Isn’t the Bible full of contradictions?

Isn’t the Bible full of contradictions?

I remember being asked this on a late night radio phone-in programme. The radio host asked the questioner for an example, but none could be thought of. As a result the radio interviewer told him to ‘Get off the air and stop wasting our time’. I never spoke a word in answer to that question!

Since my Christian conversion years ago, I have systematically read through the Bible many times. I have never found any contradiction in it. It fit together like a complete interlocking jigsaw.

Although a library of books, it is perfectly complete. It has common themes: God is good, life is tough, humanity is sinful, Christ is the Saviour, faith in Him is God’s only way to eternal life.

‘An eye for an eye……’ and ‘Turn the other cheek’ is often posed as a contradiction. In fact these two are both valid. ‘An eye for an eye..’ was God’s instruction to the nation of Israel who was given the duty to uphold the law and order and not punish society’s wrongdoers excessively, but with punishment that would fit the crime. That is still valid for governments today. Speaking to individuals, Jesus taught that they should not take the law into their own hands. Instead they should turn the other cheek for Christ’s sake, leaving the enforcement of law and order to the bodies responsible.

One command is for the nation, the other for individuals. Both are valid. If one can take verse out of context and setting in which they were written, of course one can make it appear that there are contradictions in the Bible, but that is not being fair to God’s Word, or to one’s own mind.

The message of the Bible is too important to play games with.

‘It is not the parts of the Bible I don’t understand which trouble me, but the parts I do understand’ – Mark Twain