Examining the doctrine of Scripture—its inspiration, inerrancy, authority, canon, and interpretation.
Reading Time: 9 minutesQuestion 1015. Biblical contradictions get raised in nearly every conversation I have with sceptical friends, and honestly, they deserve a serious answer rather than a defensive one. The Old Testament prescribes animal sacrifices, and the New Testament says Jesus has rendered such offerings obsolete. The Old Testament records God commanding the destruction of entire peoples,…
Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 1014. The truth we call progressive revelation answers a question that shapes the way you read the whole Bible, namely whether God handed down everything He wanted us to know in one go, or unveiled His truth and His purposes step by step across the centuries. It is no dry academic puzzle, because how…
Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 1013. The phrase apocalyptic literature turns up constantly in biblical studies, and if you do not understand what it means you will struggle to read whole stretches of the Bible well. It is not a scary word, though the imagery it covers can certainly be vivid. It simply names a particular way of writing…
Reading Time: 5 minutesQuestion 1008. The question of dreams and visions and prophecy today stirs up real confusion and no small amount of division in the church. Does God still speak through such means? Should I expect them, seek them, or be suspicious of them? I want to think this through carefully, because the two easy answers, an…
Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 01007. Do you need scholars to understand Scripture, or can an ordinary believer read the Bible and grasp it for themselves? Christians tend to fall off this horse on one side or the other. Some approach the Bible with a kind of dread, convinced they need academic credentials before they dare interpret a verse….
Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 01006. People use the words prophecy and prediction as though they mean the same thing, but prophecy and prediction are not identical, and the difference matters more than you might expect. Get them muddled and you will misread large stretches of the Bible, because biblical prophecy involves far more than forecasting the future. Reduce…
Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 01005. If the Bible is clear, why do sincere Christians disagree so often about what it teaches? This is one of the most honest questions believers ask, usually when they are genuinely trying to understand God’s Word and find themselves surrounded by conflicting interpretations. It can be unsettling. If Scripture really is God’s clear…
Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 01004. The question of scriptural reliability becomes very pointed when we ask whether the apostles’ fallen nature corrupted the doctrines they taught. It is a fair thing to wonder. Peter, Paul, John and the rest were sinners like us. Paul had been a Pharisee. Peter was impulsive and once had to be rebuked to…
Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 01003. The amount of biblical prophecy in Scripture is one of its most distinctive features, and people are often surprised when they discover just how much of the Bible is given over to it. Estimates vary depending on how you define and count it, but a frequently cited figure is that somewhere around a…
Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 01002. Textual variations exist in the Bible because for some fifteen centuries the Scriptures were copied out entirely by hand, and hand copying, however careful and prayerful, inevitably leaves its small traces behind. When a believer first learns that the thousands of surviving New Testament manuscripts do not all read in exactly the same…