Bible Contradiction? Will Jesus’s second coming be visible to all?

For today’s post we will tackle the question the Skeptic Annotated Bible asked: Will Jesus’s second coming be visible to all?

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

Yes.

Every eye will seem him coming in the clouds in all his glory

“And then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory.” (Matthew 24:30)

“Then they will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory.” (Mark 13:26)

“Then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.” (Luke 21:27)

“Behold, He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him; and all the tribes of the earth will mourn over Him. So it is to be. Amen.” (Revelation 1:7)

No.

Nonbelievers will ever see him again.

“After a little while the world will no longer see Me, but you will see Me; because I live, you will live also.” (John 14:19)

(All Scriptural quotation comes from the New American Standard Bible)

Here’s a closer look at whether or not there is a contradiction:

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Apologetics Sermon Illustration #49: There are Too Many Religions Which One is True and Counterfeit Currencies

GO TO PART 48

Point: Have you ever faced the objection to Christianity that there are too many religions out there, how can it be that Christianity is the one that is true?  Or maybe it is phrased as “I can’t believe in any religion (including Christianity) because there’s too many other contradiction religions out there…”  How should Christians answer?

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Analysis of Rachel Held Evan’s Book “Inspired” Part 4: Chapter 2

This is part 4 of our critique of Rachel Held Evans’ book titled Inspired.  Here are the previous posts in this series:

Part 1 click here

Part 2 click here

Part 3 click here

In this post we will look at chapter 2 of the book.

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Bible Contradiction? Who Was Achan’s father?

For today’s post we will tackle the question the Skeptic Annotated Bible asked: Who Was Achan’s father?

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

Achan’s father was Carmi.

“But the sons of Israel acted unfaithfully in regard to the things under the ban, for Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, from the tribe of Judah, took some of the things under the ban, therefore the anger of the Lord burned against the sons of Israel.” (Joshua 7:1)

Achan’s father is Zerah.

“Then Joshua and all Israel with him, took Achan the son of Zerah, the silver, the mantle, the bar of gold, his sons, his daughters, his oxen, his donkeys, his sheep, his tent and all that belonged to him; and they brought them up to the valley of Achor.” (Joshua 7:24)

“Did not Achan the son of Zerah act unfaithfully in the things under the ban, and wrath fall on all the congregation of Israel? And that man did not perish alone in his iniquity.’” (Joshua 22:20)

(All Scriptural quotation comes from the New American Standard Bible)

Here’s a closer look at whether or not there is a contradiction:

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Analysis of Rachel Held Evan’s Book “Inspired” Part 3: The Rest of Chapter 1

This is part 3 of our critique of Rachel Held Evans’ book titled Inspired.   For part 1 click here for part 2 click here.  In this post we will finish up our look at the rest of chapter 1 of the book.

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Pete Enns: Christians are not to trust in the Bible?

After writing “Analysis of Rachel Held Evan’s Book “Inspired” Part 1: Introduction” yesterday I noticed that Rachel Held Evans sees Peter Enns as a mentor.  I have written on Peter Enns before on our blog (see the link in the analysis to Evans’ book) but seeing his name again led me to look up Enns and I found he wrote a recent piece on his blog titled “How Can I Trust the Bible?” (You Might Be Asking)”

It is strange in a piece titled “How Can I trust the Bible?” his essay doesn’t answer that question but instead does the opposite.  Liberals need to quit the click bait inaccurate titles.

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Analysis of Rachel Held Evan’s Book “Inspired” Part 1: Introduction

I was asked by brother Alf to consider reading and offering my thoughts on liberal Rachel Held Evans’ book titled Inspired.  Usually I take a long time reading books I disagree with and posting about it on my blog since I want my critique to be accurate of their view, logically sound in my arguments and that what I say is true.

In an interview Rachel Held Evans said this about her male critics who are pastors and seminarians:

Actually they don’t criticize my hermeneutics or my exegesis. They just say, “This woman has no authority to write about the Bible.” They don’t even attempt to engage the arguments that I make, and that’s what irritates me.

(Source)

Note here she said they didn’t handle her hermenuetics, her exegesis nor her arguments but attack her as a woman.  In this post and future posts I won’t be attacking her as a woman.  I also think Rachel Held Evans’ statements about her detractors thus far shouldn’t be attributed to all those who disagree with her; that would not be fair.  I think thoughtful reviews of any books takes time, even responses to terrible books because it takes time to be fair and offer sound arguments against a book’s perspective.  Her book was released on June 12th, 2018 and her statement in that interview was on July 6th.  Sometimes in academia it takes months or even over a year before there’s a critique from the other side.  So for her to say no one who is a pastor and in seminary has critiqued her hermeneutics, exegesis and arguments is rather premature.  It’s also strikes me as a bit narcissistic for someone who is professing to write a book admitting she’s not a Bible scholar to think meaningful responses from pastors and those in seminary should be served right away (3 weeks) when others who are more serious scholars get their response much slower.

In this post I will offer my thoughts on the “Introduction” for the book.

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