Are there contradictions in the Bible?

Many people claim that the Bible is unreliable because it is full of contradictions.  It would be impossible for me to deal with all of the supposed “contradictions” in the Bible in this limited space.  I will instead approach this from another angle:  Is the Bible truly the Word of God, without error or fallibility? 

To answer this question, I will draw upon three “witnesses” for the Bible:
1.  The Bible’s own witness of itself. 
2.  The witness of history and archaeology. 
3.  The witness of logic and reason.

     First of all, let’s examine what the Bible says about itself:

     “All scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness.”  -II Timothy 3:16

     “Until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass away from the Law.” -Matt. 5:18

     “All flesh is grass. . . The grass withers, the flowers fade, But the Word of our God stands forever.” -Isaiah 40:6&8

     “Every word of God is tested. . . Do not add to His words.” Prov. 30:5-6

     “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.”  -Psalm 119:105

     “As for God, His way is blameless; The Word of the Lord is proven." -Psalm 18:30

     “The entirety of Your Word is truth; And every one of Your ordinances is everlasting.” -Psalm 119:160

     This is just a small sampling of the many, many passages in the Bible which affirm that God’s Word is true and reliable.

     However, people who do not believe the Bible tend to reject the witness of the Bible, so we must turn to evidence outside of the Bible which confirms the truth of the Bible.  The first place we will look is history.  Many skeptics and doubters have said that the Bible is false because it does not correspond to real history.  This is one of the most interesting and shrinking claims in the world.

     There used to be a list of hundreds of historical facts contained in the Bible which scholars and doubters proclaimed as imaginary and false.  As archaeology continues in the Middle East, we learn more and more about the history of the Bible lands.  We also discover over and over again that the Bible is correct where historians are wrong.  I will use two examples to illustrate my point:  the Hittites and the Assyrians.

     For hundreds, even thousands, of years, there was no record of the Hittite or Assyrian empires outside of the biblical stories of these empires.  Historians laughed at the Bible and declared that the Hittite and Assyrian kingdoms never existed.  Well, as it turns out, the Bible was right and the laughing historians had to swallow their own doubts.  The Assyrian capital city of Nineveh, considered a mythical place by historians, was unearthed and discovered to be one of the largest cities in the world at that time.  The Assyrian empire was also found to be far-reaching and very powerful, exactly as described in the Bible.  Likewise, the Hittites have also been discovered to be the very REAL inventors of iron working and masters of a great kingdom, just as the Bible says.  Secular history lost track of these ancient empires, but the Word of God proved unfailingly faithful in its account of history.

     Finally, let us consider the witness of reason and logic.  We can logically and reasonably say certain things about the Bible which point to its divine origin.

     First of all, despite the claims of contradictions, the Bible is a remarkable whole, considering its “human” origins.  The Bible consists of 66 different books, written by different authors, some unknown, over the course of 1,500 years or more (depending on the date of the Book of Job).  Matthew, Mark and Luke may have known each other, but they never met Moses or David or any of the other Old Testament writers who lived hundreds of years before them.   

     Most remarkably, none of the Old Testament writers met Jesus, about whom they made strikingly accurate prophesies.  How could David describe crucifixion in Psalm 22 when  crucifixion wasn’t invented as an execution method until almost 1,000 years after his death?  How could Isaiah describe the sufferings of Jesus with remarkable accuracy in Isaiah 53, when he lived 750 years before Christ was born? 

     Even more inexplicable is the way in which the Old Testament tabernacle and temple worship perfectly foreshadow the sacrifice of Christ and salvation in His name.  Most of those worshipping in the temple did not fully understand the symbolism of their practices.  Yet, they point with such accuracy to the coming of Christ that books have been written outlining the parallels between tabernacle worship and the death of Christ.

     And what about the 2,000 specific Old Testament prophecies, ranging from the downfall of kingdoms to the promise of the Holy Spirit, which have been fulfilled precisely as written?  These certainly testify to the reliability of Scripture.

     To me, the most powerful witness to the reliability of Scripture is the life of Jesus Christ.  Jesus’ life, death and resurrection were witnessed by many people.  Some of these people became his disciples.  They were willing to testify with their blood that the things they said about Jesus were true.

     Jesus’ life is a perfect completion of Old Testament prophecies.  His words and actions fit the prophecies so well, in fact, that some skeptics believe that the disciples invented the person of Jesus just to match Old Testament predictions.  The disciples were not nearly that clever.  Nor would they all have been willing to die to defend a lie they had invented. 

     Moreover, Jesus endorsed the Scriptures as being true and complete.  He taught from the Old Testament of the Bible and encouraged people to believe God’s Word.  If He was the Son of God, which I believe He proved by His resurrection, than His endorsement of Scripture as reliable should be taken VERY seriously.  We cannot ignore this man or his teachings.

     I conclude this section with another quote from the Westminster Greater Catechism:

     “How does it appear that the Scriptures are of the word of God?

     The scriptures manifest themselves to be the Word of God by their majesty and purity; by the consent of all the parts, and the scope of the whole, which is to give all glory to God; by their light and power to convince and convert sinners, to comfort and build up believers unto salvation: but the Spirit of God bearing witness by and with the scriptures in the heart of man, is alone able fully to persuade it that they are the very word of God.”

     I pray that the Holy Spirit might witness to your hearts concerning the truthfulness and reliability of the Bible.