For today’s post we will tackle the question the Skeptic Annotated Bible asked: If God likes you, will everyone else like you too?
Here are the answers which the skeptic believes indicate a Bible contradiction:
If God likes you, so will your enemies.
“When a person’s ways are pleasing to the Lord, He causes even his enemies to make peace with him.” ( Proverbs 16:7)
If you are faithful to God, you will be persecuted.
“Indeed, all who want to live in a godly way in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.” (2 Timothy 3:12)
(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 website’s track record of inaccurate handling of biblical passages. See the many examples of their error we have responded to here in this post: Collection of Posts Responding to Bible Contradictions. Of course that does not take away the need to respond to this post, which is what the remainder of the post will do. But this observation should caution us to slow down and look more closely at the passages the Skeptic Annotated Bible cited and see if they interpreted the passages properly to support their conclusion that it is a Bible contradiction.
- The skeptic tries to pit Proverbs 16:7 which he claim asserts “If God likes you, so will your enemies” against 2 Timothy 3:12 which the skeptic think is telling us “If you are faithful to God, you will be persecuted.”
- The skeptic is right to interpret 2 Timothy 3:12 as” If you are faithful to God, you will be persecuted.” But we need to clarify that, so that we understand that there’s not a contradiction here.
- The verb in 2 Timothy 3:12 for “ will be persecuted” is future tense.
- Keep in mind that a future tense verb does mean it has to say enemies of God’s people are in every instance persecuting Christians in every single given opportunity. I say this because there can be instances where a Christian faithful to God is persecuted which this verse is accounting for and yet there can be moments in time when enemies of God are not persecuting Christians.
- One must be careful not to interpret 2 Timothy 3:12 as “If you are faithful to God, you will ALWAYS be persecuted.”
- If one looks carefully at Proverbs 16:7 one will see the skeptic wrongly interpret them as “If God likes you, so will your enemies.”
- The verse does not say one’s enemy will like them if God likes you. The second half of the verse states God “causes even his enemies to make peace with him.“
- Making peace with someone should not be equivocated as liking someone. One can like someone and be at peace with them; but also one can make peace with someone for many reasons and still not like them.
- So technically Proverbs 16:7 teaches us “If God delights in you, God causes even his enemies to make peace with him.“
- In light of properly interpreting Proverbs 16:7 as asserting “If God delights in you, God causes even his enemies to make peace with him” we still do not see this contradicting with 2 Timothy 3:12.
- Keep in the mind the literary form of Proverbs 16:7. It is a Proverb. Proverbs as a genre presents a slice of the truth and is not making a universal statement of every single instance of something. See my post “BIBLICAL GENRE HERMENEUTICS COURSE: SESSION NINE: POETRY IV: PROVERBS.
- The nature of truth from Proverbs does seem “paradoxical” (yet not truly contradictory, logically speaking). This is true of proverbs in general, not just Hebrew Proverbs in the Bible.
- For example think about “Many hands make light work” can be contrasts with “Too many chefs spoil the broth.” Yet these statements are not contradictory, though they are making opposite statements and yet also capture a slice of truth with both. For more on this see Paradox of Proverbs, and its application.
- 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.”
This is it: ” Proverbs as a genre presents a slice of the truth and is not making a universal statement of every single instance of something. “
Blessings.
Thank you for reading this brother, thanks Michael for the encouragement with you reading this!!!
Exactly, Michael!
And amen to. that. sis!
Good one, Slim! I appreciate what you said about poetry, paradoxes, and Proverbs.
This question, “If God likes you, will everyone else like you too?” is a good one to address because it is probably related to human nature. Christians wrestle with it. Great debates are had over the prosperity gospel. We struggle to understand why good things happen to bad people and bad things happen to good people.
Good point sister. It is a question I think people ask more than maybe most theologians realized. Seeing the world chasing after likes and follows, and how people think there might be something wrong with them if they don’t get more views, comments, feedbacks, etc. Thanks sister for commenting and sharing your thoughts!!
Jesus doesn’t change the world around us, He changes us so that we are able to endure and overcome. This contradiction person is blind to the spiritual meaning in scripture and makes everything too literal, denying its power. No one can understand the Bible until they choose to believe, then the Door opens.
Indeed there’s a real spiritual blindness that comes with unbelief when they read the Bible…your comment remind me to pray for the author of the Skeptic Annotated Bible. How are you doing this week sister?
I’m starting to feel better. Thanks for asking.
GENERALLY, if we treat others with respect and kindness, they’ll reciprocate. But when the point comes where we as Christ-followers take a stand for what is right, it’s a different story. Neither Scripture quoted is a universal statement, but observations of what happens in our fallen world. If we are the “aroma of Christ,” we will be the aroma of life to some and the stench of death to others. (II Corinthians 2:15-17)
Your last comment really put it in perspective: “Neither Scripture quoted is a universal statement, but observations of what happens in our fallen world. If we are the “aroma of Christ,” we will be the aroma of life to some and the stench of death to others. (II Corinthians 2:15-17)”. That is a super good point. That passage alone explains why people react negatively and positively to us in terms of our walk with God and the things of God. Sister, I’m so glad you commented!
Thanks, Jimmy. I am, too. It’s good to remember these things, especially when people react negatively and we wonder what we’ve done wrong. Maybe nothing.
Thanks for thoroughly debunking this alleged contradiction. I thoroughly enjoyed your response.
Thanks for reading my response to the critics. I do enjoy writing them. Has the weather been warming up for you all?
We’ve had a few warmer than usual days, but we still have a long way to go. Our avg. forecasted high the next 10 days is 48F.
How are your temps looking?
Thank you for this Biblical explanation, shining a light on the twisting of Scripture by the skeptic. This reminds me of the very first incidence of God/Scripture being misquoted in the Garden of Eden, and the misquotes by Satan at our Lord’s temptations. I wonder how many Biblical accounts have misquotes in them; that may be an interesting study?
P.S. did you receive my emails?
Yes I got your email my apologies for the delay with checking since I’m swamped at the moment!!! Big thank you ahead of time brother!!!
Thank you Jim👌
Sorry to hound you over it.
God bless you today brother 🙏
Please know I am thankful you wrote this! The more details I hear of my upcoming trip the more glad I have people like you writing since I have to go a bit more dark from online for this upcoming trip for the sake of these saints. Please know I am grateful for you, yeah?
Good point in 4.3:
“One must be careful not to interpret 2 Timothy 3:12 as “If you are faithful to God, you will ALWAYS be persecuted.””
Thanks for reading this. Also thanks for highlighting an important point!!!
Amen 🙏❤
And amen thanks for reading this brother Willie!!
You nailed it! My first thought was that to make peace with someone is not the same as ‘liking’ them.
Nailed it. My first thought was that making peace is notn5he same as ‘liking’ them.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I saw you had a comment that went to spam and just “rescued” it. You are right with your last sentence!
I just noticed my typo. Apologies. I also finally looked up the SAB online and found out where you have been getting all of the contradictions. I might become addicted to looking up a lot of them for myself! 🙂
It’s an easy one to deal with if you always look at the Contacts
Giving answers for those weak in the faith is a great ministry
Do you mean context ?
Yes the context
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