Abstract

© Dr M D Magee
Contents Updated: Sunday, November 07, 1999

Source

Why do Christians, who believe God is good and wants to save people, think He presents his desire in such an utterly confusing way that needs incessant explaining away by clergy and evangelists? This evangelical Christian, after years of studying the Bible, came to recognize, even though it was contrary to all his hopes and left him broken hearted, that the many unanswered questions—euphemistically discarded as “difficulties” that ministers urge converts to ignore until their faith is secure—completely undermine Christianity, for anyone not happy to accept a faith that denies reason.

This article is an edited version of an article by James Buckner © Copyright 1997. An evangelical Christian of some sort called Candy Brauer is apparently proud of her answers to the tough questions posed by Buckner, but Buckner would not reply to such rubbish. Unfortunately, not replying leaves these Christian kooks thinking they have won the debate when their answers are absolute garbage based on wilful ignorance and disdain of scholarship in favour of false beliefs. So, I did reply, simply really to expose the wilful disdain for intelligence and the bigoted and intolerant ideas that these people have. Here is the correspondence to download for anyone who can bear to read it. It is a zipped TXT file of 119 KB which expands to 325 KB.

Problems with the Integrity of the Bible

Biblical Inconsistencies

•  Why do evangelical churches say there are no contradictions in the Bible, and other denominations keep quiet about them? There are too many to explain away, though that is the preferred evangelical method. Explaining away might have carried conviction in a few problematical verses but not in literally hundreds. See the works of Thomas Paine, Robert Ingersoll, Joseph Wheless, Dennis McKinsey, Farrell Till, and others. Many of these writings can be found on the Infidels website.

•  Why has the Old Testament nothing to say about hell, unlike the New Testament? Surely, a concept of hell would have been needed to discipline more primitive people rather than more sophisticated ones, if the explanation is to be progressive revelation. “Progressive revelation” itself sounds more like human evolution than the work of God.

•  Why have the earlier Old Testament chapters little to say about afterlife (see Ecclesiastes 9:5-6), while later Old Testament writings and the New Testament do?

•  Why do the churches maintain that God is not the author of confusion (1 Corinthians 14:33), but many biblical passages flatly contradict this? (Genesis 11:9; Exodus 14:24 and 23:27; Deuteronomy 7:23 and 28:20,28; Joshua 10:10. )

•  Was God known by the name Yehouah before Moses (Exodus 6:3), was he known by another name, (if so, why?) or was he simply another god whose legends have clumsily been used to create a compilation of scriptures (Genesis 4:26, 5:29, 9:24, 22:14, 27:20, 27:27, 28:20-21)?

•  Which “Ten Commandments” are the “Ten Commandments"—the ones listed at Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5, or the ones listed at Exodus 34? Only the list at Exodus 34 is explicitly called the “Ten Commandments” in the biblical text.

•  Was the Law given by Yehouah perfect (Psalms 19:7), or wasn’t it (Hebrews 8:6-8)?

•  Why can’t the six accounts of the resurrection be reconciled (Matthew 28, Mark 16, Luke 24, John 20-21, Acts 1:3-12, 1 Corinthians 15:3-8)? Paul says that without the resurrection, the Christian faith is in vain (1 Cor 15:14). How could the biblical accounts possibly disagree on such an important narrative?

•  Why were the disciples surprised by Jesus’s resurrection after Jesus had told them repeatedly to expect it (Matthew 16:21, 17:22-23, 20:17-19, Mark 9:31, 10:34, Luke 9:22, 18:33)? An angel even reminded the women that Jesus had told them of his impending resurrection (Luke 24:6-7). How is it that the women remembered his words (Luke 24:8), but the disciples didn’t (John 20:9, Luke 24:12)? Even Jesus’s enemies remembered that he had foretold that he would rise again (Matthew 27:63).

Biblical Ambiguities and Omissions

•  Why is the Bible unclear about how to be saved? Is there anything more important that the Bible could communicate? Why is it ambiguous and contradictory on this subject?

•  Why does Jesus teach salvation by works in the synoptic gospels, but John portrays him teaching salvation by faith?

•  Why does John not teach in his gospel that it is necessary to repent of our sins, since he states that his gospel was written specifically for the purpose of showing people how to be saved (John 20:31)?

•  Why is the nature and practice of the two sacraments—baptism and the Lord’s Supper—left ambiguous in the Bible, and a cause of discord among churches?

•  Why is Revelation incomprehensible if it is really “not sealed” (Rev 22:10)? Why are the prophecies in Daniel actually easier to understand, if they are sealed (Daniel 12:9)?

•  Why doesn’t the Bible provide unambiguous answers for major divisive doctrines like efficacy of baptism, paedobaptism, mode of adult baptism, soteriology, Christology, trinitarianism, satanology, angelology, nature of the afterlife, eschatology, fundamentals of the faith, the standing of Jewish believers in relation to the Law, the standing of gentile believers in relation to the Law?

Misinterpretation of Scripture by New Testament Figures

•  Why did the writers of the New Testament feel free to misquote and misinterpret the Old Testament and conflate verses (Matthew 3:3 versus Isaiah 40:3; Matthew 12:17-21 versus Isaiah 42:1-4; Matthew 13:35 versus Psalms 78:1-3; Acts 2:16-21 versus Joel 2:28-32; Acts 7:43 versus Amos 5:25-27; Romans 3:4 versus Psalms 51:4; Romans 9:33 versus Isaiah 28:16 and 8:14; Romans 10:6-8 versus Deuteronomy 30:12-14; Romans 11:9-10 versus Psalms 69:22-23; Romans 11:26-27 versus Isaiah 59:20-21; 1 Corinthians 3:20 versus Psalms 94:11; 1 Corinthians 15:54-55 versus Isaiah 25:8 and Hosea 13:14)?

•  Why did Matthew and Peter take Old Testament passages out of context to make them into prophecies, when they were never indicated to be prophetic by the Old Testament author (Acts 1:20 versus Psalms 69:25)?

•  Why did Mark misreference an Old Testament prophet (Mark 1:2. This misreference is found in the critical text, but not in the Textus Receptus, illustrating that the early church was willing to emend the holy scriptures to remove difficulties)? How can we rely on Mark to explain Old Testament prophecies to us if he is even mistaken about the source?

•  Why does Jude quote the non-canonical Book of Enoch as prophecy (Jude 14-15)? Did the Holy Spirit fail to inspire Jude with the fact that the Book of Enoch would not be accepted into the canon?

•  Why does Matthew quote a non-existent Old Testament prophecy (Matthew 2:23)? Was he using non-canonical writings, too?

•  Why does Matthew attribute a quote about the potter’s field to Jeremiah, when Jeremiah has no such passage, and the closest one in the Old Testament is Zechariah (Mt 27:9-10; Zech 11:12)?

•  Why doesn’t Paul ever quote Jesus from the gospel accounts, or show that he knew anything at all about Jesus’s teachings and life as portrayed in the gospels?

•  Why is no single hermeneutic adequate for interpretation of scripture? Why were the New Testament authors so free and loose in their hermeneutics? How could it be that the meanings of some words and phrases have been lost? How could it be that some cultural references have been lost? How can it be that many books and passages admit of multiple interpretations? Doesn’t God want us to understand his Word enough to protect the knowledge of its referents and use unambiguous diction and phraseology?

Failed Biblical Promises

•  Why doesn’t prayer work, when the Bible promises that it will (John 14:14)?

•  Why aren’t Christians doing greater works than Jesus did, since he himself said they would (John 14:12)? The context is clearly referring to miracles.

Failed Biblical Prophecies

•  Since the Old Testament books were all written long after the events, how are we to know that the Old Testament prophecies were not written before the events forecasted? Why are many Old Testament prophecies too vague to be tested? Why are many Old Testament prophecies “yet to be” fulfilled?

•  Why wasn’t Tyre destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar as prophesied by Ezekiel (Ezekiel 26)? When it was destroyed by Alexander the Great, why didn’t it remain desolate as prophesied by Ezekiel (Ezekiel 26:14, 27:36, 28:19; Wallace B Fleming, The History of Tyre, Columbia University Press, 1915, p. 64)?

•  How can it be that Isaiah prophesied a temporary destruction of Tyre, while Ezekiel prophesied a permanent destruction (Ezekiel 26:14,21; 27:36; 28:19 versus Isaiah 23:13-18)?

•  Why wasn’t there a 40-year period in Egypt’s history when the whole land was devoid of people and animals, as prophesied by Ezekiel (Ezekiel 29:11-12)?

•  Why produce a prophecy if it cannot be understood, yet so much of New Testament prophecy is incomprehensible?

Problems with Miracles

•  Why haven’t any of the miracles recorded in the Bible been independently confirmed?

•  Why don’t verifiable miracles happen today? What is to stop the devil from producing miracles, as some thought at the time of Jesus? What better way than miracles is there to convince people of the Christian message, and isn’t that the commission given to the church by Jesus?

•  Why don’t Christians accept miracle stories recorded in ancient non-biblical works? Don’t Christians simply accept a priori biblical miracles but reject all others? Aren’t the apologists’ “objective standards” for accepting or rejecting extra-biblical miracles post hoc?

Origin and Transmission of the Scriptures

•  Why is the authorship of most books of the Bible disputed? Why do many books of the Bible have no statement of authorship? Why are some books in the canon pseudepigraphical (lie about authorship)?

•  Why did the early church not revere the scriptures as Christians do today, so that they added interpolations and made emendations?

•  Why hasn’t the Bible been transmitted to us in perfect condition if it is so important and if God had his supernatural hand in it? Why did both Israel and the church add interpolations, emend, and conflate the texts?

The Canon

•  Why is the Mosaic injunction against false prophets (Deuteronomy 18:20-22) ignored in the canon? Unfulfilled prophecies should disqualify Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Jonah, Jesus and Paul:

The prophet, which shall presume to speak a word in my name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or that shall speak in the name of other gods, even that prophet shall die. And if thou say in thine heart, How shall we know the word which the Lord hath not spoken? When a prophet speaketh in the name of the Lord, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord hath not spoken.

•  Why is the canon disputed by the church? Is God content to let uninspired writings falsely be proclaimed as his Word? Furthermore, how do we know the canon is complete?

•  Why has no one been able to describe a consistent objective basis for establishing the canon? Why was the canon established by vote instead of on objective principles? Why was the canon not directly revealed by God?

•  Why is so much of New Testament doctrine revealed through the use of occasional letters instead of in systematic books written, authorized, and canonized specifically to define Christian doctrine? Why didn’t God deliver these himself, as he did the Law to Moses? Maybe this explains why the Old Testament Law has more clarity than the New Testament doctrines. Why did God leave the writing of systematic theologies to modern, uninspired writers, who cannot agree with one another?

Biblical Values

•  When Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit, why did God lie about what the outcome would be (Genesis 2:17) while the serpent told the truth (Genesis 3:5,22. Some modern translations soften Yehouah’s statement that Adam would die “in that day,” and so disguise the problem)?

•  Why are women treated as chattel and inferior to men throughout the Bible (The evidence is too overwhelming to cite even a representative portion of the relevant scriptures, but a few of the more explicit examples are 1 Corinthians 11:3,9; 1 Timothy 2:12-14. A good source of additional information on this topic is the Freedom From Religion Foundation, PO Box 750, Madison, Wisconsin 53701)?

•  Why is the Old Testament and most of the New Testament addressed only to free men, and not to women or slaves? Does God deal only with free males (The fact that God dealt with Israel during their slavery does not weaken the force of this question. Israel’s slavery was a temporary condition designed to underline Israel’s dependence on Yehouah. Yehouah began to deal with Israel when he was a free man)?

•  Why does the Bible condone slavery (see Exodus 21:20-21, Deuteronomy 15:17, Leviticus 25:44-46, Ephesians 6:5-7, 1 Timothy 6:1, Colossians 3:22, Titus 2:9, 1 Peter 2:18,21)?

•  Why does Yehouah command genocide, including the killing of infants (Numbers 21:34-35, Joshua 10:40, 1 Samuel 15:3,18, Jeremiah 50:21)? Why does he command that all women who have “known a man” be slaughtered, but the soldiers are to keep the young virgins for their own use (Numbers 31:14-18)? Why does the Bible portray Yehouah as worse than Hitler (Deuteronomy 20:16-17)? Isn’t it blasphemous to call the Bible “God’s Word,” when it libels him so? Or is it that God is not a good God, and is laughing up his sleeve at those who think he is despite his confessions to the contrary in His Holy Book.

•  Why doesn’t the Bible condemn polygamy? Is it not really a sin? The Bible seems to condone polygamy through examples of God blessing polygamists and by its explicit statements regarding David. If the answer is offered that God had not yet laid down the law, then the Bible was never meant to be eternally true, and the sins condoned in the older stories of Israel prove it.

•  Why wasn’t Lot condemned for giving his daughters to be abused by the men of Sodom (Genesis 19:8)? The Bible actually calls him righteous (2 Peter 2:7)!

•  How can US Christians say that the US First Amendment guarantee of freedom of religion is based on Judeo-Christian ethics when Deuteronomy 13:6-10 and 17:2-7 flatly contradict this?

•  How can being mauled by a bear possibly be a just punishment for name-calling (2 Kings 2:23-24)? Doesn’t this contradict God’s own edict of the time: “an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth?"

•  Why is faith—believing something for which there is no evidence—a virtue? Since Christians say it is, then why has God given us a brain?

•  Why is rational skepticism a vice? If Christianity is true, won’t the truth hold up under scrutiny? Shouldn’t the church welcome and promote rational skepticism as a way of confirming and spreading the faith when people see that it fails to undermine Christianity? Why isn’t skeptical literature studied and refuted in Sunday School classes?

Biblical Guidance

•  Why do Moses, Ezra, Jesus, and Paul all disagree on marriage and divorce? Moses allowed divorce, Jesus disallowed it and also allowed it, Paul allowed it, and Ezra actually commanded it to appease God (Ezra 10). How is an honest Christian supposed to know what to do in this area?

•  Why does the New Testament teach by example that major decisions should be decided by lot (in Acts chapter 1 when Matthias is chosen)?

•  Why doesn’t the Bible provide unambiguous guidance for major divisive issues like abortion, divorce, war, church discipline, lending and borrowing money, etc? Doesn’t God want the church to be united? Doesn’t God want individual Christians to know how they should live?

Conflicts with Science

•  Why does the Bible teach that the sky is a solid dome of transparent material with water above it (Paul H Seely, The Firmament and the Water Above: Part I: The Meaning of raqiaà in Gen 1:6-8, Westminster Theological Journal 53:241-261, Fall 1991, and …Part II: The Meaning of “The Water above the Firmament” in Gen 1:6-8, 94:47-63, 1992)? The water poured through the “windows of heaven” to cause Noah’s flood, and then presumably poured off the edge of the disk-shaped earth into the abyss.

•  Why does the Bible teach that goats will have striped offspring if they see stripes when they drink at the watering trough, when this has been discredited by modern genetics? (Genesis 30:37ff)

•  Why does the Bible record scientifically impossible events as factual—the creation narrative, Noah’s deluge, a solid dome over the sky, earth supported by a foundation? Why has the evangelical church produced “Creation Science” explanations that are complete nonsense? Why is it that none of the more rational reconciliations of science and the Bible survives scrutiny?

•  How can it be that Psalms 16 and Romans 1 teach that the creation is a reliable means of knowing God ("natural theology"), but the scientific study of biological and geological origins contradicts the creation narrative in Genesis? Why does “natural theology” contradict “revealed theology” (the Bible)? Is the creation bearing false witness? Is the Bible bearing false witness?

Absurd Doctrines

•  Where is the justice in punishing us for Adam’s sin? The Bible itself says that children will not be punished for the parents’ sins (Deuteronomy 24:16). Furthermore, if God really created Adam not knowing either good or evil (Genesis 3:22), how could such a harsh and enduring punishment as death for Adam and all his descendants possibly be just? Our secular courts are more just than God when they show mercy on people who cannot distinguish between right and wrong, such as children and the mentally handicapped. And why isn’t this doctrine of original sin found anywhere in the Bible except in Paul’s writings?

•  Where is the justice in punishing Jesus for our sins? If our courts of law were to accept the punishment of someone else in the place of the criminal, we would not say that justice has been done, but that injustice has been added to injustice. Would the church have me believe that two wrongs make a right?

•  How can sacrificing Jesus on behalf of the sinner atone for another’s sin? This would be like killing my child to reconcile for the misbehaviour of my neighbour’s child. I have the capacity simply to forgive and forget without demanding compensation for small offenses. Why can’t God do this? Does he simply want blood?

•  Why pray? If it changes God’s mind then he is not sovereign. If it does not change God’s mind then it is superfluous.

•  How can the doctrine of the Trinity possibly be true? Any attempt to make sense of it leads to contradictions. If it is so important, why isn’t it clearly taught in the Bible? Why shouldn’t an objective student of the doctrine conclude that it was created by the church to hide biblical inconsistencies about the nature of Christ behind a shroud of mystery?

•  What is God’s purpose in being invisible, undetectable and unprovable, yet expecting us to worship him unreasoningly.

•  Why have all the rational arguments for the existence of God been successfully refuted? If God exists, is it unreasonable to suppose that he would offer at least one irrefutable proof of his existence?

•  Why haven’t the existing proofs of God’s non-existence been refuted? How can believers, with the advantage of an indwelling Holy Spirit of “infinite mind,” be stumped by the “finite minds” of unbelievers working within the presumed limitations of reason?

•  Why is God concerned about humans at all? If God is infinite then we must be infinitesimal to him, invisibly tiny specks in the universe. If God is eternal then we must be instantaneously expunged flits of life, too transient for an eternal being to notice. Christianity has the hallmarks of a religion of human scale and fallibility made by priests for their own ends.

•  Why is it that some teachings are conveniently tautological (circular)? You must pray the will of God for prayer to be answered; you must believe the Bible in order to understand the Bible; the Bible is the Word of God, therefore it is true.

•  How does “loving God and enjoying him forever” give meaning to life? Secular activity can give meaning to life. Why does the Christian assume that a metaphysical meaning for life is necessary? Isn’t it the Christian who imposes meaninglessness on this present life, declaring that meaning depends for its existence on the life to come? And if Christians did not believe they will live forever, would they continue to love and serve God? Isn’t it really eternal life that the Christian loves, and not God? If purpose in this present life is really derived from loving and serving God, then what sense does it make for Christians to make meaning dependent upon a future life?

•  Where is objective, verifiable evidence that a soul or spirit exists and survives the body after death? Why does the Old Testament deny such an idea until the later writings, which show the influence of Persian and Greek ideas? “Progressive revelation” fails to explain this.

Intractable Theological Problems

•  How could Adam and Eve ever have sinned if God had actually created them perfect, even if they did have free will? If God created them imperfect, how could a perfect just being blame them then for being imperfect?

•  How can evil exist in the world if God is simultaneously good, omnipotent, and loving? Why is it that no theodicy (explanation of God’s creation of evil) stands up under rational scrutiny?

•  Why does the church say God did not create evil, when he himself claims that he did in Isaiah 45:7, Lamentations 3:38, and Amos 3:6? Despite the renderings in the modern translations, the Hebrew word is the same as that translated “evil” in numerous other passages. Even in the modern renderings, how can the Christian explain God causing “calamity” (NASB) or “woe” (NRSV) or “disaster” (NIV)?)?

•  Why does God expressly take credit for creating disabilities (Exodus 4:11)? If these are God’s doing, then why does the evangelical church insist that disabilities are the result of the fall, or of Satan’s work?

•  Why would a loving, omnipotent, benevolent god cause people to believe falsehoods so that he can condemn them (2 Thessalonians 2:11-12)?

•  Why is the Bible inconsistent on major theological issues such as the nature and existence of an afterlife, the efficacy of works of the Law with regard to salvation, and the distinction between soul and spirit?

•  Why does the evangelical church speak of absolute values when the Bible teaches situational ethics (David’s eating the showbread, and Jesus’s Golden Rule)?

•  Why is it not possible to formulate a systematic theology that agrees with the Bible in all points? Roman Catholic theology introduces unbiblical and irrational ideas; Calvinistic reformed theology stumbles at the existence of evil; covenantal theology muddles the biblical distinctions between Israel and the church; dispensational theology is too hopelessly complex to be credible because every major inconsistency is explained away by spuriously introducing a new “dispensation;” and Arminianism destroys the sovereignty of God.

•  Why doesn’t the Bible itself present its own “revealed” systematic theology. Doesn’t God want us to have a consistent and complete framework of theology to support right decision making and teaching others?

Blemishes on the Church

Unbiblical and Inconsistent Practices of the Church

•  Why does the church worship on Sunday, when the seventh day (Saturday) was established forever? There is no biblical support for Sunday worship. It is a tradition of the Catholic Church taken from Roman sun worship and Protestants freely accept it.

•  Why do many evangelical churches deny that baptism is essential for salvation, when the New Testament clearly teaches that it is (Mark 16:16; Acts 2:28; Acts 2:41; Acts 22:10 + Acts 9:6 + Acts 22:16; 2 Corinthians 5:17 + Romans 6:3-6)?

•  Why do some churches object to wine since the Bible indicates that it is a gift from God (Psalms 104:14-15. Jeremiah 13:12, Joel 2:19, Deuteronomy 14:25-26, Isaiah 25:6, Deuteronomy 7:13)? How can they still object though they acknowledge that Jesus turned water into wine in large quantities for a party? Is this a “hangover” from temperance? The Bible promotes drunkenness in Proverbs 31:6-7, and for Jews provides the basis for a drunken festival in Esther.

•  Why does the modern evangelical church embrace the extra-biblical doctrines of “having a personal relationship with Christ”, having a “quiet time," “journaling,” and the necessity of belonging to an “accountability group?” Doesn’t the church understand its own religion? Why is it caught up in pop-religion? If these are not really doctrines of the church, then why is there social pressure to conform?

•  Why does the church teach tithing for Christians, when it is only commanded of Old Testament Israel? Why didn’t Paul teach tithing to the New Testament church when he had the opportunity to (2 Corinthians 9)?

•  Why do some churches ignore controversial teachings in the Bible, such as speaking in tongues, baptism for the dead, the requirement for women to wear head coverings and to remain silent, the identification of the “sons of God” in Genesis 6, the necessity of poverty in order to follow Jesus (Luke 14:33), etc? Doesn’t the Holy Spirit reveal the true meaning of these passages to believers? If so, why do sincere believers come to opposite conclusions on their own, and why aren’t they able to come to agreement when they discuss it with each other? Surely, Jesus is with them to guide them when two or three are gathered together in his name, isn’t he, even if they misapprehended the Spirit’s guidance when they were on their own?

•  Why must Christians resort to divination (looking for “guidance,” looking for “doors of circumstance to open or close,” etc) if the Holy Spirit dwells within them? What is the benefit of an indwelling Holy Spirit if it doesn’t manifest itself in day-to-day living, and it has to be coaxed into revealing God’s will in major decisions?

•  Why do Christians pray about whether to marry someone, when Paul says that if they want to get married they should just do it (1 Corinthians 7)?

•  Why does the evangelical church rail against one-world government, since they say it is God’s plan as revealed in Revelation? How can they justify speaking and acting against God’s revealed plan?

The Headless Church

•  Why is the church subject to the same social movements as the rest of society? If the church is headed by the living Christ, shouldn’t the institution be a steady keel in a stormy sea?

•  Why does the church trail rather than lead in social reforms (the rise of capitalism, the rise of the scientific method and critical thinking, the abolition of slavery, the eradication of Nazism, women’s suffrage, the civil rights of African Americans after the abolition of slavery)? And why does the church dishonestly claim leadership in these reforms after the fact?

•  Why are the church’s day-to-day practices guided by cultural norms rather than by the perfect, absolute, unchangeable norms of God and the Bible? Why do some churches separate children from their families and age-grade them like the schools, why does the church propagate self-help ideology when the message of the Bible is dependence upon God, why does the church accept and participate in competition where it has rejected it in the past (the ancient Olympics were outlawed by the church through direct governmental influence, and the modern Olympics were not revived until the church lost its hold on secular government), why has the service of women in the church been addressed only after secular culture has addressed women’s issues, why does the style of music in the church and church architecture follow cultural patterns instead of defining cultural patterns?

•  Why doesn’t the church understand Jesus’s teachings? Why are most preachers afraid to preach straight through a gospel from beginning to end?

•  Why do they skip over Jesus’s “difficult” sayings and the enigmatic passages?

Character of the Church

•  Why has the church done so little good and so much harm in 2000 years, while science has demonstrated remarkable progress in only 500 years? What does it say of the church that the period when it dominated western history is universally called the Dark Ages, while the period of breaking away from church dogma is called the Enlightenment?

•  Why are the Crusades and the Inquisition and other church-sponsored atrocities politely ignored in many church education programs, leaving church members to learn of these in other venues, or, more likely, to remain ignorant of the heritage of the institution to which they belong and contribute.

•  Why does the church conceal and ignore and misrepresent legitimate criticisms and critics? If Christianity is undoubtedly true, why doesn’t the church demonstrate it by refuting the whole body of skeptical literature in Sunday School classes? The church isn’t trying to hide something is it? How can the church possibly maintain credibility when it is so blatantly partisan on the side of dogma, and obviously not dispassionately seeking truth wherever the evidence may lead.

•  Why do so many members of the church dismiss the skeptical and unbelievi ng arguments without even giving them a fair hearing, especially since the Bible itself condemns such behaviour: “He who answers before listening—that is his folly and his shame,” (Proverbs 18:13, NIV), and “The first to present his case seems right, till another comes forward and questions him,” (Proverbs 18:17, NIV).

Problems with Jesus’s Credentials and Character

•  Why are many Old Testament prophecies about Jesus referred to in the New Testament taken out of context, not being messianic prophecies at all (Matthew 3:3 versus Isaiah 40:3; Matthew 4:13-16 versus Isaiah 9:1-2; John 19:36 versus Psalms 34:20; John 19:37 versus Zechariah 12:10)? Why would Jesus’s disciples, and Jesus himself in Matthew 4:13-16, misrepresent the Old Testament text? Surely the Son of God would not allow a disciple to persist in distorted understanding of the scriptures, nor teach a synagogue class an unjustified misinterpretation of scripture?

•  Why doesn’t Jesus fit the real, clearly identifiable, messianic prophesies of the Old Testament? Why do the gospel writers ignore these prophecies? Why does the church condemn first century Jews for rejecting Jesus as the Messiah, when he clearly does not fulfill the Old Testament prophecies of Messiah? Why must we wait until Jesus’s second coming—and for 2000 years evangelicals have been telling us it will be “soon"—to see the clearest prophecies fulfilled?

•  Why do the two genealogies of Jesus in Matthew and Luke disagree? If someone is declared to be the son of God, surely these credentials are superfluous, yet, if necessary to the word of God, they ought to be impeccable, mustn’t they? Two variant and theologically unnecessary genealogies cast suspicion on the true origin of this man and the author of the Holy Book.

•  Why does the genealogy in Matthew 1 show that Jesus descended through a cursed line (Matthew 1:11-12 + Jeremiah 22:28-30 and 1 Chronicles 3:16 + Jeremiah 36:30 versus Luke 1:32)? Jeconiah (Jehoiachin) and his father Jehoiakim were both cursed by God himself, who said that neither of these men would have any descendent on the throne of David. How could Jesus possibly be the Messiah, destined to rule forever on the throne of David, if he descended through either of these men?

•  If the genealogy in Luke is that of Mary and not Joseph, then why does it list Joseph in the line rather than Mary? Why is no other genealogy of a woman recorded anywhere else in scripture? And if this is Mary’s genealogy, then Jesus descended through Nathan, not Solomon, making the prophecies in 2 Samuel 7:12-16 and 1 Chronicles 22:10 false.

•  If, using the genealogy in Luke, Jesus’s claim to descent from David, of the tribe of Judah, is through Mary rather than Joseph then how can it be that Mary’s cousin, Elizabeth, was descended from the house of Aaron, of the tribe of Levi (Luke 1:5)?

•  Why does Jesus misquote the Old Testament (Matthew 4:10 versus Deuteronomy 6:13; Matthew 11:10 versus Malachi 3:1; Matthew 21:16 versus Psalms 8:2; Luke 4:17-21 versus Isaiah 61:1-2)?

•  Why does Jesus refer to the writings of Moses (Mark 12:26), when it is clear that Moses could not possibly have written the Pentateuch (this is firmly established by pentateuchal anachronisms detailed in numerous critical sources)? Surely the son of God would know more about the Word of God than anyone else, wouldn’t he?

•  How can it be that Jesus contradicts the Old Testament (1 Samuel 21-22), saying that Abiathar gave David the showbread instead of Ahimelech, and saying that David had men with him, when he was actually alone (Mark 2:25-26)? Does the church expect me to rely upon the teachings of a “son of God” who is demonstrably mistaken about what God’s Word says?

•  Why does Jesus quote a non-existent verse of Old Testament scripture (John 7:38)? Is it possible that he considered other non-canonical writings also to be God’s Word?

•  Why would Jesus deliberately obscure the gospel by speaking in parables so that people would not understand, turn, and be forgiven (Mark 4:11-12)? Did he not come that all men might be saved?

•  Jesus was laid in the tomb late on Friday afternoon. He prophesied he would be there three days and three nights (Matthew 12:40), meaning until late on Monday afternoon? Why then was he risen at first light on Sunday having been in the tomb only for Friday night, Saturday daytime and Saturday night—two nights, one day and a bit of a day (Friday). Even if fractions of a day are counted inclusively counting them as full days after the ancient habit, then Jesus still fell short of his prophesy by a night—Sunday night. Should a Christian expect the son of God to say precisely what he means?

•  Why would Jesus prophesy that his kingdom would come in glory before some of those listening to him died, but the kingdom still has not come (Matthew 16:18, Matthew 10:23, Mark 9:1, Luke 21:31-32)? Do Christians realise the son of God several times spoken false prophecy?

•  Why did Jesus say his followers must hate their families? Surely, when the son of God said “hate” he meant “hate,” didn’t he? Why would the son of God confuse us by using hyperbole? How could the examples of Luke 9:59-62, even if allegorical, be hyperbole anyway? Jesus clearly called a man to the irresponsible, disrespectful action of leaving his father, implying that he was not even to attend his funeral, and he called another to leave his family without even saying farewell or letting them know he was deserting them.

•  Why was Jesus disrespectful of his mother (Matthew 12:46-50, Mark 3:31-35, Luke 8:19-21, John 2:4)? In John 2:4, Jesus uses the same words with his mother that demons use when they meet Jesus. (Compare John 2:4 with Matthew 8:29, Mark 5:7, Luke 4:34, and Luke 8:28 in literal translation.) Surely the son of God knew that Mary had the blessing of the Father, didn’t he, not to mention that the son of God should never be rude?

•  Why did Jesus lie to his brothers about going to Jerusalem in John 7:8-10? (The “yet” inserted in some modern translations is not found in the earliest extant manuscripts. This is an example of modern emendation of holy scripture. The more honest translations, like the King James Version, print “yet” in italics, indicating that the word has been added in translation. The New American Standard Bible does not insert the word, remaining true to the critical Greek text. But the New International Version inserts “yet” in normal typeset, relegating the explanation of its dubious character to a footnote, where many uncritical readers will miss it. Did God the Father send a lying spirit, as he did in 1 Kings? Like Father, like Son?

•  Why did Jesus, by his own admission, break the Sabbath law (John 5:16-18)? Jesus plainly said that he was working, in violation of the Sabbath law. If he was not really working, then he lied. This refutes the belief that the perfect Jesus fulfilled the whole Law, and therefore was a suitable unblemished sacrifice for our sins.

•  Why did Jesus say the ruler’s daughter was not dead? (Matthew 9:18-25; Luke 8:41-56) Either Jesus lied, or he performed no miracle, but the context clearly shows that it was understood to be a miracle.

Evolution of Religion by Naturalistic Social Processes

•  If Christian theology and the church have a supernatural origin in an omnipotent God, then why has theology and the church evolved through naturalistic social processes over time?

•  Why does theology change from the beginning of the Bible to the end? Why are the later writings influenced by Persian and Greek thought like, immortality? Why is there such a large theological gap between the Old and New Testaments? The changes are not explainable by “progressive revelation,” or by any systematic theology.

•  Why was the doctrine of the Trinity unknown to the church until the fourth century? Why was the doctrine established by vote instead of by revelation? Why was the membership of the voting council loaded with Athanasians? Why was belief in this, then new, doctrine made a condition for membership in the church? Why were Arians exiled and executed?

•  Why does Jesus have the characteristics of earlier Pagan suffering saviours of mythology? Why don’t Christians believe any of the other virgin births and saviour stories recorded in ancient literature? What is the basis of their distinguishing them from the Christian myth? How is it that the ritual of Christian communion existed in earlier Pagan ceremonies of eating the body and drinking the blood of their gods, like Dionysos? How is it that the Christian ritual of baptism also existed in earlier Pagan cults, like Isis? Weren’t the very defining doctrines of Christianity actually assimilated from the endemic Pagan cults?

•  Why are Easter, Christmas, the Lenten season, rogation days, and others, derived from Pagan holidays. Isn’t it suspicious that Christianity emerged with no legitimate calendar of commemorations of its own, and when people came to think about these things, the calendar of festivals Christianity was found to be throughly Pagan?

•  How did liberal Christians and their churches come to exist? If they are inclined to believe, why did they not continue to believe the “fundamentals?” Could it be because the fundamentals have insurmountable problems that discredit them? If the “fundamentals” are unnacceptably flawed for liberals, why do they believe at all?

Conclusion

•  Why hasn’t the church answered these questions adequately in 2000 years? Is it because the church has no answers?

Skeptical Resources—Internet infidels | Jesus Never Existed | Steven Carr’s Website | Christianism | Early Christian Writings | God is Imaginary | “Religion Detoxification” | Our Judaio-Christian Heritage | Archaeoastronomy | No Deity | No Beliefs | Evil Bible | Bible God | ex-Christians | Jesus Police | Islamic Faith Freedom | Atheist Experience | American Atheists | Jovial Atheist | Askwhy! books
Other Resources—Early Christian Docs | Resources for Study | Traditional Bible-History | Traditional Bible World History | Traditional Bible History | about.com biblical history | Apologetics web sites | Advent Ch Fathers | Orion center links | Wikipedia | Traditional Jewish History