Problem: Did anyone ascend into heaven before Jesus or not? Several biblical passages mention people who were caught up into heaven. Yet, Jesus argues in John three that no one had ascended into heaven. So which is it? Did anyone ascend into heaven before Jesus?
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Problem: God, who cannot lie, sent a deceiving spirit that people would believe a lie. Why would he do this? Actually, the demonic force would do what it naturally does in God by giving it permission to go and live. Ultimately, it was used in God’s sovereign plan to accomplish what he desired.
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Problem: In his book The God Delusion, Richard Dawkins excoriates the notion of capital punishment in the OT law, when he writes,
The following offenses merit the death penalty… cursing your parents; committing adultery; making love to your stepmother or your daughter-in-law; homosexuality; marrying a woman and her daughter; bestiality (and, to add injury to insult, the unfortunate beast is to be killed too). You also get executed, of course, for working on the Sabbath: the point is made again and again through the Old Testament.[1]
Are these laws a little bit of overkill? (pun intended) Why did the OT law prescribe this?
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Problem: David says, “For I have kept the ways of the Lord, and have not acted wickedly against my God. 23 For all His ordinances were before me, and as for His statutes, I did not depart from them. 24 I was also blameless toward Him, and I kept myself from my iniquity” (2 Sam. 22:22-24). How can this be the case, when he was found guilty of murder and adultery (2 Sam. 11)?
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Problem: There are roughly 30 references to polygamy in the OT. Lamech (Gen. 4:19ff), Abraham (Gen. 16:3), Jacob (Gen. 35:22; 37:2), and Solomon (1 Kings 11:3-6) are just a few examples. The NT authors speak against polygamy (1 Cor. 7:2; 1 Tim. 3:2, 12), but what about the OT? Did the OT writers promote polygamy or prohibit it?
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Problem: Solomon says, “O Lord, the God of Israel, there is no God like You in heaven above or on earth beneath” (1 Kings 8:23). Critical scholars note that this passage seems to support henotheism: the notion that there is one infinite-personal God who is in control of other gods. This is sort of a mix between monotheism and polytheism. Is this the case?
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Problem: Solomon says, “I have surely built You [God] a lofty house, a place for Your dwelling forever” (1 Kings 8:13). Does this mean that God was confined to a space? Does it mean that he really isn’t omnipresent?
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Problem: How many baths, 2,000 or 3,000 in 1 Kings 7 and 2 Chronicles 4?
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Problem: Solomon’s worker, Hiram, made a sea of bronze for the Temple. 1 Kings 7:23 states, “[Hiram] made the sea of cast metal ten cubits from brim to brim, circular in form, and its height was five cubits, and thirty cubits in circumference.” This would make pi as a 3 to 1 ratio, when we know that pi is actually 3.14. Isn’t this an example of a clear error in the Bible?
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Problem: Scholars vigorously debate the date of the Exodus. Most are split between two different views: the late date and the early date. Hoffmeier notes, “Most biblical scholars and archaeologists accept one of these two dates.”[1]
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