Month: February 2024

Problem: The OT predicts the regathering of Israel. Does this passage predict this?
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Problem: Matthew quotes Jeremiah 31:15 to refer to the death of the babies in Bethlehem. But Jeremiah was writing (in context) about the children killed during the Babylonian exile 600 years earlier. Was Matthew quoting this out of context?
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Problem: If God never changes, then how can He change His mind?
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Problem: Jeremiah predicted a 70 year exile for the Jewish people. Was this literally fulfilled?
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Problem: God cursed the descendants of King Jehoiachin (or Jeconiah) saying, “Write this man down childless, a man who will not prosper in his days; for no man of his descendants will prosper sitting on the throne of David or ruling again in Judah” (Jer. 22:30). Yet, Matthew writes that Jesus was a descendant of Jehoiachin. Critics argue that this disqualifies Jesus from the Messianic line.
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Problem: Matthew places Jeconiah in the genealogy of Jesus, but Jeremiah seems to say that Coniah (aka, Jeconiah) would be childless. So, which is it? Did Coniah have descendants or not?
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Problem: Is the Lord good or bad to people? Psalm 145:9; Lamentations 3:38 and Isaiah 45:7; Jeremiah 18:11; Ezekiel 20:25, 26
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Problem: Isaiah writes that God is the one who “[causes] well-being and creating calamity” (Isa. 45:7). Older translations render this Hebrew ra’ as “evil” (ASV). Is God the author of evil?
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Problem: Critics often accuse Paul of taking OT passages out of context. Is this the case?
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Problem: How could God, who knows all things (1 John 3:20), never have thought of something?  It makes no sense.  Jeremiah 7:31 is where God says, “They have built the high places of Topheth, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, which I did not command, and it did not come into My mind.”
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Problem: It is alleged that Jeremiah 7:221 contradicts Exodus 3:18, 5:3, and 10:25, where there are mentions of sacrifice just before the time of the Exodus. These passages are then alleged to be a foreshadowing of the coming post-Sinai and Levitical sacrifices. But whenever there is an apparent Bible contradiction, it is helpful to look at the surrounding context of the passages, as well as to pay close attention to what the passages are actually saying.
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Problem: God tells Jeremiah, “Do not pray for this people, and do not lift up cry or prayer for them, and do not intercede with Me; for I do not hear you” (Jer. 7:16). Does this verse condone not praying for sinful people?
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Problem: Jewish investigators of Jesus often have many common questions about Jesus and Christianity. We consider several of these here:
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Problem: Jeremiah 3:7 states, “I thought, ‘After she has done all these things she will return to Me’; but she did not return, and her treacherous sister Judah saw it” (Jer. 3:7). How could God think that something would happen, but it didn’t? Open theist Greg Boyd writes, “If the future is eternally settled, it is difficult to see how God could express surprise over how humans behave, and even confess several times that he expected people to act differently (e.g., Jer. 3:7, 19; Isa. 5:1–5).”[1]
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Problem: Does the earth last forever, or is it destroyed? Psalm 78:69 says, “And He built His sanctuary like the heights, Like the earth which He has founded forever.” But 2 Peter 3:10 says, “But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up.” So which one is correct? Does the earth last forever, or is it destroyed?
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