Bible ‘Contradictions’ (Faithful Soldier 2008)

Bible Contradictions
Stephanie Charpentier

Is God good to all or only to some?
(Psa 145:9)  The LORD is good to all: and his tender mercies are over all his works.
(Jer 13:14)  And I will dash them one against another, even the fathers and the sons together, saith the LORD: I will not pity, nor spare, nor have mercy, but destroy them.

First we need to look at the context of Psalm 145:9. From reading just that verse on it’s own it looks like God is merciful to everyone, no matter what. But a few verses down, it says “…The LORD keeps all who love Him, But all the wicked He will destroy.”
Now let’s see how this relates to Jeremiah 13:14. First we must look at the preceeding verses. Verse 10 says “…This evil people, which refuse to hear my words, which walk in the imagination of their heart, and walk after other gods, to serve them, and to worship them, shall even be as this girdle, which is good for nothing.”
God was speaking through Jeremiah to Israel about their rebellion against God.
God blesses those who love Him, but the wicked He will destroy.
“The most common mistake of all Bible interpreters, icluding some critical scholars, is to a read a text outside it’s proper context….”  – Bakers

Is God a god of war or of peace?
(Exo 15:3)  The LORD is a man of war: the LORD is his name.
(Rom 15:33)  Now the God of peace be with you all. Amen.

In Exodus 15:3 we see God as a warrior. The context is the destruction of the Egyptian Army. They had enslaved the Israelite nation for years and God was delivering them out of the hands of the Egyptians. Romans on the other hand, is saying that He is a God of peace. And He is. But He, being God has plans to fulfill and the destruction of an evil army, to deliver His people, is not a contradiction to the verse in Romans.

How many stalls and horses did Solomon have?
(1 Kings 4:26)  And Solomon had forty thousand stalls of horses for his chariots, and twelve thousand horsemen.
(2 Chr 9:25)  And Solomon had four thousand stalls for horses and chariots, and twelve thousand horsemen; whom he bestowed in the chariot cities, and with the king at Jerusalem.

Concerning the number of stalls, we need to read this question more closely. It would seem that in 1 Kings, we are told how many horses Solomon had for his chariots — 40,000 horses. In 2 Chronicles, we are told how many stalls he had in which to keep his horses and chariots — 4,000 stalls. So he had 4,000 stalls, 10 horses in each stall, totalling 40,000 horses. It may also be however, that is was simply an error in the text.
“…Genuine mistakes have been found- in copies of the Bible text made hundreds of years after the autographs. God only uttered the original text of Scripture, not the copies.” – Bakers.

Who was the father of Joseph?
(Matt 1:16)  And Jacob begat Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ.
(Luke 3:23)  And Jesus himself began to be about thirty years of age, being (as was supposed) the son of Joseph, which was the son of Heli.

Joseph’s mother was originally the wife of Heli, but then he died without having children. Jacob then took the widow as his wife, and she had Joseph. So, while “Jacob begat Joseph”, legally Joseph was the son of Heli. Both were descendants of Zerubabel, and apparently Jacob was the nearest kinsman to Heli willing to fulfill the Levirite duty. Matthew follows the natural line of descent, while Luke follows the legal line of descent.
“Occasionally Biblical writers express the same thing in different ways, or at least from different view points, at different times stressing different things.” -Bakers

How many men were at the tomb?
(Matthew 28:1) In the end of the sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre.
(Mark 16:1) And when the sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, had bought sweet spices, that they might come and anoint him.
(John 20:1) The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark, unto the sepulchre, and seeth the stone taken away from the sepulchre.

“Assuming divergent accounts are false. Because two or more accounts of the same event differ, does not mean that they are mutually exclusive.” and “An infallible mathematical rule easily explains the problem. Where there are two there is always one.” -BAKERS