Think Of It Like A Newspaper

Is the Bible full of errors?

No.

But some people seem to think so. They even create entire websites that list the errors … you know … just to help you out.

But the errors aren’t really errors.

Sometimes there are difficulties. Yes, the Bible has difficulties. Events and episodes that take some time to understand. And we should spend the effort to understand them.

But errors?

Many of the supposed errors turn out not to be errors at all when you understand that the Bible is a collection of various types of writings.

I remember a website that a family member sent me to years ago. A website that supposedly has an exhaustive list of the errors of the Bible. For one example, this website pointed to a passage in the book of Job [ 36:27-29]. This passage says that evaporation and condensation are the effects of God. Not just natural processes.

But we know that they are natural processes.

Therefore, the Bible is full of errors.

Right?

Not exactly.

Think of it like this.

Now, this might make me seem old, but think of a newspaper.

In a newspaper, there are articles.

And editorials.

And comic strips.

And you don’t read articles like editorials.

And you don’t read editorials like comic strips.

And you don’t read comic strips like articles.

You read them differently because they are meant to be read differently. Articles are supposed to convey unbiased factual information. Editorials are designed to convey opinion. Comic strips are designed to be funny.

And you definitely don’t read them the same. That would be confusing, dishonest to the authors and probably lead to some wrong conclusions.

The Bible has different types of literature as well.

The Bible is full of narratives.

And songs and poetry.

And prophecy.

And, sometimes, even in narrative books there are sections of poetry.

And you don’t read narratives like you read songs and poetry.

And you don’t read songs and poetry like you read prophecy.

And you don’t read prophecy like you read narratives.

Narratives are meant to be understood literally. Songs and poetry are not.

And in the example from above, critics are taking a poetic section of Scripture and reading it like narrative. It isn’t designed for that.

You will come to the wrong conclusion about the Bible if you don’t read the different genres the way they were meant to be read.

The point is to know what type of literature you are reading. And to know how to handle it.

Otherwise, you might think that the Bible is full of errors.

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