Month: February 2025

Problem: Matthew says that Christ healed two men, but Mark refers to only one man being healed (10:46). This appears to be a clear contradiction.
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Problem: The rich young ruler called Jesus “Good Teacher,” and Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God.” Yet on other occasions Jesus not only claimed to be God (Mark 2:8–10; John 8:58; 10:30), but He accepted the claim of others that He was God (John 20:28–29). Why did Jesus appear to deny that He was God to the young ruler?
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In the passage of the rich man and Lazarus, Jesus paints a vivid word picture using Abraham as his speaker. Abraham tells the rich man who is in Hades (Luke 16:29–31)1 that his brothers would not accept a forewarning about the torments in Hades and repent and believe, even if someone returned from the dead and told them. But in John 11:15 and 41–42, Jesus specifically tells the disciples and the people gathered together at the tomb of his friend Lazarus (not the same person as in the Luke 16 passage) that upon seeing Lazarus’ resurrection, they will believe that Jesus was sent from God. Once we dig deeper into the two texts, we will see that this apparent contradiction is not one at all. The two passages are speaking about different types of people

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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: From the pens of Moses and Paul, we read clear instructions that describe how children ought to treat their parents. Both the books of Exodus and Ephesians state that children should honor their fathers and mothers (Exodus 20:12; Ephesians 6:2). From the mouth of Jesus, and a host of New Testament writers, we have been given the injunction to love others, which certainly would include our parents. Paul wrote: “Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law” (Romans 13:8). Jesus, to illustrate how a person should love his neighbor, told the unforgettable story of the “Good Samaritan” (Luke 10:30-37). In light of these verses and the thoughts they contain, one easily can deduce that a person should love his or her parents. Not only is love for parents natural, but it also is commanded by God throughout the Scriptures…or is it? Luke, in his account of the life of Jesus, has the Messiah on record saying, “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple” (Luke 14:26, emp. added). So which is it, should we love and honor our parents and family—or hate them?
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Problem: Can all sins be forgiven (Acts 13:39; Titus 2:14; 1 John 1:9) or not (Matthew 12:31; Mark 3:29; Luke 12:10)
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Problem: The Bible’s teaching on the reality of eternal punishment for unbelievers has perhaps “made” more atheists than any other teaching of Scripture. After expressing that he did not “believe one can grant either superlative wisdom or the superlative goodness of Christ as depicted in the Gospels,” popular early-20^th-century agnostic Bertrand Russell indicated that he was not concerned about what other people said about Christ, but “with Christ as He appears in the Gospels.”¹ How so? In his widely distributed pamphlet “Why I Am Not a Christian,” Russell argued, “There is one very serious defect in Christ’s moral character, and that is that He believed in hell. I do not myself feel that any person who is really profoundly humane can believe in everlasting punishment. Christ certainly as depicted in the Gospel did believe in everlasting punishment.”²
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Problem: Jesus said, “When you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition as the Gentiles do, for they suppose that they will be heard for their many words” (Mt. 6:7).
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Problem: A man wanted to follow Jesus but first asked Jesus if he could go and bury his father. Jesus responded, “let the dead bury their own dead.” But the dead can’t bury anyone. This doesn’t seem to make any sense.
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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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Problem: 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.”¹ Skeptic Dennis McKinsey calls this prophecy² “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.”³
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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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