Contradictions, Consequences, Blunder and Bible

In the Youth Fellowship of the NZTCF (New Zealand Tamil Christian Fellowship), we're studying about the Bible. My group had to give a presentation about Inerrancy of the Bible as if we are addressing a professing Christian who thinks that the Bible, though inspired by God, has a lot of errors. I had to do a bit about contradictions in the Bible, textual variations and spiritual consequences. So I'm putting up my part of the presentation here, though I've had to tidy it up a bit.

In its own context, the Bible doesn't have contradictions. But the context is very important. If one is unaware of the context of the words, then there will be a lot of confusion.

Now Romans 14:21 says, "It is good not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything that causes your brother to stumble."

Taking the verse at face value, you might ask. Is it bad to eat meat? Does eating meat make people stumble? Didn't Jesus eat meat? Didn't God provide meat in the wilderness for His people in the Old Testament. There seems to be a contradiction. (I’m leaving out the wine part >_< )

But if you read the whole of Romans 14, you will see that the Apostle Paul is talking about weaker believers who religiously practice certain conventions which, while aren't necessarily wrong, aren't Biblical either. We see an example of a Christian who firmly believes that it is sinful to eat meat. Paul is telling the other believers not be cruel and pick fights with this Christian for his convictions. It is as if he is saying, "So when you're with this guy, it would be great if you could just eat vegetarian like he does, so you don't hurt your Christian brother's feelings over a small matter and cause him to stumble in his Christian walk with God."


Or take this example:

John 20:1 says, “Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb.”(ESV)

Now according to this verse, who went to the tomb early in the morning? Mary Magdalene.

And in this verse, who else is mentioned as being with her? No one.

Mark 16:1, 2 says, “When the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him. And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb.”(ESV)

Now according to this verse, who went to the tomb early in the morning? Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome.

Is someone lying? Did John make a mistake? Why didn't he mention the other women? Does this mean the entire account of the Resurrection Morning is wrong and false. Yes, at face value there is a contradiction.

But remember to look at the context! If you continued reading John 20 you will notice the second verse which says this, “So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.”
(John 20:2 ESV)

Notice that she says "WE do not know where they have laid him."

Which clearly indicates that John knew that there had been at least one person with her, though he doesn‘t mention their presence. In all honesty, when comparing with Matthew’s account and Luke’s account we can conclude that there were at the least four other women who had gone to the tomb with Mary Magdalene. I don’t know why John didn’t mention them but I have an idea.

Do you remember what happened to Mary Magdalene later as mentioned in John 20? After meeting Peter and John, she went down to the garden near Jesus’ tomb to cry because she thought Jesus’ body had been stolen. There she met a Man Whom she mistook for the gardener. She implored Him to tell her what had happened to Jesus’ body. The Man said one word, “Mary” and she immediately recognised Him as Jesus except He was not dead but alive with a perfectly new body. (Personally, I love the fact that Jesus first appeared to Mary Magdalene, a woman, and not to the men, His disciples.)

I think that, because he wanted to focus on Mary Magdalene’s experience of meeting the Resurrected Lord in the garden, John didn’t bother to mention the other ladies’ names. So no real contradiction here.

Of course there are certain ways that the Bible is not completely perfect. But that has everything to with us humans and nothing to do with God. Some of the apostles who wrote the books of the bible, didn't go to great universities and likely made grammatical errors. But these don’t affect the truth of what they are saying.  For example, if one of those Indian Immigrants suddenly came up to you on top of One tree Hill and said in a strong accent, "Take photo me please", his bad grammar doesn't change the fact that he wants you to take his picture.

And there is the thing called copyist error. When the Bible was written there were no printers and the Bible had to be copied down very very very carefully by scribes. Now rarely, but once in a while, the scribe would make a small mistake and subsequent copies of that particular copy may carry that same mistake. Now we don't have the original manuscripts that the prophets and the apostles wrote on but what we do know is that there are many thousands of old manuscripts of the Bible today. And comparing them together, our Bible publishers give us the most accurate version possible in our hands. And we have to believe and trust that God will never let his truth fade away.

Is the belief of Biblical inerrancy necessary for salvation? Just because someone doesn’t believe in Inerrancy, does it mean that they are unsaved? No, there are many good loving Christians who do not believe in inerrancy. And there are people who believe in inerrancy but continue to deny God's truth with their lives.

Belief in the inerrancy of the bible is not necessary for salvation. The only thing necessary is repentance and believing that Jesus has died for our sins. But all the same, not believing that God's Word is perfectly true will lead to problems. There will be questions of what part of the bible is true and which is false. You will be picking and choosing verses that suit your moods and personal worldview which will not give you the complete picture of what God is telling us. Believing that the Bible has mistakes will make you question whether God really is perfect and all knowing and all powerful.

When you encounter spiritual warfare, with accusations and deceptions from the sinful world, according to Ephesians 6, you need to wear God's armour.

“Therefore take up the whole armour of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God,”
(Ephesians 6:13-17 ESV)

But how can you overcome your enemy if you can't trust your sword, the Word of God?

God created us. He knew his children even before the world began. And while great godly men were penning down the words of the Bible, inspired by the Holy Spirit, we were in the very mind of God. The very words of the Bible were written for us by our Heavenly Father. God’s word is a masterpiece of love for His children.