There Are Mistakes In The Bible
For those who are still reading, rest assured I believe the Bible is inspired by God, infallible, and without error. This is not because the authors were perfect, but because the Holy Spirit is perfect and guided those authors to write what they wrote.
I hold fast to the words in 2 Timothy 3:16, “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God…” I also believe Romans 15:4. “Whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the perseverance and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope.” In 1 Corinthians 10:11, we have another powerful reminder. “All these things … were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.” So, the Bible is totally accurate and reliable. But there are mistakes people made and those mistakes are recorded in the Bible.
It was a mistake when Adam and Eve disobeyed God in the Garden. Adam and Eve chose to do what seemed right in their own eyes. They chose against what they knew to be the right choice. We have been experiencing the consequences of their mistake ever sense.
It was a mistake when Cain killed his brother Abel. It was a mistake when Aaron fashioned a golden calf that led the people to make the ludicrous claim, “This is your god O Israel, that brought you out of land of Egypt.”
It was a mistake when the people refused to go in and claim the land of Canaan. When the twelve spies were sent in to see the Land, ten of the twelve spies said, “the people are stronger than we are. They were like giants, and we were like grasshoppers…” Joshua and Caleb declared, in God’s strength we can be victorious. But the people made the mistake of not doing what God had told them to do and it cost them 40 years of wandering in the wilderness.
It was a mistake when Simon Peter denied the Lord three times. We should be encouraged to know the rest of the story including Peter being restored by the Lord. This same Simon Peter a few weeks later preached a message and 3,000 people became followers of Christ.
These are just a few of the many examples of how we can further know the Bible is the truly inspired record God desired it to be. Were the Bible simply a manmade book filled with people’s opinions and manufactured stories, the authors would have cleaned up the stories a bit so that the people of God would not have looked so foolish and disobedient. But as we have determined, these and other mistakes people made are recorded just the way they happened so we can learn valuable lessons. We make mistakes, but God still loves us. I’m glad we have 1 John 1:9. Take a few minutes today and each day to read the Bible. Have a great day!
