For today’s post we will tackle the question the Skeptic Annotated Bible asked: Why did God turn the sundial back ten degrees?
Here are the two answers which the skeptic believes indicate a Bible contradiction:
As a sign that he would heal Hezekiah’s boil
“‘Then Isaiah said, “Take a cake of figs.” And they took and laid it on the boil, and he recovered. 8 Now Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “What will be the sign that the Lord will heal me, and that I shall go up to the house of the Lord the third day?” 9 Isaiah said, “This shall be the sign to you from the Lord, that the Lord will do the thing that He has spoken: shall the shadow go forward ten steps or go back ten steps?” 10 So Hezekiah answered, “It is easy for the shadow to decline ten steps; no, but let the shadow turn backward ten steps.” 11 Isaiah the prophet cried to the Lord, and He brought the shadow on the stairway back ten steps by which it had gone down on the stairway of Ahaz.” (2 Kings 20:7-11)
As a sign that he would defend the city against the Assyrians
“‘Then the word of the Lord came to Isaiah, saying, 5 “Go and say to Hezekiah, ‘Thus says the Lord, the God of your father David, “I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears; behold, I will add fifteen years to your life. 6 I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria; and I will defend this city.”’ 7 “This shall be the sign to you from the Lord, that the Lord will do this thing that He has spoken: 8 Behold, I will cause the shadow on the stairway, which has gone down with the sun on the stairway of Ahaz, to go back ten steps.” So the sun’s shadow went back ten steps on the stairway on which it had gone down.’” (Isaiah 38:4-8)
(All Scriptural quotation comes from the New American Standard Bible)
Here’s a closer look at whether or not there is a contradiction:
- 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.
- 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.
- The skeptic tries to pit 2 Kings 20:7-11 as affirming the claim “God turn the sundial back ten degrees as a sign that he would heal Hezekiah’s boil” against Isaiah 38:4-8 as affirming “God turn the sundial back ten degrees as a sign that he would defend the city against the Assyrians.”
- Just by taking the skeptics’ claims at face value we already don’t see a necessary contradiction. Let’s say 2 Kings 20:7-11 does affirm the claim “God turn the sundial back ten degrees as a sign that he would heal Hezekiah’s boil” and Isaiah 38:4-8 does affirm “God turn the sundial back ten degrees as a sign that he would defend the city against the Assyrians.” They are not mutually exclusive; the sign of the sundial miraculously turned back ten degrees can be a sign for those two actions of God: God healing Hezekiah’s boil and God defending the city from the attacks of the Assyrians. These two claims are not in contradiction to one another.
- We must look at both verses in its context to see if the skeptic cited it properly and in this case he did cite these two passages correctly as teaching the claims the skeptic made about these verses.
- While 2 Kings 20:7-11 does affirm the claim “God turn the sundial back ten degrees as a sign that he would heal Hezekiah’s boil” when one look at the rest of the chapter of 2 Kings 20 we see it is in agreement with Isaiah 38:4-8 as affirming “God turn the sundial back ten degrees as a sign that he would defend the city against the Assyrians.” In 2 Kings 20:6 which is immediately before 2 Kings 20:7-11 the verse states “I will add fifteen years to your life, and I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria; and I will defend this city for My own sake and for My servant David’s sake.” Notice it says “I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria and I will defend this city ” which IS VERBATIM with Isaiah 38:6’s statement that “I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria; and I will defend this city.” Why the skeptic ignored 2 Kings 20:6 and begin with 2 Kings 20:7 israther puzzling.
- Likewise looking at the chapter context of Isaiah 38:4-8 we see it also affirm the claim made in 2 Kings 20:7-11 that “God turn the sundial back ten degrees as a sign that he would heal Hezekiah’s boil.” Looking at Isaiah 38:21-22 we see it states “21 Now Isaiah had said, “Let them take a cake of figs and apply it to the boil, that he may recover.” 22 Then Hezekiah had said, “What is the sign that I shall go up to the house of the Lord?”” Note how verse 21 mentioned boil and verse 22 there’s the reference to sign in the context. Again this is in agreement with 2 Kings 20:7-11 that “God turn the sundial back ten degrees as a sign that he would heal Hezekiah’s boil.”
- There is no contradiction here.
- Having the same act of a sign validating more than one truth God wants us to know and believe in is not unique to this instance. In Scripture the Resurrection of Christ is a sign. What does it attest to? More than one truths. It testify Jesus is the Messiah. It testify that He is the believers’ hope. It testify believers are redeem. It testify that God has accepted Jesus’ work of saving us.
- 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.”
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Thank you, Jim! The skeptics want to show a contradiction but it resulted instead in your anology on the truths about JESUS’ ressurection.
Wow good point didn’t think of it that way…and of course Christ’s resurrection and it’s significance needs to be proclaimed before a lost and dying world! Good point, Glory to God! You have done a series on your site on Christ’s resurrection yes?
Yes, Jim, from April 12 to May 7, 2020.
So reading the entirety of 2 Kings 20 and Isaiah 34 reveals the miracle was both a sign that God would heal Hezekiah’s boil and its a sign that God would defend the city from the Assyrians. Its as if the atheist is hoping peeps don’t read the chapters for themselves so they don’t know about the deliberate slander. A huge part of the problem online today is people lack of ability or desire to fact check and think rationally.
Thanks for thoroughly refuting another one of Steve/Stephen Wells’ cherry-picking, either/or, false dichotomy contradictions. Yes, interesting how he conveniently skipped over 2 Kings 20:6.
Thank you for reading this! What the skeptic did was the equivalent of having two newspaper that report the same stories where both reports fact A and B but then the skeptic cuts out a paragraph that mentioned truth A in one newspaper and another paragraph that mentioned truth B in the second newspaper and then say they contradict, when they don’t even contradict; meanwhile the first newspaper did mention truth B and the second newspaper did mentioned A. What’s the new young generation of way saying something is crazy, was it “cra cra?” It sure is that! Concerning your comment on your site: What books are you picking up at the comic store this week???
Yup, Wells is withholding information to make his claims seem more plausible.
RE: Comic tomorrow.
I’ll be in and out in 2 minutes. LSH #7.
Very good compilation. Can’t beat scripture.
I’ve read though from many who do quite a bit of hoop jumping to say the sun did not Stand still,’ as scripture clearly says, that it was the sun that moves over a still earth, and the dial tracks the sun like a clock.
Fascinating science to be sure, and nothing to be afraid of, after all, God is the Master architect and engineer, giving both sun and moon their distinct fields of operation.
Anyway, again, nice defense of Gods word.
Never thought of that before of the dial tracking the sun like a clock
Very Good. He searches the Word for conflict instead of the truth.
You described it well! Heard a big storm is in the Gulf of Mexico: is it heading towards you all?
Not yet. Had one hit Texas and we got a lot of rain. Hope you and yours are well.
If we can have multiple reasons for doing one action, why not God? I don’t even know why they thought they had a contradiction here…
I know right? It makes no sense with the skeptics’ alleged Claim of a Bible contradictions here. How is your part of the country with the virus and radical political extremists, if any?
The only violent protesting I heard of was at the capitol. All the protesting done in the upstate seems to be peaceful with the police even joining the protesters. That’s the last I’ve heard anyway. The news is getting so repetitive that I haven’t been watching it much lately.
Of course skipping verses and quoting things out of context are all the tools the skeptic in question has to try and foolishly contradict the Word on the Living God. And once again failing miserably.
Thank you Pastor Jim for your enormous effort in disproving this non contradiction
You’re welcome and I appreciate it very much you read this. I think the skeptic here is rather dishonest since both passage in their chapters stated the two reasons why God turned the sundial. Its selectively not quoting certain parts of the chapter and that’s rather dishonest or very sloppy “scholarship;” seems Romans 1 is relevant in explaining what’s going with their attempt to dismiss Scripture, doesn’t it? Romans 1 is so insightful…
Yes I agree !
We certainly live in unprecedented times .
I gotta say I enjoy reading your consistently knowledgeable, logical and exegetical posts to these contradictions
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Any atheist who says this is a contradiction shows how they are just parroting the skeptic annotated Bible and didn’t read the two chapters for themselves.
The answer is superb
I get it about putting the two texts together for the complete picture, but what about the sundial in one text and the stairs in the other text? Not a skeptic, just curious …. From biblestudytools.com/encyclopedias/isbe/dial-of-ahaz.html It is unfortunate that one important word in the narrative has been rendered in both the King James Version and the Revised Version (British and American) by a term which describes a recognized astronomical instrument. The word “dial” (ma’aloth) is usually translated “degrees,” “steps,” or “stairs,” and indeed is thus rendered in the same verse. There is no evidence that the structure referred to had been designed to serve as a dial or was anything other than a staircase, “the staircase of Ahaz.” It was probably connected with that “covered way for the sabbath that they had built in the house, and the king’s entry without,” which Ahaz turned “round the house of Yahweh, because of the king of Assyria” (2 Kings 16:18 the Revised Version, margin). This staircase, called after Ahaz because the alteration was due to him, may have been substituted for David’s “causeway that goeth up,” which was “westward, by the gate of Shallecheth” (1 Chronicles 26:16), or more probably for Solomon’s “ascent by which he went up unto the house of Yahweh” which so impressed the queen of Sheba (2 Chronicles 9:4).
That’s some good possibilities you shared.
[…] Why did God turn the sundial back ten degrees? […]
Wait till these atheists meet God for twisting His Word
The Skeptic Annotated Bible is so manipulative. You read the context and showed how Isaiah 34 does mention the sign is showing God would heal Hezekiah’s boil which is in agreement with 2 Kings 20:7-11. I really hope people who think this is a contradiction would find your outline
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Posting things like this is the reason you have no friends.