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Reputed Biblical Moral Difficulties & Internal Confusion

Reputed Biblical Moral Difficulties & Internal Confusion

Last updated on: January 29, 2025 at 8:34 pm by Dave Armstrong

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Reputed Biblical Moral Difficulties & Internal Confusion 2025-01-29T20:34:10-04:00 Dave Armstrong

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Photo credit: Direction Paradox Contradiction, by CDD20 (12-3-21) [Pixabay / Pixabay Content License]

Chapter 10 of my book (available for free online), Inspired!: 198 Supposed Biblical Contradictions Resolved. See the Introduction and ch. 1: How Do Atheists Define a “Biblical Contradiction”? All Bible passages RSV unless otherwise noted.

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“Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being” (Gen. 2:7). Breath is central to the Genesis idea of life. In the verse above, “the man became a living being,” is literally translated as, “the man became a breathing creature.” Breath is roughly synonymous with life. Not only does the Bible say that the “breath of life” is what living things have, it’s what they don’t have when they die (Gen. 7:22; Deut. 20:16). “You formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb” (Psalm 139:13). “Knitted” is more literally “wove,” as would be done with a protective screen or fence woven from branches, and by implication it can mean to fence in, cover, or protect. Yes, it’s important for a fetus to be in a protective womb when it is developing, but this simply acknowledges the gestation process. During that process, you aren’t you, but (with luck) you will be by the end.

The fallacy here is thinking that breath is all there is to a living being — the totality of its “living principle” — , or that the Bible supposedly states that. The Bible simply notes the obvious fact that a living person breathes and that a dead person ceases to breathe. But does this logically deny or preclude other factors such as brain waves and a heartbeat? No. If I say, for example, “all baseball pitchers are able to throw a baseball,” I state a true and universal statement regarding baseball pitchers. But I have not exhausted all that they have to do to pitch with any success. They also have to 1) control the ball (i.e., throw strikes, and try to throw down and away, inside and outside, etc.), 2) be able to throw fast, 3) be able to throw a curve ball, and 4) be able to combine different pitches, to fool batters. Likewise, if I say, “all persons who are alive breathe” I haven’t exhausted all that is true about them; most notably, that they must also have brain waves and a heartbeat.

The atheist wants to play games with Psalm 139:13, but neglects to see the obvious presupposition that the Bible is obviously equating the preborn person with the person who continues to grow before birth and is eventually born, since the writer, King David, refers to “my inward parts” and “you knitted me” and “my mother’s womb.” It’s simple logic: 1) I am “me.” 2) If I refer to myself before I was born as “me”, it must refer to the same person. In other words, if a = b and b = c, then a = c. It’s one of the most basic rules of logic (called the transitive law). It’s the same person before or after birth. It’s easy to show that the Bible regards the preborn person as a person, indistinguishable in essence from a born person. I already showed how Psalm 139:13 presupposes this, by very basic logic. But there are more passages along these lines:

Genesis 25:21-22 And Isaac prayed to the LORD for his wife, because she was barren; and the LORD granted his prayer, and Rebekah his wife conceived. The children struggled together within her; . . .

Judges 16:17 “. . . I have been a Nazirite to God from my mother’s womb. . . .”

Ruth 1:11 Have I yet sons in my womb . . .?

Job 3:3 . . . “A man-child is conceived.”

Job 31:18 (for from his youth I reared him as a father, and from his mother’s womb I guided him);

Psalm 51:5 Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.

Isaiah 49:1, 5 . . . The LORD called me from the womb, from the body of my mother he named my name. . . . And now the LORD says, who formed me from the womb to be his servant, . . . (cf. 44:2, 24)

Jeremiah 1:5 Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.

Tobit 4:4 Remember, my son, that she faced many dangers for you while you were yet unborn. . . .

Wisdom 7:1 I also am mortal, like all men, a descendant of the first-formed child of earth; and in the womb of a mother I was molded into flesh,

Sirach 49:7 . . . he had been consecrated in the womb as prophet, . . .

2 Maccabees 7:27 . . . I carried you nine months in my womb, . . .

Luke 1:15 . . . he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb.

Luke 1:36 And behold, your kinswoman Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son; . . .

Luke 2:21 . . . he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb.

Romans 9:10 . . . Rebecca had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac,

Galatians 1:15 . . . he who had set me apart before I was born, and had called me through his grace,

What is the difference between these golden cherubim (Exod. 25:18-12) and the golden calf (Exod. 32:4-35)? Why is it permitted to fabricate golden cherubim and not the golden calf?

Short answer: because one was intended to be gross idolatry (the calf) and the other was a permitted non-idolatrous religious image, sanctioned by God. There are many examples of permitted images in Old Testament worship, including the temple and ark of the covenant (in other words, not all images were forbidden “graven images” or idolatrous). The ark of the covenant, which included the two golden cherubim on top, was never intended to be a representation of God. One can search the Bible in vain and never find the slightest hint of any such thing. But nowhere in the Bible are the Jews permitted to build a calf as an “image” of God. This was an outright violation of the injunctions against “molten images” (Exod. 34:17; Lev. 19:4; Num. 33:52; Deut. 27:15: all condemn such idols, using the same Hebrew word which appears in Exod. 32:4, 8, 17 (massekah). God made it clear that this was outrageous idolatry, in proclaiming: “they have made for themselves a molten calf, and have worshiped it and sacrificed to it” (Exod. 32:8; cf. Ps. 106:19-21).

Is anger in and of itself a sin (Matt. 5:22), or not necessarily (Eph. 4:26)?

Matthew 5:22 is a proverbial-type, non-literal utterance, which by nature allows of exceptions. The exception is precisely shown in Ephesians 4:26: “Be angry but do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger.” If it’s possible to be angry without sin, as this passage proves, then we can’t possibly make a blanket statement that all anger is sin, period. Matthew is not asserting that, anyway, because Jesus is uttering a proverb. But Paul in Ephesians is being literal. It’s apples and oranges being compared; therefore, no contradiction.

How can Paul teach us to not covet (Rom. 7:7; 13:9), but also teach that it’s okay (1 Cor. 12:31; 14:39)?

Clearly, different senses of the word “covet” are in play here. The Romans passages reiterate one of the Ten Commandments, where “covet” means “sinful desire for” or “jealousy”, “envy” etc. The Greek word used in both is epithumeó. It’s used mostly in this negative sense, but not always. 1 Corinthians 12:31, on the other hand, in RSV reads “earnestly desire.” The antiquated language of “covet” in the verse appears in only 6 out of 61 English translations that I have consulted. The Greek word in both passages in 1 Corinthians (also 14:1 in the same sense) is zéloó. It can be used in both senses: in a bad sense (envy, jealousy: see Acts 7:9; 17:5; 1 Cor. 13:4) and a good one, as in these two passages and 1 Corinthians 14:1): meaning “to desire earnestly or pursue.” The usage of the word “covert” is exactly the same in English. It has a “bad behavior” definition and a “good / neutral” one, much like the word “pride”: one of the deadly sins, but also used in a morally neutral sense of having pride in one’s children or spouse, etc.

How can the Bible teach that we must obey the laws of men as the will of God (Rom. 13:1-4; 1 Pet. 2:13-15), yet also teach that we must obey God, not men (Acts 5:29), with an example of disciples disobeying a Jewish council (Acts 5:40-42)?

Rules almost always have exceptions. Paul and Peter both gave the general good principle that — all in all — we obey laws and governments and rulers. But the Jewish council in Acts laid down an unjust law that no Christian could follow: “they . . .charged them not to speak in the name of Jesus.” Early Christians were murdered by the Roman government because they wouldn’t swear an oath to Caesar that violated their consciences. We mustn’t do the latter, and that sometimes means going against laws. Many laws have been unjust and wicked, such as those upholding slavery and legalizing childkilling and infanticide, along with a host of other immoral practices that laws sometimes protect and sanction.

How could Paul teach against stealing (Eph. 4:28), but then admit to stealing (2 Cor. 11:8)?

His statement, “I robbed other churches” (2 Cor. 11:8) is clearly sarcastic, arising from the circumstance of being falsely accused. He was graphically making the point that he had accepted monetary support from other local churches (“by accepting support from them in order to serve you”: 11:8; “my needs were supplied by the brethren who came from Macedonia”: 11:9), so that the Corinthians did not have to support him in that way (“I preached God’s gospel without cost to you”: 11:7; “I refrained and will refrain from burdening you in any way”: 11:9).

How could Paul state that he doesn’t use trickery (1 Thess. 2:3), but elsewhere admit that he did (2 Cor. 12:16)?

Paul does no such thing in 2 Corinthians. He was falsely accused of same by the Corinthians (“I was crafty, you say, and got the better of you by guile”). He asks rhetorically, in denial, in the next verse: “Did I take advantage of you . . .?” And he defends himself for two more verses, proclaiming in 12:19: “It is in the sight of God that we have been speaking in Christ, and all for your upbuilding . . .”

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Photo credit: Direction Paradox Contradiction, by CDD20 (12-3-21) [Pixabay / Pixabay Content License]

Summary: Ch. 10 of Dave Armstrong’s book, “Inspired!”: in which he examines 198 examples of alleged biblical contradictions & disproves all of these patently false claims.

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