Godless (38 page)
The problem is not with human limitations. The problem is the bible itself. People who are free of theological bias notice that the bible contains hundreds of discrepancies. Should it surprise us when such a literary and moral mishmash, taken seriously, causes so much discord? Here is a brief sampling of biblical contradictions.
Exodus 20:13 “Thou shalt not kill.”
Leviticus 24:17 “And he that killeth any man shall surely be put to death.”
versus
Exodus 32:27 “Thus sayeth the Lord God of Israel, Put every man his sword by his side, …and slay every man his brother, …companion, …neighbor.”
I Samuel 6:19 “…and the people lamented because the Lord had smitten many of the people with a great slaughter.”
I Samuel 15:2, 3, 7, 8 “Thus saith the Lord… Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass… And Saul smote the Amalekites… and utterly destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword.”
Numbers 15:36 “And all the congregation brought him without the camp, and stoned him with stones, and he died; as the Lord commanded Moses.” (This was a believing Israelite, not an infidel.)
Hosea 13:16 “…they shall fall by the sword: their infants shall be dashed in pieces, and their women with children shall be ripped up.”
Psalm 137:9 “Happy shall he be that taketh and dasheth thy little ones upon the stones.”
For a discussion of the defense that the Commandments prohibit only murder, see Chapter 11.
Exodus 20:16 “Thou shalt not bear false witness.”
Proverbs 12:22 “Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord.”
versus
I Kings 22:23 “The Lord hath put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these thy prophets, and the Lord hath spoken evil concerning thee.”
II Thessalonians 2:11 “And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie.”
Also, compare Joshua 2:4-6 with James 2:25 to see how a lying prostitute was praised for her dishonesty. (I don’t think telling a lie is always wrong, and neither does the bible.)
Exodus 20:15 “Thou shalt not steal.”
Leviticus 19:13 “Thou shalt not defraud thy neighbor, neither rob him.”
versus
Exodus 3:22 “And ye shall spoil the Egyptians.”
Exodus 12:35-36 “And they spoiled [plundered, NRSV] the Egyptians.”
Luke 19:29-34 “[Jesus] sent two of his disciples, Saying, Go ye into the village…ye shall find a colt tied, whereon yet never man sat: loose him, and bring him hither. And if any man ask you, Why do ye loose him? thus shall ye say unto him, Because the Lord hath need of him… And as they were loosing the colt, the owners thereof said unto them, Why loose ye the colt? And they said, The Lord hath need of him.”
I was taught as a child that when you take something without asking for it, that is stealing.
Exodus 20:8 “Remember the sabbath day to keep it holy.”
Exodus 31:15 “Whosoever doeth any work in the sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death.”
Numbers 15:32, 36 “And while the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man that gathered sticks upon the sabbath day… And all the congregation brought him without the camp, and stoned him with stones, and he died; as the Lord commanded Moses.”
versus
Isaiah 1:13 “The new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity.”
John 5:16 “And therefore did the Jews persecute Jesus and sought to slay him, because he had done these things on the sabbath day.”
Colossians 2:16 “Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holy-day, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days.”
Exodus 20:4 “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven…earth…water.”
Leviticus 26:1 “Ye shall make ye no idols nor graven image, neither rear you up a standing image, neither shall ye set up any image of stone.”
Deuteronomy 27:15 “Cursed be the man that maketh any graven or molten image.”
versus
Exodus 25:18 “And thou shalt make two cherubims of gold, of beaten work shalt thou make them.”
I Kings 7:15, 16, 23, 25 “For he [Solomon] cast two pillars of brass… and two chapiters of molten brass… And he made a molten sea…it stood upon twelve oxen…[and so on]”
Ephesians 2:8, 9 “For by grace are ye saved through faith… not of works.”
Romans 3:20, 28 “Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight.”
Galatians 2:16 “Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ.”
versus
James 2:24 “Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only.”
Matthew 19:16-21 “And, behold, one came and said unto him, Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life? And he [Jesus] said unto him…keep the commandments… The young man saith unto him, All these things have I kept from my youth up: what lack I yet? Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven.”
The common defense here is that “we are saved by faith
and
works.” But Paul said “not of works.”
and
works.” But Paul said “not of works.”
Matthew 5:16 “Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works.”
I Peter 2:12 “Having your conversation honest among the Gentiles: that…they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation.”
versus
Matthew 6:1-4 “Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them . . . that thine alms may be in secret.”
Matthew 23:3, 5 “Do not ye after their [Pharisees’] works… all their works they do for to be seen of men.”
Leviticus 25:45-46 “Moreover of the children of the strangers that do sojourn among you, of them shall ye buy, …and they shall be your possession… they shall be your bondmen forever.”
Genesis 9:25 “And he [Noah] said, Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren.”
Exodus 21:2, 7 “If thou buy an Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve: and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing… And if a man sell his daughter to be a maidservant, she shall not go out as the manservants do.”
Joel 3:8 “And I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hand of the children of Judah, and they shall sell them to the Sabeans, to a people far off: for the Lord hath spoken it.”
Luke 12:47, 48 [Jesus speaking] “And that servant, which knew his lord’s will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. But he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes.”
Colossians 3:22 “Servants, obey in all things your masters.”
versus
Isaiah 58:6 “Undo the heavy burdens… let the oppressed go free, … break every yoke.”
Matthew 23:10 “Neither be ye called Masters: for one is your Master, even Christ.”
Pro-slavery bible verses were cited by many churches in the South during the Civil War, and were used by some theologians in the Dutch Reformed Church to justify apartheid in South Africa. There are more pro-slavery verses than cited here.
Malachi 3:6 “For I am the Lord; I change not.”
Numbers 23:19 “God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent.”
Ezekiel 24:14 “I the Lord have spoken it: it shall come to pass, and I will do it; I will not go back, neither will I spare, neither will I repent.”
James 1:17 “…the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.”
versus
Exodus 32:14 “And the Lord repented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people.”
Genesis 6:6, 7 “And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth… And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth… for it repenteth me that I have made him.”
Jonah 3:10 “…and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not.”
See also II Kings 20:1-7, Numbers 16:20-35, Numbers 16:44-50.
See Genesis 18:23-33, where Abraham gets God to change his mind about the minimum number of righteous people in Sodom required to avoid destruction, bargaining down from 50 to 10. (An omniscient God must have known that he was playing with Abraham’s hopes for mercy—he destroyed the city anyway.)
Isaiah 46:10 [God talking] “I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come.”
versus
Genesis 22:12 [God talking to Abraham when he was about to sacrifice his son Isaac] “Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him: for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only [son] from me.”
When God said that “now I know” this means he did not know before. This also contradicts I Chronicles 28:9, which says “for the LORD searcheth all hearts, and understandeth all the imaginations of the thoughts.”
Exodus 20:5 “For I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation.” (Repeated in Deuteronomy 5:9.)
Exodus 34:6-7 “…The Lord God, merciful and gracious…that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children’s children, unto the third and to the fourth generation.”
I Corinthians 15:22 “For as in Adam all die…”
versus
Ezekiel 18:20 “The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father.”
Deuteronomy 24:16 “The fathers shall not be put to death for the children, neither shall the children be put to death for the fathers: every man shall be put to death for his own sin.”
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