SAB76

Mr. Thomas:
This will be my last post on this thread, as I have come to the conclusion that you are not here seeking what you originally posted. I was willing to give you the benefit of the doubt, and was moved by your seemingly heartfelt plea for help. Yet, at every turn you continue to reject bible scripture, AS IT IS WRITTEN, and would rather hold on to your opinion of how YOU think the scripture SHOULD have been written.  
If the answers that I have given you, using the scripture AS IT READS, does not satisfy your logic, and you choose it is not the answer you are seeking….then…you already have your answer. That answer being “I see what the scripture says, BUT it is not what or how I would say it.” You have rejected plain, simple, easy to read, English found in the scripture, for your own opinionated idea of logical thinking. You have set yourself up as the foundation, you have set yourself up as the authority as to what or how the scripture SHOULD read if you had written it, because then it would fit your logical outcome. And since you have set yourself and your logical thinking as the foundation and authority…I say, go build upon it. Clutch onto your logic and let it carry you to safety. I can no longer help you, as I do not have the things you desire…“Silver and gold, have I none (Logical things to give a man asking for them); but such as I have give I thee…” (All I have are the words of God written in the KJV) I ask, are you the beggar or Peter in this story? If you see yourself as the beggar, then why do you not receive the help that I have given thus far? You refuse the scripture plainly revealed, yet, have not given one rebuttal, other than your opinion of how you THINK the scripture would read. If you see yourself as Peter, then what are you doing on here at all? Shouldn't you be out offering your hand in help to those seeking "alms"?
As for me, I have no fear, I have no doubt, and I have no questions on my foundation and my authority. I have a solid Rock foundation (Jesus Christ), and have used the scripture as my authority to BUILD my faith. I am grounded, sure and secure in my foundation and the authority of the scriptures, and have complete faith in them that I will stand the winds and rain when they come…Can you say the same?
I am sorry to say Mr. Thomas, but you will not find logic in the scriptures (seriously…look it up. Logic is nowhere in the scriptures). So, since there is no logic in the scriptures, and only logic will suffice to convince you to believe, then your only other recourse would be for you to go back to CS Lewis, Aquinas, and Plato, these great godly men you claim were full of logic, and receive your peace, answers and security from them.
But I am afraid you will find no peace, security or help from these men. You have allowed yourself to be deceived by these men, especially, by your beloved CS Lewis. (And this will be the point you shut your ears, close your eyes, and harden your heart.) Because, how dare I speak evil of this great man of God. I speak evil of him, because he has a “form of godliness, but denies the power thereof”. He is worse than the worst murder this world has known. WHY? Because at least you knew the murder wanted to kill you, but CS Lewis, just like Satan, pretends to be an angel of light, a wolf in sheep’s clothing, sending men and women to hell by LYING to them. HOW? CS Lewis is damning others to hell with his allegorical teachings of salvation by works, and “becoming” saved, rather than what the bible says in Eph. 2:8-9. His teaching is that faith in Christ is what gives man a “second chance” at salvation. In other words that his faith opens the door for him to make the necessary steps to attain eternal life. How is this any different than the Catholic teaching? And then there is the false hope he gives for those that may have had the faith, but did not quite make the necessary steps on earth. That hell is locked from the inside, and that man can choose not to remain there. Hell is NOT locked from the inside. Man cannot choose to leave hell and make a long upward journey to gain eternal life as taught in “The Great Divorce”. Christ is the one with the keys of death and hell. He has control over death and hell. If a man does not want to be trapped in hell, then he MUST receive eternal life through Christ by faith, and FAITH ALONE, to save him from death and hell. No Grey Town, no bus trip to the valley, no upward climb to God, no chance of ever getting out. The rich man in Luke 16 was damned and there was no escape from his ETERNAL burning and torment in the F-L-A-M-E of hell.
I will leave you with these final scriptures, which I am sure you have read and know. These 2 verses are completely illogical when read by a man devoid of faith, yet, for those THAT BELIEVE they are turned into Niagara size waterfalls of living water that bring comfort and security. But sir, IF you have not come to Christ and asked him to save you, and put “illogical” faith in a man you have never met, nor heard to save your sinful lost soul from a burning lake of fire, these verses will pour on you as gasoline while you burn for eternity.
“For the which cause I also suffer these things: nevertheless I am not ashamed: for I KNOW whom I have BELIEVED, and am PERSUADED that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.”
“These things have I WRITTEN unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may KNOW that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.”

I will address the scriptures you have listed as supposed contradictions. But before I do, I would like to exhort you, and say that there are many things in the scriptures that cannot be simply explained, or at times may not make sense, and seem to be contradictions. My suggestion to you is 1) Take what the scripture says as it reads. If you do not understand it or think there is a contradiction, give it time, and pray to God to reveal to you what the meaning is. 2) Keep your heart sincere. If you are truly seeking for the truth, and not proof there are errors, then God will either show you the answer through the Holy Ghost by opening your eyes to it, or he will show it to you through the Holy Ghost by using a preacher and teacher. Just as he used Philip to preach and teach the Ethiopian eunuch. 3) Accept and receive the truth you already have. If you cannot accept and receive the truth you already know, why would God reveal more to you? You must first be able to handle the milk of the word before you can handle the meat the word, or even the strong meat of the word.
I personally always default to the fact that I am the one that is not smart enough to figure it out or to understand it, and so I ask God to reveal it to me with sincere prayer, much study, and seeking preachers and teachers.
If you are sincere in your desire to know the truth, God will show it, and hopefully you will learn that when we think the scripture is wrong, that, eventually, God will reveal that the scripture is ALWAYS true, and we are the liars. (Rom 3:4)
EXAMPLE #1
Matt. 27:5 And he cast down the pieces of silver in the temple, and departed, and went and hanged himself.
Acts 1:18 Now this man purchased a field with the reward of iniquity; and falling headlong, he burst asunder in the midst, and all his bowels gushed out.
As far as the example you gave above, you say that you were given a “half-butt” explanation, but if I may say, it was a PLAUSIBLE explanation. Is there not some cases where people hanged were decapitated or the rope broke, or what they were tied off to broke? (See the deaths of George Painter 1894, Tom Ketchum 1901, and Eva Dugan 1930 for a few examples)
OSHA says that a man tied off in a safety harness must be attached to an anchorage point that can withstand 5,000 lbs of force. They have determined that the average 200 pound man “falling” and then immediately stopping (in this case, very likely, a rope around the neck probably tied to a tree branch?) generates just under 5,000 lbs of weight. So basically his fall is generating enough force to turn him into the weight of a pickup truck if he were to suddenly stop. So yes it is very plausible that he BOTH hanged himself and when the rope tightened the weight he generated from his inertia broke either the limb, the rope, or his head, and he falling headlong burst asunder when he hit the ground.
So the question is, is the scripture contradicted or is it just giving some information here by one man's account, and a little more information from another man's account? This is no different than a detective interviewing more than one witness to piece the entire story together. And so it is with the bible...a little here, and a little there. And you are to be the workman studying and rightly dividing to fit the pieces together to make the whole puzzle fit together.
 
EXAMPLE #2
1 Chron 21:5 And Joab gave the sum of the number of the people unto David. And all they of Israel were a thousand thousand and an hundred thousand men that drew sword: and Judah was four hundred threescore and ten thousand men that drew sword.
2 Sam. 24:9 And Joab gave up the sum of the number of the people unto the king: and there were in Israel eight hundred thousand valiant men that drew the sword; and the men of Judah were five hundred thousand men.
Notice the wording. 1 Chron. 21:5 is a total all men that drew the sword while 2 Sam. 24:9 is a number of valient men that drew the sword – It would be the same if you were to say the total number of the US army was 1 million fighting men, but the number of Green Berets that are a part of the 1 million, was 100 thousand men.
And then again look at the words of the scripture with the number of men from Judah. The total number of men that drew the sword was 490,000, while the total of the entire army was 500,000.
 
EXAMPLE #3
2 Chron 36:9 Jehoiachin was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned three months and ten days in Jerusalem: and he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD.
2 Kings 24:8 Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he began to reign, and he reigned in Jerusalem three months. And his mother's name was Nehushta, the daughter of Elnathan of Jerusalem.
Let us start at the beginning. Nebuchadnezzar began to reign, and had been reigning for 5 years before Jehoiakim became his servant for 3 years, and then he rebelled. Then Nebuchadnezzar took Jehoiakim captive, which put Jehoiachin reigning the throne by default, with his mother acting as queen and reigning by proxy. This reign only lasted for 3 months and 10 days because according to scripture, he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord. Which means he (his mother by proxy) was rebelling against Nebuchadnezzar (See 2 Chron. 36:13 when talking about Zedekiah “And he ALSO rebelled against king Nebuchadnezzar…”) Therefore, because of this rebellion, he took him and his mother captive and carried them away to Babylon in the 8th year of his reign (2 Kings 24:12). Nebuchadnezzar then puts Zedekiah on the throne, which lasted only 11 years. Now notice, while Jehoiachin was still 8 years old, Zedekiah started his reign. Which means that when Zedekiah was taken off the throne after 11 years, Jehoiachin was 18, not 19, because Jehoiachin was 8 all during the first year of his reign. So with some simple math you can see that when Zedekiah was removed from the throne, Jehoiachin is now 18. So he was given the throne a second time by Nebuchadnezzar. Giving the “18 year old” with FULL reigning authority, and no mother to reign by proxy, an opportunity to show he can be in subjection to him. But this reign only lasts 3 months, because he was right back doing what his father had done (rebelling against Nebuchadnezzar). And so he was taken into captivity once again, being released in his 37th year of captivity (2 Kings 25:27) making him 44 years old. Which coincides with Nebuchadnezzar’s reign of 43 years. So, the way I interpret it, is as the scripture states with no contradictions. It just takes believing the bible is true, even when it seems it isn’t, diligent study, and having the patience to piece the puzzle together.
 
Hopefully, these explanations are clear enough for you to see, and has given you some more faith in believing that the bible is truth from cover to cover. It just needs to be studied and rightly divided in order to make sense of it, otherwise you could fall into a ditch. I am not sure what materials you have to help you in your studies, but if you are serious about learning the bible, may I suggest a vast library of commentaries and books by Dr. Peter S. Ruckman to help you with getting to know your bible. He has actually done an extensive and exhaustive work entitled “Problem Texts” that could assist you with these supposed contradictions within the scriptures.   

First, thank you for reading my post with such detail! I really appreciate it!
Taking things in order and starting first with your first (and incidentally also your last) stanza: I'm not really sure why I became a Christian; I grew up in a good Baptist household, and I was baptized when I was very young.
So you have realized that you were a sinner, in need of the Savior, and have asked Christ to save you from hell? Is this what you mean by “became a Christian”? Or are you depending on your good upbringing and baptism?
However, I can tell you why I stayed in: exposure to the works of CS Lewis. I know he's just a man, but he was probably the most good, wholesome, and honest Christian from whom I have ever read, excepting of course the apostles and Paul. He, like the great St. Thomas Aquinas and Plato the ancient Athenian, believed that not only nature and the moral laws contained evidence of Christ, but logic itself too. He was a great boon to my Christian life, because he provided such compelling logical arguments that I became totally convinced of the validity of God's word in my mind as well as in my heart. He was wrong about some things no doubt, but he was undoubtedly a great man of God; I would stake my life on that. If you ask why I still manage to cling to God even as I doubt the Bible (and the earth might as well have collapsed for how stressful that is) it is because of the straightforward and Godly logic and teachings of CS Lewis. I'll try anybody you think will help, including Dr. Peter Ruckman, but CS Lewis is the one man I most hold responsible my salvation. He's not a source of doubt Jordan Peterson I can take or leave, I just mentioned him because he seemed relevant.
As to your second set of paragraphs, the one that references 2nd Peter: I don't really doubt God, I just doubt that the Bible is his word. You don't really need to talk about proof of God, I'm already there.
You must not have understood the passage in 2nd Peter, which is part of the problem you are having. The passage quoted in 2nd Peter was not a proof of God, but a proof of the word of God, and how great it is.
Please read the passage carefully:
2 Peter 1:16-19
“For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty.” – Firstly, he starts out describing that he was an eyewitness to the evidence to the truth of the scriptures when he SAW the glory of the second coming of the Lord upon the Mount of Transfiguration. He is stating that he has SEEN a great wondrous sight with his own eyes.
Also, a side note….notice that Peter is stating that we are NOT following fables (I believe this to be the opposite as what CS Lewis teaches, correct? That Genesis and Job are fables?)
“For he received from God the Father honour and glory, when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”
“And this voice which came from heaven we heard, when we were with him in the holy mount.” – Secondly, he goes on to say that we have also HEARD the evidence of God’s voice confirming the truth about the Messiah on the Mount of Transfiguration.
So the set up for the next verse, is “I am telling you that I and a few others have seen the GLORIFIED transformation of Jesus, and heard the very AUDIBLE voice of God himself, and these great signs are less SURE than the very scriptures that you hold in your own hands.”
“We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts:”  - I have enlarged it, bolded it, underlined it, and italicized it for you to READ, SEE, and HEAR. This is the context of the passage in 2nd Peter. The written word of God is MORE SURE than the SEEING, and HEARING God himself.
The Lord holds his word in such high esteem that he said the following: “I will worship toward thy holy temple, and praise thy name for thy lovingkindness and for thy truth: for thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name.” (Ps. 138:2)
As to the set that referenced 1 Kings: Yes, the widow might have doubted that the command "give your last biscuit" was really from God, but she had the prophet Elijah there, who she did know spoke on behalf of God, to verify and back the claim up. She didn't take it as blind faith either; she had a verified mouthpiece of God to confirm. I, in perhaps a similar situation, might (reasonably I think) doubt that the Bible is really from God, so like the widow, I think I should have a verified mouthpiece of God to confirm. Now, I don't know anyone God has trusted enough to perform miracles and speak for him like he did Elijah, so I have to resort to other verified mouthpieces of God to confirm the Bible. The only other mouthpiece I know of is truth, which God confirms to us by way of logic. If you (or anyone) can logically prove to me that the Bible is inerrant, then I will accept that as Godly verification. I want that proof, so that's why I'm out searching for it, but if I can't tell if God wants me to give away my starving son's last biscuit to a fat man, then I think I should feed my son.
Please show me where she knew who Elijah even was when he showed up? The widow was a Gentile woman that lived in Zidon. She never heard Elijah preach or seen him perform one miracle her entire life. The miracle came AFTER she believed him, and the word he preached to her. Again the blessing and miracle comes after faith.
This is the point I was trying to make….Until you receive the word of God to be the word of God, the word of God cannot work effectually in you. “For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe.” (1 Thess. 2:13) The blessing and miracles come AFTER the faith in the word.
You have been corrupted by Thomas Aquinas, Plato, and even CS Lewis to think it is received any other way. These men did not receive nor believe the word of God, and have instead instilled in you and countless others a doubt just as the Devil put into the ears and heart of Eve when he asked just one question…”Yea, HATH GOD SAID…????” This has been the tool of the Devil from the beginning and continues to this day.
As to the part about Judas: Yes, we do use "he" in that manner, but we still don't say 'he broke his arm' or 'he fell down on his face' about cadavers, and I think this usage of "he" falls closer to that usage.
I have shown you from scripture that this statement is not true. 
And ten young men that bare Joab's armour compassed about and smote Absalom, and slew him.
And Joab blew the trumpet, and the people returned from pursuing after Israel: for Joab held back the people.
And they took Absalom, and cast him into a great pit in the wood, and laid a very great heap of stones upon him: and all Israel fled every one to his tent.
You have chosen to ignore the scripture, and set yourself as the authority to determine what words God should have used. 
As to the use of "headlong", yes I agree, just like you said, how could a hanged body fall headfirst? Well this is the definition of headlong:
And that makes it seem like he wasn't hanging. I'm think it's pretty clear the author here meant "headfirst" because saying a body fell "in an impetuous manner", "rashly", "without deliberation" or "without respite" makes even less sense than the other meaning.
I did give the wrong definition of the word headlong, and I apologize for that. I should have kept reading and would have seen the correct definition. (HEADLONG, adjective Steep; precipitous – Websters 1828 dictionary) (PRECIPITOUS, adjective Headlong; directly or rapidly descending; as a precipitous fall – Websters 1828 dictionary) Again, I apologize for giving the wrong definition in the first post, but it was this definition that I was trying to convey.
So, I have done all that I can to show you the truth of this supposed discrepancy...I still hold to what I originally said: Judas hung himself, and either died from hanging, and then hung for 3 days till the great earthquake caused his fall, or hung himself, and something broke immediately and he fell to his death. Either way it happened….Judas died, just as scripture says he did.
 
Finally, to touch back on your last paragraph: Piecing the truth together from the Bible is exactly what I am trying to do, with your (plural) help. The problem is that the closer you look, the more disjoints you find between the pieces.
What disjoints are you speaking of? I have shown you the supposed disjoints of the last 2 examples you gave. The first I showed was due to a simple skimming over words (Man shall live by EVERY word of God) that added more detail to the numbering of the army. You saw them being in error because you wanted to believe the scripture was in error. If you truly wanted to believe the word, you would have studied EVERY word and compared EVERY word, and would have saw the DIFFERENCES in the scripture not as error, but as more detail. And then the second example was in 2 parts: 1) You assumed the 2 scriptures were the same event, even though there was clearly a difference in the two scriptures with one being him at the age of 8 and the other at 18, and if that wasn’t enough to show you that they were different events the scripture gave you further proof they were not the same event with one saying 3 months and 10 days and the other being just 3 months. And 2) You failed to perform simple arithmetic which would have led you to the same conclusion that the two verses were not the same event. You saw them being in error because you wanted to believe the scripture was in error. If you truly wanted to believe the word, you would have studied EVERY word and compared EVERY word, and would have saw the DIFFERENCES in the scripture not as error, but as more detail.
I say again…Heb. 4:12 & Ezek. 14:4 – The scripture read your heart and answered you according to your idols (CS Lewis, Aquinas, and Plato)
Also, as a mostly irrelevant aside; even if you believe the Bible is inerrant, there's still lots of passages that you can't believe in literally.
You have already determined in your heart that the scripture is wrong and that you are right.
You can’t believe the Lord….I can believe, I can believe every passage as literal, unless the scripture says otherwise. If the scripture said the sky was orange, I would believe the scripture no matter what my eyes, or science, or any other outside source told me. Because scripture is from God’s point of view NOT mine. This is not blind faith, this is believing in the written word, that I can see, hold, hear, and read. I believe God to be true and EVERY MAN a LIAR…including my own self.
The Catholics loved to use the passage from Psalms 19:6 about the sun: "It rises at one end of the heavens and makes its circuit to the other; nothing is deprived of its warmth." as supposed "proof" that the sun revolved around the earth, and there's plenty of other, darker passages like Psalms 137:9, which gives a blessing to any man who would snatch a Babylonian baby from its mother and bashes it's brains out on the ground. That clearly don't align with God's will. Those passages don't necessarily mean the Bible is errant, it just means that some books (like Psalms) are meant as just holy poetry and not serious theological teachings. In those cases, it would be just as wrong to take them literally as it would to take some other passages symbolically, because it's wrong to use parts of the Bible outside their intended purposes, and the intended purpose of those passages is only related to music and worship.
As to Ps. 19:6, I will admit that I am not 100% sure what this verse implies. I see what it says, I don't fully understand it, but just because I do not understand it, doesn’t make it untrue or not literal. I point back to my prior statement. If God said the sky was orange then I would believe it was orange, because that is the way he sees it. Whether I believe it or not does not change what God said. I would pray over it, study it, and seek teaching. And even IF I never know for sure what it is saying, I would not question God’s view on the matter. BECAUSE does it really amount to a hill of beans if I know whether the sun is still or moves? What does that have to do with me living an everyday life that he is pleased with, or how will knowing this make me a better preacher of the gospel to lead sinners from hell to the Savior, or how will having this knowledge gain me any mercy at my eventual giving account for what I did in the body at the Judgment seat of Christ? God is interested in how big my heart is, not how big my head is.
As to the Ps. 137:9, I’m not sure where you see that God blesses a man for dashing babies. That is not what I read. I read a sad song of when Israel was carried away to Babylon, and the Psalmist prophesying against Babylon that when they get destroyed they will be done as they did to the Israelites. The Babylonians came in to Israel and were happy to dash the Israelite’s babies against the rocks. So when Babylon’s time was come to be destroyed, then the Meads and the Persians would be happy to dash the Babylonian babies against the rocks.
But I suppose this is what happens when you go back to the “original” language to get a “better” definition of an already translated and PLAIN English word. You end up turning “happy” into “blessed”. The KJV translators had enough sense to know that God wouldn’t bless any man that dashed babies to death, and therefore did not translate that word into “blessed”. But you better believe that man can become so depraved, and cruel that he would get some sick twisted enjoyment from dashing babies. So they translated it “Happy shall he be”.
So, I would once again suggest that you start reading EVERY word AS IT IS WRITTEN, and quit CHANGING what the scripture actually says to thereby further yourself in your unbelief.
CS Lewis didn't think Genesis and Job were symbolic/fictional because he believed they were in error, he just thought they were meant to be passages like Psalms and taken symbolically, not literally. As far as I know he still believed in biblical inerrancy, that part is my own 'discovery', not his. I think Jordan Peterson does think the Bible is all a myth though, (in a way that is less reverent towards the Bible than me). In that way Peterson is pretty sacreligious, but he seems to be an admirer nonetheless, and he has studied the Bible so thoroughly that sometimes he extracts lessons that you probably would have otherwise missed, and he still sometimes (inadvertently) provides teachings genuinely useful to a Christian life. Like I said, I don't approve of his attitude though, so I wouldn't call myself a fan.
 
As I said before…Cut off CS Lewis, Peterson, Aquinas, and definitely that putrefying, unsaved, wicked reprobate Plato, and turn your heart to God. If you continue to reject the truth you have been given, you will find yourself exactly where Herod found himself in Luke 23:9. God will completely ignore you. Herod had chance after chance, and the last thing he heard from the Lord before his terrible, and excruciating death (Acts 12:23) was silence.