If the Bible is inerrant-without error why does it say?

Question

Bats are Birds(Lev. 11:13) ; a mustard seed is the smallest of all seeds and grows the greatest of all plants. (Matt. 13:31-32); turtles have voices(Song of Sol. 2:12); some four legged animals fly (Lev. 11:21); The Earth is fixed and unmoving(Joshua 10:12) and such a view was used to convict Galileo of heresy.

Clearly to anyone with any common sense these things and many, many more in the bible are errors big errors and clearly not just in translation, their meaning is clear, but wrong.

Why would anyone think that the Bible is with out error?
If the manual you used to fix your car with was so flawed your car would never get back on the road.

Does anyone still think the Bible is without flaws?
Stay on subject please and no cut and paste answers your own words please.

Answer 1

Jesus did not make a mistake when the Bible was written.

Answer 2

Again, many Christians have a basic misunderstanding of the purpose of inspiration. The Holy Spirit inspired men to write the Bible. These men were not perfect. God did not dictate every word of scripture. The underlying harmony of scripture is what is important as it relates to our salvation through Jesus Christ, not whether a bat is a bird or not. Because these writers of scripture were not all knowing, they might have believed that a bat was a bird. That issue has nothing to do with your salvation. If you need the Bible to be absolutely inerrant to be saved, you are going to be sorely disappointed. God gives enough light to guide the honest seeker after righteousness, but not enough to remove all doubt. If Christians admitted that the Bible had some errors, some through translation, and some because the writers had cultural preconceive notions that were not correct, would that make you more of a believer or less of a believer. The material is adequate for the honest seeker to receive a knowledge of God and understand the path to salvation and eternal life. The question is not whether a bat is a bird, but are you a honest seeker after righteousness?

Answer 3

bigwhitebarry,
I am not one of those Christians that say that the Bible is the inerrant word of God. The Inerrant Word of God sat down at the right hand of the Father.

That being said, why do I believe the Bible? Because it's the inspired word of God. Men wrote it, and translated it. The words in some cases; being well translated, and in other cases; not translatable.

What you have found was:
1) parts of the Bible that were not translated well into English
2) parts of the Bible that were metaphorical
3) Miracles that were to our minds, impossible unless they happened because they were done by whatever God does when He wants to show something.

I would tell you that those things are easier to believe than the resurrection of Jesus Christ. If you can believe in the resurrection, then you can accept that God could make the Earth stand still.

Those are my own words.

Answer 4

Just thought you'd like some more absurd contradictions and fallicies from that "divine" book.

Plants are made on the third day before there was a sun to drive their photosynthetic processes (1:14-19). 1:11

God makes two lights: "the greater light [the sun] to rule the day, and the lesser light [the moon] to rule the night." But the moon is not a light, but only reflects light from the sun. And why, if God made the moon to "rule the night", does it spend half of its time moving through the daytime sky? 1:16

God fashions a woman out of one of Adam's ribs.
Because of this story, it was commonly believed (and sometimes it is still said today) that males have one less rib than females. When Vesalius showed in 1543 that the number of ribs was the same in males and females, it created a storm of controversy. 2:19

The bible is wrong about ostriches being cruel and inattentive parents (39:13-16).

According to the psalmist, snails melt. But they don't, of course, they simply leave a slimy trail as they move along. Psalms 58:8

Natural disasters (earthquakes, storms, fires, tsunamis) are caused by, and are a sign of, God's wrath. Isaiah 29:7 .. which we know to be false.

I apologize for the copy/pasted highlights, but I didn't feel like typing them out, although I wanted to contribute to your collection of bible errors.

The bible is, to be put simply, full of it. Yet the hardcore believer will dismiss obvious errors and outdated and the mistake of the mortal man who wrote that verse. Yet they don't use common sense to realize that a book so badly riddled with errors cannot be trusted on any level as accurate.

It's a nice story, for a fiction novel.

Answer 5

like many skeptics your views are limited and do not acknowledge the context in which they were written. even the devil can quote scripture to his advantage. Bats are birds. this is the exact verse:
13 " 'These are the birds you are to detest and not eat because they are detestable: the eagle, the vulture, the black vulture, 14 the red kite, any kind of black kite, 15 any kind of raven, 16 the horned owl, the screech owl, the gull, any kind of hawk, 17 the little owl, the cormorant, the great owl, 18 the white owl, the desert owl, the osprey, 19 the stork, any kind of heron, the hoopoe and the bat.
psychology tells us that children use accomodation and assumption to use known information to help explain the new. likewise, this was a use of accomodation of a bat into the bird class. they didn't have the type of biology and scientific classification 2000 years ago that could tell us a bat is a flying rodent. now you ask why didn't god classify them into a different class? first of all he was trying to group these animals into those that fly, not specifically birds, and he was talking about what kind of animals were ok to eat, so the fact that he even classified bats in with birds is irrelevant to the context of the chapter. second, in those days, which would have been several thousand years B.C., they were classified as such because of the reason you are questioning now. someone in ancient middle-eastern culture would have classified bats as birds, and if they would have classified them other than such, i'm sure some other ancient skeptic would have contested that god was errant because he did not classify bats as birds.
Smallest of seeds:
31He told them another parable: "The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. 32Though it is the smallest of all your seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and perch in its branches."
Jesus was talking in a parable, and he was talking to ancient people. He does not say that the smallest seed in the world, he said the smallest of your seeds. he was also talking in a way that the multitude could identify with so they could get the moral of the story, but for people like you who would rather deal on irrelavent details to persuade otherwise. I say again you have to put it in context. agriculture was not worldwide. not until the columbian exchange after columbus had discovered the new world and the slave trade from africa did the world understand modern agriculture.
turtles have voices:
12 Flowers appear on the earth;
the season of singing has come,
the cooing of doves
is heard in our land.
turtles? i don't know about any turtles, but i do know this, you are placing it out of context again, this is a song of praise between people who love each other. surely you of enlightened thought could understand that this use of speech is figurative. singing in these terms are used to explain great joy and excitement, explaining that he's in such a state of jubilee that nature itself seems to be celebrating with him.
some four legged animals:
20 " 'All flying insects that walk on all fours are to be detestable to you. 21 There are, however, some winged creatures that walk on all fours that you may eat: those that have jointed legs for hopping on the ground. 22 Of these you may eat any kind of locust, katydid, cricket or grasshopper. 23 But all other winged creatures that have four legs you are to detest.
out of context, talking about insects, duh.
earth is fixed:
On the day the LORD gave the Amorites over to Israel, Joshua said to the LORD in the presence of Israel:
"O sun, stand still over Gibeon,
O moon, over the Valley of Aijalon."

13 So the sun stood still,
and the moon stopped,
till the nation avenged itself on [b] its enemies,
as it is written in the Book of Jashar.
The sun stopped in the middle of the sky and delayed going down about a full day. 14 There has never been a day like it before or since, a day when the LORD listened to a man. Surely the LORD was fighting for Israel!

again out of context. you may actually have the wrong verse, but the verse was talking about how god provided the israelites with ample weather for battle so that they could be victorious.

if you are goin to quote scripture, don't take it out of context.

Answer 6

Bible is truly impeccable book but you must know that it has been hand written and passed from one hand to the other,so, there is every chance of a little error. That's why he sends us the Holy Spirit to guide us.
You rather than looking at the outer things read Romans 8, the key chapter of the Bible.

Answer 7

I'm a Catholic......so just so you know where I'm coming from...

When it says the Bible is inerrant, it regards without error concerning our Salvation.
Yes, sometimes the Bible doesn't jive with history or common sense, and many other things but that isn't what the inerrant is about.

Answer 8

Yes, I believe the bible is the inerrant word of God.
Happy Thanksgiving.

Answer 9

interpretation by human beings, translations, and the imperfection of languages....The fact that human being are not clearly understood. While the bible was divinely scripted, the moment man reads, interprets, or relays the message, that message that man conveys is most likely flawed.

Answer 10

you just have to believe. there are things in the bible that were in there befor the scientists found them out