Is The Bible God's Unadulterated Word?

To Christians, the above question seems quite simple, most, if not all, will answer "yes" without hesitation. Then when asked "Is God perfect?", they will most likely all reply "yes" to this question as well. If my two assumptions above are correct, we have established two core beliefs which are common amongst the Christian population:

(1) The Bible is God's word

(2) God is perfect

The following discussion wishes to prove that The Bible contains many clear errors/mistakes/contradictions, thus cannot be the word of God, because God is perfect and would never make mistakes of any kind. Unfortunately, since there are so many different versions of The Bible, it was impossible to present examples of the specific passages from every version. In these cases, the 'King James Version' was used.

Clear Contradictions in The Bible

2 SAMUEL 24:13
1 CHRONICLES 21:11

So God came to David, and told him, and said unto him, Shall seven years of famine come unto thee in thy land? or wilt thou flee three months before thine enemies, while they pursue thee? or that there be three days' pestilence in thy land? now advise, and see what answer I shall return to him that sent me.
So God came to David, and said unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Choose thee Either three years' famine; or three months to be destroyed before thy foes, while that the sword of thine enemies overtaketh thee; or else three days the sword of the LORD, even the pestilence, in the land, and the angel of the LORD destroying throughout all the coasts of Israel. Now therefore advise thyself what word I shall bring again to him that sent me.

2 CHRONICLES 36:9
2 KINGS 24:8

Jehoiachin was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned three months and ten days in Jerusalem: and he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD.
Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he began to reign, and he reigned in Jerusalem three months. And his mother's name was Nehushta, the daughter of Elnathan of Jerusalem. And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, according to all that his father had done.

1 KINGS 7:26
2 CHRONICLES 4:5

Its thickness was a handbreadth; and its brim was made like the brim of a cup, like the flower of a lily; it held two thousand baths.
And the thickness of it was an handbreadth, and the brim of it like the work of the brim of a cup, with flowers of lilies; and it received and held three thousand baths.

2 CHRONICLES 9:25
1 KINGS 4:26

And Solomon had four thousand stalls for horses and chariots, and twelve thousand horsemen; whom he bestowed in the chariot cities, and with the king at Jerusalem.
And Solomon had forty thousand stalls of horses for his chariots, and twelve thousand horsemen.

As you can see, the above errors are concerned with numbers. These differences have been explained via scribal errors. However, this is irrelevant, since I am only concerned with what is written, not what was meant. Even If I agree, that all the number related errors were due to scribal mistakes, does this change the fact that the version of The Bible in existence today contains errors?

Who was the father of Joseph?

MAT 1:16
LUK 3:23

And Jacob begat Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ.
And Jesus himself began to be about thirty years of age, being (as was supposed) the son of Joseph, which was the son of Heli.

What was created first, man or beast?

GEN 1:25 And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
GEN 1:26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
GEN 1:27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

GEN 2:18 And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.
GEN 2:19 And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof.

Can children be killed for the sins of their fathers, or not?

ISA 14:21
DEU 24:16

Prepare slaughter for his children for the iniquity of their fathers; that they do not rise, nor possess the land, nor fill the face of the world with cities.
The fathers shall not be put to death for the children, neither shall the children be put to death for the fathers: every man shall be put to death for his own sin.

What was the last remark Jesus said?

Matt.27:46,50: "And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, "Eli, eli, lama sabachthani?" that is to say, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" ...Jesus, when he cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost."
Luke23:46: "And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said, "Father, unto thy hands I commend my spirit:" and having said thus, he gave up the ghost."
John19:30: "When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, "It is finished:" and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost."

God CAN be seen:
"And I will take away my hand, and thou shalt see my backparts." (Ex. 33:23)
"And the Lord spake to Moses face to face, as a man speaketh to his friend." (Ex. 33:11)
"For I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved." (Gen. 32:30)
God CANNOT be seen:
"No man hath seen God at any time." (John 1:18)
"And he said, Thou canst not see my face; for there shall no man see me and live." (Ex. 33:20)
"Whom no man hath seen nor can see." (1 Tim. 6:16)

Does God tempt man or not?

Gen 22:1
James 1:13

"And it came to pass after these things, that God did tempt Abraham."
"Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God; for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man."

Did Michal have children or not?

SA2 6:23
SA2 21:8

Therefore Michal the daughter of Saul had no child unto the day of her death.
But the king took the two sons of Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, whom she bare unto Saul, Armoni and Mephibosheth; and the five sons of Michal the daughter of Saul, whom she brought up for Adriel the son of Barzillai the Meholathite:

Clear Scientific Errors in The Bible

Creation of the world: Genesis 1:1: The world was created in 6 days, light was created on the first day but the sun and stars (which produce light) were created on the 4th day.
This is scientifically incorrect.

Genesis 1:7 indicates on the first day water was created everywhere and God separated the waters with firmament into heaven and earth on Day 2.
This is scientifically incorrect. At the beginning, the whole world was a gaseous mass and was then divided and cooled off (big bang hypothesis).

Genesis 1:13 states God created vegetables on the third day but the sun was created on the 4th day.
It is not scientifically acceptable to have vegetables survive on Earth without the sun.

In the Jewish calendar, the earth is estimated to be about 5800 years old. This is based on the date that Prophet Adam came to earth (Genesis 4:1) and the world was created.
This is not scientifically correct. The earth is estimated to be roughly 4.5 billion years old!

The story of the flood - Genesis 6:7/7:4. The Bible indicates that the big flood 4000 years ago was universal and the whole world was destroyed except for Prophet Noah and his arc.
This is historically incorrect. Other nations existed 4000 years ago and were not affected by the flood.

MAT 4:8 "Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them"
Astronomical bodies are spherical, and you cannot see the entire exterior surface from any place. The kingdoms of Egypt, China, Greece, Crete, sections of Asia Minor, India, Maya (in Mexico), Carthage (North Africa), Rome (Italy), Korea, and other settlements from these kingdoms of the world were widely distributed.
This misguided statement may have been due to the writers of The Bible thinking the earth was a circle:

ISA 40:22 It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in.

Conclusion

If we take a look back at the two beliefs we established most, if not all, Christians hold:
(1) The Bible is God's word
(2) God is perfect

We can see that if the evidence I have presented in my discussion is correct, then there is a glaring contradiction between beliefs (1) & (2), because both (1) & (2) cannot be correct simultaneously (at the same time).

So, which one is correct?
Obviously, the whole concept of God is that God is all powerful, all knowing and perfect. So if you believe in God, its only logical that you would believe in a perfect God, one that does not make mistakes.
If your belief is one of a perfect God, then this only leaves one option: The Bible CANNOT be God's Word (because of the many mistakes it contains).

My discussion is not aimed at trying to disprove Christianity or The Bible, in fact, I would recommend others to study The Bible in conjunction with The Quran, in order to see the strong evidence which shows all three divine monotheist faiths (Judaism, Christianity & Islam) are interconnected quite remarkably. My aim was simply to dispel the mistaken belief that The Bible is error free/God's Word, and to support Islam's view that The Bible is a collection of interpretations of the followers of Jesus*, not his original teachings.

*Islam regards Jesus as one of the many prophets who delivered God's message, not the son of God/God etc.

End Comments

As always, all the information I have presented in my discussion is correct to the best of my knowledge only, and thus should not be taken as a fact.

"You shall not accept any information, unless you verify it for yourself. I have given you the hearing, the eyesight, and the brain, and you are responsible for using them." (The Quran, 17:36)

Bibliography

http://www.infidels.org/

Please check any references that I have taken from The Bible from the following site (you can even check different versions of The Bible)
http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?
 

email author: 786kas (at) lineone (dot) net