If the Bible contains errors then we have a problem – a big problem. Christians believe that the Word of God is infallible (never wrong) and is inspired by God. If God inspired the writers of Scripture, then we should expect these writers to write things that do not contain errors. Christians also believe that God is all-powerful and as a result if His book, the Bible, contains errors then just how all-powerful of a God do we have? If you believe that God could just speak the word and call the universe into existence then writing and preserving the accuracy of His written Word – the Bible – should be far less of a problem for our omnipotent God.
Critics say that there are many errors or mistakes in the Bible. But I like to say that these are not really errors but difficulties. Today many critics of the Scriptures contend that the Bible contradicts itself in the fields of history, astronomy, chemistry physics, archaeology and a host of other disciples. These so-called errors aren’t really errors but difficulties masquerading as errors. And I will freely admit that there are many passages in the Bible that on first blush seem to contradict another portion of the Scriptures. In a future devotion we will examine a few of these seemingly contradictory verses and the solution to the difficulty. But for now I would like to share with you several reasons why God allows difficulties that admittedly are sometimes hard to harmonize.
They disprove collusion. Pastor John MacArthur, helps us understand this point when he shared: “The critics like to push all the dates of the Bible way up so that all the Bible writers are writing around the same time. They say that this would explain why they all said the same thing. But the very fact that there are difficulties to harmonize show that they didn’t get together. If the Bible was written out of collusion, then it would agree with itself. The fact that there are any difficulties at all is a good indication there wasn’t any collusion in the writing.”[1]
They force us to study. In order to understand certain things in the New Testament you need to know the Old Testament; and some people only like to read the New Testament. And as a result they get an incomplete understanding of the entire Bible. Another area concerns the culture during biblical times. Without a good knowledge of the culture we again will find it difficult to understand certain passages in the Bible. Not knowing the history of the biblical times in which the Word of God was written will also cause us to miss out on important details in the biblical narrative. And of course we in America are reading translations from the Hebrew in the Old Testament and the Greek in the New Testament. This obviously has implications to our understanding of certain passages in the Bible. All of the above issues should clearly indicate we need to study more.
They are products of brevity and summary. Again, Pastor John MacArthur shares an important insight here when he states: “When we have a whole historical incident reduced to five verses, there’s a lot left out. Anything left out because of a summary or brevity can cause difficulties.”[2]
They show us that God’s ways are higher than man’s ways. (Deuteronomy 29:29) states: “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law.” Remember that God is an infinite God while we humans are finite. It would be foolish for one to assume he could understand everything perfectly in the Bible since there are some mysteries that God chooses not to reveal.
Let’s not be too quick, therefore, to call something an error in the Bible that we can’t seem to reconcile – it may just be a difficulty.
[1] John MacArthur, Jr., Is the Bible Reliable? (Panorama City, CA: Word of Grace Communications, 1982), p. 69.
[2] Ibid. 70.
Over the years, I have found mostly numerical or typographical errors (names of people or places) in the OT and perhaps statements phrased a little differently in various sections of the NT. However, there are many authors who have addressed these insignificant errors in Scripture and can easily be found online. The Bible is still THE most correct book ever printed!