Problem: Does God Condone Polygamy?
And he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines; and his wives turned away his heart. (1 Kings 11:3)
A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, temperate, sober–minded, of good behavior, hospitable, able to teach . . . (1 Timothy 3:2)
What if your refrigerator stopped working… in August? It would be a real mess. Without refrigeration, we would have to get fresh food almost every day! The hunting wasp doesn’t build refrigerators, but it has solved this problem.
Problem: Paul says that an elder should be “the husband of one wife” (1 Tim. 3:2). How can a woman possibly be an elder, if this is the requirement?
You have abandoned the love you had at first. (Revelation 2:4)
We will always remember that best and brightest of hours when we first saw the Lord, lost our burden, received the gift of grace, rejoiced in full salvation, and went on our way in peace. It was springtime in the soul; the winter was past; the mutterings of Sinai’s thunders were hushed; the flashings of its lightnings were no more perceived; God was beheld as reconciled; the law threatened no vengeance, and justice demanded no punishment.
“Notwithstanding she shall be saved in childbearing, if they continue in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety” (1 Timothy 2:15)
What does this mean?
Many who fancy themselves “intellectuals,” look down upon a man who does not have a list of letters after his name, implying that he is unlearned and ignorant because he does not fit the mold of what they have decided a scholar must be. Some of the letters I receive reflect this attitude.
Problem: Genesis 3 states that Eve ate the fruit first, but Romans 5 states that Adam caused sin to enter the world.
The Genesis account of the Fall indicates that Eve ate the fruit first. This has led many people throughout history and even in our modern times to believe that she was the person responsible for original sin. You have likely heard the old canard, “We wouldn’t be in this mess [meaning the general sinfulness of our fallen world] if it weren’t for a woman.” But is that an accurate statement? Is Eve to blame for original sin?
When we discover the unexpected in the creation, we are reminded that reality is much bigger than our small thoughts. That’s a hint! God Himself says in the Bible, “My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways” (Isa. 55:8).
Problem: Why did Paul encourage Christians to pray everywhere, but Jesus said to pray in secret?
A couple passages in Scripture regarding prayer have been cited as a contradiction. Here are the verses in question:
“I have blotted out your transgressions like a cloud and your sins like mist; return to me, for I have redeemed you.” (Is 44:22)
Pay attention to THE INSTRUCTIVE PICTURE: Our sins are like a cloud. As clouds appear in many shapes and shades, so do our transgressions. As clouds obscure the light of the sun and darken the landscape below, so do our sins hide from us the light of Jehovah’s face and cause us to sit in the shadow of death. They are earthborn things and arise from the miry places of our lives; and when they collect and their measure is full, they threaten us with storm and tempest. Sadly, unlike clouds, our sins yield us no genial showers but rather threaten to deluge us with a fiery flood of destruction. How can it be fair weather when the dark clouds of sin remain within our souls?
Problem: This verse declares that Christ gave Himself a ransom for all. The term “all” must be defined by its context. In verses 1-2 we are exhorted to pray for all men. Why should we pray for all men? Because God our Saviour is concerned about all men: “God our Saviour who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (verses 3-4). How did God prove that He really desires all men to be saved? He provided a Mediator between God and man and this Mediator gave Himself a ransom for all. In effect the Apostle is here saying, “Pray for all because God desires the salvation of all as evidenced by His death for all.”
Wouldn’t it be amazing if a creature developed a chemical defense that is deadly to practically every other creature but itself—especially if that defense meant exposing itself and its enemy to deadly cyanide?
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Problem: Calvinist theologians have difficulty with this passage. Paul writes, “[God] desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim. 2:4). How does this passage fit with the notion that God does not save everyone from a Calvinist view, but rather, allows some to go to hell? Calvinist James Montgomery Boice writes,
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Lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil. (Luke 11:4)
The things we are taught to seek or avoid in prayer, we should equally pursue or avoid in action. We should with sincerity avoid temptation, seeking to walk so guardedly in the path of obedience that we may never tempt the devil to tempt us. We are not to enter the jungle in search of the lion. We might pay dearly for such presumption. This lion may cross our path or leap upon us from the jungle, but we have nothing to do with hunting him. He that meets with him, even though he wins the day, will find it a tough struggle.
Problem: As most Bible students know, Scripture, particularly the Old Testament, contains several genealogies. Genesis chapter five gives the genealogy of Adam to Noah. Genesis 10 lists many of the descendants of Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Genesis 11 gives the genealogy of Shem to Abraham. Genealogies make up the first nine chapters of 1 Chronicles. What’s more, the New Testament opens with these words: “The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham” (Matthew 1:1, emp. added). In light of such extensive genealogies, some wonder why the apostle Paul instructed Timothy and Titus not to “give heed to…endless genealogies” (1 Timothy 1:4), but rather “avoid” them (Titus 3:9). One Bible critic has alleged that “if we follow this advice we would ignore most of the Bible” (Wells, 2008). Just how is it that we can trust a book that says to “avoid…genealogies,” when that same book contains several extensive genealogies? Is this a contradiction?