For today’s post we will tackle the question the Skeptic Annotated Bible asked: Is it OK to take a census?
Here are the two answers which the skeptic believes shows a Bible contradiction:
Yes, God likes censuses.
God told Moses to take several censuses during the Exodus
“The Lord also spoke to Moses, saying, 12 “When you take a census of the sons of Israel to count them, then each one of them shall give a ransom for himself to the Lord, when you count them, so that there will be no plague among them when you count them.” (Exodus 30:11-12)
“Now the Lord spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the tent of meeting, on the first day of the second month, in the second year after they had come out of the land of Egypt, saying, 2 “Take a census of all the congregation of the sons of Israel, by their families, by their fathers’ households, according to the number of names, every male, head by head” (Numbers 1:1-2)
“Then the Lord spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, saying, 15 “Count the sons of Levi by their fathers’ households, by their families; every male from a month old and upward you shall count.” 16 So Moses counted them according to the word of the Lord, just as he had been commanded.” (Numbers 3:14-16)
“Then the Lord said to Moses, “Count every firstborn male of the sons of Israel from a month old and upward, and make a list of their names.” (Numbers 3:40)
“Then it came about after the plague, that the Lord spoke to Moses and to Eleazar the son of Aaron the priest, saying, 2 “Take a census of all the congregation of the sons of Israel from twenty years old and upward, by their fathers’ households, whoever is able to go to war in Israel.”” (Numbers 26:1-2)
Solomon had a census (like his father David’s) and God didn’t mind at all.
“Solomon counted all the foreigners who were in the land of Israel, following the census which his father David had taken; and 153,600 were found.” (2 Chronicles 2:17)
No. God killed 70,000 men because of David’s census.
“So David said to Joab and to the leaders of the people, “Go, count Israel from Beersheba to Dan, and bring me word so that I may know their number.”” (1 Chronicles 21:2)
“Now the anger of the Lord burned against Israel again, and He incited David against them to say, “Go, count Israel and Judah.” 2 So the king said to Joab the commander of the army, who was with him, “Roam about now through all the tribes of Israel, from Dan to Beersheba, and conduct a census of the people, so that I may know the number of the people.” 3 But Joab said to the king, “May the Lord your God add to the people a hundred times as many as they are, while the eyes of my lord the king can still see; but why does my lord the king delight in this thing?” 4 Nevertheless, the king’s order prevailed against Joab and against the commanders of the army. So Joab and the commanders of the army left the presence of the king to conduct a census of the people of Israel. 5 They crossed the Jordan and camped in Aroer, on the right side of the city that is in the middle of the Valley of Gad and toward Jazer. 6 Then they came to Gilead and to [a]the land of Tahtim-hodshi, and they came to Dan-jaan and around to Sidon, 7 then they came to the fortress of Tyre and to all the cities of the Hivites and of the Canaanites, and they went out to the south of Judah, to Beersheba. 8 So when they had roamed about through the whole land, they came to Jerusalem at the end of nine months and twenty days. 9 And Joab gave the number of the census of the people to the king: in Israel there were eight hundred thousand valiant men who drew the sword, and the men of Judah were five hundred thousand men. 10 Now David’s heart [b]troubled him after he had counted the people. So David said to the Lord, “I have sinned greatly in what I have done. But now, Lord, please [c]overlook the guilt of Your servant, for I have acted very foolishly.” 11 When David got up in the morning, the word of the Lord came to Gad the prophet, David’s seer, saying, 12 “Go and speak to David, ‘This is what the Lord says: “I am imposing upon you three choices; choose for yourself one of them, and I will do it to you.”’” 13 So Gad came to David and told him, and said to him, “Shall seven years of famine come to you in your land? Or will you flee for three months before your enemies while they pursue you? Or shall there be three days’ of plague in your land? Now consider and see what answer I shall return to Him who sent me.” 14 Then David said to Gad, “I am in great distress. Let us now fall into the hand of the Lord, for His mercies are great; but do not let me fall into human hands.” 15 So the Lord sent a plague upon Israel from the morning until the appointed time, and seventy thousand men of the people from Dan to Beersheba died. 16 When the angel extended his hand toward Jerusalem to destroy it, the Lord relented of the disaster and said to the angel who destroyed the people, “It is enough! Now drop your hand!” And the angel of the Lord was by the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite. 17 Then David spoke to the Lord when he saw the angel who was striking down the people, and said, “Behold, it is I who have sinned, and it is I who have done wrong; but these sheep, what have they done? Please let Your hand be against me and against my father’s house!”” (2 Samuel 24:1-17)
(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 six passages (Exodus 30:11-12, Numbers 1:1-2, Numbers 3:14-16, Numbers 3:40, Numbers 26:1-2, 2 Chronicles 2:17) as affirming the claim “It is ok to take a census” against two passages (1 Chronicles 21:2, 2 Samuel 24:1-17) as affirming “It is not okay to take a census.”
- All six passages (Exodus 30:11-12, Numbers 1:1-2, Numbers 3:14-16, Numbers 3:40, Numbers 26:1-2, 2 Chronicles 2:17) cited as affirming the claim “It is ok to take a census” does show instances where the census is permissible and/or God ordered a census to be taken.
- However the skeptics cited these six passages as “God likes censuses” (to use the skeptic’s own word). I think Exodus 30:11-12 indicate that God does not like all censuses, and there are some census that He did not command to do that is not “liked” by God. Exodus 30:11-12 as part of God’s law is worth a closer look that helps to understand census that God does not like.
- Notice in Exodus 30 there’s no regular timeline of when the Census is to be taken.
- Exodus 30:11 is better translated “If you take a census…” rather than “when” to stress the conditional nature of the census (Garrett, Exodus, 604).
- Exodus 30 talks about “ransom” needed if Census were to take place and the root of the word ransom is lexically related to atonement (Rushdoony, Exodus, 443). This shows the action of census counting, if it is done, needs to be covered over by an atonement.
- Furthermore census when it is done definitely requires atonement lest there be a plague due to the census count (Exodus 20:12).
- This atonement fee is not something needed to generate tax for the Tabernacle in original context of Exodus, since Exodus teaches that building of the Temple with support is voluntary in Exodus 25:2, 35:5, 35:21-29 (Garrett, Exodus, 611).
- Why is a Census that the Lord didn’t ask for, is disapproved of by God? I think one possible insight is from verse 14 that the census being taken are mentioned as involving those twenty years old and older male which is military age, see Numbers 1:3 (Ryken, Exodus 934). It seems God is not against Census per se but concern with that as means to know the strength of Israel for militarism, reliance of the strength of Israel’s armies instead of trusting in God, rising oppression of a strong government/king, etc.
- Given our look at Exodus 30:11-12 we see clearly there are census that God does not like. So if there are passages that indicate there are census that God does not like, there’s not a contradiction. The two passages (1 Chronicles 21:2, 2 Samuel 24:1-17) cited as proof “It is not okay to take a census” are specific instances where it is not approved of by God. Note the passages and their chapter context is an incident involving King David ordering a census. The other passages cited by the skeptic of when God approve of, or order a census are different census occurred at different times and different situations than the one in 1 Chronicles 21:2 and 2 Samuel 24:1-17. The fact that its during a different time and incident already shows there’s not a contradiction (remember a contradiction is two or more incompatible claims at the same time in the same sense).
- The Census that God does not approved of with David does involve David’s sinful use of the census. What are the details are not spelled out in the passage itself. But commentators throughout history believed the census neglected the payment of atonement money (ransom) such as first first century Jewish Historian Josephus in Antiquities of the Jews 7:13:1 (Davis, 2 Samuel, 314). Even without further details we know this is an instance of sinful census from the chapter of 2 Samuel 24 since Joab the military commanded objected to David’s census in verse 3, David confesses it is sin afterwards in verse 10, and Gad the prophet confronts David about it in verses 11-12. Having demonstrated that it is a sinful census it is logically sufficient to see that obviously God does not approve of sinful census; but remember that does not mean all census are wrong, especially the ones God approve of and even ordered.
- There is no contradiction here. Seems the skeptic needs to learn of How to Handle Bible Contradictions.
- 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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Excellent. This is it:
“It seems God is not against Census per se but concern with that as means to know the strength of Israel for militarism, reliance of the strength of Israel’s armies instead of trusting in God, rising oppression of a strong government/king, etc.”
Shalom!
Amen! Thanks for reading this! This took a lot longer to think about clearly but it might be because I’m tired!! Have a Shalom type of Thursday brother Michael!!!
The skeptics don’t prove much of their assertion, no offense. Everything they say we got to go to the Scriptures and double check.
They are so careless; for example they cited 1 Chronicles 21:2 but really it’s the whole chapter they meant where God punished for an ungodly chapter and not that verse alone that showed that. They are more careless then a teen that’s texting and driving
Its worst than that. It isn’t just carelessness; its purposely twisting the Word
Thanks for thoroughly refuting this alleged contradiction. Ach, Steve/Stephen Wells is so careless in his “rush to accuse” the Bible of contradictions. I must admit, I see a lot of myself in David and his prideful census. Not that I command armies, but I do consult my fleshly thinking first sometimes before I go to God. It’s ironic that the worldly-minded Joab warns David of his bad choice.
Good point about how even worldly-minded Joab was concern for David doing this! Good insight there. Man this is where studying the Bible we need each other, and others’ insights! God’s Word is so rich, there’s so much to learn from it, and learn from others, amen? Sola Scriptura!
Thanks! Yup, God’s Word is inexhaustible. Sola Scriptura! The “holy books” of all man-made religions, extra-biblical sacred traditions, and self-proclaimed magisteriums/authorities are bogus.
Amen! Hope your Thursday is going well?
Thanks, brother. Had several small home projects today. Also, spent several hours working on a Broussard installment. That’s always draining. Couch duty until lights-out. I appreciate that I don’t have to go into work tomorrow. The novelty hasn’t worn off. How’s your Thursday going? Are you caught up on your sleep yet?
Good point about the ransom. As you say: “This shows the action of census counting, if it is done, needs to be covered over by an atonement.”
Thanks for reading and noticing the discussion on the ransom; spent a long time looking into that hence a later post today! Hope you are doing well brother Hubeny!
It’s an issue of trust. This reminds me of Gideon and the 300. God cares more about our trusting him than our performance.
Indeed I think you hit it on the nail Dora! It is about trust in Him rather than trusting in man’s own strength and numbers etc. blessings to you sister, thanks for reading this and sharing your reflection!!!
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The Skeptic Annotated Bible should be in the fiction section of the bookstore. I don’t think most “former Christian skeptics” have ever read the Bible. Their whole misunderstanding is taken out of context.
I think if they read the Bible it was a very shallow read. I am skeptical (irony!) of most skeptics ability to exegete!
Amen. Don’t buy the lie, cling to God’s Word. 2 Timothy 4:3
Some people shouldn’t be teachers; especially skeptics. They have too much bias and its evident it makes them poor scholars with interpreting the Bible because they have an axe to grind.
Skeptic Annotated Bible is the equivalent of the flat earth society with scientific scholarship. I said it 😱☠️☠️☠️
Right. That is their mindset and that drives them to make ridiculous assertions about the Bible
Love this verse:
HE WILL FEED HIS FLOCK LIKE A SHEPHERD;
HE WILL GATHER THE LAMBS WITH HIS ARM, AND
CARRY THEM IN HIS BOSOM, AND GENTLY LEAD
THOSE WHO ARE WITH YOUNG.”
( ISAIAH 40:11 *NKJV )
Aww. Thank you for that verse! Blessings to you this Sunday sister!!!
Christian love to you and your family! ♥️♥️♥️
Informative post! As always, God’s Word sets the record straight.
The Bible is sometimes its own best answer to the skeptics when we consider the context and give attention to details within it! Hope your week is starting well so far??
THis was educational. I never realized what Exodus taught before on the Census, this is important background to understand census that God does not approve of
Thanks I am glad you saw what I was trying to do here with Exodus 31! Appreciate you reading this
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Thanks again for exposing the wayward thinking of the skeptic, Pastor Jim. I thought this was another easy one and I appreciate how you systematically got to the truth of the matter. Nice work!
Thanks for observing my attempt to systematically refute the skeptic here. Appreciate the encouragement! Any plans for this Thanksgiving?
You’re welcome Pastor Jim. Our plans are a quiet Thanksgiving at home with our family. I’m looking forward to that. I hope you and your family have a wonderful Thanksgiving as well!
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