How to Handle an Atheist's Attack on the Bible
There are what appear to be contradictions, some irreconcilable, in the Bible, but there are ways to handle them in an honest way, says Michael Brown, a Messianic Jewish apologist and host of the talk radio show "The Line of Fire."
"First thing, don't stick your head in the sand as if they don't exist," says Brown, the president of FIRE School of Ministry, in the latest episode of his show, "How Do We Explain Bible Contradictions?"
"Second thing, don't pull your hair out as if it's the end of the world," Brown suggests.
We should look to see if there's a textual or manuscript issue, he says.
"Could it be that a predominant number of manuscripts repeat a wrong number or an error that easily crept in, and other manuscripts indicate that that's not the original text. … Sometimes, the contradictions disappear just like that," he explains.
Another way to look at it is, he adds, "sometimes there's an overall harmony even if the details we can't quite bring together."
