Do you think the Bible has controversies?

Question

Examples:
- the Bible says nobody should predict the future. How come the prophet Joseph was a dream reader and a man of God?
- the Bible says Astrology and all kinds of predictions through stars is not good. How come the three wise men that visited Jesus right after his birth were astrologists? By the way, they followed a star, right? Wouldn't a sign in the sky be something wrong according to the Bible?
- the Bible says we shouldn't make contact to dead people. How come Jesus brought Lazarus back from his death?

Just wondering and trying to understand. No offense!

Answer 1

The Bible is full of contradictions. The God of the New Testament almost completely contradicts the god of the Old Testament. There is a clear evolution going on in the Bible. As people's views changed so did the Bible. The Bible actually starts out as polytheistic, although the Bible translators have done their best to hide it, and evolves to monotheism. In the early parts of the Bible generations were punished for the sins of their fathers, but as ideas of personal responsibility evolved so did the Bible, and in later parts we see the introduction of being responsible only for your own sins, not those of earlier generations.

BTW, the three "wise" men that found Jesus under the star were not Jews, they didn't even believe in the same god. They were magi or Zoroastrian priests. They believed in a god called Ahura Mazda. It is strange that the first to find and recognize Jesus were Zoroastrian, not Jewish. I read somewhere that they were seeking Zarathustra who had prophesied his return. He prophesied that he could be found under a new star in the east, in a manger, wrapped in straw.

Answer 2

By "Controversies" do you mean "Contradictions"?

Yes, there are a lot of them. There are TWO creations stories with different versions. There are instances of God changing his mind on a course of action after being spoken to by a man. There are laws that are made, broken (with no consequence) and then later used to punish people.

The Bible is a book ... it isn't an owner's manual. It is a collection of wisdom that preserves both a history and the lessons learned during several times of trial. It is a source of meditation and discourse on a variety of subjects. Don't look for it to make perfect sense.

The best way to use the Bible is to relate it to real-life events. If you have a conflict, meditate (or pray) on the source of the conflict until you can clearly see the roots of it. Read the Bible (or use a tool) to find similar causes and see how our spiritual Ancestors solved it...and the consequences. If it didn't go well for them, try reading more into it (and the reason it failed are often pointed out pretty clearly). If it was successful try the way proscribed in the Book.

If it isn't practical (offering a burnt sacrifice for instance) try to uphold the spirit of the action (make an offering to a charity instead).

In this way we can learn and grow.

If you get a conflict between two courses of action (slaying one who wronged your family or turning the other cheek) then search for which 'feels' right. God will lead you.

And if you don't beleive in God (or aren't comfortable with prayer) approach this from another angle. If you were to gather up the transcripts of everything that Dr. Phil ever said, would you find that he has given conflicting advice? (yes). If you were to look through the colected legal rulings would you find that some laws had been made, overturned, and then remade? (yes) Well, the Bible is like that.

Answer 3

This could be a talking point, about how the Bible is abused and how dangerous it is considering what a strong foundation it's laid out for society. There is much lack of biblical clarity that it seems as if no one really knows what it's talking about. Everything we’ve come to know about the Bible is based on interpretation. Leviticus is an interesting passage, because it clearly states it's prohibition of male-to-male sexuality, but it negates females from this law. The reason I say this is because further down those passages, it states a law saying that men AND women are not to fornicate with animals. This is interesting because now the law is directed towards both men and women. So, by this rationale, why are women excluded from the homosexual law in Leviticus. Well, I got a theory: Polygamy. It's no secret that the bible features marriages consisting of multiple wives and concubines, and by this logic, a man with three or four wives is bound to have romantic encounters with all of them. At some point, they're all going to be in bed together. In other words, those laws were written by men of flesh and blood, and the idea of having multiple female partners is a not-so-secret fantasy amongst males. At that time, with men in control, I highly doubt they'd give up that right of male owned female sexuality, so, what we’re left with is a law targeted at men. So, is there “Godly” merit to this law or is it a law written by an author that was uncomfortable with the idea of two men together? Also, the important thing to remember about Leviticus is that those laws are meant to establish a people. At that time, population was beginning to grow, so it the prohibition of men being sexually involved is more based on the fact of procreation. Another thing to keep in mind is that the Bible is victim to the idea of “lost in translation.” Older translations use “offensive thing” and the translations that we use today use stricter repressive words like “abomination.” There’s lack of clarity when it comes to the Bible.

Answer 4

The Bible NEVER said that NOBODY should predict the future. Moses simply forbids using certain methods (like divination) to predict the future. Every prophet is supposed to predict some future event to prove that he is a prophet, according to Moses.

And what you are saying about Lazarus doesn't sound logical. Jesus didn't have a séance to commune with the dead, he made a dead man alive.

The only legitimate objection or difficulty here that you have raised is the wise men following the stars. The Bible doesn't actually condemn astrology as sinful, but rather says that it is useless in predicting the future. There are several discussions of this on-line, if you want to Goggle it. The short answer would be that God spoke to the Persians using means that he knew would get their attention.

---edit---

Sorry if this sound harsh, but it seems that one could have easily answered these objections with just a few minutes with goggle. You may be sincere, and if you are, I apologize, but it sounds like you have gone out of your way to create difficulties & contraversies where none exist.

Answer 5

You can better understand if you don't try to listen to what non believers say. Also, try to formulate your understand based upon the Bible when the Bible is in question.

For instance;
"the Bible says nobody should predict the future"
I don't find that in any of the Bibles that I read.

"the Bible says Astrology and all kinds of predictions through stars is not good."
The three wise men were not supposed to be thought of as 'perfect' people. Neither are we.

"Wouldn't a sign in the sky be something wrong according to the Bible?"
Why? Didn't He make the sky and the signs? "The heavens declare the glory of God." My Bibles say that the glory of God is Christ. So the heavens declare Christ.

" the Bible says we shouldn't make contact to dead people. How come Jesus brought Lazarus back from his death?"
The power of God cannot be fathomed. Jesus was doing a miaculous thing in that ressurection. No one else could do it, but he did. Jesus is Lord over all things that He made. He gets to do what he wills, and it's up to us to understand the truth over the confusion that we are tending to dwell in.

I think that Jesus said it best;
"The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath." He set prescidence. He drew lines and set boundaries.

Since He is Lord over all, He gets to decide what would be His acions. What a part of what you touched upon was the realization that God can do things that we cannot do. Also, we can be misled by what we try to learn if we do not have Him to guide us. That's part of what you need to know. The heavens are there and we can see them. Without Him we won't understand what we see or think about them.

Answer 6

I think people see contraversy when they don't comprehend something. When something sounds wrong, look for other scriptures to clear up the meaning. Scriptures all work together to shed light on other scriptures. If there is anything that does not make sense, you are misunderstanding it.

1. Predicting the future without God is wrong. If you read the story of Joseph, you will see that Joseph always say, "not I, but God will interpret your dream". Being a messenger for God is a good thing. All the prophets and prophetic writings were revelations from God. People of God never "predict" the future, they tell people what God is saying. Sometimes it is about the future or a dream.

2. The wise men were magi that studied the starts, they did not worship them. Astrologists and Astrology are totally different, any astrologist would tell you the same. They study the starts in awe of them as God's creation, not for horiscopes. Following a star is not a bad thing. Again, studying stars and believing they are something to predict the future from are totally different.

3. Jesus didn't make contact with dead people, He made Lazarus come back to life. He made contact with the living.

All of your examples indicate that you are confused about what God tells us. Basically there are 2 kinds of things in this world: Godly and not Godly. Anything that is of God is fine. If it is not of or from God, then it is of or from the world or Satan. I hope this clears these things up for you.

God bless.

Answer 7

The Bible says that there are many Scriptural passages which people will wrestle with, to their own destruction.
If you understand what you read (in context), you should believe and obey it.
If you don't understand, keep seeking and let God reveal the meaning, in time.
Mostly, it's just a question of receiving and obeying the truth.
The problem lies in the human heart, which is deceitful and rebellious. But God is greater than the human heart!

Answer 8

of COURSE the Bible has controversies. It's supposed to have controversies so people will learn to stop arguing about what is written on paper and concentrate more on having a direct relationship with God.

People who fret about the scriptures really haven't found God yet. They don't trust God enough to experience Him/Her directly, so the look for Him/Her in a book. Not that the book is bad or useless, just that the Bible is there to serve humanity. Humanity does not exist to serve the Bible.

This doesn't make them bad people, it's just one of the many lessons we are hear to learn.

BTW, The 12 apostiles, zodiac signs etc are symbolic for the 12 spirutal planes that we in tern experience on earth. There is hidden wisdom there.

Answer 9

Controversies? Obviously. Contradictions? Absolutely not.

Answer 10

The biggest controversy is how inconsistent the image of god in the old testament is with the image demonstrated by Jesus in the new testament. The o.t. image is very demanding, harsh, critical and mean which doesn't sound like GOD to me. Jesus on the other hand did everything he could to undo the damage done.