Problem: The Amalekite killed Saul thinking he was helping David. But David who loves Saul and considered him anointed by God was displeased with this and had the Amalekite killed.
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Problem: 1 Samuel 31 says that Saul died by suicide, but 2 Samuel 1 says an Amalekite killed him. Which account is true?
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Problem: Saul is about to fight the Philistines, and he is afraid. He tries to get wisdom from God, but God won’t speak to him (28:6). He disguises himself to go to a spiritist—a witch of Endor. She calls Samuel—the prophet—back from the dead as a spirit. It doesn’t seem that Saul can see the spirit of Samuel. He is talking to him through the woman (28:13-14). This raises a legion of questions (no pun intended). How could the dead Samuel be conjured through an occult witch? Why would God speak a message through an occult practice like this?
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Problem: Jesus claims that Abiathar was a high priest when citing a story where 1 Samuel lists Ahimelech as a priest. Is this a contradiction?
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: David states that Jonathan’s love was “more wonderful than the love of women” (2 Sam. 1:26). Jonathan also “loved” David (1 Sam. 18:3), stripped in front of him (1 Sam. 18:4), and “kissed” him (1 Sam. 20:41). The text even tells us that “the soul of Jonathan was knit to the soul of David” (1 Sam. 18:1). Were these two a couple?
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Problem: Was it David or Elhanan who killed Goliath? Goliath had brothers and Elhanan killed one of them.
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Problem: In one account, David is said to kill Goliath (1 Sam. 17:50-51). However, in another account, Elhanan kills Goliath (2 Sam. 21:19). Which is true?
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Problem: The account of David slaying Goliath is often pictured as a Sunday school myth. Is this the case?
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Problem: Did or did not Saul know who David was? 1 Samuel 16:19-23 and 1 Samuel 17:55-58
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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: The Bible condemns lying (Lev. 19:11; Prov. 12:22; Eph. 4:25). However, God blesses Rahab for lying to the Canaanites that were trying to capture the Hebrew spies. Theologian Wayne Grudem writes,
Nowhere in Scripture is there any verse like this, an explicit approval of a lie, even one told to protect innocent life. There are dozens of statements in Scripture about lies, and they always condemn them.[1]
John Calvin writes of this passage,
As to the falsehood, we must admit that though it was done for a good purpose, it was not free from fault. For those who hold what is called a dutiful lie to be altogether excusable, do not sufficiently consider how precious truth is in the sight of God. Therefore, although our purpose be to assist our brethren… it can never be lawful to lie, because that cannot be right which is contrary to the nature of God. And God is truth.[2]
Augustine writes of this passage,
Therefore, touching Rahab in Jericho, because she entertained strangers, men of God, because in entertaining of them she put herself in peril, because she believed on their God, because she diligently hid them where she could, because she gave them most faithful counsel of returning by another way, let her be praised as meet to be imitated… But in that she lied… yet not as meet to be imitated… albeit that God hath those things memorably honored, this evil thing mercifully overlooked.[3]
Was it wrong for Rahab to lie?
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Problem: Blood sacrifices were given expressly for the purpose forgiveness in the Hebrew Bible. There are a number of reasons for thinking that blood sacrifices are crucial to forgiveness in the Hebrew Bible.
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Problem: In Genesis 6:6, we read, “The Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart.” Boyd writes, “If the future is eternally settled in God’s mind and/or by God’s will, it is challenging to see how God could genuinely regret some of his decisions in light of how events played themselves out (Gen. 6:6–7; 1 Sam. 15:11, 35). How can you regret something that turns out exactly as you eternally knew it would?”[1]
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Problem: Atheist Richard Dawkins considers the war over Canaan to be one of the most morally atrocious aspects of the OT.[1] In his book The God Delusion, he writes,
The Bible story of Joshua’s destruction of Jericho, and the invasion of the Promised Land in general, is morally indistinguishable from Hitler’s invasion of Poland, or Saddam Hussein’s massacres of the Kurds and the Marsh Arabs. The Bible may be an arresting and poetic work of fiction, but it is not the sort of book you should give your children to form their morals. As it happens, the story of Joshua in Jericho is the subject of an interesting experiment in child morality.[2]
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