One Contradiction In The Bible example essay topic
We are still using different versions of the Bible that contain many revisions. These revisions have caused thousands of contradictions in how people should run their lives. Christianity began like every other religion starting out, as a cult. Roughly 2,000 years ago a man, Jesus Christ, was born into this world.
Throughout his life he performed many miracles and began to get a large following of believers. He was referred to as a savior for the people, the one who would deliver them unto salvation. This all began during the era of the Roman Empire. The Romans felt that Jesus was a threat so they had him killed by means of crucifixion. Supposedly three days after his death Jesus came back as a spirit to prove his holiness. This sparked an explosion in this new religion.
Once Christianity had taken much of Europe, the Bible began to change. Kings began having monks change the Bible to suit their (the kings') beliefs. The Bible was used to condemn all other religions in Europe, especially Paganism. The present image of the devil was derived from Paganism. The Christians told the Pagans that they should fear their horned god because he was a beast, and instead convert to Christianity where the All Mighty was good and peaceful. How ironic, that in today's society we are told to fear the Christian god, because his vengeance is great, like they told the Pagans to leave their God because he caused them fear.
Yet today we tell our Christian children to fear God because he punishes the sinners. The reasoning is different but it is fear just the same. One contradiction in the Bible is the question that there is more than one god. In Deuteronomy 6: 4 "The Lord our God is one Lord". While in Genesis 1: 26 "And God said, Let us make man in our image". Both of these quotes come from the King James Version of the Bible.
Which one should we follow? Most believe that this reference to "us" and "our" is correct because of the Holy Trinity: the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost or Spirit. How could that be because the Trinity did not exist until the birth and death of Jesus Christ? Also, if they all are the same identity, then why does God refer to them as separate individuals?
The trinity is another contradiction in the Bible. In John 10: 30 it states that God and Jesus are one and the same, but in John 14: 28 'You heard me say, 'I am going away and I am coming back to you. ' If you loved me, you would be glad that I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I". How is the Father greater if they are the same people?
A third contradiction in the Bible is the sin of incest. The Bible states that incest is a wicked sin, punishable by death. Then how does everyone come from Adam and Eve? According to Morris and Morris, authors of Many Infallible Proofs, incest was allowed because: Such close unions were perfectly safe genetically in the beginning, even though later the accumulation of genetic mutations over many generations would make them sufficiently dangerous so that the actual legal prohibitions against incest (Lev. 18: 6) had to be imposed by God. (p. 233-234) This is a reasonable answer to the question of incest but invokes another.
If God is omniscient and omnipotent then how come there was a mistake in his design of man. Thus according to the authors of Many Infallible Proofs one could conclude that evolution did indeed take place. Evolution is merely the mutations that occur which cause certain species to survive longer than another species does. Another discrepancy in the Bible is who was the first woman.
All Christians believe that Eve was the first woman created. The Bible says in Genesis 1: 27 "So God created man in his own image, the image of God created he him; male and female created he him". This refers that man and woman were created at the same time, but in Genesis 2: 18, 23"And the lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him... And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of man. The Kabbala says that the first woman was Lilith or Lilith and that she was the first wife of Adam and the one referred to in Genesis 1. The story goes on to say that Adam rejected Lilith because she refused to submit to him since they were equals made from the same earth.
Then Lilith spoke the true name of God and he removed her from the Garden of Eden and she went on to populate other regions of the world. The end of the story is different every time; some translations have her being God's wife while others have her being a child-killing demon. These contradictions only scratch the surface of the thousands that are located within the Bible. All of the above contradictions have been carefully studied, and when necessary the original languages have been consulted by thousands of theologians and researchers. This is because most contradictions throughout the Bible are due to the original meanings of a word or other possible translations. Although it is always scholarly to consider the original languages, why should that be necessary with the "word of God?" An omnipotent, omniscient deity should have made his all-important message unmistakably clear to everyone, everywhere, at all times.
No one should have to learn an extinct language to get God's message. If the English translation is flawed or imprecise, then God failed to get his point across to English speakers. A true fundamentalist should consider the English version of the Bible to be just as inerrant as the original because if we admit that human error was possible in the translation, then it is equally possible in the original writing. If a contradiction exists in English then the Bible is contradictory and therefore a flawed book.
Bibliography
The Bible, King James Version. The Bible Gateway". web "Graves, Robert, Raphael Pata i. The Hebrew Myths. Buenos Aires: Editorial L osada, 1969.
The Kabbala. Morris, Henry M., and Henry Morris. Many Infallible Proofs. Green Forest: Master Books, Inc, 1990.