Bible

John’s gospel is constructed around a series of signs – seven in particular – that he masterfully employs to prove that Jesus is the Eternal Word who was from the beginning with God and was God, who was now made flesh and dwelt among us. The entire flow of John’s gospel is focused on a series of narratives exhorting the reader to come to a firm conviction that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. This exhortation to believe is, subsequently, accompanied by a promise: all who come to believe in earnest that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, by believing, receive eternal life in His name. Accordingly, it would help to remember as well these words from chapter 1 where we are introduced to the major themes that John unfolds over the next 20 chapters. In 1:11-13 we read:

He came to His own, and His own people did not receive Him. But to all who did receive Him, who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. 

From these words we could distill this core idea: all who believed in His name were born of God, that is, they received eternal life in His name “as a result of” their faith. But there is another idea here that is equally fundamental to John’s purpose, to Christian theology, and to our practical understanding even today. All who believed in His name were born of God, but that is a passive reality: “they were born.” The Author of our spiritual birth is not us but Christ – the One who gives us the right to become a child of God. This much then is elementary to our Christian understanding: there is but one way to eternal life: faith in Christ the Son of God. 

But our understanding of eternal life must include the fact that such life is granted by the Son of God. It is not something we achieve; it is something we receive. It is not something we work for; it is something already accomplished for us. Jesus alone is the one who gives eternal life. As He said in John 5:21: “For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom He will.”

No doubt you’ve heard someone emphatically claim, “The Bible’s full of contradictions.” This is a common objection raised by critics of the Bible for why Christian faith is unreasonable. But what is often left out of the discussion is any clear idea of what exactly constitutes a contradiction.

A contradiction should be distinguished from a discrepancy. A discrepancy is where there are seeming but reconcilable inconsistencies between two versions of the same story. For example, Matthew 27:5 says that Judas hanged himself, but Acts 1:18 says that he fell headlong, and “burst open in the middle and all his entrails gushed out.” There seems to be a discrepancy between these versions of Judas’ death. But is it a contradiction? Actually no. In this case, the answer seems simple. Judas hanged himself, and his body was left alone to bloat and rot until the corpse finally fell to the ground below.

On the other hand, a contradiction is saying two different and mutually exclusive things about the same thing at the same time: Judas hanged himself; Judas did not hang himself. I am typing at the computer and I am not typing at the computer at the same time in reference to the same thing. That’s a contradiction. But I could be typing at the computer and drinking coffee at the same time. To some, even that would appear as a discrepancy. But it’s not hard to explain, as you might suspect. This is the same kind of thing that happens with many so-called contradictions in the Bible – they turn out to be discrepancies easily reconciled with a little bit of context and thoughtfulness.

A few years ago a very specific question was posed to me in which a man alleged a particular contradiction in the Bible: Did Saul kill himself (1 Sam. 31:4), or did a young man kill him upon David’s request (2 Sam. 1:15)? Following is the answer I gave to him: 

This is a great question and one that just happens to bring up one of my favorite passages in the Bible insofar it reveals once again the depths to which men will often sink in order to advance their own selfish interests. If not for the light of God’s word, we would all remain blind to the sickness that resides in our own hearts (Jer. 17:9-10). In the first account (1 Sam 31:1-6), the Bible says that Saul committed suicide, but in the second passage (2 Sam 1:1-16) it records that a man from Saul’s camp took his life at the dying Saul’s request. While superficially this may appear a contradiction, the resolution is actually rather plain and simple.

The account in 1 Sam 31 is a straightforward historical account of what took place in the battle. Saul, upon recognizing his mortal wound and fearing humiliation and torture at the hands of the enemy, went ahead and took his own life. The account in 2 Sam 1, on the other hand, is the story made up by one of Saul’s men, who upon realizing that his lord was gravely wounded and knowing that David was God’s chosen heir to the throne, thought he could gain favor with the incoming administration by claiming to have personally ensured Saul’s death, thereby securing David’s immediate ascendancy. In other words, he lied about his role in Saul’s death thinking that his self-proclaimed act of heroism would impress David. The problem was that he grossly miscalculated how David would react to the fall of the Lord’s anointed, presuming that David would thereby rejoice and maybe even exalt the one who helped bring it about. But David himself had already passed up several opportunities to kill Saul with his own hands, so it is not surprising that he lamented over the news of Saul’s death, or that he was indignant over the young man’s vain attempt to exploit it for the sake of cheap political points.

There is no contradiction here; only illumination. It should be noted as well that the Scripture never says that the young man killed Saul at David’s request. David’s command in 2 Sam 1:15 is for the young man himself to be executed because of his admission, though evidently false, to have destroyed the Lord’s anointed. 

We come to our fourth and final look at prayer in the book of Nehemiah. Over the three previous posts (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3) we witnessed prayer as a central feature of Nehemiah’s work of rebuilding the wall. Beginning with his initial prayer for God to restore the city and the people, to his prayerful response in the face of determined opposition, to the lengthy and moving public confession in chapter nine, Nehemiah’s life was lived and his work was accomplished in humble recognition of and dependency upon God. Today we will look at one final aspect of Nehemiah’s prayer life, his frequent petitions for God to “remember.” 

Does God Require Memory Aids?

First, we have to ask: by asking God to remember, are we implying that He somehow forgot? The answer, of course, is “no.” The Bible teaches that God is omniscient; that is, His knowledge is infinite. 

God Himself is a Being without limits. That is, He is “infinite,” which simply means that He has no boundaries. No limitations can be assigned to His essence. Considering this divine reality, here might be a good place to ask: have you ever allowed yourself to be really impacted by the last words to that most famous hymn of all, Amazing Grace?

When we’ve been here ten thousand years
Bright shining as the sun.
We’ve no less days to sing God’s praise
Than when we’ve first begun.