Category: Bible Teaching

Problem: Were the Israelites in Egypt for only 215 years? If so, what about the passages that have 400 or 430 years?

Problem: Paul speaks here of God “granting them repentance, so that they may know the truth” (cf. Acts 5:31). Yet in other places, repentance is considered a person’s own act. Jesus, for example, calls on people to “Repent, and believe in the Gospel” (Mark 1:15). Paul tells us that God “commands all men everywhere to repent” (Acts 17:30). But doesn’t it have to be either an act of God or else an act of the individual believer?

Problem: Luke writes, “They even carried the sick out into the streets and laid them on cots and pallets, so that when Peter came by at least his shadow might fall on any one of them. Also the people from the cities in the vicinity of Jerusalem were coming together, bringing people who were sick or afflicted with unclean spirits, and they were all being healed” (Acts 5:15-16). How could Peter’s shadow heal these people?

Problem: It is a popular view these days. Many people have the impression that the Bible is simply an outdated book of fairytales and contradictions. We are told that biblical stories are fine for children, and perhaps they even contain some moral value. “But, surely” says the critic, “such stories cannot be taken seriously in our modern age of science and technology.”

The claim of contradictions is a serious allegation against the Christian worldview, and we must be prepared to defend the Bible against such claims.

Problem: Luke writes, “And all those who had believed were together and had all things in common; ⁴⁵ and they began selling their property and possessions and were sharing them with all, as anyone might have need” (Acts 2:44-45). Likewise, in a later passage, we read, “Not one of them claimed that anything belonging to him was his own, but all things were common property to them” (Acts 4:32). Doesn’t this imply that the first Christians were communists?

Problem: Peter said, “THE LORD GOD WILL RAISE UP FOR YOU A PROPHET LIKE ME FROM YOUR BRETHREN; TO HIM YOU SHALL GIVE HEED to everything He says to you. ²³ And it will be that every soul that does not heed that prophet shall be utterly destroyed from among the people’” (Acts 3:22-23). Does this passage prefigure Jesus?

Problem: Some have inferred from the fact that these early Christians “sold their possessions” and had “all things in common” that they were practicing a form of communism. However, even the Ten Commandments imply the right to private property, forbidding one to “steal” or even “covet” what belongs to another (Ex. 20:15, 17).

Problem: Romans 10:9-10

“Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out” (Acts 3:19).

Problem: One of the most commonly neglected rules of interpretation that Bible critics overlook when attacking Scripture is that extra information is not necessarily contradictory information. When one Bible writer offers more details than another on a particular subject, it is inappropriate to assume that one of the writers is mistaken. When a journalist in the 21st century writes about a man on the side of the road who has just escaped death following a particular catastrophe, while another journalist writes how this same man and his wife (standing next to him) are suffering survivors of the devastating disaster, it does not mean that the first journalist was dishonest in his representation of truth. Similarly, countless times throughout Scripture, and especially within the gospel accounts, extra information is given that critics cannot justifiably prove to be contradictory.

Problem: “Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost” (Acts 2:38).

This passage has become one of the favorite verses of those who teach baptismal regeneration. In a motel room there was a Gideon Bible and near the front it had a section with John 3:16 written out in many different languages. In this particular Bible someone had crossed out all of the John 3:16 verses and in big letters had written ACTS 2:38. The person who had defaced this Bible was communicating something like this: “You are deceived if you think that John 3:16 presents the true gospel. It doesn’t present the true gospel at all. It’s not enough to believe in Christ. To be saved and to be forgiven a person also needs to be baptized in water. The true gospel is much better presented in ACTS 2:38!”