Problem: Peter said, “THE LORD GOD WILL RAISE UP FOR YOU A PROPHET LIKE ME FROM YOUR BRETHREN; TO HIM YOU SHALL GIVE HEED to everything He says to you. 23 And it will be that every soul that does not heed that prophet shall be utterly destroyed from among the people’” (Acts 3:22-23). Does this passage prefigure Jesus?
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Problem: Moses writes, “When you enter the land which the Lord your God gives you, and you possess it and live in it, and you say, ‘I will set a king over me like all the nations who are around me,’ 15 you shall surely set a king over you whom the Lord your God chooses” (Deut. 17:14-15). Moses speaks of the monarchy here, but this wouldn’t occur for another 400 years. Critics use this passage to support a late date of the Pentateuch. Is this the case?
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Problem: Don’t sacrifice an animal with a blemish because the sacrifices represented the ultimate sacrifice of Christ, which had to be perfect and pure.
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Problem: Deuteronomy records, “But that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death, because he has counseled rebellion against the Lord your God” (Deut. 13:5). Atheist Christopher Hitchens objects to this, when he writes, “This was, for centuries, the warrant for the Christian torture and burning of women who did not conform.”[1] Why is this such an extreme punishment?
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Problem: Deuteronomy records, “Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one!” (Deut. 6:4) This passage—often called the Shema—is recited daily by Orthodox Jewish believers as a reminder of the uniqueness and exclusivity of God. Orthodox Jewish interpreters often argue that this passage claims that God is “one” in essence and “one” in person—thus contradicting the NT doctrine of the Trinity. Is this the case?
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Problem: In one area of Scripture, it appears that a son will bear the sins of his father, yet in other areas, it seems that that is not the case. So which is it? The answer lies, as always, in examining the context of the statements. Ultimately, the Bible has no internal contradiction. It just takes looking and reading to figure things out.
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Problem: The context of the “Thou shall not make a graven image” passages is dealing with the worship of false things. Exodus 20:4 states that no one is to make an image of what is in heaven, so that you may not worship them or bow down to them (20:5). This is reiterated in Leviticus 26:1. The Deuteronomy passages, contextually, are dealing with the same thing: an admonition against worshipping a false image. God does not want people bowing down before idols and worshiping false gods.
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Problem: Moses writes, “What god is there in heaven or on earth who can do such works and mighty acts as Yours?” (Deut. 3:24) Critical scholars note that this passage seems to support henotheism: the notion that there is one infinite-personal God who is in control of other gods. This is sort of a mix between monotheism and polytheism. Is this the case?
Problem: The command by God to kill all inside a city is seen by many to be immoral and a demonstration that the Bible is not true. But, we must examine the issue in light of its context – its biblical context – not in light of present-day, non-Christian assumptions. If we want to see if it is moral or not, we must know which morals are in question.
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Problem: Deuteronomy records that Moses died before he could enter the land of Israel (Deut. 34). But Moses knew how the Jews had taken possession of the land, which he never saw (v.12). Critics argue that this demonstrates that Moses was not the author of the Pentateuch. Instead, a later author must have composed this work.
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