Yahweh is NOT the god of Mischief!

My Common Sense Is Tingling - Debunking Christianity: Can God Exist if Yahweh Doesn't?

Here is  a video that went up today on the Debunking Christianity blog. It pretends to get rid of the God of the Bible by assuming that the Ontological argument for the existence of God throws the Bible under the bus.


 The Christian understanding is clearly misunderstood here. William Lane Craig often uses the concept that the greatest being you can think of is God. The video's author claims that he can think of a being greater than the God revealed to us in the Bible. However no proof is offered of that. And neither does the author attempt to explain by what he measures greatness. On top of all of that I see no way any one of us could come up with a more powerful, more loving, more intelligent, or greater by any measure. At the very least creating and sustaining all of reality out of nothing - energy, matter, time, space, and all there is - cannot be topped.

Debunking Christianity: Can God Exist if Yahweh Doesn't?

FacePalm of the Day - Debunking Christianity: Divine Knowledge--Or the Lack Thereof

Cathy Cooper has again taken to the Debunking Christianity blog and shows us what failed arguments look like. This time the argument is trying to disprove Christianity by trying to show that God is not omniscient. Obviously, she desires to make this stick because if Christians are wrong about God being omniscient then why should anything we say about God be believed? Fortunately for all of us she is wrong.

This is a brief excerpt from our book that is almost completed.  It relates to my past post on Yahweh, and how this anthropomorphized god is further illustrated to be quite ignorant.

Another assertion. Let's see if she can back it up.

Epistemology is the study of knowledge, and epistemologically speaking, knowledge is gained by asking the following questions: What is it? How do we find knowledge? How do we know?

This is actually a good place to start. Is she right? Is this the only way gain knowledge? No it isn't. There is also revelation. There is somethings you only know because someone told you - revealed it to you.  As a matter of fact it is how most of what you hold you know. For example, how do you know what your name is? And how did you get it? Did you go to the hospital you were born in? Did you interrogate your family? How about the identity of your grandparents? Obviously, for most of us, someone you trust told you. Thing is was it true? That is the question. This the lie that Eve and Adam fell for in Eden. The serpent asked “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’? ” The question under discussion is "Does God really know everything?" And like the question in the garden, it's a twisting on what God actually said and and calling God's trustworthiness into question as if God is trying to hide something from us.  God isn't deceiving us.


To find knowledge, humans use reason, critical thinking, and experience, which is perceived through what JS Mill posited as a "Permanent Possibility of Sensations."* How we gain this knowledge can vary, but the best way of finding knowledge pragmatically speaking, is through the Hypothethico-Deductive method. The H-D method of inquiry begins by formulating a hypothesis which could possibly be falsified by testing, which is both verifiable and reproducible. This is one of the most reliable methods of gaining knowledge; that is, of course, in the context of finite mortality.

Considering that there are things you can't test repeatedly, does that mean that you can't know anything about those things? For example, when you tell a child not to stare into the sun, should they test that out repeated to see if indeed that will turn blind? I really hope that no one would suggest that this is the only way to learn new knowledge.

But what is Divine Knowledge--the omniscience of God? It becomes paradoxical when the god of the Bible is assumed to be perfect in his knowledge, and at the same time, exhibits a lack of knowledge. In Genesis 18 for example, Yahweh illustrates his lack of knowledge when the Bible stated he needed to go to Sodom in order to confirm what he had heard was going on there:

"...I will go down and see if what they have done is as bad as the outcry that has reached me."Genesis 18:21

Cooper suggests that God goes down to Sodom because God does not know what is going down there. Does that make sense? No it does not. 

The Hebrew helps here a lot and it does not take much skill or research to see that the Hebrew וְאֶרְאֶה translated by "see" carries with it no indication of  ignorance. Look it up here for Genesis 18. And Crosswalk.com helps shed the light on this. 

 to see, look at, inspect, perceive, consider

1. (Qal)
   1. to see
   2. to see, perceive
   3. to see, have vision
   4. to look at, see, regard, look after, see after, learn about, observe, watch, look upon, look out, find out
   5. to see, observe, consider, look at, give attention to, discern, distinguish
   6. to look at, gaze at

Yahweh's lack of knowledge also causes him to question others. Also in Genesis 18, Yahweh questions Abraham about whether or not Sarah had laughed when she was told by Yahweh that she would bear a child in her old age. The added question, and the silence of Abraham to Yahweh's question, led to the subsequent lie Sarah told Yahweh about her not laughing. This illustrates that Yahweh does not know everything, and the "father and mother of all nations" (Abraham and Sarah) also cannot be trusted, as they were cowardly liars.

The text does not read that way at all. As a parent,  one tactic is to ask children a question about what they did to make them think and give them the opportunity to come clean and take responsibility for the error. My parents did the same thing to me. IT WORKS. God was doing the same thing for Abraham and Sarah. Here we don't see the ignorance of God. We see God's wisdom and mercy. God was going to give Abraham and Sarah a family despite their elderly age and their ability to believe His promises. Sarah doubted she could ever have a child from her own body. Of course God did not just let Sarah get away with lying but she wasn't punished either. Calling her and Abraham cowards is not just unfair but hilarious considering the source.

Furthermore, there was no point in the "Lord" asking for advice from his companions in the following passages:

"When the men got up to leave, they looked down toward Sodom, and Abraham walked along with them to see them on their way. Then the Lord said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do? Abraham will surely become a great and powerful nation, and all nations on earth will be blessed through him. For I have chosen him, so that he will direct his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing what is right and just, so that the Lord will bring about for Abraham what he has promised him.” Genesis 18:16-19

Yahweh visited Abraham and Sarah in human form on earth in time. The men who accompanied Him were angels who were sent on to Sodom. When God spoke by the time of verse 16, they were already on the way to Sodom. God had already decided what He was going to do.  God wasn't asking Abraham, as an equal what He was going to do, but asking if He would let Abraham know. This isn't God asking for advice.

In fact, these passages illustrates a god who is not omniscient at all as he obviously was not fully aware of what was happening in Sodom.

It doesn't say that. 

Many Christians like to claim that Yahweh asks questions as a method of helping us to learn certain things, but there is nothing we can learn from Yahweh asking his companions whether or not he should hide his plans from Abraham. What it does do however, is cause us mere mortals to question how Yahweh can have "perfect knowledge" when he himself questions others, and admits he does not know everything.

How did God admit that He does not know everything. If God was looking for counsel about Abraham, why would God do so while Abraham was standing right there? If Abraham did not think God was omniscient and could deliver on those promises, why did he believe God? Simple: God showed him that God could be trusted and believed. We see nothing here showing that  God isn't worthy of the same trust from us.

Some theologians assert that his "companions" in this case were the other members of the Holy Trinity, and he was consulting with them, (himself?) but this would be impossible, as the Jews who wrote this text do not believe in Jesus as God, and never have. Therefore, this conclusion would be illogical and inconsistent with the Jewish texts.

I don't see any reason to assert that the other two men with God were the Holy Trinity. I got to admit that Cooper shows zero understanding about what the Trinity is. In no part of the Old Testament or New Testament do we find the Father or the Holy Spirit become incarnate - only the Son. And from a Jewish context, we wouldn't even think Moses had in mind to teach that the three was Trinity. There are other texts much better suited to show the Trinity in the Old Testament. However the text is great for illustrating the incarnation. This video will help you.




It should also be noted that Yahweh chose Abraham because his "knowledge" told him that Abraham and his children would keep the "way of the Lord" (Gen. 18:19), i.e., the "laws of Yahweh." This is clearly has not been the case however, as Yahweh's laws have been virtually wiped out by the believers in Yahweh and his son Jesus, which would mean that either Yahweh did not know Abraham's descendents would reject his laws, or Yahweh lied.

No and No. God did  not choose Abraham for anything special about him. Abraham was not picked because he would teach the next generations but so that he would direct them. Second, God did not say that Abraham's descendants would follow God's laws. God said that Abraham would teach them and pass them down. Cooper is also being silly to think God was talking about the Mosaic laws - that was over 400 years later! Abraham was chosen to start a chosen nation.

¹⁴ To the Lord your God belong the heavens, even the highest heavens, the earth and everything in it. ¹⁵ Yet the Lord set his affection on your ancestors and loved them, and he chose you, their descendants, above all the nations—as it is today. ¹⁶ Circumcise your hearts, therefore, and do not be stiff-necked any longer. - Deuteronomy 10:14-15


⁷ The Lord did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. ⁸ But it was because the Lord loved you and kept the oath he swore to your ancestors that he brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt. ⁹ Know therefore that the Lord your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commandments. - Deuteronomy 7:7-9

Furthermore, if it were the case that Yahweh knew his laws would not stand up to scrutiny, why did he give them to his followers in the first place, knowing he would eventually send himself/his son to die a horrible death in order to revoke them? Where is the "Divine Knowledge" of Yahweh, when his knowledge (laws) have been cast aside by Christians? This is quite a conundrum.

The laws have not been revoked or cast aside. They have been fulfilled in Christ.  

¹⁶ The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. Scripture does not say “and to seeds,” meaning many people, but “and to your seed,”^[a] meaning one person, who is Christ. ¹⁷ What I mean is this: The law, introduced 430 years later, does not set aside the covenant previously established by God and thus do away with the promise. ¹⁸ For if the inheritance depends on the law, then it no longer depends on the promise; but God in his grace gave it to Abraham through a promise. - Galatians 3:16-18


Without knowledge there can be no wisdom, and without understanding, there is nothing at all. Yahweh is, to his own followers, "beyond their understanding" (Job 36:26) [and everyone's understanding] and therefore, he is, according to this belief, unable to even pass his knowledge to them. Instead, we have men who speak in his name. Men, who use Yahweh as a catalyst to manifest their own agendas to the demise of actual knowledge--not to its gain.

*Analysis of the Phenomena of the Human Mind, Volume 1,James Mill, John Stuart Mill, Alexander Bain, p. 446

_______________________

Cathy Cooper

Not true at all. God can and does pass His knowledge to those who trust in Him. No one has any excuse for not knowing God's laws. It's readily available. You can know what God's standard of holiness is. If you don't know, you can ask Him - and you will not stay the same. 

If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. - James 1:5

If one is going to try to discredit the Bible, you should make sure to get the scripture correct.

Debunking Christianity: Divine Knowledge--Or the Lack Thereof

FacePalm #47 - Debunking Christianity: Why Should Anyone Believe?

John Loftus posted the following statement

I maintain there is no way to conclude Jesus bodily arose from the grave even if he did. I can even grant you for the sake of your argument the existence of Yahweh and that he does miracles, but this changes very little. For the evidence shows us that an overwhelming large percentage of the Jews in Jesus' day did not believe even though they knew their Scriptures and even though they were there. So why should I believe? Why should anyone?

Totally silly. He states this as if no one has ever raised this objection and that there has never been an answer given. The Bible itself not only raises the objection but answers it.

³⁰ What then shall we say? That the Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have obtained it, a righteousness that is by faith; ³¹ but the people of Israel, who pursued the law as the way of righteousness, have not attained their goal. ³² Why not? Because they pursued it not by faith but as if it were by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone. ³³ As it is written: “See, I lay in Zion a stone that causes people to stumble
and a rock that makes them fall,
and the one who believes in him will never be put to shame.” - Romans 9: 31-33

And

¹ Brothers and sisters, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved. ² For I can testify about them that they are zealous for God, but their zeal is not based on knowledge. ³ Since they did not know the righteousness of God and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness. ⁴ Christ is the culmination of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes. - Romans 10:1-4

Debunking Christianity: Why Should Anyone Believe?

God Took Human Form (Before the Time of Jesus), part 2 of 5 | True Freethinker

Here is the second part of Mariano's essay on God taking on Human form in the Old Testament. What I like best about this one is that Mariano explains how some Jewish scholars try really hard to get around the plain text of Genesis 18 and how not all scholars in Judaism have interpreted Genesis 18 in the same way I see it today: God himself visited Abraham in human form.

Jewish Scholars Claude Joseph Goldsmith Montefiore and Herbert Martin James Loewe,

“If man should be humble, there is a sense in which God is strangely humble too: If a pupil is ill, and the teacher goes to visit him, the other pupils go before to announce the coming of the teacher. But when God went to visit Abraham in his illness, He went first, before the angels (Gen. XVIII, 1, 2). Is there anyone more humble than He? (Tanh., Wayera, 2, f. 31b.)” [emphasis added]

Paul made the same point in Philippians 2. I agree that most people who are not Christian will see the connection of God visiting Abraham in Genesis 18 with Jesus' incarnation. But if God can take human form and see Abraham while maintaining his godly attributes - omniscience, omnipotence, and omnipresence - enthroned in heaven. If God could do that for several minutes to interact with Abraham and Sarah, He can do it for years! Say, 33 years for example - in the person of Jesus Christ. A fundamental, theological, and logical objection to the Trinity is torpedoed.

God Took Human Form (Before the Time of Jesus), part 2 of 5 | True Freethinker

FacePalm of the Day #22 - Debunking Christianity: Can God Exist if Yahweh Doesn't?

It never ceases to amaze me how John Loftus and other atheists flee from the question of the source of morality. Instead they argue "It could not be the God of the Bible because Yahweh isn't moral." Look at some of the latest pontification from John Loftus

William Lane Craig in his debate with Peter Slezak, at 68 minutes in says: "I think that if you agree with me that there are certain things that are really right and wrong like child abuse, cruelty, and slavery then you will agree with me that we need God as a transcendent foundation for those objective moral values."
There is a problem though. The God that William Lane Craig is appealing to, Yahweh, does NOT condemn child abuse, cruelty, or slavery. So I simply cannot figure out how Craig's argument is supposed to work! Link

I would like to hear where in the Bible is slavery (as perpetrated as one person owning another because they are better), cruelty, and child abuser are not just condoned in the Bible but prescribed as appropriate human behavior? Listen. Hear that? Yeah, me too. Nothing.
The reason why Loftus does not understand Dr William Lane Craig's argument because he does not understand who God is. It seems clear to me that Yahweh has never commanded anyone to abuse their children, enslave anyone the way Africans, Native Americans, and Asians have been enslaved and imperialized by Europeans and Americans throughout history, or to be cruel anyone! If Yahweh had commanded the enslavement of Africans and the genocide of indigenous populations of Africa and the Western Hemisphere then Loftus would have a reason to be confused as to Yahweh's existence.

The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. - Romans 1:18-20

Debunking Christianity: Can God Exist if Yahweh Doesn't?

FacePalm Quote of the Day #11: Debunking Christianity: God Cannot Exist if Yahweh Didn't.

Almost everyday John Lofuts writes something so silly that  he provides no end of material for posts like this one. Thank you, Mr. Loftus. Look at one of his latest posts to see what I mean.

Yahweh did not exist. He is much too tribal of a god, created the world in conflict with the sea God Rahab, married to Asherah, accepted child sacrifice, commanded genocide, forbid worship of all other gods (didn't deny their existence), and chose Israel like the others gods did to other nations.

Why is this a failed argument? Simple. What does it mean to be "too much of a tribal god"? Yahweh was the one who promised Abraham that through him all nations would be blessed. How does that mean that Yahweh is only concerned with Jews? Look at the promise God made to Abraham.

 ¹ The LORD had said to Abram, "Leave your country, your people and your father's household and go to the land I will show you.

 ² "I will make you into a great nation
       and I will bless you;
       I will make your name great,
       and you will be a blessing.
 ³ I will bless those who bless you,
       and whoever curses you I will curse;
       and all peoples on earth
       will be blessed through you." - Genesis 12:1-3

What about sending Jonah to Nineveh so that the city would be warned to repent and when the people of the city humbled themselves and repented, they were not destroyed. Get a clue...the people of Nineveh were not Jews. Child sacrifice was completely condemned and was never accepted by Yahweh. If John Loftus has Jephthah in mind as evidence that the God of Bible accepted child sacrifice I sure would like him to point out where Jephthah was commanded to sacrifice his daughter (she was a young adult of marrying age too not a child) or where he was commended for it. He made vow that no one asked him for and he was bound to his word. Not God's fault. If Loftus has Isaac's near sacrifice in mind we must remember that Abraham was not required to go through with it and again we don't know how old Isaac was at the time. Some Jews teach that Isaac was adult who allowed his father to strap him to that altar - It was meant to foreshadow what Jesus would ultimately do for us.
Also where does it say in the Bible that the world was created through conflict? Most creation myths say that...the Bible doesn't. No where in the Bible does it say God has or ever has had a wife.
The commandment was to have no other gods ahead of  Yahweh. Anything can be placed too high in your life to be worshiped instead of Yahweh.It doesn't have to be an idol made of stone, wood, or gold or even some supernatural being. It could be yourself putting  your desires above God's purpose for your life. Of course it doesn't deny the existence of other gods because it leaves room to cover anything and everything.
I'd also argue that Yahweh did not choose Israel like other gods chose their nations. The story of God choosing Israel does not start in Exodus. It starts when Adam was created and all the way through choosing Abraham. He picked one man...brought him out of his culture and trappings and made a nation that continues to exist today out of him! Who else is like that? I know what Loftus and others are suggesting: That people write stories about gods sponsoring their nations because they are special in some way.  The problem with that logic is that Israel does not fit that model. In the Old Testament, God says why He chose Israel for himself out of all the other nations on earth.

³³ Has any other people heard the voice of God  speaking out of fire, as you have, and lived? ³⁴ Has any god ever tried to take for himself one nation out of another nation, by testings, by miraculous signs and wonders, by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, or by great and awesome deeds, like all the things the LORD your God did for you in Egypt before your very eyes?
 ³⁵ You were shown these things so that you might know that the LORD is God; besides him there is no other. ³⁶ From heaven he made you hear his voice to discipline you. On earth he showed you his great fire, and you heard his words from out of the fire. - Deuteronomy 4:33-36
⁶ For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession.
 ⁷ The LORD did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. ⁸ But it was because the LORD loved you and kept the oath he swore to your forefathers that he brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt. ⁹ Know therefore that the LORD your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commands. Deuteronomy 7:6-9

Do you really think a man would write that kind of humbling and scaring thing about why they were chosen by the most powerful and awesome God ever?! I don't think so.
Lastly, the sentence "Yahweh does not exist" is a contradiction .  The Tetragrammaton, YHWH (Yahweh), literally means "He is". The name literal means there has never been nor will there ever be a time when Yahweh does not exist! So in effect Lofus wrote: "HE is does not not exist." Truly a completely nonsensical statement.. just like the rest of the argument.

Debunking Christianity: God Cannot Exist if Yahweh Didn't.

Debunking Christianity: Harry McCall on God, Yahweh and Elohim

John Loftus has posts an interesting exchange between Harry H. McCall and Brad Haggard. I agreed with Brad's point and was amazed by how much wrong McCall got wrong. Some of his comments almost deserve a Facepalm but I'll restrain myself. One of the more interesting comments is as follows:

So, in Genesis 1:1, did an assembly of male gods create the heavens and the earth or did one god create? (If you want to play the Trinity card, then I’ll let your explain the other names of אל + prefixes in the MT text.)
Can you show me why the divine name יהוה does not occur in the entire New Testament? Could it just be that “son of god” fit the Hellenic context of the Greek would while יהוה would have been an abhorrent pagan name for them, especially after the Jews were expelled from Rome in 46 CE?
Secondly, my view is in line with that of Edward Gibbons The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Weather or nor Gibbons was anti-Christian, his views of the end of the Roman Empire agrees with mine.
Another insider's look at how Christianity really worked in the late Empire is discussed in G.W. Bowersock’s award winning book: Julian the Apostate.
Julian, the grandson of Constantine, gives a horrific story about members of his own Christian family were murders and why he remained a non-Christian ("pagan", a derogatory term

What I want to focus on is the point about how the Tetragrammaton (יהוה or YHWH) does not occur in the entire New Testament. McCall is wrong. It does. Recall that the New Testament was written in Greek not Hebrew. Therefore what you want to know is what does the name look like when it is translated into Greek. A great Old Testament text to use to study this point is Exodus 3:14.   יהוה is the name by which Moses was to identify God with to the Israelites. It is often pronounced "Yahweh" although we don't know how its really supposed to be announced (but that is another story I don't have time for now). Let's look at Exodus 3:14 in English, Hebrews, and Greek (as it appears in the Septuagint). Please note that Hebrew is read right to left not left to right.



English

God said to Moses, "I am who I am .  This is what you are to say to the Israelites: 'I AM has sent me to you.' " 

Hebrew
וַיֹּ֤אמֶר אֱלֹהִים֙ אֶל־ מֹשֶׁ֔ה אֶֽהְיֶ֖ה אֲשֶׁ֣ר אֶֽהְיֶ֑ה וַיֹּ֗אמֶר כֹּ֤ה תֹאמַר֙ לִבְנֵ֣י יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל אֶֽהְיֶ֖ה שְׁלָחַ֥נִי אֲלֵיכֶֽם׃

 Greek

καὶ εἶπεν ὁ θεὸς πρὸς Μωυσῆν ἐγώ εἰμι ὁ ὤν καὶ εἶπεν οὕτως ἐρεῖς τοῖς υἱοῖς Ισραηλ ὁ ὢν ἀπέσταλκέν με πρὸς ὑμᾶς  

The Tetragrammaton comes over to English as "I AM". In Greek it is ἐγώ εἰμι. So now ask yourself..."Does this name appear anywhere in the New Testament? Further who is this name applied to in the New Testament?" Of course ἐγώ εἰμι appears in the New Testament and Jesus applies the divine name to himself that is why the Jews wanted to stone Him. The best indisputable place to see this in John 8:58

English

"I tell you the truth," Jesus answered, "before Abraham was born, I am!" 

Greek

εἶπεν αὐτοῖς Ἰησοῦς, Ἀμὴν ἀμὴν λέγω ὑμῖν, πρὶν Ἀβραὰμ γενέσθαι ἐγὼ εἰμί.  

 
 Let me be clear: Jesus applied the same Name - "Yahweh" ("ἐγὼ εἰμί") to himself that God used when God spoke to Moses on Mt Sinai!

Debunking Christianity: Harry McCall on God, Yahweh and Elohim

Debunking Christianity: Why Should I Rent a Comedy When The Bible is a Joke?

John Loftus posted this video from YouTube last week. The same stupid arguments are made but this time trying to show that Yahweh in the Old Testament contradicts Jesus in the New Testament. All of the cases from the Old Testament are ripped from their contexts and it seems like God just out of hand and indiscriminately just murdered a bunch of people for no reason. Not True. I won't go through it here. It has been debunked and rebutted countless times.



The other thing that was lost in the video was the fact that the Trinity was misrepresented. Jesus is Yahweh. But that does not mean God the Father and Jesus are the same person. They are not. God is one being eternally self-existing in three persons! "Being" and "person" are not the same thing. This is confusing for us because in most experiences one being is one person. IF that is not the case..there are problems. There is no disconnect or conflict between Jesus and the Law at all. Oh, and God the Father ain't got a body. The reason why the Jews wanted to kill Jesus (okay one of the reasons) was because Jesus applied the Name Yahweh to himself - the same name given as self-identification from the burning bush to Moses.

14 God said to Moses, "I am who I am ". This is what you are to say to the Israelites: 'I AM has sent me to you.' " - Exodus 3:14
58"I tell you the truth," Jesus answered, "before Abraham was born, I am!" - John 8:58

Yahweh means "He is" or "I AM".
Debunking Christianity: Why Should I Rent a Comedy When The Bible is a Joke?

Debunking Christianity: Bible Contradiction Quiz Show Part 1

John Loftus has posted a video from YouTube in which there is a mock quiz show with questions from the Bible. The thing is that the questions are phrased a certain way out of context and such that the answers seem ambiguous and conflicting. Let's see if we can help with the confusion. This is part 1.





How long Does God's Anger lasts?
Micah 7:18; Jer 17:4

18 Who is a God like you,
who pardons sin and forgives the transgression
of the remnant of his inheritance?
You do not stay angry forever
but delight to show mercy. - Micah 7:18

4 Through your own fault you will lose
the inheritance I gave you.
I will enslave you to your enemies
in a land you do not know,
for you have kindled my anger,
and it will burn forever." - Jeremiah 17:4

There is no contradiction look at the whole verses. Micah 7:18 is with respect to the remnant. The people God saved out of the ashes of those who were consumed by his wrath that kindles against them forever in Jeremiah 17:4. There is only one message here.

Does Yaweh temp people?
Gen 22:1; James 1:13

 Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, "Abraham!"
      "Here I am," he replied. - Genesis 22:1

When tempted, no one should say, "God is tempting me." For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; - James 1:13

So the issue is does Genesis 22:1 say "God tested Abraham" like modern translations (ie NIV) or does it say "tempted" like the KJV. The Hebrew word in question is "nacah". Any lexicon will tell you that the word can mean to "temp" or :"test" depending on the context. So why in this verse is "test" a better translation...or even "try" as in refining metal of impurities? The answer is simple. It lies in the difference between "tempting" and "testing". "Tempting" has the goal of destruction.  The idea is to goad one into doing something wrong with awful consequences. However "testing: is about improvement. Why do we give students tests in school? It's not to watch them fail but to show what they have learned and give them more tools to run with.  God tests us. Satan tempts us. In addition, comparing the two passages is a problem because Genesis is in Hebrew and James is in Kione Greek. Are they the same ideas? In James 1:13, the word is "peirazo" and it is used to translate nacah into Greek.


Can Salvation be attained by works? Yes and No
Gal 2:16,Romans 3:28
Matt 19:17, Luke 19:26-8;James 2:24

The Bible clearly tells us that salvation cannot be attained by works. I find it interesting that the quiz does not reference what Paul or James wrote about "works". These scriptures clear up the supposed confusion.

⁸For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— ⁹not by works, so that no one can boast. ¹⁰For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. - Ephesians 2:8-10 (written by Paul)

¹⁷Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.
 ¹⁸Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works.
 ¹⁹Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble. - James 2:17-19 (Written by James)

So both Paul and James were talking about salvation and faith, but were they talking about the same "works"? No. They both use the word "Ergon" but in different contexts. Paul is talking about religious acts and traditions that people think are going to guarantee salvation. James is talking about the hypocrisy of claiming faith and salvation but never doing anything to help others! They taught the same thing when you sum up all their letters: Salvation is throught faith in Jesus Christ but we are saved to do good works but we don't do good to get salvation.


Consequences of seeding Yaweh's face? Death and life
Exodus 33:20,John 1:18; 1 Tim 6:16
Ge 32:30,Ex 33:11, Genesis 12:11; EX 24:9-11



This video answers the above:






Does Yaweh Delight in burnt offerings?
Jer 7:22
Ex:20-24

Jeremiah 7:22 is offered as a rebuttal to the idea that God does not delight in burnt offerings but it's woefully out of context.

 ²¹ " 'This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Go ahead, add your burnt offerings to your other sacrifices and eat the meat yourselves! ²² For when I brought your forefathers out of Egypt and spoke to them, I did not just give them commands about burnt offerings and sacrifices, ²³ but I gave them this command: Obey me, and I will be your God and you will be my people. Walk in all the ways I command you, that it may go well with you.

God does desire obedience more than sacrifice but that does not mean that they were not supposed to make sacrifices!

Is God the Author of Evil
IS 45:7;1 John 4:8

This question is not a Yes or No question. The question presupposes that God is accountable for allowing evil. I wrote more about that here!

Was Humans created before the animals
Gen 2:18-9;1:25-27

Genesis 2 is a snapshot that gives more detail than Genesis 1 does.  There is no conflict because Genesis 2 does not say the animals were made after Adam, just reiterates that God did it.

Did Paul's companions hear the voice he did on the road to Damascus?
Acts 229:9; Act 9:7

Answered here.

Will the Earth last Forever?
2 Peter 3:10; Ecc 1:4

The Bible and science says no.  Ecc 1:4 is talking about the earth being a constant with respect to human life spans. It is not saying that the earth is eternal.

Is Jesus the only man to have ascended into heaven?
2 Kings 2:11; John 3:13

Jesus is the only man who ascended into heaven. He went on his own! Enoch and Elijah were taken. 

Were Children supposed to be punished for the sins of their fathers?
Deut 24:16; Deut 5:9

Again context is ignored. Deut 24:16 is in context of people punishing crime in society.  Deut 5:9  is about what God does. The two can't be confused or conflated.  Big mistake.

God never tires or rest. IS 40:28 but Is 1:14; Is 43:24

More stupidity. Isaiah 40:28 is about God not being able to be tired with respect to becoming weak after exertion. God doesn't do that. Isaiah 1:14 and 43:24 are about about being fed up with circumstance and situation. This shows that God's patience does have limits.

Debunking Christianity: Bible Contradiction Quiz Show