Can someone explain why the Bible is supposedly "inerrant" yet is full of total contradictions such as these??

Question

The sins of the father

ISA 14:21 Prepare slaughter for his children for the iniquity of their fathers; that they do not rise, nor possess the land, nor fill the face of the world with cities.

DEU 24:16 The fathers shall not be put to death for the children, neither shall the children be put to death for the fathers: every man shall be put to death for his own sin.
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Righteous live?

Ps.92:12: "The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree."

Isa.57:1: "The righteous perisheth, and no man layeth it to heart."
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Judas died how?

"And he cast down the pieces of silver into the temple and departed, and went out and hanged himself." (Matt. 27:5)

"And falling headlong, he burst asunder in the midst, and all of his bowels gushed out." (Acts 1:18)
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Who bears guilt?

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.

Answer 1

My belief is that the bible was written in a metaphorical sense. Meaning that it was written as a story to get a message across. I think that if we all took the whole of the bible literally, then we'd all be in a lot of trouble. I believe that there is good stuff in the bible, but some of it is utter nonsense... i could give you plenty of quotes, but you only have to open a page and have a look.
To take the bible literally and to believe it word for word is missing the point of it. It tells a story, like any book, and you can take from it what is useful for you and leave what is not useful. We can take from it what we find helps us in our own lives.
Althought i do not call myself a Christian (and i am anti-religious), i personnally think that Jesus was a deeply inspiring prophet. He was filled with love and compassion; and he embraced everyone, no matter their background; he helped heal people and accepted people and he spread a message of love and peace. He was obviously a great man, and i take alot of comfort and strength from his words & actions. (It seems to be very likely that there was a wise prophet called Jesus, but even if the bible is totally made-up, then i still find his story totally inspiring.) It is not his fault that people throughout history, and still to this day, have taken his name and corrupted it and used it to promote their own biggoted and corrupts beliefs, their own pursuit of power and their own hateful messages. These are all the opposite of the message that Jesus gave.
I don't think that your quotes are really the best you could have used to make your point; they are taken out of context and they aren't all actually contradictary. I'm sure that there are better contradictions and there are definately quotes from the bible that are utter nonsense.

Here is a short extract from the book 'The God Delusion' by Richard Dawkins... have a look at it... it's extremely interesting and shows you exactly why the bible shouldn't be taken literally...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/5372458.stm

you are doing a great thing... keep questioning... never let anyone tell you what is the truth... you must decide for yourself... always question... only then will you find out the truth for yourself...
take care,
zag

Answer 2

I'll give it a shot... By looking at the CONTEXT (I know... a novel idea, right?)

1) Is. 14 deals with Babylon & its destruction because of unrepentant & continued sin - the whole line had to be done away with. "His children" refers to Balshezzar, the king.
Deu. 24 deals with individual fathers & their children, within the Nation of Israel
SO, as we find in several other passages, whole cities are destroyed, from the bottom up, so their sinful lifestyles don't infect the Israelites. Whereas the Israelites are held responsible for their own sins.

Deuteronomy 5:9 & Exodus 20:5 also speak of God's judgement of those who hate Him - all the way down to the 3rd & 4th generations.
SO, it's not a contradiction in verses, but an example of the differences between how God judges those who follow Him & those who hate Him.

2) You left out the last part of Is. 51:7 "none considering that the righteous is taken away from the evil to come." Oh, & let's not forget the NEXT VERSE "He shall enter into peace: they shall rest in their beds, each one walking in his uprightness." I'd say this corresponds nicely with the rest of the passage in Psalms that addresses continuing blessings for those who are righteous. Only nonbelievers see death as a bad thing. Christians rightly look forward to it.

3) Not really sure there's a contradiction anywhere between these two verses. I would say the verse in Acts is a reference to him soiling himself on the way out the door.

4) This last one is simple enough. "Burdens" in verse 2 comes from a Greek word ("baros"), which means "weight, or load". "Burden" in verse 5 is a completely different Greek word ("phortion"), which means "a task or service". Generally, these two burdens are seen as emotional/spritual & physical. I say simple, but it can be rather difficult to get to the bottom of the variations & forms of alot of the Greek words.

Nonetheless, all your issues have been addressed. It basically all boils down to context, & you won't find many Christians willing to debate innerancy if you're not going to follow the established rules of context. I'm just in a talkative mood tonight...

Answer 3

(Deuteronomy 24:16) refers to punishments meted out for crimes, as does Ezekiel. Isaiah and the others refer to punishments and sufferings that are the natural results of one persons' actions "rolling downhill" on another person. In other words, if Dad goes alone and robs the Hickory Farms store and steals all the weinerschnitzel, then Junior doesn't get thrown in the slammer if he wasn't part of it. But if Dad is a smoker, then Junior's lungs will get polluted; if Mom drinks too much when pregnant, Junior may be born with fetal alcohol syndrome. If Dad brags about robbing the Hickory Farms store or seems content with his lot in jail, and Junior hears or finds out about it, Junior might be inspired to a life of crime also!

Is. 14:21 comes from a song of vengeance that it is predicted will be sung by the Israelites; it isn't expressing doctrine at all.
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Psalm 92:12 & Isaiah 57:1
My first question to this contradiction is, “Why can’t both be true?” Obviously the righteous men from history do die. Abraham is dead, but yet he is flourishing right now. Abraham is dead, but he often did flourish during his life. I can flourish my entire life, but unless I a raptured, I will eventually perish. At the same time, I will still be flourishing in heaven. This is an issue where both statements can be true. The Bible stands correct on this one.
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Acts 1:18 describes what occurred after Judas hanged himself in Matthew 27:5. His body began to decay as it hung from the rope. Eventually, his corpse fell, and “burst asunder” when it hit the ground—he literally burst apart.
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Galatians 6:2 is speaking of helping one another through troubles and 6:5 is speaking of the responsibility each person has in those troubles and sins.
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Amazing what a little reading and critical thinking can do.
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1 Corinthians 14:33a "For God is not the author of confusion ..."

Answer 4

I thing you are confuse in Isa. God is talking about the children of Isael when he told them to do something and they choose not to. He was telling them to shape or ship out or die. And in Duet.he was talking this children Isael again only this time he was saying when you do what I ask you will not died for her parents sins. Ps, is saying the same as Isa.14:21 Isa.57:1 is saying the same as Ps.92:12. Let me ask you a question Have you see someone hang ?they relieve them self when they died. we are to bear thier burden my praying for them and help them if we can. we are to bure are burdens but not give it to some else and let God help you through it.

Answer 5

Yep you're right you proved the bible false you're the smartest person ever, smarter than God. I can't believe no one discovered this til you came and enlightened us all.
Try reading Gods word with an eye to learn not to find fault. Mocking God this way is a dangerous path. I've seen this stuff before but if you really read the word completely you will see your argument is baseless. But all you want to do is find fault so you can say no God. So I can do what I want without accountability. But guess what there is a God, the bible is His true word and you will be held accountable, whether you like it or not.

Answer 6

1) The sons were only punished for following in the footsteps of their fathers. It is said somewhere in Ezekiel that if a son of a corrupt father turns to the Lord, unlike his father, he will live.

2) The righteous "spiritually" flourish with happiness and some even outwardly, as David did at times, but "perish" or die like any other human and are open to persecution; the righteous have some good times, but also some bad times, such is seen in the life of David himself.

3) Some say that Judas died both ways at once, and that the extra details contained in the other book are merely intended to expound upon the bare details mentioned previously.

4) You bear your own burdens but are expected to be supportive of others with burdens as well.

I would not say the Bible is perfect, especially in translation, but in its general message there are no contradictions.

Answer 7

Romans 1:22
Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,
Romans 1:21-23 (in Context) Romans 1 (Whole Chapter)

Answer 8

wow i have a pretty good answer for u actually..my answer is from a similar question that was proposed, so some of it might not make sense:


OMG..don't you all see that having so many different versions of the Bible indicates a corrupt religion? Many authors, editors, revisors, etc. of the Bible only changed/deleted/added verses to appeal to Christians so they would remain faithful (in other words through lies) and to appeal to people who are interested in converting (the same way). Converting through lies and putting in what people WANT to hear is corrupt. For all we know, the all-loving peaceful Bible could have had some ugly verses that were deleted or replaced with more peaceful ones so that Christianity could not look like a culprit or evil religion in the future. CORRUPTION!

An imperfect, flawed religion indicates that it is disqualified as being the true religion.


When you said, "I think people are seeing the question they want to asnwer, not asnwering what has been asked..."

Well, thats kind of like the Christians changing the Bible into what they want their religion to be like (aka allowing more freedoms, making bad deeds seem less impactful, etc.), not seeking the truth or caring about what is really meant for them.

Answer 9

Only an idiot would believe the bible is error free.

Answer 10

Nice try, but you didn't even pick good ones. None of these are contradictions, unless you read them out of context. Join a good bible study and you will learn why.