Bible Contradiction? What’s new?

For today’s post we will tackle the question the Skeptic Annotated Bible asked: What’s new?

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

Nothing is, or ever will be, new.

“What has been, it is what will be, And what has been done, it is what will be done. So there is nothing new under the sun.” (Ecclesiastes 1:9)

Some things are new.

“Behold, I am going to do something new, Now it will spring up; Will you not be aware of it? I will even make a roadway in the wilderness, Rivers in the desert.” (Isaiah 43:19)

“For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; And the former things will not be remembered or come to mind.” (Isaiah 65:17)

“Therefore if anyone is in Christ, this person is a new creation; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.” (2 Corinthians 5:17)

“But according to His promise we are looking for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells.” (2 Peter 3:13)

“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea.” (Revelation 21:1)

(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 Ecclesiastes 1:9 as affirming the claim “Nothing is new” against five verses (Isaiah 43:19, Isaiah 65:17, 2 Corinthians 5:17, 2 Peter 3:13, Revelation 21:1) as affirming “Some things are new.”
4. The skeptics rightly cited the verses that demonstrate there are things that are new.
   1. Isaiah 43:19 follows after Isaiah 43:14-15 that predict the destruction of Babylon so from the standpoint of when Isaiah 43:19 was written it would have been something new.
   2. Isaiah 65:17 is about the future where there will be a new heaven and new earth which obviously is new.
   3. 2 Corinthians 5:17 talks about believers in Christ are new creation.
   4. Both 2 Peter 3:13 and Revelation 21:1 are about the New Heaven and New Earth in the future.
5. The skeptic misinterpreted Ecclesiastes 1:9 as “Nothing is new”
   1.  I don’t think the skeptic is right to interpret it as it is always true “nothing is, or ever will be, new.”
   2. Ecclesiastes as a book in its literary form is “counter-wisdom” and one should be cautious in citing passages in the book that in context is presenting a vain outlook of life which the author is trying to critique by taking it to its logical conclusion.
   3. Ecclesiastes 1:9 cannot be taken as an absolute “nothing can ever be new” in light of the book’s conclusion (which is the purpose of the book): “The conclusion, when everything has been heard, is: fear God and keep His commandments, because this applies to every person. 14 For God will bring every act to judgment, everything which is hidden, whether it is good or evil” (Ecclesiastes 12:13-14). Obviously with the future Judgment of God to come in the future that is something different than nothing ever changing.
   4. Nor is Ecclesiastes 1:9 meant to contradict with Ecclesiastes 12:13-14.  Note Ecclesiastes 1:9 states that the experience/observation was “under the sun.”  This is an idiom to refer to an outlook or view of the world (worldview) that doesn’t account for God (“under heaven“).  Look at the usage of the term in the rest of the book.  This view then, when in context, is obviously not the correct worldview.
   5. In the context Ecclesiastes 1:9 is situated in a section that began in verse 2 when the writer ask “What advantage does a person have in all his work Which he does under the sun?” As much as one tries to make an name for himself that stands out what Ecclesiastes 1:9 shows is that its very hard to be the first or original, in addition to other frustrations such as lust never satisfying (in verse 8).
   6. So Ecclesiastes 1:9 is saying is that without God it is hard to break into something “new” with man’s own efforts; but the verse isn’t meant to rule out God can’t do something new.
6. Thus there is no contradiction here.  Seems the skeptic needs to learn of 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.”