Let God Be True

Now that the much anticipated debut of the mini-series “The Bible” has passed, commentary upon the series as well as the hype, is in order. Part of the hype was the appearance of the producers, Mark Burnett and his wife Roma Downey, on the O’Reilly factor last week.

Mr. O’Reilly tried to bait Burnett and Downey into a debate on the truth of the Bible, but they, to their credit, did not take the bait. Unfortunately, Mr. O’Reilly shows his ignorance of the Bible with the objections he raises, particularly that no one should believe the Bible “literally” because it contains “allegory” and “contradictions.” I do not blame Mr. O’Reilly for his misconceptions, but they are misconceptions. So let me state this as clearly as possible. There are NO contradictions in the Bible and I challenge Mr. O’Reilly or anyone else to show even one. Biblical prophecy, poetry, and parables could be classified as both hyperbole and allegory without doing damage to the truthfulness of the Bible. These examples are merely teaching tools God uses to make His points to us. However, biblical history is presented as real history and as truthful.

The next night Mr. O’Reilly noted that some viewers objected to his statements of the night before. One responder had a very salient point as he noted that Jesus himself supported the truthfulness of both the accounts of Jonah and Noah. Mr. O’Reilly’s response was that this claim was simply “wrong.” Once again, Mr. O’Reilly is boldly going where he should not go. The fact that he is ignorant of the facts hasn’t stopped him from trying to make his case. Unfortunately, he is only making his case weaker. That is because this particular responder was indeed correct, and O’Reilly was wrong! However, I do not expect him to be honest and say so. After all, he is not the expert and is relying on the opinions of other ‘experts’ of the liberal bent. But I am not going to be politically correct for the sake of anyone, whether they be a powerful media person or a PhD professor. In point of fact I have had one on one debates with professors of the Old and New Testaments who embrace a liberal view of the interpretation and meaning of scripture. I have never had a problem telling them how wrong they are as well. I state this not because I have such a great argument that all opponents fall before my erudition. I state it because the biblical text is very clear on these points. This is true in both the English translations and the Greek texts.

For example, in Matthew 12:38-45 Jesus is responding to a request for a miraculous “sign” by the scribes and Pharisees. There was no parable or allegory involved here. Jesus states as part of this response in v.40, For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

Here is the dilemma. Jesus is making a direct comparison between the experience of Jonah and his own resurrection which was yet to come. If the experience of Jonah was not factual, then Jesus is stating a falsehood and using it as truth. With that there are four choices available to us. One, the passage itself is an incorrect quote. That is extremely unlikely with our knowledge of biblical manuscript evidence. Two, Jesus decieved them to get his point across. Three, Jesus was mistaken about Jonah’s story. Either of these would be considered heresy among virtually all churches, and rightly so. The idea that Jesus, whom the Bible teaches was the sinless Son of God, literally God in human flesh, lied or was mistaken means that God is not righteous or omniscient, and thus God is not really God! Or four, the Bible is not the Word of God written, as it claims, and is simply a bunch of stories invented by the authors for their own purposes. So Mr. O’Reilly, if you wish to continue to insist it was “wrong” to claim that Jesus believed the story of Jonah was true, then these are your choices. Jesus lied, or he made a mistake, or he was misquoted, or he and the Bible are both mythological! Which is it Mr. O’Reilly? Either you believe Jesus was telling the truth or not. For my part, I’ll take Jesus at his word, and I suggest you should as well.

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