In the sixteenth century, Copernicus proposed this theory about the double motion of the earth. To oppose the Copernican doctrine and show that the earth remains stationary while the sun moves around it, the Catholic Church pointed to the tenth chapter of the book of Joshua. For generations the major branches of Protestantism — Lutheran, Calvinist, and Anglican — denounced the Copernican doctrine as contrary to scripture.
The Bible supports the primitive notion of a flat earth. In the sixth century, a Christian monk named Cosmas wrote a book, titled Topographia Christiana, describing the structure of the physical world. Basing his views on the Bible, Cosmas said the earth is flat and surrounded by four seas. The prophecy at Revelation was a basis for his conclusion.
Because of such Bible teachings, most of the early church fathers thought the earth is flat. These verses reflect the belief of the ancient Hebrews that the earth rests upon pillars.
The Bible promotes the idea that the sky is a solid dome covering the earth. This concept of the sky was common in the ancient Near East and taken for granted by the Bible writers.
Orthodox doctrine also contained the related idea that the firmament has windows — which are opened by angels when God wants to send rain upon the earth.
Cosmas believed that when the windows are opened, some of the waters contained above the firmament which are mentioned at Genesis fall to the earth.
Bible stories led the Christian world to believe — for centuries — that God sends humankind signs in the heavens. Christians thought comets warn of divine anger and imminent punishment;[42] stars and meteors portend beneficial events such as the birth of heroes and great men;[43] eclipses signify divine distress in response to events on earth;[44] and storms and other destructive weather result from the anger of God or the malice of Satan.
The Bible has verses mentioning dragons Jeremiah , unicorns Isaiah , and cockatrices Isaiah These passages led many naturalists in the Middle Ages to think such mythical creatures actually exist. White summarizes the historical results of relying on the Bible for answers about the physical world. Being so greatly in error regarding the tangible and observable universe, the Bible cannot be considered a reliable guide for spiritual and ethical issues.
Prophecies in the Bible further strengthen the Humanist view. Because many of the prophecies turned out to be false, they prove the Bible is not inerrant. The Bible itself contains a test for determining whether a prophecy was inspired by God. Applying this test to the Bible leads to one conclusion: the book contains many statements that were not inspired by God. Genesis says the Lord warned Adam and Eve about the fruit contained on the tree of knowledge.
And he said, Here am I. Isaiah prophesies that Damascus would cease to be a city, become a heap of ruins, and remain forever desolate. Yet some 27 centuries after the prediction was made, Damascus is one of the oldest cities in the world and is still going strong. Jeremiah predicts the Jews would be captives in Babylon for 70 years, and II Chronicles views the prophecy as fulfilled.
But the Jews were taken into captivity by the Chaldeans when Jerusalem fell in B. And Cyrus of Persia issued an order in B. Thus, the Babylonian captivity lasted about 48 years. For example, he was wrong in predicting the world would end within the lifetime of his followers.
Similarly, Jesus is depicted at Mark as listing signs that shall accompany the end of the world. These include the sun becoming darkened, the moon not giving any light, the stars of heaven falling, the son of man coming in the clouds with great power and glory, and angels gathering the elect.
Jesus also erred in predicting the amount of time he would be in the tomb. But Mark and Matthew tell us he left the tomb sometime on Saturday night or Sunday morning. Either way, the amount of time was less than three nights. Another significant false prophecy is at John If ye ask any thing in my name, I will do it. And the graveyards are full of people who prayed to him for health. As is the case with other incorrect statements in the Bible, false prophecies cast doubt on all biblical claims.
Historians have long known that the biblical story of a worldwide flood is a myth. For instance, Andrew White says nineteenth-century Egyptologists found that Egypt had a flourishing civilization long before Noah, and no flood had ever interrupted it. The book of Exodus claims to contain a historical record of the escape of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt.
But historians and archaeologists have been unable to verify any of the events described in the book. No known Egyptian records refer to the biblical Moses, the devastating plagues God supposedly inflicted on the country, the escape of the Hebrew slaves, or the drowning of the Egyptian army.
The book of Esther purports to describe how a young Jewish girl named Esther was chosen by the Persian king Xerxes I to be queen after he had divorced Vashti. Although historians know a great deal about Xerxes I, there is no record that he had a Jewish queen named Esther or was married to Vashti. Additionally, the book of Esther describes the Persian empire as having provinces, but historians maintain there was no such division of the empire.
The book of Daniel describes events that supposedly happened during the Babylonian captivity of the Jews. The fifth chapter states that Nebuchadnezzar, the Babylonian king, was succeeded on the throne by his son Belshazzar. But historians tell us Belshazzar was not the son of Nebuchadnezzar and was never king. In contrast, historians know that Cyrus of Persia took Babylon. In the New Testament, the second chapter of Luke asserts that shortly before the birth of Jesus, the emperor Augustus ordered a census throughout the Roman world.
Luke claims that every person had to travel to the town of his ancestors for the census to be taken. He identifies the census as the reason for Joseph and Mary traveling from Nazareth to Bethlehem, where Jesus is said to have been born. In his book Gospel Fictions, Randall Helms says this type of census was never taken in the history of the Roman Empire. He is under no obligation to tell us everything that we want to know.
Right here we can already see one practical purpose for difficulties and challenges in the Bible. They can encourage our humility and sobriety. If we are seeking genuinely to serve God, God can use them to suppress our desire to complain and to think that we know better than he does how to run the world. The challenge is closely related to trust.
Do we trust God on the basis of who he is, on the basis of what he has done through Christ, and on the basis of his promises, even when we cannot see why—even when, temporarily, he does not seem to be trustworthy or to be on our side?
We modern people do not want to hear that—we want comfort, not trials. For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous Romans No belief is necessary. The women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell his disciples Matthew When they came back from the tomb, they told all these things to the Eleven and to all the others Luke Trembling and bewildered, the women went out and fled from the tomb.
They said nothing to anyone , because they were afraid. Mark I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one—I in them and you in me— so that they may be brought to complete unity.
John — I appeal to you. Christianity is more than just Roman Catholics and Baptists and Methodists and maybe a few more—there are now 45, denominations , and Christianity is fragmenting at a rate of two new denominations per day. The Lord appeared to Abraham near the great trees of Mamre while he was sitting at the entrance to his tent in the heat of the day Genesis The Lord would speak to Moses face to face, as one speaks to a friend Exodus The New Testament continues the confusion.
First, Jesus commits to existing law:. Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. Matthew — But then the book of Hebrews weaves a legal case that argues that Jesus is a priest in the line of Melchizedek, which ought to take priority over the existing priesthood in the line of Aaron.
Here it quotes an Old Testament declaration of God to justify a new covenant. When it comes to studying the actual consistency of Scripture, it's not long before we have to deal with allegations that the Bible is full of contradictions.
This can be devastating to the Christian faith, because we know that if the Bible has real contradictions, it's not a consistent account, and if it's not a consistent account, it can't be divinely inspired.
The main thing I want to say about this issue is that most alleged contradictions turn out not to be contradictions at all. When I was a seminary student, my professors frequently taught the theories of "higher" critics who refused to affirm the infallibility of Scripture. One of my fellow seminarians, a brilliant fellow, struggled with these theories. He had come to seminary believing in Scripture's consistency, but by the time he was a senior, he was one of the casualties of the exposure to this relentless skepticism about the Bible.
I remember one discussion in the hallway of the seminary where he said: "R. Don't you see that the Bible is full of contradictions? At the time, he couldn't list even ten examples of contradictions in the Bible. So I suggested he go home and come up with thirty contradictions that we could look at together. When we met the next day, he brought a list of about twenty.
He gave me the first "contradiction," and we looked at the apparently contradictory passages together, and we found that there was variation between the two accounts. But variation and contradiction aren't the same thing. We're familiar with how two eyewitnesses might see the same crime but report it differently.
They remember different things about the event because of their different perspectives, but the details of the two accounts don't conflict.
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