QUESTIONS FOR BIBLE BELIEVERS

                                                   by Louis W. Cable

The Bible believer is prepared to reject any argument based on extra biblical sources such as science, history, literary analysis, philosophy, etc. no matter how logical and relevant they may be. However, they cannot ignore criticism based on the Bible itself. The following questions are, for the most part, derived from the Bible. If skillfully presented, they are guaranteed to confound and confuse the believer. For the best results it is suggested that you select what you consider to be the best five or six questions, check the biblical references and have them along with a Bible (KJV) ready the next time you are visited by Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, born-again proselytizers, or other bibliolaters*.

1.Can you prove that the God of the Bible exists? (Remind them that the burden of proof rests on him who alleges not on him who doubts.)

2.What do Christians believe? (You can always point out other Christian sects who disagree.)

3. How do you perceive the Bible, literally or allegorically? (If you have done your homework, you can have a field day with this one no matter how they answer.)

4. Does one qualify for heaven by works (James 2:24) or by faith (Gel.3:24-25; Jn.3:16; Jn.14:6)?

5. Didn't Jesus break at least three of the commandments? He was a horse thief (Lk.19:30-35), a liar (Matt.16-28, Lk.21:32, Rev. 22:7, 12, 20) he was disrespectful to his mother (John 2-4) and he threatened to kill children (Rev. 2:23).

6.Wasn't Jesus antifamily? (Matt.l0:35 and Lk.14:26).

7. Aren't some of God's laws antifamily? (See Deut.21:18-21 Ex.21:7.)

8. Do you know that the Bible condones slavery? (See Deut.15:17, Lev. 25:44-46, Ex.21:20-21.)

9. Doesn't the Bible advocate what amounts to 2nd class citizenship for women (1 Tim.2:11-14, Deut.24:1-4?)

10. Aren't we recognizing the wrong set of Ten Commandments? According to God we are. (See The Ten Commandments on this web site. Also see Ex.34:27-28.)

11. Do you believe Matt.27:52-53 to be true? If so, why is such an astounding event ignored by the other gospel writers as well as by the apostle Paul and all 1st century Jewish historians?

12. The Bible is self-contradictory (Com. #6 vs Ex.19:12; Ex.22:18; Lev.24:21, and 2nd Kings 2:23-25.) Many, many more.

13. How do you explain Paul's ignorance of Jesus' life and teachings? (See The Mystery of Paul's Ignorance on this web site.)

14. If Jesus actually existed why is there no acceptable external conformation of it? (See Did Jesus Exist? on this web site.)

15. Do you believe that the earth is flat (Matt.4:8; Lk.4:5) and sitting motionless at the center of the universe (Josh.10:12-13, Gen.1:14-18?) (See Sun, Stand Thou Still on this web site.)

16. Is the story of Noah and the great flood true? If so, doesn't that make God the most notorious mass murderer of all time? (See The Myth of the Great Flood on this web site.)

17. Is it fair to hold a person responsible for a sin committed by someone else? (See Romans 5:12.)

18. Do you realize that all but four of the fourteen Pauline epistles are judged by scholars to be forgeries or possible forgeries? (See The Pauline Epistles on this web site.)

19. The three accounts of Paul's conversion (Acts 9:3-9, 22:6-11, 26:12-18) blatantly contradict each other. So, tell me which one, if any, is authentic?

20. On what authority could Paul, a Jew and a foreigner, legally arrest and deport people living in Damascus, a foreign country?

21. Throughout the gospels Jesus is quoted at length. Who originally recorded these quotes, and how were they reproduced in such detail two or more generations after his alleged death in a primitive culture completely devoid of technology?

22. Of the 17 or more versions of the Bible currently in print, which is the true word of God? Please explain and justify.

23. How can Jesus be so pro-Semitic in Matt.5:17-20, yet so be anti Semitic in John 8:44-47? After all, wasn't he a devoted Jew?

24. Do you know that the Bible condones Incest (Gen.19:30-36, Gen.20:12, Sol.4:9-12), Immorality (Abraham pimps for his wife (Gen.12:10), Genocide (Gen.34:1-31, Deut.20:10-17) and, perhaps worst of all, pedophilia (Numbers 31:1-18)?

25. In the Book of Exodus we learn that God deliberately hardened Pharaoh's heart, and then punished the Egyptian people unmercifully for his stubbornness. Doesn't this amount to nothing more than an insanely cruel act of sadism?

26.Although they are all three contradictory as pointed out in #19 above, of the three accounts of Paul's conversion, Acts 26:12-18 is the one most often cited. Doesn't the passage read suspiciously like a late Christian interpolation, especially when compared the other two?

27. In the Book of Genesis (chapters l & 2) there are two separate accounts of creation. Since they contradict each other on several important points, which one is correct?

28. According to Matt.5:19, doesn't no.5 above place Jesus among the least in the kingdom of heaven?

29. Since the hare (rabbit) is not a ruminant, do you believe it chews the cud as stated in Lev.11:6? (See Bible Science on this web site.)

30. Do you believe that Jesus is God as stated in John 14:9-11? If so, didn't he incestuously impregnate his own mother?

31. Wasn't Lot, the nephew of Abraham and apparently the only righteous man in Sodom and Gomorrah, nothing more than a decadent, immoral coward who offered his virgin daughters for prostitution in order to appease a mob (Gen. 19:8)?

32. What about the innocent young children and the fetuses of pregnant women who died when God capriciously destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah? Is that an example of divine justice to say nothing of "God's love?"

33. Don't you agree that it was unnecessarily cruel and capricious of God to turn Lot's wife, a righteous woman, into a pillar of salt simply because she yielded to a natural impulse and looked back (Gen. 19:26?)

34. Isn't Deut.23:1-2 a classic case of punishing the victim? Is that the act of a loving God or of a despicable sadist?

35. Are you aware that the story of Noah and the flood (Gen.6:5-8:22) is in reality two separate and distinct stories combined so as to read like a single story? (See The Myth of the Great Flood on this web site).

36. Are you aware that God commands you to kill your parents, spouse, children and friends if you ever catch them worshiping another god (Deut. 13:6-9)? Isn’t that directing you to murder your own family?

37. Did you know that God did not learn of the Trinity until 325 CE? (See The Holy Trinity on this web site).

38. Can you explain why 2 Kings 19 and Isaiah 37 are identical?

39. Are you aware that in Mark 2:25-26 Jesus misquotes 1 Samuel 21? The priest was Ahimelech not Abiathar and David was alone. Shouldn't the "Son of God" have known better?

40. God does not repent (Num.23:19). God repents (Ex.32:14). Well, does he or doesn't he?

41. In Lev. 11:19 and Deut. 14:18 the bat is referred to as a bird. Isn't the bat actually a mammal?

42. Did you know that Jesus threatened to kill innocent children (Rev. 2:23)?

43. Did Jesus ever fulfill his obligation (Lev.24:18) to fully compensate the owner of the 2000 swine he so irresponsibly destroyed in Gadara (Mark 5:1-13)? Wasn't this a wanton act of cruelty to animals? (See The Gadarene Swine on this web site.)

44. How do you reconcile 1 John 5:7 (KJV) with Deut.6:4, the Jewish Schema?

45. When did Mary and Joseph first learn of Jesus' divine status? Was it when she first discovered that she was pregnant (Mt.l:18, Lk.l:31-32) or not until the adult Jesus was baptized (Mark 1:11)? Also, if Mary and Joseph were aware of Jesus' divine origin why were they so uncomprehending in Luke 2:49 when the then 12 year old Jesus says to them, ". . . wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business?" Had they forgotten all about the virgin birth and all of that?

46. If, as many Bible believers maintain, God is all-knowing and unchanging why does the Bible itself record that certain human actions came as a complete surprise to him? See Jeremiah 7:31; 19:5; 32:35.

47. In II Kings 2:23-24 it tells us that at the bidding of the prophet Elisha forty two children were ruthlessly mauled to death by two bears. How do you justify such a horrible act of murder?

48. Why, if the story in Matthew 2:13-19 is true concerning King Herod killing all male children two years old and under, wasn't John the Baptist killed? According to Luke 1:5-80 he was the same age as his cousin, Jesus.

49. Why, in Matthew 1:6, is the genealogy from David to Jesus only 28 generations while in Luke 2:23 it is 43? And why is Joseph listed in both genealogies as Jesus father when it plainly says in Matthew 1:18 and again in Luke 1:35 that Mary was made pregnant not by Joseph but by none other than the Holy Ghost?

50. In Mark 15:35 it states that Jesus was crucified at the third hour (9:00 am) while John 19:14 we are told that it was the sixth hour (12 noon). Which one is correct?

51. When exactly did Jesus achieve divine sonship? The answer is, "We don’t know!" Paul says in Romans 1:3-4 that it was not until after his resurrection from the dead. Whereas the author of Mark (1:9-11) says that it happened when he was baptized. Jesus was an ordinary man pursuing an ordinary life until the day and hour when he was baptized in the Jordan river by John the Baptist. At that moment God looked down and adopted him. But, we learn in Matthew 1:20 and Luke 1:35 that it was at conception when Mary was impregnated by the Holy Ghost. However, in John1:1-2, 14 we are told that Jesus had existed as God’s son throughout all eternity. Confusing, isn't it?

52. Was man created after the other animals as we are told in Genesis 1:25-27 or before them as we are told in Genesis 2:18-19?

53. Was Jacob the father of Joseph the husband of Mary as we are told in Matthew 1:19 or was Heli Joseph's father as it says in Luke 3:23?

54. Did Jesus preach his first sermon on a mountain in accordance with Matthew 5:1-2 or in the plain as it says in Luke 6:17?

55. Was Judas Iscariot's death the result of a suicide in accordance with Matthew 27:5 or an accident as we are told in Acts 1:18?

56. When was the Holy Ghost bestowed upon the disciples? Was it at Pentecost (Acts 1:5-8, 2::1-4) or was it before Pentecost (John 20:22)? 

57. In John 10:30 Jesus says, "The Father and I are one". But later in John 14:28 he contradicts himself by declaring that, "My father is greater than I". So, which is it?

58. In Matthew 28:18 Jesus tells his disciples that, "All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth". But in Mark 6:5 we are told that in Nazareth, his home town, he could do no mighty works". Isn't this another contradiction?

59. In Romans 7:6 the apostle Paul says, “But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.” Jesus contradicts this in Matthew 5:17-19 where he emphatically states in the Sermon on the Mount, “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled (see also Luke 16:17). Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven”. Romans, considered by Bible scholars to be authentic, (see The Epistles of Paul on this web site) predates the writing of the Gospel According to Matthew by some 20 to 25 years. It would appear therefore that Paul was unaware of Jesus’ unqualified commitment to the God given laws of the Old Testament. (See The Mystery of Paul’s Ignorance on this web site). So, the question remains, “are Christians required to obey the Laws of Moses or not?

60. Can we or can we not look forward to a resurrection of the dead? Yes, according to 1 Corinthians 15:52 where it clearly says that (on the day of judgment) a trumpet will sound and the dead shall be raised. Also in Revelation 20:12-13 we read, “And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, . . . and the sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. No, according to Isaiah 26:14 where we are told, “They are dead . . . they shall not rise”. Also, in Job 7:9 we read, “He who goes down to the grave does not come up”. So, which is it?
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*Bibliolatry: A form of idolatry, resulting from the acceptance of the Bible as an error free rendition of divine inspiration. So much authority is assigned to the Bible that it, in effect, becomes the object of worship. Those who practice it are called Bibliolaters.