Biblical Errancy Pamphlets
by
Dennis McKinsey
Questions on pamphlet #1 entitled:
THE BIBLE IS GOD'S WORD?
Dear Believer:
I can't accept the Bible as God's Word because it contains hundreds of
problems and contradictions that can't be solved, only rationalized. I
ask only that you read what follows in line with James' teaching that
Christians should be "open to reason" (James 3:17 RSV) and Isaiah's
belief that we should "reason together" (Isa. 1:18) to see just a few of
the Book's many shortcomings.
1. If you must accept Jesus as your Savior in order to be saved (John
14:6), what about the billions of beings that die as fetuses, infants,
and mentally deficient, etc.? For them to accept Jesus would be
impossible. So they are condemned to hell because of conditions over
which they had no control. Deut. 32:4 says God is just, but where is
the justice?
2. Why are we being punished for Adam's sin? After all, he ate the
forbidden fruit, we didn't. It's his problem, not ours, especially in
light of Deut. 24:16, which says children shall not be punished for the
sins of their fathers.
3. God created Adam, so he must have been perfect. How then, could he
have sinned? Regardless of how much free will he had, if he chose to
sin, he wasn't perfect.
4. How can Num. 23:19, which says God doesn't repent, be reconciled
with Ex. 32:14, which clearly says he does?
5. How can 2 Kings 8:26, which says Ahaziah began to rule at age 22,
be reconciled with 2 Chron. 22:2, which says he was 42?
6. How can Ex. 33:20, which says no man can see God's face and live, be
squared with Gen. 32:30, which says a man saw God's face and his life
was preserved?
7. Rom. 3:23 says "all have sinned." All means all. Yet, Gen. 6:9 says
Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations. Job 1:1 & 1 :8 say
Job was perfect. How could these men have been perfect if all have
sinned?
8. How could Moses have written the first five books in the Bible (the
Pentateuch) when his own death and burial are described in Deut. 34:5-6
("So Moses the servant of the Lord died there in the land of Moab ...
and he buried him in a valley. . . .")?
9. Did Solomon have 40,000 stalls for his horses (1 Kings 4:26) or 4,000
(2 Chron. 9:25)? Did Solomon's house contain 2,000 baths (1 Kings 7:26)
or 3,000 (2 Chron. 4:5)?
10. Paul says Christianity lives or dies on the Resurrection (1 Cor.
15:14,17). Yet, why would it be of any consequence since the Widow at
Nain's son, Jairus's daughter, Lazarus, and many others rose before
Jesus? By the time he rose this was a rather common occurrence. I
would think it would have been met by a resounding yawn rather than
surprise followed by: So what else can you do. Adam's act of coming
into the world as a full grown adult is more spectacular.
11. Was Jehoiachin 18 years old when he began to reign in Jerusalem and
did he reign 3 months (2 Kings 24:8), or was he 8 years old and reigned
3 months and 10 days (2 Chron. 36: 9). Did Nebuzaradan come to
Jerusalem on the 7th (2 Kings 25:8) or 10th (Jer. 52:12) day of the 5th
month?
12. How could we follow the 6th Commandment, even if we wanted to, when
the authors of the various versions of the Bible can't agree on whether
the key word is "kill" or “murder”? Surely they recognize the
difference?
13. We are told the Bible has no scientific errors, yet it says the bat
is a bird (Lev. 11:13,19), hares chew the cud (Lev. 11:5-6), and some
fowl (Lev. 11:20-21) and insects (Lev. 11:22-23) have four legs.
14. Matt. 27:9-10 quotes a prophecy made by Jeremy the prophet. Yet, no
Bible believer has ever been able to show me where it lies in the Book
of Jeremiah.
15. Heaven is supposed to be a perfect place. Yet, it experienced a war
(Rev. 12:7). How can there be a war in a perfect place and if it
happened before why couldn't it happen again? Why would I want to go to
a place in which war can occur? That's exactly what I'm trying to
escape, aren't you?
16. Believers are told in Mark 16:17-18 that they can drink "any deadly
thing" and "it shall not hurt” them. But I don't think you would be
naive enough to drink any arsenic offered. Perhaps I'm wrong and you
would be willing to test the Book's veracity-"lay it on the line" so to
speak?
17. We are told salvation is obtained by faith alone (John 3:18,36) "
yet Jesus told a man to follow the Commandments-Matt. 19:16-18 (saving
by works)-if he wanted eternal life.
18. According to the text there are 29 cities listed in Joshua 15:21-32
(RSV). One need only count them to see that biblical math is not to be
trusted. The total is 36.
19. Surely you don't believe Eccl. 1:9 RSV ("What has been is what will
be, and what has been done is what will be done; there is nothing new
under the sun")? How many cities had an atomic bomb dropped on them
prior to 1945, and how many people walked on the moon before 1969?
20. If the Bible is our moral guide, then how can it make pornographic
statements such as: “...they may eat their own dung and drink their own
piss with you" (2 Kings 18:27)? Is that what you want your children
reading on Sunday?
21. If God created everything, (Col. 1:16, Eph. 3:9, Rev. 4:11, John
1:3), then he did create the world's evil (Isa. 45:7, Lam. 3:38). Thus,
he is responsible.
22. In Psalm 139:7-11 we are told God is everywhere. If so, why would
God need to come down to earth to see a city (Gen. 11:5) when he is
already here? And how could Satan leave the presence of the Lord (Job
1: 12, 2:7)?
23. For justice to exist, punishment must fit the crime. No matter how
many bad deeds one commits in this world, there is a limit. Yet, hell's
punishment is infinitely greater. It’s eternal.
24. Last, in Acts 20:35 Paul told people “to remember the words of the
Lord Jesus, how he said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’”
Since Jesus never made such a biblical statement, isn't Paul guilty of
deception?
These examples expose only a few of the many reasons I can't accept the
Bible as the word of a perfect being. A far greater number can be found
in the monthly publication, BIBLICAL ERRANCY, which is “An international
periodical focusing on biblical errors, contradictions, and fallacies,
while providing a hearing for apologists.”
A free copy is available at 2500 Punderson Drive, Hilliard, Ohio
43026
(614) 527-1703
__________________________________________________________________
Questions on pamphlet #2 entitled:
JESUS CHRIST IS THE ANSWER?
Dear Believer:
You ask me to accept Jesus as my personal Savior; yet his behavior and
teachings often expose one who should be escaped, not sought. I ask
only that you read what follows in the spirit of open-mindedness taught
in Prov. 15:10 NIV ("he who hates correction will die") and Prov. 12:1
NASB ("he who hates reproof is stupid") because I seek to "Prove all
things" (1 Thess. 5:21).
1. While on the Cross Jesus said, "My God my God, why hast thou forsaken
me" (Mark 15:34). How could Jesus be our savior when he couldn't even
save himself? Those aren't the words of a man voluntarily dying for our
sins; those are the words of a man who can think of a hundred other
places he would rather be.
2. Jesus said, "whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of
hell fire" (Matt. 5:22). Yet, he himself did so repeatedly, as Matt.
23:17, 19 and Luke 11:40 and 12:20 show. Shouldn't he be in danger of
hell too?
3. Except those of biased Christian writers, there isn't one writing
outside the Bible in all of ancient history that clearly refers to Jesus
of Nazareth.
4. Isn't Jesus a false prophet since he wrongly predicted in Matt. 12:40
that he would be buried three days and three nights as Jonah was in the
whale three days and three nights? Friday afternoon to early Sunday
morning is only one and a half days.
5. Jesus' prophecy in John 13:38 (“The cock shall not crow, till thou
[Peter] hast denied me three times”) is false. Mark 14:66-68 shows the
cock crowed after the first denial, not the third.
6. How could Jesus be our model of sinless perfection when he denies he
is morally perfect in Matt. 19:17 ("And Jesus said unto him, Why callest
thou me good? there is none good but one, that is God")?
7. In 1 Cor. 1: 1 7 ("For Christ sent me [Paul] not to baptize but to
preach the gospel”) Paul said Jesus was wrong when he said in Matt.
28:19 “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them....” So
how could Jesus be the fountain of wisdom?
8. How could Jesus, whom the New Testament repeatedly refers to as the
son of man, be our savior when this is clearly forestalled by Psalm
146:3 ("Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man in whom
there is no help") and Job 25:6 ("How much less man, that is a worm? and
the son of man, which is a worm")?
9. How can Jesus be God when he repeatedly said he was not God's equal,
wasn't God? Obvious examples are: John 14:28 (“...for my Father is
greater than I”), John 20:17 ("I ascend unto my Father, and your Father,
and to my God, and your God"), and John 7:16 ("My doctrine is not mine
but his that sent me").
10. While on the Cross Jesus said, "Forgive them Father they know not
what they do.” To whom was he speaking? They say, "God.” But I
thought he was God. How can God speak to God if there is only one god?
That's two gods.
11. Jesus told us to "honor thy father and mother” (Matt. 15:4), but
contradicted his own teaching in Luke 14:26 ("If any man comes to me and
does not hate his father and mother ... he cannot be my disciple").
12. In John 3:13 ("And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that
came down from heaven, even the Son of man...) Jesus erred because 2
Kings 2:11 (“. . . and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven") shows
Elijah went up earlier.
13. In Matt. 16:28 Jesus said, “There be some standing here, which shall
not taste of death, till they see the Son of Man coming in his
kingdom." Yet, they all died and he never came.
14. Jesus told us to "Love your enemies; bless them that curse you,” but
ignored his own advice by repeatedly denouncing his opposition. Matt.
23:17 ('Ye fools and blind"), Matt. 12:34 ("O generation of vipers"),
and Matt. 23:27 (". . . hypocrites ... ye are like unto whited
sepulchres...”) are excellent examples of hypocrisy.
15. Even many of the staunchest defenders of Jesus admit that his
comment in Matt. 10:34 ("I came not to send peace but a sword")
contradicts verses such as Matt. 26:52 ("Put up again thy sword into his
place: for all that take the sword shall perish with the sword").
16. The Messiah must be a physical descendant of David (Rom. 1:3, Acts
2:30). Yet, how could Jesus meet this requirement since his genealogies
in Matt. 1 and Luke 3 show he descended from David through Joseph, who
was not his natural father (the Virgin Birth)?
17. Jesus told a man in Mark 8:34 that "whosoever will come after me,
let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me." The obvious
question is: What cross? He hadn't yet died on the cross. There was
nothing to take up. That man would have had no idea what he was talking
about.
18. In Mark 10:19 Jesus told a man to follow the Commandments. Yet one
of those listed by Jesus was "defraud not," which isn't even an Old
Testament commandment.
19. In Luke 12:4 Jesus told his followers to "Be not afraid of them that
kill the body." But Matt. 12:14-16, John 7:1, 8:59, 10:39, 11:53-54,
and Mark 1:45 show that he hid, escaped, and slunk around often.
20. In Luke 23:43 Jesus said to the thief on the cross, “Today shalt
thou be with me in paradise." But how could they have been together in
paradise that day if Jesus lay in the tomb for three days?
21. For Jesus to be executed for our sins makes about as much sense as
my son telling a judge that he would accept execution for my crimes.
Although a nice gesture, it has nothing to do with justice. What judge
worthy of the title would agree?
22. Lastly, in Matt. 15:24 Jesus said, "I am not sent but unto the lost
sheep of the house of Israel," but later told his followers to "Go ye
therefore, and teach all nations" (Matt 28:19). To whom, then, are they
to go--only to the Jews, or everyone?
These examples expose only a few of the many reasons I can't accept
Jesus as a Savior. A far greater number can be found in the monthly
publication, BIBLICAL ERRANCY, which is “An international periodical
focusing on biblical errors, contradictions, and fallacies, while
providing a hearing for apologists."
A free copy is available at 2500 Punderson Drive, Hilliard, Ohio
43026
(614) 527-1703
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