Every once in a while you hear someone say they don’t believe in God or the Bible because, they say, the Bible has contradictions. Most people would probably be hard-pressed to actually name one, but as I watched an episode of Young Sheldon – the television show about a budding scientist and atheist who is forever exasperating his Christian mother by raising his hand in the middle of church to ask the pastor a question – he asked one particular question I thought was intriguing and I took it as a challenge.
In the middle of the service, Pastor Jeff quotes Jacob in Genesis 32:30, “For I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.”
Sheldon immediately turns to his mother and says in all his precociousness, “Is this an appropriate time to mention that John 1:18 says, ‘No man hath seen God at any time.’ Who’s right? Jacob or John?”
Hm. Who is right?
So I started with Genesis, jumped to the beginning of chapter 32 and read to the end of it. There’s a lot going on in these verses, so I’ll keep my answer focused on the immediate action Pastor Jeff quoted.
Jacob is on his way to meet up with his brother Esau, and he’s a little freaked out. It’s nighttime and he’s alone, when suddenly a Man appears and wrestles with Jacob until dawn. After refusing to let the Man go until He blesses him, which He does, “Jacob called the name of the place Peniel (meaning Face of God): ‘For I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.'”
Then I flipped over to the book of John, chapter 1. John begins by describing the God/Man Jesus – the Word, the Logos, or expression of the Father – that He was in the beginning, that He was with God, and that He was God. He goes on to describe the deity of the Man, Jesus Christ, that He is the Light born into this world by the will of God.
And then John goes on to say “No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.”
Of course Jacob and John are both right.
Jacob saw God in the form of a Man. In fact he wrestled with Him all night. (Ever wrestled with God in prayer?) Jacob was able to handle seeing and dealing with God in this humbled form covered by flesh.
So when John says no one has seen God at any time, he is saying no one has seen the full glory of the Almighty God (but the Son has shown Him to us).
Even Moses was only allowed to see the back of God.
There have been many times I’ve casually read a portion of scripture that seemed to make no sense at all. It didn’t line up with my preconceived idea of who God is, or it seemed to contradict another part of scripture. By now though I know the Bible isn’t wrong. I am. 100% of the time.
Because I don’t understand it just means my mind is smaller than God’s. Any god whose mind is no bigger than mine is no God at all. And yet the grace of God has revealed Himself to us in His Son.
Because our human understanding is limited, it takes the Spirit of God to interpret His Word and give us understanding. I know that if I pray for wisdom, and really dig into God’s Word, study it and learn what it actually means, I’ll discover the Bible is never contradictory. Not even between the Old Testament and the New. God is the same, yesterday, today, and forever. His Word is unerring and perfectly compatible with itself.
And by studying it my understanding of God grows, and so does my love for Him.
If you are reading this and you’ve kept your distance from God because you’ve heard the Bible has contradictions, maybe you even have something in particular in mind you believe is a contradiction, I encourage you to read it for yourself. Seek out someone you believe might have the answer, or can dig into God’s Word with you to discover the truth. There’s a website, Got Questions, that allows you to submit questions and also has a large archive of past articles. And I’d be willing to give any questions you have a shot.
And for us who are believers, let’s keep studying God’s Word, or maybe we need to start. There is a lot of teaching out there that is very unscriptural, even among some who seem to have authority, and we need to have a solid understanding of God’s Word, and discernment, so the enemy doesn’t deceive us, leading us to believe things about God that aren’t true, causing disillusionment and drawing us away from Him.
Let us emulate our Berean brothers and sisters, who were “of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.” Acts 17:10-11
There are a lot of treasures in there to uncover.
Happy studying,
