Bible Contradiction? At his baptism, did God address Jesus directly?

For today’s post we will tackle the question the Skeptic Annotated Bible asked: At his baptism, did God address Jesus directly?

Here are the two answers which the skeptic believes shows a Bible contradiction:

Yes

“and a voice came out of the heavens: “You are My beloved Son, in You I am well-pleased.”” ( Mark 1:11)

“and the Holy Spirit descended upon Him in bodily form like a dove, and a voice came out of heaven, “You are My beloved Son, in You I am well-pleased.”” (Luke 3:22)

No, God addressed those who witnessed his baptism.

“and behold, a voice out of the heavens said, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased.”” (Matthew 3:17)

(All Scriptural quotation comes from the New American Standard Bible)

Here’s a closer look at whether or not there is a contradiction:

1. When dealing with skeptics’ claim of Bible contradictions it seems one can never be reminded enough of what exactly is a contradiction.  A contradiction occurs when two or more claims conflict with one another so that they cannot simultaneously be true in the same sense and at the same time.  To put it another way, a Bible contradiction exists when there are claims within the Bible that are mutually exclusive in the same sense and at the same time.
2. We must ask what would the answers have to be in order for their to be a contradiction for the question “At his baptism, did God address Jesus directly?”  It would have to be an answer in which some of the verses in the Bible record God the Father addressing Jesus directly while other verses would deny that the Father directly addressed Jesus during His baptism.
3. The next question would be whether or not the “Yes” and “No” answers that the Skeptic Annotated Bible has given is supported by the verses cited.  Of course if the verses do not support the assertion that the Skeptic Annotated made then there is logically speaking not a Bible contradiction here.
   1. Two verses were cited as proof that God the Father did address Jesus directly:  Mark 1:11 and Luke 3:22.  Both verses record a voice from heaven saying “You are My beloved Son, in You I am well-pleased.””  Jesus as the Son of God being called the beloved Son means that the voice speaking is none other than God the Father.  Here God the Father addresses Jesus with the second person pronoun “You” and thus He is directly addressing Jesus.
   2. The Skeptic Annotated cited one verse to show that God the Father did not addressed Jesus directly.  That verse is Matthew 3:17.  But the verse does not say that God the Father did not addressed Jesus directly.
      1. Looking at that verse slowly one see that it is not a denial of the claim that God the Father addressed Jesus directly.
      2. The verse does record God the Father saying “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased.”  But this is not the same thing as the premise that “God the Father did not addressed Jesus directly.”
      3. God speaking about Jesus in the third person in the sentence “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased” does not necessitate that God did not at all address Jesus directly in the second person during the baptism.  God saying “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased” and “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased” are not mutually exclusive.  God could have addressed Jesus directly first followed by a proclamation about Jesus afterwards or vice versa.  And if they are not mutually exclusive this means that these verses are not logical contradictions.
4. The Skeptic Annotated Bible here commits a logical fallacy of a false dilemma: Either God directly addressed Jesus during Jesus’ baptism or God addressed others about Jesus instead.  But it is not a case of either/or.  Logically you can have a “both/and” situation here.  God said both “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased” directly towards Jesus and “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased” as His testimony about Jesus for others.

We see here another alleged Bible Contradiction listed by the Skeptic Annotated Bible not being the case.  For other posts concerning alleged Bible contradictions see our Collection of Posts Responding to Bible Contradictions.

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