Problems With the Bible

Recently an atheist gave me a sheet of paper that listed his problems with the Bible. Heading the list was 1 Corinthians 1:26, a verse which he said proved that atheists are smarter than Christians.

Here is the verse: "For you see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called." He seemed to have skipped over the words "after the flesh." There are different types of wisdom. There is the wisdom of this world ("after the flesh"), and there is the wisdom of God. The message of the passage is that God has chosen a seeming foolish message of child-like faith, to confound those proud folks who think that they are wise.

So, if you look around the Christian faith you won’t find many of those proud people who are puffed up in their own "fleshly" wisdom. So the atheist isn’t wiser than the dumbest of Christians. Rather, according to the Bible, he or she is a fool (see Psalm 14:1).

Also on the list was a reference to Japheth, saying that he sacrificed his daughter. Somehow my atheist friend (and he is a friend) thought that, because the Bible related the incident it was somehow condoning it. He looked a little taken back when I told him that Japheth was lacking a little in intellectual capacity. What he did was stupid.

The Scriptures are given to us for our instruction. We can learn life-lessons from all the stupid things that men and women did in the Bible. Noah became drunk and shamed himself. Saul became jealous and destroyed his life. Judas was a hypocrite and ended up killing himself. Peter slept when he should have been in prayer, and denied his Lord. David let lust into his heart, and committed adultery, then murder. These incidents were written for our admonition, and we can either humbly learn from them or proudly walk down the same tragic path. The choice is ours.