Does the Bible Contradict itself? Part I

 

 

Introduction

Several years ago, I was visited by a certain religious group and one of the things that stood out in my memory of that encounter is that they told me that the bible was full of contradictions. Their example is the one I’ll show you, in just a moment, but they went on to say that there were all kinds of contradictions. The question, we’ll look at in this article is, does the bible contradict itself?

 

Who Saw the Light and heard the Voice?

In Acts 9:3-8, tells the story of Saul encountering Jesus on his way to Damascus. Here’s verse 7, And the men who journeyed with him stood speechless, hearing a voice but seeing no one.

However, in Acts 22:6-11, Paul (formerly Saul), recounts the story but in verse 9 it states, “And those who were with me indeed saw the light and were afraid, but they did not hear the voice of Him who spoke to me.”

This is what they referred to as a contradiction. Let’s examine what we know for sure. First, if we believe that the bible is inspired by God (2 Tim. 3:16-17), then we know that He is the one who wrote it all; one author. Second, we know that Luke penned the book of Acts as he refers to someone as Theophilus (Acts 1:1); the name is referenced in Luke 1:3. So if Luke penned all of Acts; inspired by the Holy Spirit, then whatever he wrote was given to him, even if it seems different.

Thirdly, and most important, the answer is given to us in Acts 26 when Paul recounts his conversion a third time before Agrippa. Let’s look at verses 13-14, "at midday, O king, along the road I saw a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, shining around me and those who journeyed with me. “And when we all had fallen to the ground, I heard a voice speaking to me and saying in the Hebrew language, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’” At the time, I was unaware of this passage; being new in the faith. But you can clearly see that, although Paul’s traveling companions could hear a voice, they could not understand as it was a language (Hebrew) that they were not familiar with.

To go one step further, Paul stated that his companions didn’t hear the voice as Jesus wasn’t speaking to them but to him; and him alone. Paul was recounting the story to a group of people in Acts 22, whereas Luke was writing of the incident in Acts 9. Overall, it was all written by one individual; the Holy Spirit.

 

Conclusion

We’ll look at another example next time. The reason people strive to find contradictions, or loopholes, is to show that the bible isn’t as reliable as it is made out to be. Usually, depending on the person, it’s to promote their own religion and its writings. Others, to disprove the bible as the word of God to show that it’s nothing more than stories. Either way, they try harder to find fault that isn’t there than to simply accept the bible as it is written.