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Module M 012A1 Franklin Iriarte A. Master Of Theology
All the allegations against the Bible became the same every day and fall into categories. In
fact there are less than two dozens of these categories that deal with Bible difficulties. These are
the problems we are dealing in this text.
Difficulties arising from the original text. We all know that Bible is inerrant. But that
only applies to the original writings. What we have today are copies so they might be
throwing some difficulties in the translation. Some errors only come from translators,
but not from the original. But these mistakes are minimal because of the care during
language only had capital letters and without vowels and also the letters were not
separated. So because the original had no vowels, when added vowels to clarify they
expressed potential problems. But these errors do not affect the essential nature of the
message. The Bible is the only ancient book that with the founds of so many
manuscripts have been fully able to reconstruct the original autographs to a high level of
precision without actually having them in our possession. In summary, the errors of the
copyists haven’t affected the essential message from the Word of God.
Difficult arising out of translation problems. Translation from one language to other is a
difficult matter. More problems are when ancient languages are translated to our days.
Not forgetting the cultural and sociological differences. These kinds of problems bring
some errors. Bible was written in Hebrew and Greek, so some words then are not used
anymore, so new words have been adjusted in order to fit to the original meaning. We
have to remember that the original was inspired by God, but not the translations. Thus,
the figures of speech used by the writers are not easy to recognize for the translators,
related problems abound both in the Bible as well as in common life.
Difficult arising out of the false interpretation of the Bible. The Bible is a book that
speaks on many subjects as history, politics, ethics, psychology, etc. But what God
meant to say to us, is not what it was translated sometimes. When a difficulty appears in
the Bible the human mind tries to solve it by itself using biases and prejudices. But no
matter how good intentions the translator has if he uses his background errors could
raise. When the greatness and infinity of God is expressed in human words difficult may
arise.
Difficulties arising out of a wrong conception of the Bible. Some people tend to think
that because the Bible was totally inspired from God they also think that every statement
of the Bible has come from the mouth of God. This is wrong. Through the entire Bible
there are many examples that teaches us how other person failed, sinned, committed
some terrible things; but it does not mean that God did that. That is why that at the time
we interpret the Bible we must examine it in the light of the entire word of God to see
what God wants us to learn from them.
Difficulties arising out of the type of language in which the Bible was written. The
Bible is a book written that uses so many languages that is very hard to understand
sometimes. That is why is so important to examine the Bible through its context
Difficult arising out of our incomplete knowledge of the customs, history, geography and
the society of the Bibl times. Archaeology has helped a lot with its discoveries.
However, the knowledge we have for the past is very incomplete. That is why there are
so many expressions in the Bible that are hard to understand. But the discoveries are
helping every time more and more to clarify better some expressions.
Difficulties arising out of our ignorance of the conditions under which a certain book
was written or a certain commandment was given. The meaning of some expressions
given by some books in the Bible must be able only if one knows the conditions under
things that today make people feel uncomfortable. But we mustn’t interpret some
commandments or expressions according to pagan ideas or ungodly prejudices.
prejudices, biases that makes us see the life in a one side way. God´s truth is many sided
and no one of us can comprehend it. So we mustn’t try to be so proud to have the truth
in certain issues that we don’t fully understand.
The infiniteness of God and the finiteness of man´s understanding. God and His wisdom
things occur: the man tries to describe the acts and thoughts of God in terms of man´s
activity, and using human terms to describe what God thinks or does.
Difficulties arising out of fallacies of Logic. It is wrong to put two statements from the
Bible together to arrive at conclusions that are not intended by the speaker.
Difficulties which arise when the precise nature of a statement is not understood. It is
very difficult to translate the precise sense from the original into other languages. And
when a person does a statement it is hard to interpret the intention had in mind.
Especially the emphasis added. That is why that one should be careful to discern the
nature of a sentence before it is labeled as a problem passage.
Difficulties of numbers. Numbers are very used in the Bible even to describe things.
Some of the numbers used in the Bible are used in order to give exact quotations.
However, some of them are used o express a figurative expression. Critics have raised
many problems related to the numbers.
Problems related to the dullness of our spiritual perception. Mature Christian is not
perfect people. They haven’t reached the full knowledge. So even a mature person can
make mistakes in the perception issue. Maturity is not a guarantee that a person will
fully understand everything.
The Bible is a book on many subjects. These subjects require spiritual discernment for proper
understanding, so difficulties are expected. In this section, we´ll see some statements that could be
understood by any person without theological background.
When the finite man tries to understand the infinite God and His actions, difficulties are
bound to arise. In order to understand any subject we need some amount of intelligence.
But simple tasks are very hard to comprehend when we don’t have the right mind for it.
The same way, it is impossible that our minds can understand the thoughts of God.
The presence of difficulties or objections does not in any way prove the Bible to be
untrue. Every day we have less doubt about the Bible. But there are many problems
unsolved yet. But it doesn’t mean that the Bible is wrong. So with time and new
discoveries new defense is coming in order to destroy the attacks that rise against the
Bible. Also many new attacks will always come no matter the new responds coming
from the apologists.
All outlooks on origin have problems and difficulties. Any belief about the creation of
the world is a faith thing. But the Creation Bible theory is the outlook that faces less
origins than the natural view which is plagued with scientific problems.
One´s inability to solve a difficulty does not imply that the problem is unsolvable. Some
things seem to have no solution. But it doesn’t mean that they don’t have one. The best
thing to do is to wait until we have the whole information in order to solve some
problem. In the Bible many subjects in the past didn’t have a seemingly solution.
However, with the help of auxiliary sciences it could be solved. Just because I do not
know the answer it means that the Bible lies.
The apparent problems in the Bible become negligible when they are honestly compared
with the incomparable Excellencies of the Bible. The Bible is so complex that
difficulties are expected. This is because of the divine nature of the Bible that tries to be
time at looking the difficult side of the Bible instead of looking the wonders and
awesome things that says and teaches.
History is our witness that the alleged difficulties are given much more weight by
superficial readers in comparison to serious students of any type. Most of the detractors
of the Bible, know the Bible only in a superficial level. They haven’t read it nor study it.
But other people show a lot of respect for it because of the deep knowledge. Most of
them are not believers but they are sincere in objectively study the Bible. The interesting
of it that many of the past detractors when they started to study the Bible seriously they
found themselves believing and becoming strong believers in the Bible.
Many problems are artificially created by propagandists and these do not have their
origin in the Scriptures. In the history there are seasons of less and more hostility toward
the Bible. These attacks have been made at a propaganda level. Using mind
manipulation techniques and appealing to mass popularity. These don’t allow to see the
truth but to see some pretty lies beneath a technique.
Careful and prayerful study will resolve many difficulties. When you approach the Bible
in a good manner with respect and prayer doubts and difficulties will disappear one by
one. Nevertheless, not all difficulties will disappear. Because we are finite and God is
infinite. But God will give the proper answers in the proper time.