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By D. Gene West
From time immemorial every time someone has wanted to ignore the teachings of Scripture, substitute another book for the Bible or begin writing some religious dogma that cannot be found on the pages of sacred Scripture, he has begun an unashamed attack on the Word of God. Almost always this attack begins with the accusation that we need the book they want as a bible, or that we cannot trust the Bible because it is full of contradictions. Almost every false religion in the world from Islam right down to some of the cults that came into existence in our country in the last two hundred fifty years, we have heard the cry go up, “You can=t trust your Bible, it is full of contradictions.” The next most frequently heard cry is: “You can=t trust your Bible; it has been translated so many times that it is no longer reliable.” To all these people we issue one simple challenge—show them to us!
Friends, it is a show of very poor grace on the part of people who are a cult, but are wanting to be recognized as an important American denomination to advertise about family values and some other such subject, offer to send you a King James Version of the Bible if you will send your name and address to them, when in reality they want to send you another book that contradicts the Bible. This book was written by a mere man, whose morals are highly suspect, to say the least, and has nothing to do with the salvation of the human soul. After these people have given you the book they want you to have, they will then begin to teach you that your Bible is full of contradictions! If that is true, why did they give you one in the first place? To these people we issue the very same challenge concerning their accusation—show them to us!
We do this in light of two
important facts. (1) They
have never produced a real contradiction in Scripture. (2) Their own
“holy book”
that is supposed to explain the origin of the American Indians has had
more
than 3,900 corrections made to it down through the years.
(Incidentally, recent
DNA studies show that the so-called “native
Americans” are in no way related to
the Jews. According to the book in which these poor deluded people
place so
much confidence, the native Americans are a part of the ten lost tribes
of
It is an equal show of poor grace to have people going from door to door giving, or selling magazines, produced in a large eastern city of the US, claiming that they have all the answers to all the religious questions in today’s world. When you point out to them that most, if not all, their answers contradict the Bible, the hue and cry goes up, “You can’t trust the Bible; it is full of contradictions!” To these people we offer the same challenge—show them to us! In an effort to do this, these people who have translated their own Bible and put their doctrine in it at every turn of the road, will point out that various Old Testament names are spelled differently in the New Testament. That is true, but that is by no means a contradiction. It only shows a difference in spelling when certain words are translated from one language into another.
Let us be sure about what a contradiction is by giving an example of one. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” are the opening words of the Bible. If somewhere else in the Bible you found these words, “In the beginning evolution brought about the heavens and the earth,” then you would have a contradiction, because a thing cannot be true and not be true at the very same time.
We challenge any of the
people of whom we have spoken
to show even one apparent contradiction in the Word of God that cannot
be
explained by a reading of the common text, that is, a common
translation of
Scripture in our own language. We hasten to point out that particular
translations of the Scripture made to uphold certain false teachings
such as
Jesus Christ is not God, are not considered common translations, but
false
ones. People making such false accusations have absolutely no idea of
how we
got our Bible in the first place and probably do not realize they are
accusing
God of producing a book that He cannot keep free of corruption.