This transcript is taken from a Stand in the Gap Today program originally aired on 7/21/22. To listen to the program, please click HERE.
Sam Rohrer: Since the question posed by Satan himself, [inaudible 00:00:04] recognize this. He said, “Hath God said,” and then that turned the head of Eve. And when that happened, the world was turned over, creation cursed, sin embedded into the very human DNA, and mankind condemned to Hell. From that moment on, from birth, all humans are predisposed to doubt the reality and the power of God. Now, mankind is naturally cynical toward God and totally dead to the truth and to the light. We know that from Scripture. But God in His grace has incorporated in an undeniable way that truth has been literally embedded into each human heart in a way that Romans 1:18 talks about. It says it’s undeniable. And we carry, all of us, the very image of God. It’s carried within each human soul. God even makes it clear in Romans 1, in verse 20 that the invisible things of God are literally seen in the creation of God, in such a compelling fashion that all people everywhere are without excuse when it comes to God.
Now, despite this indisputable revelation of God, humankind, which goes astray from birth, runs from God, not to God naturally, embraces lies before the truth, and believes the devil more than believing God. The cynic or the fool is the one that the Bible says tells him or himself within their heart that there just is no God, despite these things, according to Proverb 14:1. It says there, “The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God.”
Well, one of the most humanly convincing strategies of the devil today is the same one used by skeptics, and it questions the authority and the truthfulness of God. Those who claim to know who God is can fall into the same trap through idolatry and lack of faith if we’re not careful. And so it makes sense to equip ourselves with a better understanding of the questions of the cynic, who looks for reasons to reject the word of God, and also to help all of us who fear God to know better how to answer that skeptic and increase our confidence in the unchanging word of God.
So the title I’ve chosen for today’s Stand in the Gap Today program and our monthly Apologetics Update is this: Supposed Bible Contradictions, Answering the Critic’s Challenge. And my special guest is Bodie Hodge, speaker, writer, and researcher with Answers in Genesis. And calling in from Kentucky right now is Bodie Hodge. Bodie, thank you for being back with us today.
Bodie Hodge: It’s great to be on the show.
Sam Rohrer: Bodie, before we get into the specific questions, which I think will be of extraordinary interest to our listeners today, that cynics and doubters raise. For instance, this one, I think we’ll answer. Some say, “Well, the Bible can’t be true because in Genesis 30:14…” They may not be able to quote that verse, but that’s where it is. God cursed the serpent after tempting Eve, for example, and God said that from then on, the serpent would travel on his belly and would eat dust. Well, but people say, “We know snakes don’t eat dust, so the Bible can’t be true.”
We’re going to get into a number of those things later, Bodie. But here’s the thing. Saving these examples and all that for the next couple of segments, from an overall view, what are the most common general statements projected by cynics regarding biblical truth?
Bodie Hodge: I would suggest one of the main things is saying that the Bible is full of contradictions. And one of the reasons that they say this is to get people to doubt the word of God, and that goes back to exactly what Satan did with Eve. When people doubt the word of God, they don’t want to believe the teachings that are actually in the Bible, things like the gospel, for example. So a lot of people want to pull out alleged Bible contradictions from the beginning of the Bible to the end of the Bible, and they think that those types of arguments are actually good and sound. But we’ll take a look at some of those alleged contradictions in here and see what we think on that.
Sam Rohrer: Okay. But there are some that I know that you’ve written about and are out there. I’ve heard some say, “Well, you know what? The Bible just simply can’t be true. Look how old it is, outdated. We’re in a technologically driven society. The Bible can’t be true.” There are other things like that too, in general sense, that people raise, isn’t it?
Bodie Hodge: Right. People want to bring out all sorts of stuff. When it comes to something like this, the brilliance is that the Bible is time honored. It worked very well in Moses’ generation. It worked very well in Paul’s generation. Guess what? It worked 1000 years ago. It works today as well. It is a brilliant resource. It is the absolute standard, the absolute authority in every single area. And that right there is the key. See, the whole reason that contradictions are bad is because the Bible is true. God cannot deny himself, for example. The Bible says that in 2 Timothy 2:13. In fact, all truth is in God. That’s Colossians 2:3. We also see that in Proverbs 1:7. So when it comes to the truth, guess what? All the truth is hidden in God. And so if there’s a contradiction, then that is actually sinful. That is going against God and His word. So when people say the Bible is full of contradictions, guess what? They’ve made a huge mistake because God is the one that is truthful, and all men are the ones who are actually falling short on that.
Sam Rohrer: And Bodie, we’re going to look at some of those, and I think people are going to really enjoy hearing the next couple of segments. But here in the last couple of minutes, this thought. Other than sinful hearts and pride being within each person, what other cultural factors or teachings of contemporary culture, American culture, if we want to go there for instance, are the greatest contributors, perhaps that you could point to that help to encourage a doubting of God’s word in what I would say is a culture of cynicism in which we live today?
Bodie Hodge: Yeah. Well, we sure have that. And I would suggest, a lot of the false beliefs that we’ve been taught and raised up with are contributing to that. We’ve been taught that there’s no God. We’ve been taught things like Big Bang and evolution in millions of years. And in light of that false history and those false teachings and that false worldview that’s out there, a lot of people automatically want to throw the Bible under the bus. And so what they’re doing is they’re looking for alleged contradictions to try to justify throwing the Bible under the bus. And we’re in a culture like that. We have a lot of people who just … they don’t want to believe the Bible, but then a lot of times they don’t know what the Bible is actually teaching. So there’s even that contradiction within their own lives, without even looking at the Bible in many instances.
Sam Rohrer: We just have just a little bit of time left, but you know what? See if you [inaudible 00:06:43] agree with me. To me, there are some who are just honestly ignorant because they’ve never heard, or they’ve been taught a lie from birth. For others, it seems almost to be a willing ignorance because it doesn’t make any difference what you tell them. They are still not going to believe. What do you think?
Bodie Hodge: No, you’re exactly right. That’s a great way to categorize a couple different people who fall into these. And the ones that really get me are the people who are willingly ignorant. The Bible talks about people being willingly ignorant there in the book of Peter. And what’s fascinating about that is these people, they don’t want to believe. They know what the Bible might say on certain subjects or certain areas, but they don’t want to believe it. They want to throw it out. And that shows the pride and sinful heart of man. When somebody is ignorant toward what the Bible is teaching, sometimes they might think, oh, it’s contradictory, but they might have a better heart to look at it when you give them an answer.
Sam Rohrer: And David, we’re going to go on. Ladies and gentlemen, stay with us. I’m speaking today with Bodie Hodge, answersingenesis.org. That’s the website. That’s where he is from. And this is an Apologetics Update today. Our theme, supposed Bible contradictions, answering the critic’s challenge.
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Sam Rohrer: Well, we’re going get right into supposed Bible contradictions. Bodie, I think this is going to be an interesting area. But I mentioned it and then you talked about it. But from the very beginning, the serpent, the devil’s strategy of tempting Eve to doubt God and desire something, in Eve’s case, desire something more than she already had, which was she had everything. It was total perfectness that she had. In similar fashion, the critic, who does not wish to submit to the authority of God, always seeks for reasons to reject God. And that’s what we just talked about, either ignorance or in many cases, maybe in most cases, willing ignorance.
So I think there are two examples here if we just get into this. There are unrepentant and proud government rulers across the world. Psalm 2 talks about this, where they lift up their fists against the God of Heaven. And they view themselves as having power greater than the God who made them. But then I also think of the Pharisees of Jesus’ time, who in their case, they knew a lot about God. But they rejected the very son of God who stood right in front of them because of unbelief, willing ignorance. They were cynics in their day, and they refused to believe the irrefutable. So to me, it’s obvious that for even the most learned and religious, seeing is not always believing. And for the devil himself, in the presence of God, he was made by Him, and he does not believe the truth.
So here it is. Mankind has a built in problem. And we’ve talked about that just a little bit, but it’s still good for us to know the answers. And when we get to the last segment, we’ll talk about why it is so important. For what purpose should those who fear God really know and be able to answer these kinds of statements? So let’s go right into that. You start wherever you want because you deal with a lot of alleged contradictions. Give one, however you want to start out. State it, answer it, and then we’ll just walk down through the list.
Bodie Hodge: Yeah. Well, let’s start with some big picture ones. And these are things that I’ve heard over and over again. But even to dive into some of these, let’s just hit this one. You’ve mentioned the devil. I’ve talked about the devil. But we’re in a culture where people just reject the existence of the devil right off the bat. And they say, “Oh, well, I don’t believe that kind of stuff.” I want people to understand if they don’t believe the devil, then they’ve already been deceived by him. Sometimes people don’t realize that. They’re living their lives contrary to God and His word. They’re living a contradiction actually, when they do that sort of thing.
But here are some others. Some of these are ones that I’ve got that are big picture. Some of you may have heard some of these kinds of things. For example, have you ever heard, “Could God create a rock so big that he can’t lift it?” Oh my. I’ve heard that one over and over again. I actually wrote a whole article on it. That’s actually an illogical question. So when people ask that question, they’re trying to say, “Oh, well, see, God’s contradictory. If he’s all powerful, why can’t he do this?” But what they’re doing is they’re trying to take God and they’re trying to limit God to being within nature, to be able to make this rock and have gravity deal with it and that sort of thing. God’s not bound by nature. So they’re actually asking an illogical question right from the start. So it’s easy to answer that. Yeah.
Sam Rohrer: Well, that’s interesting. And let me just follow up just briefly on that. You bring up a good point. We try to put God in our frame of reference, but we can’t understand who God is from that perspective because he’s so much bigger than us. But that happens on a lot of examples, not just that question about God making a rock too big to lift. Right?
Bodie Hodge: And that’s what happens. And that goes to show me that whoever is using this type of an argument, they don’t know who the God of the Bible is. They’re trying to think of God in some sort of human form where He’s bound to this universe or He’s bound to nature, where they’re not seeing that the God of the Bible is one who created time. He created nature. He created the universe. He’s beyond it and has power over it. So those are those types of things.
And another one that I’ve heard, “If God is all powerful, can God sin?” Because I’ve had people say, “Well, God can do all things. Well, can God sin?” I actually like the way, if you go back to some of the early confessions that came out of the Reformation, they say, “God can do all His holy will.” And you might think, why does the Bible say it that way? Well, God has His will, and he can enforce that. He can enact that. So when somebody says, “Hey, can God sin,” guess what? If God could sin, then he wouldn’t be an all powerful god. I want you to think about this for just a moment because that’s kind of deep in one sense. Can God sin? If God can sin, then God can’t do His holy will, so God would not be an all powerful God. Only an all powerful God could state his will and do it.
Let me give you just kind of an average person’s understanding of this. Let’s say a baseball player says, “Hey, I’m going to get up here and I’m going to hit 10 home runs in a row for my next 10 at bats.” Now, if somebody got up there and didn’t do it, would they be more powerful? Or would the person who gets up there and says, “Hey, I’m going to hit 10 home runs my next 10 at bats,” and they hit all 10 of them? Who would be more powerful, the one who was able to keep his will and do it, or the one who couldn’t? The one who could keep it, of course. And that’s kind of the situation with that. If God could sin, He’s not an all powerful God. Only an all powerful God could keep His own holy will. So it actually reduces that, those types of alleged contradictions as well. Those are kind of category big picture ones.
Sam Rohrer: Let me ask you one I mentioned in the first segment. So let’s just go here, and then you can go into others. But back to creation. When the devil tempted Eve, and God cursed the serpent, many people think that was a snake wrapped around a tree. And then God put him on his belly and said, “You’re going to eat dust for the rest of your life.” So therefore, we know snakes don’t eat dust. So therefore, that is a contradiction. [inaudible 00:13:48] just deal with that one.
Bodie Hodge: I’ve heard that one many times over the years as well. Well, here’s the thing. The serpent was cursed to crawl on his belly and was going to eat dust all the days of its life, according to that curse. Now, most commentators think that serpent physically changed forms to be at a lower position. And there’s two aspects to this. For example, when I grew up, I used to ride a bicycle a lot as a kid. And where I grew up was dusty, dirty roads. I ate dust all the time because here I am riding my bicycle down these gravel roads. Cars would pass me, and I was coated with dust. I’m sitting there eating it. It was terrible. So a lot of people think, well, because the serpent is now at a physically lower position, he’s down there where the dirt and dust is when there’s a storm. When people go by, if they’re next to a road, the dust and dirt, they’re going to be infilled with this sort of thing.
But here’s something that a lot of people don’t realize either. A lot of serpents have what’s called a Jacobson’s organ. And what the snake does, it actually reaches out with its tongue, collects dust particles, puts them up to that Jacobson’s organ, and that’s how it essentially smells and detects things. So it’s interesting that snakes, in one sense, really do kind of eat dust. They reach out there with their tongue and they take it in. So a lot of people didn’t realize that until modern times when people started studying this and researching going, oh, wow, look at that. Snakes do really take in dust. So it’s interesting. So from two different perspectives that alleged contradiction is actually answered.
Sam Rohrer: That’s very interesting, and again, from your perspective there being with Answers in Genesis. And again, those who are just joining us, my special guest right now is Bodie Hodge. He’s a speaker, writer and researcher for Answers in Genesis. And if you have not been down there to visit the museum or the ark, you really ought to go. It is a great thing for children, for adults alike. And hopefully, I’m going to be taking, Bodie, some of my grandchildren down in the near distant future to visit because some of them have not been there. But you built everything off of Genesis, Answers in Genesis. That’s why the name of it. Let’s go back to that one there because some like to really … This has been a big deal. They like to say, “Well, the Bible cannot be true.” And so they start putting in their own thoughts because they say, “Well, there are actually two different contradictory accounts of creation, Genesis 1 and Genesis 2, therefore …” So therefore, is there or is there not a contradiction there?
Bodie Hodge: Yeah. I hear that one a lot too. And of course, there isn’t. When you look carefully at what’s going on, sometimes people read Genesis 1:1 through chapter 2, verse 3. That’s basically the six days of creation and then the seventh day of rest. And then all of a sudden in Genesis chapter 2, you see this shift. And all of a sudden, you see a little bit more detail about the creation of Adam, the creation of Eve, Adam naming the animals. And people say, “Oh look. Hey, these are out of order.” Actually, Genesis chapter 2 largely is a breakdown of what happened on Genesis chapter 6. It just gives you a lot more detail. They’re not in contradiction with each other.
Now, there is one version there that’s translated a little bit different in some translations that might make it look like there is a contradiction. It’s the word formed or had formed. If you think of Hebrew, Hebrew translating into English, they’re different languages. And they don’t just use verbs that are past, present, future. It’s like imperfect or perfect. So trying to translate it over is kind of different. Well, that particular verb in Hebrew, when you translate it over, it’s something that has happened in the past. So you can translate it as formed or had formed. And if you use the word formed, it might look like there might be a contradiction in there. But when you use had formed, the past perfect of that, guess what? It actually solves any alleged contradiction at all. And so that’s what you actually go with. So a Hebrew speaker would never, ever look at that and go, oh, there’s a contradiction in here. They would never think that. So that’s kind of a thing that’s limited in English. That’s called a translational issue, where sometimes the translation doesn’t always do it the best. And so it might look like there’s a contradiction, but there’s actually not. It’s just a breakdown of what happened with a little bit more detail on day six.
Sam Rohrer: Okay. And that principle decided there, that is in other places throughout scripture the same way, just as you’re talking about. But you approach, I approach the scripture saying, “Well, no, because God is God, and God cannot change. He says it.” Therefore, if there’s something I don’t understand, I view the problem as being with me that I don’t know enough. The problem’s not with God. The skeptic, ladies and gentlemen says, “No, if I don’t understand it, the problem’s with God.” Willing ignorance. All right? So now we’re back to that.
Okay. Next segment, we’re going to go a little bit further. I’m just going to ask Bodie to go down through and identify some other apparent contradictions that the skeptics will raise or do raise, and respond to them. We’ll be back in just a moment.
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Sam Rohrer: Welcome back to Stand in the Gap Today. And before I get back into this really very, very interesting focus today of supposed Bible contradictions, this is an Apologetics Update we do with either our guest today, Bodie Hodge or another spokesperson for Answers in Genesis, Bryan Osborne. And today we’re dealing with this concept of supposed Bible contradictions and how to answer the critic’s challenge. Very important.
So we’ll get back into that in just a moment, but I did want to share one really nice letter from a new listener. And I have been asking on here that if you have not written to us before, please do so. And if you have not participated financially, please consider doing that also. And when you do so, it also is very helpful to let us know what station to which you listen. How do you actually get this program? Now, here is one that just came in from a new listener. I’ll just give her first name, Janice. She’s from [inaudible 00:19:36] Pennsylvania. I thought I would just read exactly what she says.
She said, “Please receive the enclosed contribution in the mighty name of our Lord, Jesus Christ.” Thank you, Lord, for using the Stand in the Gap broadcast to bless us and encourage believers and followers of Christ. She goes on to say, “We also enjoy and profit greatly from the insights the Lord has given you.” And then she goes on to say, “We listen daily on a station here in Pennsylvania, WBYN. Monday through Friday at 2:00, they play it.” And then she said, “We also listen on Saturday to the weekend program,” which is another large station in Pennsylvania, WDAC. Listens to the weekend program as well. And she enclosed a very generous contribution.
So thank you, Janice for that, and I think for encouraging many, many others who are listening. But please participate with us. If God is blessing you like Janice, let us know. That helps us. It helps others to know as well. And then commit to listening, yes, but praying, absolutely, and partnering financially. So very important. So, all right. I’ll just stop right there and get back into it now with Bodie. We covered a number of items on the other side, but we could spend hours identifying all the contradictions. But go into the next one. What’s another one? Perhaps, you and I were talking earlier. You sometimes look at things chronologically. We’ve dealt with a couple in Genesis. Is there a contradiction that people think of that maybe comes from the book of Exodus or Deuteronomy as an example?
Bodie Hodge: They’re all over the place. You can name a spot. One of them, for example, and we mentioned this one talking behind the scenes, was the eagle opinions in Deuteronomy. It talks about the eagle rising up, some of these famous passages, where it takes its young and actually raises it up. And sometimes that’s a bit of a translational issue. I don’t want to confuse everybody with it. But some people think that’s talking about an eagle, and it puts its young on top of its back and flies. That’s not necessarily what that verse is actually saying.
If you actually look at it, yes, the eagle can raise up its young and elevate them. And it uses its pinion wings to do that. Pinion wings are the ones out on the edge. If you’re ever going to have some tame birds, sometimes people clip their pinion wings so that they can’t fly away. But a lot of birds cannot lift their own young. If they fall out of the nest, it’s actually very dangerous for them. Unlike something like an eagle or other birds of prey, with their powerful pinion feathers, they have no problem lifting their young and protecting them, and can protect them in their nest. So sometimes people want to pull out little things like that. Usually if you just go back and read the context carefully, sometimes I would also suggest compare a handful of translations. And that’s important to kind of get the sense of it because sometimes, a translator may not translate a particular word, or the word has changed meanings over the years, and so it may look like a contradiction. So that’s one thing that’s really important. Look at translational things and look at the context, and usually it just solves it really easily.
Sam Rohrer: There it goes. It really does. Compare scripture to scripture is one that I’ve always followed because oftentimes, there are verses that don’t make sense, but it’s because we have limited knowledge going into it. But if we compare the breadth of scripture, we say, “Ah, there it is. There’s the answer.” So the problem again was not God. It wasn’t the Bible. It was my limited knowledge. So, okay, let’s go to another one. How about another Old Testament apparent contradiction?
Bodie Hodge: One that I get a lot, and this one is in Genesis, is, “How can there be light on the first three days of creation if the sun wasn’t created until day four?” And I’ve heard that one probably more than any other when it comes to some of early Genesis. But actually it’s not a problem. God created light on day one. God said, “Let there be light.” Now, what that light source was, we simply don’t know. We know on day four, the sun took over those duties for that. So it may have been some sort of an initial light. Some people thought maybe it’s emanating from God. It is a created light though. So it’s not necessarily God himself, but something that God has still created. So if you have a rotating earth and a light source, that’s not a problem for a day. And that’s what we had for the first three days. Then of course the sun was created. So that one solves actually pretty easy as well.
Sam Rohrer: Okay. Well, here’s one. Some would say if God was really God, and he really did create, why did it take him six days? Why didn’t he just say, “Voila, create all, and everything came into being at one time?”
Bodie Hodge: Right. God is powerful enough. He has the power. He could have done it in an instant. But the key isn’t what God could have done. The key has always been what God said He did. And repeatedly in Exodus 31, for example, and in the 10 commandments in Exodus 20, God says he created everything in six days and he rested on the seventh as a basis for our work week. So that’s why a week actually exists. Cultures all over the world borrow a week from the Bible. If you think of a day, a day is the earth rotating one time. Or a month is the moon going around the earth one time. Or a year is the earth going around the sun one time. Where does a week come from? It comes from God’s word. That’s where that comes from.
Sam Rohrer: You just took a complex thing and made it very simple. Isn’t that interesting? Because God’s word seems to do that. Now, here’s another one about God Himself that many people will cite. God, you said, could have been the light. But you said that early light of creation was a created light, so it wasn’t Him. But God is presented as light. Some have a problem with that. But let’s go to this next application. Scripture says that no man has seen God at any time. But Moses, we know, actually was there and was face to face with God. Some would say, “Well, obviously a contradiction. So something’s not right.” What about that?
Bodie Hodge: Yeah. This was talking about God in His glory while we are in a sinful state. So that’s one of the keys where if you look at the context and read what’s going on, scripture compared to scripture, the answer actually presents itself very well. And here’s the thing. Jesus Christ, when he was incarnate, when he became a man, people saw him as well. The difference was He took on a humbled state and He took on sinful flesh, according to the scripture. So we could look [inaudible 00:25:58] What you can’t do is look upon God in His full glory, particularly in a sinful state. Otherwise we would die. That was the context of some of that.
Sam Rohrer: But even then, He was right there. But something happened in the glory of God because when He came down, Moses’ face shined. Some would say, “Come on. How in the world could that happen?”
Bodie Hodge: Yes. It goes to show that there are certain aspects and things where yes, we can see certain aspects of God. We can have certain interactions with God. But at the same time, there are certain things we can’t. And that’s where God defines those particular points.
Sam Rohrer: Okay. There is one verse, Bodie, I’d like you to talk about, Deuteronomy, I think it’s 29:29, that says the secret things are reserved unto the Lord. And sometimes I’ve gone there and said, at times there are some things, many things, frankly, I, in my human mind just can’t comprehend. Even though I can read it in scripture, I just can’t get my head around the awesomeness of God, or the fact that God is in three persons and Jesus Christ, the son of God, is God, but he’s not God the Father. There are some things like that are just beyond almost human comprehension. And I tend to go to that verse and say, “All right. Well, there are some things that I just don’t understand and God reserves to Himself.” So speak to that a little bit. Are there some things … The scripture tells us a lot, but even then, there are a lot of things we will never understand. Right?
Bodie Hodge: Well, that’s right. Just trying to comprehend the mind of God, we can’t even come close. We’re made in His image so we can comprehend aspects and so forth. But we would never be able to understand the full grasp of God. The trinity of God is a great example of that. Three persons, one God. A lot of church fathers would use an equilateral triangle, say, “Hey, there’s one triangle. There’s three points. These points actually make up the other points,” and so forth, which I think is kind of a … it’s an okay analogy. But I like to think of Job. When you’re thinking of the secret things, Job had no idea what was happening to him behind the scenes. God said, “Hey Satan, have you considered my servant Job?” Job this entire time, through all of his sufferings, had no idea this had to do with what Satan was doing. And so he never got a chance to see that probably until the end. I’m sure God revealed that to him because it’s put in the book.
But even the gospel, some of the secret things were revealed. They were just revealed at the right time. And that was the massively incredible aspect of the gospel of Jesus Christ stepping into history, dying in our place. So often in the Old Testament, people would see these aspects, these secrets, these different messianic prophecies. And they didn’t fully grasp it until the right time when God revealed Jesus Christ. So there are so many of those things. And you know what? I don’t expect my mind to be able to comprehend all the aspects of God. But at the same time, when it comes to God’s word, this is what He’s revealed to us. We should be able to defend that against any alleged contradiction up and down.
Sam Rohrer: Absolutely. Absolutely. Ladies and gentlemen, stay with us. When we come back, we’re going to talk about this. What difference does this make? And what should motivate us to know God’s word well enough that we can actually answer the critics? Why?
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Sam Rohrer: Well, as we move into the final segment now, if you’ve been listening to us from the beginning of the program, I think you’ve probably … When my guest Bodie Hodge or myself have talked about what would appear to be apparent contradictions that cynics like to raise, that in every case, there is an answer, and God cannot contradict himself. And if God places his word above His own name, there is no way that the word of God can contradict itself. If it is not perfect, it does not reflect the God of Heaven. And if it is not perfect, then we can’t trust it. But the thing of it is, we can trust it. But what does the devil want us to do? Doubt the word of God, doubt what the Bible says about God, doubt God himself.
And so it brings it down to us. When we hear the skeptics’ arguments or we have a question posed to us and we don’t have an answer for it, okay. Well, why should we have an answer? That is what I want to conclude with here with Bodie. It’s the why. We can identify a lot of the what. A lot of these questions were the what, what people say and what they think. But why should we have an answer? Because you see, answering the skeptic or responding to the cynic is certainly one reason for why we should know the Bible well. But the primary purpose for knowing the word of God is so that we can know God better. Isn’t that right? To know better the character and the nature of God and what He loves, and then love it, and what he hates, and then we hate it, to know His justice, His holiness, so that we can embrace His love.
Now in the end, we should seek to know the word of God and a number of things. One of them is to hide it in our heart. Why? So that we don’t sin against God. Psalm 119:11 says, “Thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against you.” Okay. That is one really good reason for knowing God’s word and not being deterred or doubting it.
Another reason to know God’s word and to be confident about it is so we can give a testimony to a seeking world. 1 Peter 3:15-16 says these. But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and be ready always to give an answer to every man who asketh you a reason for the hope that is within you with meekness and fear. Why? For so is the will of God, that with well doing, you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men or the cynic. So there’s another one, but those aren’t the only reasons.
Bodie, let me go back to you. I shared just a couple of verses here that have meant a lot to me over the years, but let me ask you this question as we begin to wrap up now. In the end, when it comes to answering the cynic’s claims of contradictions, or as Peter says, the ignorance of foolish men, what should be the highest motivation? It could be multiple, but what should those motivations be for the believer to know what God’s word says so they can answer to the skeptic? What should really drive them, drive us?
Bodie Hodge: Well, it should always be the gospel. We want people to understand the Bible is true and that they’ve been deceived. They’ve bought into a false religion, a false world view. They bought into the lie. They bought into the contradiction. And what we want to see them do is repent from that and come back to the authority of God and His word. And when they realize that the Bible is true, guess what? The Holy Spirit can get in there and work in their hearts to receive Jesus Christ as Lord and savior. That’s why we do it. We’re not here just to win an argument. And I remember a philosopher once wrote, when he demolished certain people from a biblical viewpoint, he would reach down there and say, “Hey, listen. I’m not here to beat you down. I’m here to lift you up because I’ve been there too.” We’ve all fallen for certain contradictions and false beliefs, and we’ve had to correct ourselves based on the word of God. That’s why we do it. It is for the gospel of Jesus Christ. And let’s not lose our sight on that.
Sam Rohrer: Bodie, I think that is excellent. And I think it really is important. Let me go to one other in the last little bit we have here, and that is this. When I was in office, elected office years ago, and I would speak, or I sent out flyers during campaign time, an example, that kind of thing, everybody wants to be very so precise in everything that’s written because they believe that ultimately, the writing of the way you put it or the way you said it or whatever was going to be the piece that actually made the difference and convinced somebody of one way or the other. But I believed and knew through scripture that lo and behold, at the end of the day, how is truth understood? Well, the word of God is spiritually discerned, meaning the Holy Spirit gets in there and communicates the truth. So go back to what you said. It’s not about just winning an argument, because you could actually win an argument according to the dictates of a debate. But that’s not the same thing as communicating truth that goes to the heart, is it?
Bodie Hodge: That’s exactly right. I want to tell the listeners out there something that I think is really important. And I know they’re listening to us talk about these alleged contradictions and how to do it with the right heart and how to preach the gospel. But sometimes in their mind, they’re going, if somebody presents them with a contradiction, what do they do? How do they do it? Well, if they don’t know the answer to this alleged contradiction, don’t be afraid. Number one, don’t be afraid to say, “I don’t know.” That is a correct answer. If you don’t know, you don’t know. But what I suggest is go back, look it up, read it in context, find out the answer, and get back with them. You’d be surprised how powerful that is. I want people to realize that when you say, “I don’t know,” it doesn’t mean you’re saying, “I agree there’s a contradiction.” You’re saying, “I just don’t know the answer. Let me look it up and find out.” And I think that’s really important. And that goes a long way with getting back to people, showing them how much you care and how much you’re concerned about A, the word of God, and the gospel that you’re presenting to that person.
Sam Rohrer: Bodie, I think there’s a really practical thing there. And I’ve found that sometimes even asking a cynic, someone who, maybe not a purposeful cynic, but they are doubting. They have not come yet to the truth, to actually at that point of saying, “Well, I frankly don’t know, but how about if you and I together walk through and we’ll find out, because scripture will answer. Are you willing to do that with me?” And if they can read the word of God, there’s power for a person who does not yet know the truth to actually not hear about the word of God, but actually to read the word of God, isn’t it?
Bodie Hodge: That’s right. The word of God never comes back void. Well, I’ve been involved in a couple of books called Demolishing Supposed Bible Contradictions, Volume One and Volume Two. Ken Ham and myself are some of the general editors on here. Again, the title is Demolishing Supposed Bible Contradictions. They’re very easy to answer. There’s some great introductory material. But I want to say something here as well. We had people who had a PhD write some responses to these, people with a master’s degree, people with a bachelor’s degree. We even had a junior high kid write a response to one. And one of the reasons we wanted to do that and include this into the book was to let people know you didn’t have to be an expert on this stuff to answer it. The key is go back, see what the Bible actually says on the subject. Basic research can usually solve the majority of these alleged Bible contradictions. If a junior high kid can do it, we all can do it. So I want to encourage people with that.
Sam Rohrer: We’re just about at the end. I think it’s a great way to wrap it up. Now, the book, again, mention the book that you just talked about that has a lot more of the questions even that we answered today. And I think all of that’s available or can be found at answersingenesis.org.
Bodie Hodge: Yes. Demolishing Supposed Bible Contradictions. There’s two volumes, Volume One and Volume Two. Both are equally good. And they look at different supposed Bible contradictions and takes you through chronologically from Genesis forward. So they’re really neat, easy to read books, pretty powerful resources.
Sam Rohrer: Excellent. Bodie Hodge, we’re right at the end. This has been a fast program. To me, it’s been a very fun program, fun meaning the standpoint of really enjoyable because anytime I look into the word of God, we talk about the word of God, it is enjoyable because it is the truth. What a fantastic thing. Bodie Hodge from Answers in Genesis, their website, answersingenesis.org. And go to our website, ladies and gentlemen. All of our archives can be found there, standinthegapradio.com, or on our app. And you can find all of the programs we’ve done on our Apologetics Update with Bodie or Bryan, or even Ken Ham himself are all there. All great resources. Have a great day. We’ll see you back, Lord willing, tomorrow.
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