Bible Contradiction? Should we believe everything?

 

For today’s post we will tackle the question the Skeptic Annotated Bible asked: Should we believe everything?

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

Yes

“bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” (1 Corinthians 13:7)

No

“The naive believes everything, But the sensible man considers his steps.” (Proverbs 14:15)

“When he speaks graciously, do not believe him, For there are seven abominations in his heart.” (Proverbs 26:25)

“But examine everything carefully; hold fast to that which is good.” (1 Thessalonians 5:21)

“Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.” (1 John 4:1)

(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. One should be skeptical of whether this is a Bible contradiction given the Skeptic Annotated Bible’s track record of inaccurately handling the Bible.  See the many examples of their error which we have responded to in this post: Collection of Posts Responding to Bible Contradictions.  Of course that does not take away the need to respond to this claim of a contradiction, which is what the remainder of this post will do.  But this observation should caution us to slow down and look more closely at the passages cited by the Skeptic Annotated Bible to see if they interpreted the passages properly to support their conclusion that it is a Bible contradiction.
3. The skeptic tries to pit 1 Corinthians 13:7 as affirming the claim “We should believe everything” against Proverbs 14:15, Proverbs 26:25, 1 Thessalonians 5:21, 1 John 4:1 as affirming “We should not believe everything.”
4. Examining the four verses cited as affirming “We should not believe everything” we do see these verses do establish the point that “We should not believe everything.”
   1. What if we believe everything, what does God’s Word has to say about that?  According to Proverbs 14:15 we would be naive.  And we don’t want to be naive so we should not believe everything.
   2. Proverbs 26:25 talks about being careful with the liar (see verse 24).  With this individual “do not believe him,” the Scripture says, even when “he speaks graciously.”  Thus we can’t believe everything.
   3. 1 Thessalonians 5:21 teaches us we should examine things carefully which presupposes we should not believe everything.
   4. 1 John 4:1 teach us the reality of false prophets out there so obviously we should not believe everything nor believe everybody.
5. 1 Corinthians 13:7 was cited to support the claim that “We should believe everything.”  A superficial look would seem that “all” in “believes all things” would mean that all thing without exception.  But a closer look at the Greek word for “all” here in 1 Corinthians 13:7 reveal otherwise.
   1. The word for “all” here in the Greek is πάντα.
   2. Typically in our English vocabulary the meaning of “all” is understood as “everything without exception.”  But we want to know what the Greek word means and its lexical range rather than just the English word to translate the Greek term.  The Greek word does not necessarily mean English sense that we often understand it.  The Greek term can mean “all sorts of… (various categories)” in a sense that doesn’t require the meaning of “every/all (with no exceptions).”
   3. The use of the Greek adjective of πάντα and its various declined form does not necessarily have to take the meaning of “every/all (with no exceptions)” in its usage in other verses.
      1. For instance 1 Corinthians 10:23 states “All things are lawful, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful, but not all things edify.”  Clearly Paul doesn’t mean everything is lawful with no exception.  If that was the case there would be no such thing as sin.  Rather the Greek function of “all” often refer to every sort of class or categories.
      2. 1 Corinthians 13:7 is another example.  See our discussion in our response to the alleged Bible contradiction “Should we believe in unseen things?“
      3. 1 Timothy 6:10 is a third example.  See our discussion in our response to the alleged Bible contradiction “Is money good or bad?“
      4. John 21:25 is a fourthl example.  See our discussion in our response to the alleged Bible contradiction “Does the gospel of Luke contain everything that Jesus did?“
      5. John 15:15 is an additional example.  See our discussion in our response to the alleged Bible contradiction “Did Jesus tell his disciples everything?“
   4. Also within the context of the theology found in the book of 1 Corinthians it does not seem to be likely that 1 Corinthians 13:7 is trying to teach that we should believe everything without exception.
      1. Covetous and swindlers are mentioned in 1 Corinthians 5:10.  Obviously we shouldn’t believe them when they lie.
      2. Idols are mentioned twelve times in the book; we shouldn’t believe in idols!
   5. Just in case someone think our consideration of the lexical range of the meaning of the Greek term πάντων is illegitimate because we are saying the word has more than one meaning consider how English and any other natural language also have words with more than one meaning.  Consider the example of the English word “whopper,” “love” and ““left.“
6. Thus there is no contradiction here.  Seems like the skeptics need to learn from our post How to Handle Bible Contradictions.
7. We shouldn’t miss that worldviews are at play even with the skeptic’s objection to Christianity.  The worldview of the author of the Skeptic Annotated Bible actually doesn’t even allow for such a thing as the law of non-contradiction to be meaningful and intelligible.  In other words for him to try to disprove the Bible by pointing out that there’s a Bible contradiction doesn’t even make sense within his own worldview.  Check out our post “Skeptic Annotated Bible Author’s Self-Defeating Worldview.”