I came across a couple of things this week that I thought were interesting. The first was a Facebook page on biblical inconsistencies. The second was a web page on biblical inconsistencies. Both sites were touting the ignorance of Christians who believed a Bible that they didn’t even know. Unfortunately, I had to agree with them on some level. Most Christians don’t know their Bible. At least not in the way we should. We know the major stories and the basis of our belief system, but do we really know the Bible? Enough to answer the critics who call us ignorant? Enough to answer the questions of a Google population? The Bible says that we are to “…Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect…”
Some of the discrepancies mentioned were discrepancies in the number of women who visited the tomb after the resurrection, (John mentions Mary Magdalene, Matthew says Mary Magdalene and another Mary, Mark mentions the two Mary’s and Salome and Luke just mentions that they were women – no names) whether the stone was rolled away from the tomb before or after the women arrived on the morning of the resurrection (Mark, Luke and John say yes, Matthew seems to indicate that it may not have been) and even whether God created man or vegetation first (Genesis 1 says vegetation first, Genesis 2 says that no plant of the field was yet in the earth when God formed Man).
Could you provide an argument for any of these discrepancies? Maybe. Did you even know there were supposed discrepancies between different accounts of the same event in the Bible? Probably not. And that’s OK. However, when a question about biblical events or doctrine are brought up to you, can you provide an answer? As Christians, we’re supposed to be able to. One of the reasons that this is so difficult for so many Christians is because we rely on someone else to do the Bible reading for us. We come to church on Sunday mornings expecting to be fed by the Pastor. After all, that’s what we pay him for, right? Not exactly. The problem with this line of thought is that we can’t possibly absorb all of the biblical knowledge that we need to sustain us in our Christian life by feeding from a specific person once a week. That’s like saying that we will only eat food once a week at a specific restaurant. All of us, no matter how spiritual we are, eat more than once a week.
We have to grow spiritually just as we do physically. All of us at some point were fed by our parents from a bottle. From there we progressed to baby food, and eventually to more solid food and again at some point we even began grabbing the food and feeding ourselves. Eventually, we matured to the point that when we were hungry, we sought out our own food source and fed ourselves and that’s how most of us are today. The exception to this rule would be those who are not physically or mentally able to care for themselves. The same is true of Christians spiritually.
When we became Christians, we needed someone to point out spiritual truths for us which we then absorbed. Eventually, we progressed to deeper spiritual truths and some even began grasping some of them for ourselves as we were taught. That’s where a vast number of Christians stop in their spiritual growth. We don’t ever get to the point where we discover spiritual truth for ourselves apart from our Pastors or mentors or the guy on TV who we watch because we like his voice. We don’t become self-feeders.
The other problem with this is one that I mentioned previously. You cannot possibly absorb enough spiritual truth to sustain you in your life by listening to a guy talk about the Bible once a week. That’s why so many of us have problems actually living the Christian life and the reason why so many of us are slandered for our lack of biblical knowledge. Because it’s true.
My challenge to you is to become a self-feeder. Does that mean you no longer need a Pastor? No. A Pastor should be one of the places, and for some it will be the main place, that we learn spiritual truth. But it should not be the only place we feed spiritually. The majority of Pastors are healthy, good people who have your best interest in mind and will feed you good food. However, Jude tells us that in the last days, there will be Pastors who look good, but are actually not good. This is the verse where we get the saying “Wolves in sheep’s clothing” from. How will we know the difference? By knowing the Bible for ourselves. By reading our Bibles at home. By finding someone – even someone on TV – who we can learn from. By feeding ourselves. A great way to do this is by reading things or listening to people that we don’t necessarily agree with. You’ll soon find yourself being able to validate your faith without even trying.
By the way – Plant life was created first, the stone was rolled away before the women got to the tomb and there were several women who went to the tomb that morning, although only 3 are mentioned by name. Do you know who they were?