Image by Kirk Grim
We’re continuing our article series based on the article by Greg Trimble titled, ‘51 Questions that might lead you to Mormonism’.
Since the next three questions in the article deal with whether or not the bible is trustworthy and accurate, I’d like to tackle all of them in one article.
Before we begin allow me to start off by asking my own question-
Why would a religion or an individual, claiming to be a Christian try to make you doubt God’s word?
Sadly, that’s what Mormons, and Mormonism attempts to do, as you’ll see by this question. As we think about our responses to the following questions we need to remember that while there are “apparent” contradictions in the bible, there’s no true contradictions. When we truly study the bible, we will see that it explains itself.
By this, I mean that even though there are difficult and hard to understand passages in the bible, if you study it, you will find your answers. You need to remember that the bible has roughly 40 different authors, and covers a time span of about 1400 years. All of them are speaking to different audiences, with different perspectives, and all have different writing styles.
With that said, here’s the first question:
“If the Bible has obvious contradictions, then how can it be viewed as the final and infallible word of God by Christians? (Acts 9:7, Acts 22:9)”
By adding the scriptural references in Acts, I’m led to believe the author feels that there’s a contradiction in these two verses? So, let’s take a look at them, shall we?
Acts 9:7 And the men which journeyed with him stood speechless, hearing a voice, but seeing no man
Acts 22:9 And they that were with me saw indeed the light, and were afraid; but they heard not the voice of him that spake to me.
I’m not quite sure where the contradiction is here, but I found something that might help us to understand these verses better. From bible.org
“In the case of the question you have raised, the problem is more a matter of translation. Unfortunately the translators of the King James Version did not take into account the fact that the same Greek word meant both “hear” and “understand.” Also, the same Greek word can mean both “sound” and “voice.” The apparent contradiction is correctly solved by the translation of the NET Bible, as well as that of the NASB and the NIV:
NET Bible:
9:7 (Now the men who were traveling with him stood there speechless, because they heard the voice but saw no one.)
22:9 Those who were with me saw the light, but did not understand the voice of the one who was speaking to me.
NIV:
NIV Acts 9:7 The men traveling with Saul stood there speechless; they heard the sound but did not see anyone.
NIV Acts 22:9 My companions saw the light, but they did not understand the voice of him who was speaking to me.
NASB:
NAS Acts 9:7 And the men who traveled with him stood speechless, hearing the voice, but seeing no one.
NAS Acts 22:9 “And those who were with me beheld the light, to be sure, but did not understand the voice of the One who was speaking to me.”
Second Question:
“There are various letters from Paul and others that were not included in the Bible. Who gets to decide what goes into the Bible and what gets left out?”
I’d like to refer you to a great article that answers this question. The name of the article is ‘The Canon of Scripture‘, from BlueLetterBible.org
And the third question:
“Does the Bible say anywhere in it that there will not be any more prophets or any additional scriptures?”
The bible makes it very clear that Jesus is the one we look to, not men. Jesus is revealed all the way through the bible. I found an amazing song goes through each book of the bible and tells us how Jesus is revealed in every one.
The link to the song is below, in the interest of time I didn’t post all the lyrics.
‘He Is‘- Aaron Jeoffrey
Now, as far as ‘are there modern day prophets’? According to RC Sproul Jr, the answer is “yes and no”. He elaborates further by saying:
“Prophets in our day then do not receive new revelation from God. They do, however, continue to proclaim the Word of God. Husbands prophesy to their wives when they wash them with the water of the Word (Ephesians 5:26). Parents prophesy to their children when they speak to their children of the things of God when they lie down and when they rise up and when they walk by the way (Deuteronomy 6:4-9). Churches prophesy to the world when they proclaim the faith once delivered (I Corinthians 11:4-5).”
GotQuestions.org answers the question this way:
“Are there true prophets today? If the purpose of a prophet was to reveal truth from God, why would we need prophets if we have the completed revelation from God in the Bible? If prophets were the “foundation” of the early church, are we still building the “foundation” today? Can God give someone a message to deliver to someone else? Absolutely! Does God reveal truth to someone in a supernatural way and enable that person to deliver that message to others? Absolutely! But is this the biblical gift of prophecy? No.”
Now as far as additional scriptures go:
It’s true that Mormons believe we must believe in modern day prophets and other scripture, if we are to also believe that God still communicates with us today. However, followers of Jesus know that nothing could be further from the truth. We know that God still communicates with us through His Holy Spirit, and by studying His word.
In closing, God’s word is trustworthy, and reliable. Even though there maybe passages that are difficult to understand it doesn’t mean there’s a contradiction, or that another book needs to be added to it so you can understand it better.
Before we begin studying God’s word, it’s important to pray for the Holy Spirit to help you understand what we’re about to read. Doing this has helped me greatly as I’ve made it a habit of studying His word each day.
In Christ,
Melissa Grimes (melissa@lifeafter.org)
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