There are many different Christian theologies, and the loyal followers will always ignore or redefine uncooperative Biblical passages so effectively in their own mind that they lose their ability to notice that there are contradictions in the Bible. After centuries of argument and conflict over what the Bible really means yet even those who take part in the debate will somehow deny that there is any confusion at all concerning the Bible. They all believe that their version of the truth is supported without any ambiguity by the Bible, but the inconvenient truth is that every single solution to the riddle of the Bible has some verses that total destroy it, and none of these various “doctrines” or “interpretations” answers the question of *why* the Bible was written this way. If the enigmatic Bible is a message from God, then there must be a reason for God to send us a message while keeping much of the meaning hidden in riddles.
Some say that God is secretive since He wants us to have “free will” and come to Him on our own, but achieving this objective only requires that God not give us any proof of His existence. If this was God’s motive, it would have been better had God not performed a single miracle, so that our decision to come to Him is based on our faith in His message which would need to be clearly a good message and therefore a clear message. The question remains, why did God give us an enigmatic message?
Some will claim that the confusion is the result of the Bible having been altered, but this leaves no reason to have any confidence in the Bible. If the Bible is the inspired word of God, then God would have to keep the Bible free from any alteration that changed a fundamental doctrine, otherwise He was wasting His time sending a message.
This mysterious message from God called the Bible was fifteen hundred years in the making, so there is a major plan being executed by the Creator of all existence, but then God allows His communication to be altered? The God described in the Bible would have seen that beforehand.
Some will say that sacred tradition is the answer. Church leaders are said to have the authority to explain the Bible, so we should look to what they’ve said over the centuries. Unfortunately, there is still a lot of ambiguity; and sacred tradition, like all the Protestant attempts to explain the Bible, does not actually make the contradictions go away by merely taking sides. For example, in the Biblical confusion between “free will” and “predestination”, a church leader may declare “free will” the winner, but this doesn’t make the predestination verses go away; nor does it explain why the confusion was put there. Free will must be true; predestination must be true; we are judged by what we do, and we only make it to Heaven by the grace of Christ. It must all be true.
Often religious scholars will make verses they don’t like go away by changing some definitions. This solution suggests that the Bible is not enigmatic because God was giving us a riddle to solve, but because God has poor communication skills. It is saying that God made several poor word choices requiring us to make some corrections, but God would not make, or chose men who would make, poor word choices unless He intentionally wanted to confuse.
But if God intentionally wanted to confuse or conceal information, why would He use poor word choices as the method of concealment considering that this looks deceptive and unintelligent? If God wanted to keep information secret, He would use a complex multi-layered riddle which no one can solve demonstrating God’s superior intelligence. God might use a simple riddle but prevent people from seeing the simple solution demonstrating God’s power and control. We must say that the Bible is a riddle, to say that the contradictions are the result of sloppiness discredits God and the Bible. But if the Bible is a riddle, then no one has solved it yet since none of the solutions are consistent with all the clues.
People will often dismiss verses they don’t like by saying they should not be taken literally, but some of the most problematic passages in the Bible are written in such a manner that they must be literal.
Isaiah 45:7 I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things. (King James Version)
Isaiah 45:7 I form light and create darkness; I make well-being and create calamity; I am the Lord, who does all these things. (English Standard Version)
How can this not be taken literally? This one verse destroys many doctrines. It upsets a lot of people because it does not conform to their view. God created evil or God created the conditions where evil would form. By some translations God created darkness which led to calamity. This means God created some spirits and/or people who were “dark” or lacking in righteousness.
Proverbs 16:4 The Lord hath made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil.
It’s not inconceivable that God created the conditions where evil would form, if He had a good reason. Disregarding one single clue can make it impossible to deduce the true solution to a riddle.
People want to change the Bible instead of solving it, but the true solution to the Bible must reconcile all contradictions not just pretend they aren’t there. Not just make a choice between “free will” and “predestination”, the true solution must show how both are correct, and it should do this without redefining predestination to mean something other than predestination. The true solution also must explain why God created the conditions where evil would form, and it has to explain why the truth had to be kept secret. The solution that is consistent with every single clue is the real solution to a riddle.
Christ spoke in parables, but He said that more truth would be revealed at some point in the future by the Holy Spirit. This means that there are some secrets that were not revealed by Christ, so the first coming of the Messiah did not satisfy the conditions for releasing all the information.
From the Christian perspective, there are only three historical periods of great significance. There is creation, the first coming of Christ, and the return of Christ. If the first coming of Christ was not sufficient to release all the information, then it is likely true that these secrets will not be revealed until we reach the time of the second coming of Christ which is the end of the world. This may explain why the Biblical book that describes the end is called “The Revelation”.
The idea is that a “revelation” of truth occurs just before the end of the world, and this also helps to explain why this information had to be kept secret and why the Bible is so enigmatic. The truth had to be kept secret until the end since this revealed knowledge is what causes the end.
Hidden within the riddles of the Bible it is explained why God created the conditions where evil would form, and how God destroys evil. This knowledge will enrage the evil or egocentric spirits who must then be cast from Heaven causing the period often called Armageddon. Armageddon is not a battle between good and evil, but part of the process whereby evil is destroyed. As the evil spirits learn of their demise and take out their frustrations on humanity, God begins to reveal Himself to His children. This is the awakening that we are approaching.
