Christians - how do you reconcile these contradictions in the bible?

Question

In order to believe this text that you so often refer to and base your life on, you must have some kind of resolution to the many, many contradictions. I don't know all, but here are a few examples:

"The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father..." -- Ezekiel 18:20
"I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation..." -- Exodus 20:5

"Honor thy father and thy mother..."-- Exodus 20:12
"If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. " -- Luke 14:26

Exodus 20:13 "Thou shalt not kill."
Exodus 32:27 "Thus sayeth the Lord God of Israel, Put every man his sword by his side, . . . and slay every man his brother, . ."

Ephesians 2:8,9 "For by grace are ye saved through faith . . . not of works."
James 2:24 "Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only."

EDIT: ploppy: Abe was going to kill his son, right, thou shalt not kill, eh? this is a contradiction and you aren't reconciling it.

EDIT: Scott: the commandment is pretty clear, "thou shalt not kill" is self explanatory and god didn't include amendments to the commandments to say you can kill under these exceptions. You have not reconciled anything and you are relying on wild interpretations that fit your needs.

Answer 1

I dont
the bible is full of holes
because only 4 out of 33 Gospels were used
and a Gospel is only a collection of letters
written by people not god

Answer 2

In the first instance, I believe that what is said is that the sins of the fathers can flow on down to the children - for example alcoholism doesn't just affect the alcoholic, but the children and the grandchildren as well. However God can judge how He likes as He is all knowing. It is not for man to judge and condemn the son on behalf of the father.
The second question you need to look into the original language used. The word translated here as hate doesn't mean to intensely dislike these people, but to love them less then Jesus. What is said here is that you must put God first before your family.
The third question again requires translation. Kill here should actually read murder. God gave the right for government to use capital punishment and the Exodus 32:27 verse is God demanding the death penalty for the sins that had been committed.
What the fourth question means is that you are justified by faith alone, but you must do the work of God. Faith without you doing good deeds is a dead faith and isn't really alive at all, and so the person probably isn't really saved. You can have faith and works and be saved, but you cannot have works alone and be saved.

Answer 3

There are some contradictions in the Bible but not the ones you have enumerated. One reason for these contradictions is the fact that the authors had different sources.


Exegesis is the science whereby scholars determine the correct interpretation of the text. The Bible is unique, for it is the word of God coming to us in the words of men. Therefore, biblical exegesis demands that we find out what both the human author and the Holy Spirit are trying to say.


True exegesis is Fides quaerens intellectum, which means that faith seeks understanding. So the seeker must approach the Word from the point of faith and love, for the inspired writers communicated the Word in the language of faith and love. To refuse to do this is to have the Bible remain closed to us, even if we can write a literary analysis of every book in it.


One must therefore read the Bible on the same level that it was written – that is, on the spiritual level. A passage must be read in its proper context in order to be understood – its context in that chapter and book and in the whole Bible.


The Christian exegete must also take account of the fact that the Bible was given to us, in both its Testaments, by a living tradition. The literature side of it can be studied with the tools of literary analysis, but only the believers who passed it on to us can interpret the revelatory aspect. That means that the Jewish community today is the authority on the Old Testament as the Hebrew Scriptures. The Catholic Church is the final authority on the New Testament. It is also an authority on the Old Testament since the Christian community inherited the Hebrew Scriptures and therefore has the right to interpret them according to the light of Christ. Also the earliest Christians were Jews, and the learned among them, like Paul, could interpret the Jewish Scriptures authoritatively.

Answer 4

1. the first one I cannot thoughtfully answer right now other than I would have to go check out the verses before and after to see what is being talked about in these 2 different books within the bible.

2. The first one says to honor your parents so that it may go well with you. The first commandment with a promise. The second one is talking about leaving your home/life behind you, if you must, in order to follow Jesus. You can still honor your parents and do God's work, but God must come first in your life.

3. That commandment states not to commit murder. It doesn't say don't kill. There are times, like when at war which is what the 2nd verse is talking about, when killing is necessary. There are many times in the OT where people were punished by stoning to death for their crimes.

4. You ARE saved by grace, not works. Works should be an outpouring of your faith in Jesus Christ and what He did. So, you are saved by grace and your works, or "good deeds", will be evidence of your salvation.

Walter S- The reason only 4 gospels were used is because they met criteria to make it in as the most reliable. They were either apostles or they were immediate disciples of apostles. The documentation of the events were very close to the actual happenings. The other gospels that you mention were written well after the occurrences of the times and didn't weigh well in validity.

Answer 5

I will reply to each question below in **

"The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father..." -- Ezekiel 18:20
"I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation..." -- Exodus 20:5

** Answer: Say a person's father was an alcoholic and abusive, and went to jail, and the kid suffered, and his kid suffered as well due to poverty, lack of good guidance etc. This does not mean the kid was evil and going to hell for the sins of the father, but the kid and his kid will SUFFER for it. Sometimes when God curses a nation such as at times when Israel apostatized and worshipped idols and sacrificed their children to Molech, God may well mete out punishment to the fathers, but the future generations will also have to bear the suffering for the sins of their fathers.


"Honor thy father and thy mother..."-- Exodus 20:12
"If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. " -- Luke 14:26

**Answer: This of course does not mean we should HATE our relatives, it only means we do not love our relatives MORE than God. I have seen churches become weak and polluted when they love their wicked children or relatives more than God or His commandments.

Exodus 20:13 "Thou shalt not kill."
Exodus 32:27 "Thus sayeth the Lord God of Israel, Put every man his sword by his side, . . . and slay every man his brother, . ."

**Answer: Exodus only condemns murdering the innocent. In the New Testament Jesus quotes this passage but it is translated "Do no murder" instead of "Thou shalt not kill". Murdering innocents is entirely different than the justified homocide in cases of executing criminals or in war.

Ephesians 2:8,9 "For by grace are ye saved through faith . . . not of works."
James 2:24 "Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only."

**Answer: Salvation by grace alone is a common misconception among Evangelicals. In each of those passages of Paul's about works, we find the works he was speaking of were the works under the Law of Moses, animal sacrifices, circumcision, assorted rituals and rites. Paul was a Pharisee who was totally absorbed in these dead works. Once he was converted he realized these dead works were performed in unbelief and were worthless... they were filthy rags. These are not CHRISTIAN works that Christ, and Paul, commanded to be followed. Christian works such as faith, repentence, prayer, baptism, charitable deeds, are all encouraged and taught. I certainly cannot imagine the baptism of Christ as being a worthless work or filthy rag, especially since Jesus Himself said it was necessary in order to fulfill all righteousness. Even the Old Testament said the old works such as animal sacrifices were worthless, as if they cut off a dog's neck, because they did those works in unbelief, grudgingly, and not understanding that those works were prophetic types and shadows of the work of Christ and His death on the cross.
There are many seeming contradictions between the NT and OT, it takes studying with patience to understand that in most cases there are no contradictions, only our lack of understanding.

Answer 6

It is very difficult to answer a question like that so that it can be understood the way you need to understand it or the way you need to hear it. What I mean by that is that if you are not very spiritually mature it is more difficult to explain. God’s ways are not our ways, He is infinitely more and greater in every way than we can conceive, in other words, there are many things that you and I do not have the ability to understand. God is in control of all things at all times and all things work for the good of those that love Him, and that may not necessarily be in the here and now. We may not be around to see the effects of what happens in the future but God sees how all things will work out. As for the few situations that you described, you are missing the meaning of what is said in the scripture. Again...it takes wisdom from the Holy Spirit to help you understand...there is much more to the bible than many people can see and the bible can NOT be explained by what it appears to be from people that (in their present state of spirituality or lack of it) simply do not have the ability to understand. A little bit of humility and a lot of prayer will go a long way towards helping you to understand, ask the Holy Spirit for wisdom and understanding. May God give you a yearning for the Truth.

Answer 7

How did you come out and make you think these set of Scriptures you presented contradicts each other?

If you can explain your views on how these scriptures contradicts each other then i will show also that there is no contradiction! Amen.

Attention: Lord Jesus said; Joh 3:7 Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.
Joh 3:8 The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.
Luk 10:23 And he turned him unto his disciples, and said privately, Blessed are the eyes which see the things that ye see:
Luk 10:24 For I tell you, that many prophets and kings have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them.
Mat 13:15 For this people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.
Mat 13:16 But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear.

Answer 8

1)Exodus came first then Ezekiel!!!

2) The verse from Luke is not literal as he says lots of stuff like that. Your love for God must be so strong that the love of ur family is like hate. Jesus uses tons of metaphors such as he said Imma tear down the Temple and rebuild it. But he meant himself. Remember Abe was gonna sac Isaac HIS ONLY SON, thats how u gotta love God.
3) let me find verse, it was ordered by God fyi

32:26 Then Moses stood in the gate of the camp, and said, Who is on the LORD's side? let him come unto me. And all the sons of Levi gathered themselves together unto him.

4) You are not saved by what you do, its a free gift from God cause He is awesome. But you do have to actively believe, you can't just say I acknowledge the facts, you gotta live your life according to it. But its God who saves you, not anything you can do.

Answer 9

Any contradiction's that exist mean you are not interptreting the message in the correct context, or the message is out of place and not genuine. If you know what is right and wrong and are smart enough to understand clearly what life is, then you will see the way.

Answer 10

You must learn the times,the context and just who is being spoken to I'll take you up on your last one with a question HEY, would you work for someone you don't believe, or trust. and your work was to be a witness of HIS work? that's not a contradiction it's your lack of understanding. Personally I wouldn't waste any more time with you, so, BYE!