Problem: “Answer a fool . . . don’t answer a fool.” The Bible is full of claims that are often hard to understand and reconcile. Enemies of God’s Word say these are contradictions. Lovers of God’s Word know the truth—consider “the whole counsel of God.”
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Problem: Does God Condone Polygamy?
1 Kings 11:3
And he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines; and his wives turned away his heart.
1 Timothy 3:2
A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, temperate, sober–minded, of good behavior, hospitable, able to teach
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Problem: We find the parallel account for this teaching in Mark 10:2-12. We will look at the extended version in Matthew, while comparing and contrasting the differences.
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Problem: Jesus said, “Unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven” (Mt. 18:3). Does this mean that believers should be naïve and gullible?
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Problem: Why does the Bible say to be like a child, but then to put away childish things?
Jesus told His followers that they were supposed to become like little children, yet Paul told his readers to stop acting like children.
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Problem: The Jewish custom in Jesus’ day was to forgive someone three times—tops. Keener writes, “Judaism also stressed forgiveness, though some teachers saw the need to limit forgiveness to three instances of premeditated sin, pointing out that repentance was otherwise not genuine.”[1] While Peter was thinking that forgiving someone seven times was over the top, Jesus ups his standard to 77 times![2]
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Problem: After Jesus prophesied during His earthly ministry that some would live to see the establishment of God’s kingdom, the first two books of the New Testament indicate six days expired before Peter, James, and John were led up on a high mountain to witness the transfiguration of Jesus (Matthew 16:28-17:2; Mark 9:1-2). Luke’s account, on the other hand, says that Jesus’ transfiguration occurred “about eight days after” Jesus prophesied of the approaching kingdom’s establishment (9:27-29). Skeptics charge that this difference in the time elapsed between the two events constitutes an obvious error. They profess that such textual differences should lead the honest person to admit that the Bible contains contradictions, and thus is not the inerrant Word of God.
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Problems: According to The Skeptics Annotated Bible, in Mark 9:1, “Jesus falsely prophesies that the end of the world will come within his listeners’ lifetimes.” Skeptic Dennis McKinsey calls this prophecy “one of those classic predictions that has haunted his supporters ever since, forcing them to concoct an endless number of rationalizations to explain its failure.”
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Problem: Did Jesus fail to correctly predict that people standing with Him would “not taste death” until they saw the arrival of the kingdom of God? The answer is, of course, no, He did not fail. There are two reasons why what Jesus said did not fail. First, let’s examine the scriptures under consideration.
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Problem: Why did Jesus call Peter Satan in Matthew 16:23? It was because Peter was denying the very thing that Jesus came to do: die for our sins. Let’s look at the context. In the previous two verses, Jesus told the disciples that He would go to Jerusalem, be killed, and rise on the third day. Peter then said, “…God forbid it, Lord! This shall never happen to You.” That is when Jesus rebuked him. Peter meant well, but he did not understand Christ’s purpose. Please consider the following statements about Jesus’ purpose.
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Problem: Though not a secret, the bible shows that the God-man Jesus ministered on earth to maximize the impact of His salvation message.
And He strictly warned him and sent him away at once, and said to him, “See that you say nothing to anyone; but go your way, show yourself to the priest, and offer for your cleansing those things which Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.” (Mark 1:43–44; cf. Mark 1:23–25; Matthew 16:16; Luke 4:34; 5:14)
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Problem: According to Mark 6:5, while Jesus was in His hometown of Nazareth, “He could do no mighty work there, except that He laid His hands on a few sick people and healed them” (emp. added). Based upon this statement, some have concluded that Jesus must have lacked the power to work all manner of miracles in His hometown.1 Allegedly, Jesus was not God and the Bible’s depiction of Him is contradictory.
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Problem: For Herod had laid hold of John and bound him, and put him in prison for the sake of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife. Because John had said to him, “It is not lawful for you to have her.” And although he wanted to put him to death, he feared the multitude, because they counted him as a prophet. (Matthew 14:3–5, NKJV)
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Problem: Roman Catholicism teaches that Mary was a perpetual virgin, that is, that she never had sexual intercourse, even after Jesus was virgin born. Is it true that when the Bible refers to Jesus’ “brothers and sisters” (Matt. 13:56) it means cousins or close relatives?
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