALL these curses shall come upon thee,
and overtake thee:" ... ...
Deu 28:68 "And
the LORD shall bring thee into Egypt again
with ships, by the way whereof I spake unto
thee, Thou shalt see it no more again: and
there ye shall be sold unto your enemies
for bondmen and bondwomen, and no man shall
buy you."
-BUT-
Last I checked, this
is just another failed prophecy. It just
never happened even though they were found
guilty by other prophets.
Reply:-
You ought not use the term “another” failed
prophecy, when you have failed to demonstrate
a single one yet. Actually, this is a prophecy
of the future. See Isaiah 11:11, where we
are told Israel will be brought out of Egypt
a second time. Also see vs 15. It means
they must go back there again, to come out
of it.
Chris Maddocks
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