Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind. Being fearful of defeat, this good religious man sought to guarantee victory by getting god firmly on his side. True to his vow, the general made a human sacrifice of his only child to god! Now consider the case of Job. After commissioning Satan to ruin Job financially and to slaughter his shepherds and children to win a petty bet with Satan.
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Is God the good guy or the bad Stupid arguments Christians should avoid the Little The devastating Muslim test for Christianity. God is good? A book that brings all of this under one cover is, of course, going to exhibit a lot of diversity. In that case, our job is simply to trust that this is so and defend the Bible against the charge of contradiction.
Pete Enns, Ph. Peter Enns Ph. Clemens professor of biblical studies at Eastern University in St. Davids, Pennsylvania. Tweets at peteenns. However inspiration works and I defy anyone who thinks they have a handle on it , the following is demonstrably true: The Bible is written by real live people over a long period of time 2nd oatmeal example.
But whereas the first one is told to us by the narrator, and is therefore to be trusted, the second account is in the mouth of a character in the story. His contradictory story is evidence of his unreliability. The second, and perhaps most important type of deliberate contradiction is found where our author or authors want to indicate to us that something complex and subtle is going on, and to invite us to ponder it carefully.
The first is in the book of Proverbs. And it is sometimes understood as a set of laws, telling us what to do. Do not answer fools according to their folly, or you will be a fool yourself. Answer fools according to their folly, or they will be wise in their own eyes. There is no way that our author has failed to notice that these two sayings contradict one another! They are right next to each other. Sometimes people who want to criticise the Bible try to hunt out contradictions as if they will be embarrassing and difficult to explain.
But here we have a pair of contradictory sayings right next to each other. No hunting is necessary, and the author is clearly without embarrassment. So what is our author doing? Sometimes it is an important and fruitful thing to reason with someone who is acting or speaking foolishly.
At other times, you are wasting your time and it is foolish to continue to try. The wise person will be discerning about which conditions are in force at any given time. A second set of examples is found in the book of Joshua. This book gives an account of the military conquest of the land of Canaan by the people of Israel, led by Joshua. Within this book we find many contradictions about how complete the conquest was. Perhaps one of the best examples is in Joshua , where Joshua is repelling an attack by five armies.
Compare the two halves of this verse:. When Joshua and the Israelites had finished inflicting a very great slaughter on them, until they were wiped out, and when the survivors had entered into the fortified towns…. So, were the people wiped out, or were there survivors who fled? Once again, our author is completely unembarrassed about giving us contradictory information.
If we were to interrogate him, we would learn two things. First, he would probably be puzzled about our question. A good example here would be the question of whether God is a God of love or a God of wrath.
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