Contradiction?

Question

"I will not pity, nor spare, nor have mercy, but destroy." (Jer. 13:14) "Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not, but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling."


"The Lord is very pitiful and of tender mercy." (James 5:11)
"For his mercy endureth forever." (1 Chron. 16:34)
"The Lord is good to all, and his tender mercies are over all his works." (Ps. 145:9)
"God is love." (1 John 4:16)

and not to mention.....

"And it came to pass after these things, that God did tempt Abraham." (Gen 22:1)

"Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God; for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man." (James 1:13)

and also.....

GAL 6:2 Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.

GAL 6:5 For every man shall bear his own burden.

The Bible is riddled with repetitions and contradictions
I find this entertaining, is this not suppose to be anything other than the absolute word of God?

to: Got Air

from the point of view of the writer? Who is the writer of the Bible? Isn't it God?

Answer 1

No contradiction. God is a loving Father who only want the best for you. He has told his children the way to life and they stubbornly refused to listen to Him and repent. Just as a loving father would do He showed His children the correct way. Because He have punished them for not listening and hurting themselves in the proses it does not make Him bad.

Why do you try to twist God's word. Do you think God will put up with this forever. No He wont.
God Bless

Answer 2

First of all I want to point out that I'm not an atheist. Although I can't say I researched the scriptures quoted, I can say that there are DEFINITELY contradictions in the Bible. That's because the Bible has been translated & re-written by man. All of the original books are not even there. There are parts of the Bible that are true, alot is fiction & written to control the masses. I find that alot of people hold so true to believing everything in the Bible & I could understand why. When you've been taught to believe something your whole life, that belief tends to be solid like a stone.

If you would allow your mind to open up for just a little while, do some research, and THINK, instead of just being told, you will find that there ARE quite a number of contradictions.

Most people follow the religion they do b/c it is what their parents taught them & their parents taught them and on & on. How many of you really question or research other religions or is there some sort of fear that has been instilled in you not to go against what you've been told?

In a nutshell, do your research. Take nothing at face value accept only what you've researched with your own eyes.

Answer 3

I'll start with the last one, in Galatians:
2 Share each other’s burdens, and in this way obey the law of Christ. 3 If you think you are too important to help someone, you are only fooling yourself. You are not that important.
4 Pay careful attention to your own work, for then you will get the satisfaction of a job well done, and you won’t need to compare yourself to anyone else.
5 For we are each responsible for our own conduct.

I think what it is saying is that we have to help each other out, but we also have to be mindful of what we ourselves are doing. We can't be so obsessed with others that we overlook ourselves.

And now for the first one -- God in the Old Testament was very judgemental, it seems, but once Jesus came, that all changed. So the two can't really compare.

As for the first one:
1 Some time later, God tested Abraham’s faith. “Abraham!” God called.

I'm not sure what version you're reading but God doesn't tempt, he tests. ;)

Answer 4

First of all your contradictions are from lines in the bible that dont even go together. Different Stories written by different people in different context. If I look in the dictionary I can make apple mean orange by putting sentences together. You have to read more than one verse.

Second get your facts right:
"I will not pity, nor spare, nor have mercy, but destroy." (Jer. 13:14)

"Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not, but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling." 1Samuel 15:3

Read both stories.

Answer 5

You know, if you really want to have this taken seriously you should remove the Galations verses - they're right next to one another in the Bible, and yet you've seperated them and chose not to quote the whole passage. Would that have removed said contradictions from your mind, I wonder, or hinder your arguement?

Regarding the temptation of Abraham, I imagine reading this in any study Bible would reveal a footnote to explain away the alleged contradiction, whether it refers to the word for test in original hebrew or something else.

It seems to me you've really just got a problem with God changing his mind. He's slow to anger, sure, and gives grace where he sees fit, but he's also just and punishes wickness.

I'm curious, though; if those contradictions can be explained away, will you accept those explanations or instead believe Christians to be simply blinding themselves to the truth through false rationalisations?

That, my friend, may prove more enlightening to you than any answer we can give.

Answer 6

It is really not all that confusing when you take each of these scriptures and look at them in the light of the whole. If you and I were looking at a wheel spinning and you were standing on one side and I was standing on the other. I could confidently say that it was turning clockwise while at the same time you could confidently say it was turning counter-clockwise. Who would be correct? We both would. It is the same with these scriptures. We need to understand them from the point of view of the writer and try to understand the underlying message the writer was attempting to portray.

edit: God inspired the writing of the books of the bible. He did not write them Himself. Each of the books were written by His servants and describe events and give advise from the writers perspective as they were inspired by God.

Answer 7

Don't post things like this. You hurt Christians' brains. It's not about logical consistency, man. It's all about faith.

Addendum: Yeah, here come the predictable "it's out of context" responses. *double yawn*

Answer 8

What kind of person are you? You just go around reading the Bible looking for ways in which you can attack it and incite arguments about it with people. You better check yourself. Get a life, if you don't agree with Scripture then read Sports Illustrated.

Answer 9

If you think that's amusing, wait until you stand before God, at the resurrection. No doubt, you'll die laughing.

Answer 10

Aren't you going to supply the link from the atheist site you got that from? Try context and you'll have your answers.

Yawn...