What about all the contradictions in the Bible? How do you explain those?
The first one that Latter-day Saints often use are the accounts of Paul’s road-side conversion. In Acts 9:7, it says that the men who were with Saul heard a “voice but seeing no man.” In the second account found in Acts 22:9, it says “they heard not the voice of him that spake to me.”
A contradiction occurs when one statement makes another statement impossible.
It’s important to check the original language of those two passages which were both written in Greek. The Greek word “akuno” is translated “hear” AND “understand” in both verses.
In, other words the men with Saul “heard” the sound, but they did not “understand” what they were hearing. Therefore, there is no contradiction in those two passages.
Another apparent contradiction – whether Judas in Matthew 27:5 died by hanging or by falling head-first in Acts 1:18?
Those two graphic accounts are not contradictory, but mutually complementary. Judas hung himself exactly as Matthew affirms he did. The account in Acts simply adds that Judas fell headlong, and his intestines gushed out.
Here’s one more. In Matthew 28:5, why does it say there was only one angel at the garden tomb when in John 20:12, it says there were two angels there?
Think about it – John says there were two angels – right? He referred to how many angels they SAW.
Matthew doesn’t say there was ONLY one angel. Matthew just focuses on the one angel who spoke to the woman.
Here’s another – In Exodus 33:20, God declared to Moses, “Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live.” Yet in Deuteronomy 5:4, it says that the Lord spoke with Moses “face to face.” How could he speak to God face to face without seeing His face?
That sounds like a contradiction, Right?
Let me ask you, is it possible for a blind person to speak face to face with someone without actually seeing their face? The phrase “face to face” in this text means personally, directly, or intimately. Moses had that kind of relationship with God. But he, like all other mortals, never saw the “face” (or essence) of God directly.
If you take the time to examine the passages and not read too much into them, you find that different accounts of the same event are actually supportive of each other.
And as you read the Bible you will come across, many more seemingly apparent Bible contradictions.
For many people, the belief that the Bible contains contradictions and inaccuracies is an excuse for not believing. Many such people have not actually read the Bible for themselves. It has been my experience that, after a little research, all the alleged contradictions and inaccuracies are totally explainable.
