"God is not the author of confusion".... Oh, really!?

Question

If, as many appear to think, the Bible is the actual word of your god and your god is perfect.... why are there so many opposing translations? Why does it say one thing at one point, and the exact opposite at another? What has, throughout history, been the source of more confusion than this book? According to this referrence, noone has ever seen your god, except that it also states that he walked with Adam and Eve, and had dinner with Abraham. I've read the entire Bible on more than one occasion. There is so much confusion contained therein, that what should have been one religion, has split into three major religions, with thousands of seperate denominations. If your god created all, as your beliefs dictate, then your god is indeed the author of ALL confusion. How do reconcile this with the fact that, according to your beliefs, your god is all loving and just? Please try to explain this in a way that makes some kind of sense.

I understand cellular respiration, and can explain it to a nine year old. That nine year old child will also understand and be able to explain it to others, without mistranslations. Understanding of the Bible has resulted in countless deaths, thousands of religious groups with completely opposing views, and the dark ages. If the posters who claim to understand it know as much as they say, they could explain it to others as easily as I explained cellular respiration to my nephew.

Answer 1

Although those of us with at least the tinest bit of common sense will know that God is the original author of confusion, the Christians will fight you tooth and nail and tell you how you need god or the holy spirit to understand, like the holy spirit is some super secret decoder ring needed to understand the bible and all its flaws...first of all God isnt all knowing or all powerful or the answer to all of life's problems...if he's so real why doesnt he show himself to the world in a form we can all see...not the random crazed christian claiming god came to them in a grilled cheese sandwhich or their chicken noodle soup or he spoke to them in a burning bush, or they saw an angel that no one else could see...cmon Christians, stop trying to convince us to believe...you try so hard its like your trying to convince yourself...just wake up and smell the coffee...God isnt real, and if he is, then he isnt fair and just and loving....cmon!!! Hell as a punishment for not taking his "salvation"? its like being held at gunpoint and getting a choice to give up your wallet or die....either way your still losing something...

Choose heaven and lose your soul to become a mindless worshipper for all time, or burn in hell forever....doesnt sound like a loving and just god to me...but you be the judge...

Answer 2

1. The Bible is the word of God, and God is perfect. The Bible was translated, however, by humans, who are not God and who are not perfect; hence the opposing translations.

2. Clearly you have no appreciation for Biblical imagery or religious symbolism.

3. Yeah, and it makes perfect sense for the Muslims to "convert by the sword." It's not confusing at all that some Muslims are the nicest people you could hope to meet and others want your head on a platter.

4. There are many different denominations because of human ignorance and error, not because of the inspired word of God. For 15 centuries Christianity was unified under the Pope until people started reading the Bible as a piece of art that meant something different to all who gazed upon it.

5. God is all-loving and just. Humans are not. Division is not caused by God, but by people.

6. The fall resulted in the darkening of the human intellect. God did not create us to be confused, we fell into confusion.

Don't make God out to be the bad guy in all of this. He's the only One that has never changed... When are we, on the other hand, going to rectify our mistakes which has divided us against God's wishes?

Answer 3

I would recommend auditing a class or 2 or 3 (or just take it for a grade if you can't audit) on the Bible. Maybe one about the Greek translations. The problem is that everyone (like just regular people not the scholars whose job it was to translate the Bible for people) tries to understand the Bible in their own words without knowing what the original Greek words meant. So everything seems confusing but as you study, you realize that scriptures from one side of the Bible to the other go hand in hand and perfectly complement each other.

There is really no answer to your question and I don't think any Christian needs to explain or reconcile their faith. It's a faith, not a science. Either you believe or you don't.

but anyway...if you take the time to study the Bible in a class where they teach you the original meanings and whatever, it will help you understand what seems to be contradictions. You don't necessarily have to believe what the Bible says, but it will help you be more educated. And an educated debator is much more interesting.

Answer 4

There are many opposing translations but before printing they used to write the bible by hand and that can lead to human error.
The bible is not an easy book to understand and yes it dose contradicts it's self on first look . It requires looking around the contrition's and cross referencing with other scriptures to get it into context.
As far as walking with Adam and Eve i feel that this is the same as many Christians feel today that god is with them i don't believe it is physically walking with them.
I do believe god created all but the divisions of faith came from man.
I also believe god is loving and just as he promises to set all things right.
Whilst i don't agree with you i can understand your comment that god is the author of confusion as the bible is not only a hard read (try the book of numbers with out getting a headache) it is hard to understand and open to interpretation

I hope this goes someway to answering your question in a logical way(or at least my honest opinion) of your question but it is after 1pm here and my brain is not alert as it could be.

Answer 5

True, the Almighty God does have a personal name. It is Jehovah. It means 'He causes to become'. There are many gods out there....even money, among other things, is a 'god' for some people. What people worship is their god. But true Christians need to know their Creator. Everyone should. If we as humans made from dust have names, shouldn't the Creator of all things have a name? And that's why it is Jehovah. He made his name known and manifest to us. That means he wants us to use it. When you know one's name it makes it easier to be able to have a close relationship. Which is why Jehovah God wants us to know his personal name. It is a name above all other names. Psalms 83:18 -- "That people may know that you, whose name is Jehovah, You alone are the Most High over all the earth."

Answer 6

To deal with each of the issues:

Bible translations: The difference in the Bible translations is not one of doctrine or contents, but of style. For example, the differences between the way Brits and Americans speaks English requires differents in the translations. BEcause Hebrew and Greek grammar are very different from English grammar, a word for word translation would be almost impossible to read. For eample, remember that Hebrew is read right to left (bakcwards). So a direct Hebrew-to-English sentence would read: "read would sentence Hebrew-to-English direct a So". Some translations are designed to be as literal as possible (including some that actually have to number the words so you know what order to read them to understand them in English) to others that are translated which readability in mind. They both say the same thing, but are translated using different styles.

The Bible does speak of no man having seen God. But in the context, it speaks of seeing God the Father in the fullness of his Spirit Being. That is because no human being can function entirely in the spiritual realm. They are restricted by their physical bodies. But they can see God when he appears in the physical realm.

There is no scripture that says no one has ever seen God the Son (the person of God who appears in the physical realm). In fact, there are dozens of scriptures that clearly state he can be seen, touch, heard, felt, etc. There are four eyewitness accounts of his life here on earth called the Gospels It was God the Son who walked with Adam and Eve. According to John 8, it was God the Son who feasted with Abraham. He also appears in the physical realm multiple other times in the Old Testament.

Why so many denominations: As is often pointed out of this site, there are many Christians who have not taken the time to fully study what the scriptures teach or what the basic doctrines of the Christian faith are. That has lead to a lot of confusion and different groups. Not because god has not clearly stated the turht, but because people have not taken the time learn it. Just because there are people who never learned to add, that does not mean additions is "false" or "confusing". It just means they never learned it.

Finally, remember that everything in the world, including the church, has been stained and distorted in same way by the presence of sin. To look at the current condition of anything in the world, and state that its condition is because God made it that way is the same as looking at a 15 year old Chevy that the owner never took care of, allowed to rust, is missing half the floor, and leaves a blue cloud behind it, and claim that that is how GM designed it to work.

Answer 7

PEOPLE create all sorts of different beliefs and religions. God has nothing to do with it. Remember the tower of Babel and the various religious Crusades? Humans are the author of all confusion, whether of morals, religions, politics, language, you name it. The Bible was compiled from various myths and stories handed down for thousands of years, edited and patched together by all kinds of people with all kinds of bias. No wonder its a mass of confusion and contradiction. How anyone can believe it to be the "inerrant" word of God is beyond me.

Answer 8

Who has seen your GOD? Does he walk and talk and was it his blood that took away the remission of sins and gave you the ability to come and pray and not make a sacrifice. If you don't have a GOD why are you critical and worried about what others believe? God is not a man that he shall be mocked and his word is from everlasting to everlasting that is why you're basing it on your knowledge, wisdom and no understanding because the word says that if you're his you understand. You're taking a lot of things literal and your losing yourself in translation. I will continue to believe and pray for you and all others who don't believe. Be blessed.

Answer 9

You're peeing in the wind...

What you mentioned is just one of a million "fallacies" found in The Bible...and we could throw their own quotes back at them "ad nauseum" to disprove their own silly conjectures and conclusions...

But it won't do any good...

For those who believe in the whole "fantastigorical, bodiless being of pure energy who created the universee" concept, it is a very strong defensive mental wall they've built up since childhood, and no amount of logic, common sense, or wisdom from their own "Magic Book" is ever going to put a dent in their stubborn and ridiculous mental armor...

Give it up...

Answer 10

The confusion lies in the blindness of mankind! The sad fact remains that this is not God's world. God's Kingdom is still not of this world, as Jesus Christ made clear in John 18:36. Who is the god of this age?..... He is none other than Satan, the great fallen superangel. He is truly this world's ruler. Jesus Christ recognized that, saying that in the judgment "the ruler of this world will be cast out" (John 12:31).
As a master of persuasion, Satan easily deceives mankind into focusing on anything but God. Through the theory of evolution, for example, he has convinced millions that God doesn't exist.

Through hundreds of corrupt religions he has convinced billions of people to worship the sun, moon and stars, animals, nature, deceased ancestors, imaginary gods and goddesses and a bewildering variety of other things—or nothing at all. Even among the many varieties of traditional Christianity we find people divided and bickering over who and what God is, His purpose for us, what He wants us to do and how we should live. The devil has done an effective job of confusing people as to what the Bible really says.

Satan doesn't care which of these groups people fall into. Whether they believe in no God at all, accept and worship a false god or are deceived into a false view of the true God and His plan for us, Satan still has them where he wants them—"alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart" (Ephesians 4:18).

The apostle Paul described the spiritual blindness that envelops the world and pointed out the source of that blindness. "But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them" (2 Corinthians 4:3, 4).
Although we cannot see Satan, his influence on the world is pervasive. Paul understood this, telling the members in Ephesus, "And you He [God] made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience" (Ephesians 2:1, 2). The result of the devil's influence is that, before conversion, "we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others" (verse 3).

Satan spiritually influences humanity to reject God and God's law. Under Satan's influence, "the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can [it] be" (Romans 8:7). Separated from God, man chooses to go his own way, with devastating and tragic results. "There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death" (Proverbs 14:12; 16:25).

Satan's influence is so great that he "deceives the whole world" (Revelation 12:9). The entire world "lies under the sway of the wicked one" (1 John 5:19). Under Satan's influence, humanity has rejected God's revelation and guidance and built societies and civilizations on a wrong foundation.

When Jesus Christ returns, "the kingdoms of this world [will] become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever!" (Revelation 11:15). Satan's world, built on a foundation of lies and deception, will come crashing down, replaced by the Kingdom of truth and light.