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Inspired!: 198 Supposed Biblical Contradictions Resolved

← All Books by Dave Armstrong / Sola Scriptura, the Bible, and the Authority of the Catholic Church

Dave Armstrong · June 2023

ePub — $9.99

print & e-book purchases support Dave’s full-time apologetics work

ABOUT THIS BOOK

Atheists love to claim the Bible is full of contradictions. Dave Armstrong takes 198 specific examples — every one of them an actual objection raised by an atheist or biblical skeptic, never hypothetical — and answers them one by one, showing how the alleged contradictions evaporate on close reading.

More from Dave about this book

[completed on 3 June 2023; 146+ pages; all biblical citations from RSV; available for FREE via linked installments on this page]

TABLE OF CONTENTS

✦ Introduction [read below]

✦ Chapter One: How Do Atheists Define a “Biblical Contradiction”? [read online]

✦ Chapter Two: Critics’ Misunderstanding of Biblical Idiom, Language, Theology, or Culture (#1-35) [read online]

✦ Chapter Three: Alleged Factual and Historical Discrepancies (#36-89) [read online]

✦ Chapter Four: Supposed Contradictions and Errors with Regard to Science (#90-95) [read online]

✦ Chapter Five: Manufactured “Contradictions” Based on Ignorance of Logic (#96-120) [read online]

✦ Chapter Six: God’s Revealed Nature and Character (#121-134) [read online]

✦ Chapter Seven: Allegedly Contradictory Accounts of the Infancy of Jesus (#135-138) [read online]

✦ Chapter Eight: Supposedly Clashing Reports of Jesus’ Passion and Crucifixion (#139-158) [read online]

✦ Chapter Nine: Claimed Inconsistencies in the Stories of Jesus’ Burial and Resurrection (#159-191) [read online]

✦ Chapter Ten: Reputed Biblical Moral Difficulties & Internal Confusion (#192-198) [read online]

✦ Appendix: Anthropomorphism and Anthropopathism [read online]

INTRODUCTION

Atheists, particularly of the “anti-theist” variety: those who specialize in a constant criticism of Christianity, Christians, and the Bible, are very fond of asserting ad nauseam that the Bible is chock-full of alleged “contradictions.” This, of course, is a disproof, as they see it, of Christian claims that the Bible is God’s inspired revelation, and/or infallible and inerrant. If it’s full of such errors, then clearly (I agree) it couldn’t and wouldn’t be inspired revelation. And then Christians would have a huge problem, since our faith is based on this Bible.

Continue reading (16 more)

Christian apologists like myself, as a result of these polemical and aggressive, even relentless attacks, have a duty to respond and to disprove a great number of the accusations of alleged massive self-contradiction. This duty flows not only from intellectual principle and the courage of one’s convictions, but also from the responsibility to those within the Christian community who may be stumbled or even lose their faith as a result of these attacks. And we need to be assured and confident that our faith and our Bible are harmonious with reason, including logic.

I have taken up this challenge, and my solutions or resolutions in this book came about and were stimulated as a result of direct challenges from atheists: either personally to me or expressed in articles that I have (I think) refuted. The material found herein is entirely of that nature: based on becoming familiar with a charge made by an atheist and then responding to it with a rebuttal.

There are no “hypothetical” atheist objections in this book. What is here was actually expressed by an atheist or other sort of biblical skeptic. Readers will see for themselves, how such critics reason, and (here’s the good news) how invariably weak – very often, downright foolish and silly — their reasoning is, again and again and again.

I respond in part because Christians, generally speaking (but especially Christian teachers, apologists, catechists, priests, pastors, theologians, etc.), are commanded to defend the faith and by extension, the Bible when they are attacked:

1 Peter 3:15 . . . Always be prepared to make a defense to any one who calls you to account for the hope that is in you, yet do it with gentleness and reverence;

Jude 3 . . . contend for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.

And I enter into a controversy like this with a robust faith in the power of Holy Scripture to bear witness to itself:

Hebrews 4:12 For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

That makes my job much easier. If indeed a set of books is inspired revelation, and therefore, powerful and moving, due to the fact that they are ultimately the product of not only an omniscient but an all-loving God, then in a sense this collection of canonical books, the Bible, can in effect fully defend itself. It is what it is. The work I am doing, though assuredly necessary, is merely laying out the internal consistency and coherence in the Bible that has always been there, as an inherent aspect of its majesty.

In other words, what I present is nothing new. People simply had to become aware of it. It’s a matter of “revealing the hidden treasures.” When a thing is true, it’s easy to defend, and I have found that to universally be the case in the course of this work (not to deny that some aspects of biblical defense involve more complexity and labor and probing than others). Truth possesses intrinsic power in a way that falsehood never can.

My book, The Word Set in Stone: How Science, History, and Archaeology Prove Biblical Truth (Catholic Answers Press, 2023) was devoted to external objective, scientific and historiographical verification of biblical accuracy and trustworthiness. This one is sort of a companion-piece or parallel work in relation to that volume, and it examines the internal objective logical verification of the Bible.

Is Holy Scripture able to “pass” both of these tests? I think it does so with flying colors! And I have provided readers with 198 separate arguments and abundant intellectual justification and warrant for believing this to be the case.

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Practical Matters: I run the most comprehensive “one-stop” Catholic apologetics site: rated #1 for Christian sites by leading AI tool, ChatGPT — endorsed by popular Protestant blogger Adrian Warnock. Perhaps some of my 5,000+ free online articles or fifty-six books have helped you (by God’s grace) to decide to become Catholic or to return to the Church, or better understand some doctrines and why we believe them.

Or you may believe my work is worthy to support for the purpose of apologetics and evangelism in general. If so, please seriously consider a much-needed financial contribution. I’m always in need of more funds: especially monthly support. “The laborer is worthy of his wages” (1 Tim 5:18, NKJV). 1 December 2021 was my 20th anniversary as a full-time Catholic apologist, and February 2022 marked the 25th anniversary of my blog.

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Summary: Book by Dave Armstrong (6-3-23), in which he examines 198 examples of alleged biblical contradictions and demonstrates that they actually aren’t that at all.

Get Inspired!: 198 Supposed Biblical Contradictions Resolved at Dave’s Bookstore

ePub — $9.99

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