Bible Contradiction? How many sons does God have?

 

For today’s post we will tackle the question the Skeptic Annotated Bible asked: How many sons does God have?

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

God has only one son (Jesus).

“The one who believes in Him is not judged; the one who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.” (John 3:18)

“By this the love of God was revealed in us, that God has sent His only Son into the world so that we may live through Him.” (1 John 4:9)

God has many sons.

“the son of Enosh, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God.” (Luke 3:38)

“that the sons of God saw that the daughters of mankind were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves, whomever they chose. 3 Then the Lord said, “My Spirit will not remain with man forever, because he is also flesh; nevertheless his days shall be 120 years.” 4 The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of mankind, and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.” (Genesis 6:2-4)

“Then you shall say to Pharaoh, ‘This is what the Lord says: “Israel is My son, My firstborn.” (Exodus 4:22)

“They will come with weeping, And by pleading I will bring them; I will lead them by streams of waters, On a straight path on which they will not stumble; For I am a father to Israel, And Ephraim is My firstborn.”” (Jeremiah 31:9)

“Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them.” (Job 1:6)

“Again, there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them to present himself before the Lord.” (Job 2:1)

““I will announce the decree of the Lord: He said to Me, ‘You are My Son, Today I have fathered You. 8 Ask it of Me, and I will certainly give the nations as Your inheritance, And the ends of the earth as Your possession.” (Psalm 2:7-8)

“He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. 14 I will be a father to him and he will be a son to Me; when he does wrong, I will discipline him with a rod of men and with strokes of sons of mankind,” (2 Samuel 7:13-14)

“On what were its bases sunk? Or who laid its cornerstone, 7 When the morning stars sang together And all the sons of God shouted for joy?” (Job 38:6-7)

““Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.” (Matthew 5:9)

“But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name,” (John 1:12)

“so that you will prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world,” (Philippians 2:15)

“Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is.” (1 John 3:2)

Whoever is led by the Spirit of God is a son of God.

“For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons and daughters of God.” (Romans 8:14)

(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 John 3:18 and 1 John 4:9 as affirming the claim “God has only one son (Jesus)” against twelve passages (Luke 3:38, Genesis 6:2-4, Exodus 4:22, Jeremiah 31:9, Job 1:6, Job 2:1, Psalm 2:7-8, 2 Samuel 7:13-14, Job 38:6-7, Matthew 5:9, John 1:12, Philippians 2:15, 1 John 3:2) as affirming “God has many sons.”  The skeptic also believe that these claims also contradict with Romans 8:14 which the skeptic states gives us the claim “Whoever is led by the Spirit of God is a son of God.”
4. Logically the second claim (“God has many sons”) and the third claim (“Whoever is led by the Spirit of God is a son of God”) are not contradictory.  If the third claim is true then obviously the second claim can be true.
5. I think its important to realize there’s more than one way one can be a son.  Even in the natural realm there’s two ways one can be someone’s son: biologically and also by adoption.  There can be a father who has one son in one sense (biological son) while the father have many other sons through adoption.  From this its important to ask the question: “What sense of son is being used in a passage?”
6. When Jesus is described as the Only Son in John 3:18 and 1 John 4:9 keep in mind Jesus is God the Son, as part of the Triune Godhead.  The Trinity consists of the Father, the Son and the Spirit.  In that sense Jesus is the Only Son; there is no other member of the Trinity that is the Son.
7. The twelve passages cited by the skeptics to say that there’s more than one sons that God has are all creatures, whether human beings or heavenly creatures.  Note that none of the verses said there can only be one creaturely sons; there can be many creaturely “sons” and even types of creaturely sons.  But to use verses that show many creaturely sons as contradicting with passages where there’s only one Divine Son within the Godhead is to compare apples and oranges.
8. There is no contradiction here.  Seems the skeptic needs to learn of How to Handle Bible Contradictions.
9. 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.”