This post is part of a short series on Christianity. To view the previous post, click here. To go to the first post in the series, click here.
It is unfortunate that so many people continue to hold to the belief that the Bible contains – indeed, is – the perfect Word of God. It is detrimental to believers, and an insurmountable obstacle to unbelievers.
The message the Bible attempts to communicate cannot be fully understood without first accepting its many imperfections, and understanding them to be a simple part of its voice and identity. These imperfections are not only a matter of simple errors and contradictions (of which there are a staggering number), but that the Bible's very nature is one of imperfection; reflecting with clarity the storied paths it travelled from its earliest beginnings to the copyrighted, mass-printed form it takes today. Neither is it a matter of good verses evil, or right verses wrong, or faith verses unbelief; but a much simpler case of choosing to see something for what it is rather than what you may wish it to be.
I grew up in the Christian faith, and as far as I have seen, my opinions and goals on the matter differ from most other critics of the Bible in a few key respects. I am still a Christian and believe that the Bible is a central and critical part of the faith, but there are some very important things to consider. Notice that there are no web sites dedicated to exposing errors in the Webster’s Dictionary, or in the latest Tom Clancy novel, or Cornelia Funke’s novel, Inkheart? Why? My guess is that it’s because no one claims that any of them are perfect, or makes even grander claims about their messages or origins or inspiration, divine or otherwise, and then demands that people accept them.
So, in this way, I am less a critic of the Bible, and more a critic of how it is perceived, how it is regarded. As a conveyor of the message of Christianity, the Bible is darned good. As the inspired and perfect Word of God, if fails miserably.
The long-standing argument that the Bible can have no value unless it is absolutely flawless is completely without merit. I’m not aware of anything in the world that qualifies as truly perfect. The computer I’m using to write this blog certainly isn’t perfect. The car I drove to work today isn’t perfect. I’m not perfect, and you probably aren’t either. Virtually every novel in print has at least a couple typo's hidden within its pages. We usually don't see them, but they're there. The point is that simple imperfections rarely render things useless, and the Bible is not one of the cases where they do. The only reason errors in the Bible are an issue at all is because the very people who believe that they are defending the faith by claiming that it is perfect, have made it one.
On the darker side, if we insist that the Bible is perfect, then we cannot distinguish the errors it contains from the truths. This moves the question of errancy beyond the realms of doctrine and academics into something a bit more serious, since acting on false beliefs is a dangerous thing (think Fred Phelps).
First, I’ll list a few of the more basic errors that can be found in the Bible, just to show that they are there, abundant, and easy to find. Believe me, even a cursory foray into the subject of biblical errancy yields a compelling body of material.
- In 2 Samuel 8, David is said to have taken 700 horsemen from Hadadezer, yet in 1 Chronicles 18:4 the number is 7,000.
- Matthew 27:3-10 tells us that the chief priests and elders purchased the Field of Blood with money they had originally paid Judas for betraying Jesus after he returned it to them. Yet, Acts 1:16-19 tells us that Judas bought the field himself.
- In Acts 9:7, we are told that the men with Paul on the road to Damascus heard the voice of the Lord, but in Acts 22:9, we are told that they didn’t.
These aren’t particularly earth-shattering issues, except in one critical respect (and I’m directing this statement primarily towards Fundamentalist Christians, of which I was once one): If you tell people that in order to be a Christian, they must believe that the Bible is the inerrant Word of God, you are asking them to believe that these obvious errors aren’t there, or that there are creative ways to explain them away. That 700 and 7000 are the same number, and conflicting reports are a matter of interpretation. That is not a requirement that Jesus gave us, it is you who have made that requirement. And that (to borrow some Biblical terminology), is a heavy millstone to swim with.
So, even simple errors in the Bible become an enormous problem if we insist that it is perfect. They bar the gate of Christianity to any person of intellect, and relegate the very Faith itself to the realms of the ridiculous. I find that I no longer like to admit that I am a Christian. Most Fundamentalists would probably warn about this (well, condemn me, actually), for denying Christ, but that's not really what I’m denying; I simply don’t want to be identified with the ridiculous beliefs and claims that have grown like weeds to completely bury the true message of Christianity. I am a Christian in the sense that I subscribe to the teachings of Jesus, who I believe to have had only one true message: Treat one another kindly, as you would like to be treated, and stop with all the totalitarian, harsh and cruel ways of the Old Testament laws. Of course, the second part of that statement is only an aspect of the first, but given that it was the biggest challenge Jesus faced in his day, it bears calling out. As for the harsher teachings attributed to Jesus, well, I’ll touch on them later (but, I won’t try to explain them away).
Now, on to more abstract problems that are just as serious, if not more so...
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