Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord, and turn away from evil. It will be healing to your flesh and refreshment to your bones. – Proverbs 3:5-8
Believers should never seek or entertain supposed contradictions in the Scripture. It is unbecoming of a believer to even assume the Scripture has contradictions. For the heart of faith says, “God is good and righteous and holy, or He would not be a God worthy of my trust. Therefore, God cannot fail, and He does not give to us words of contradiction, confusion, or inconsistencies because this would be inconsistent with who God is and what I believe Him to be. Therefore, His Word is 100% faithful and true and I must learn to trust it.” But a skeptical heart says, “God may be good and holy, but how can I trust Him? The Scripture is merely a book written by men, and men make mistakes. Therefore, I am just in my doubting and questioning and I must assume there are problems in these texts. For if I accept them blindly, I could be led astray by the very God who brought me to faith in the first place.”
Some skeptics will say that trusting in the Lord is different than trusting in the Bible. That we can know God’s Word apart from the Scripture, that we can feel God in our hearts or find His Word in nature. It is true that nature reveals certain aspects of God such as order, beauty, and the like, but there are things that nature cannot reveal that we can only find in the Scripture such as the definition of sin and depravity, the history of the Jews, the genealogy of our Lord Christ, etc. And we most certainly cannot find our salvation in nature but most look to the Scripture — and salvation is at the center of all history. Further, what we feel in our hearts about God is hardly a means to understand God. Feelings are subjective and always changing, and feelings are corrupted by the sinful nature.
What we can know about God apart from the Scripture is limited and not salvific. What the Scripture reveals about God is far more in depth and fundamental for our lives of faith. Thus, we must learn to trust the Scripture above our own senses, feelings, or opinions or our senses, feelings, and opinions will lead us to the pit.
The BEST and only way to approach the Scripture — the way that is consistent with faith — is to believe it has no contradictions, that the Scripture is conveying precisely what is intended, and that God has, in His goodness and holiness, preserved His Word. The Scripture in infallible because God makes it so. The Scripture is perfect because God is perfect.
And when the skeptic comes and mocks you for trusting in the Bible, even if the person is a believer, do as Jesus does. Confront his attitude and call out his sin. Humble him by taking down that which makes him question the Scripture. Then, point him to Jesus and trusting in Jesus alone for hope of eternal life (John 6:41-47). Do not entertain his skepticism but reveal it with the law, call him to repent, and give him the Gospel. For the Christian religion is not one of skepticism and questioning God, but one of faith, trusting in God above all things, and resting in His word and promises — as absurd as they may appear to be by our limited minds, or as the foolish unbelievers insist.
Heavenly Father, silence the skeptic within me and when I question Your Word, draw me to humble repentance and sure faith. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
