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NewsletterPsalm 102:25-27 states that the heavens and Earth will wear out like a garment. But elsewhere the Bible says or implies the Earth will remain forever. (Ecclesiastes 1:4; Psalms 104:5; 148:6; Isaiah 45:18; Matthew 5:5) Also, things wearing out is not particularly insightful inasmuch as such decline is the reality everyone has faced every day of life since the beginnings of time.
An instance of purported Biblical scientific foreknowledge is Job 26:7, where it is stated that the Earth "hangs upon nothing." However, the Egyptian gods, Ka, Khepra, and Neb-er-tcher are said to hang the Earth upon nothing, which makes the Biblical statement unremarkable. Also, if Job really meant the Earth was suspended in empty space, he contradicted himself when he also said it rested on foundations, was rectangular, and had a solid sky. (Job 9:6; 22:14; 28:24; 37:3,18; 38:4,6,13,18) Are such contradictions actually Bible errors? Finally, it wouldn't seem that people would need to read Job 26:7 to learn about heavenly bodies supported by nothing when all they had to do was look up at the sun, moon, and stars.
In one part of the Bible it says there was one Judas and a Thaddeus as part of the twelve apostles. In another part it says there were two Judases and no Thaddeus. A person reading the book at face value would say that is a contradiction – their Bible contains an error -- and therefore the book is not perfect and not of God. A person who assumes the book is the word of God concludes (since God [truth] cannot be self-contradictory) that Thaddeus and Judas were two different names for the same person.
In another instance, in the book of Matthew (27:9) it speaks of how Judas and the thirty pieces of silver were prophesied in the Old Testament book of Jeremiah. But no such prophecy can be found in Jeremiah. Instead the reference is found in another Old Testament book, Zechariah (11: 12,13). A Bible error? Critics could say the Bible contradicts itself and therefore could not be of the Creator
A person who has faith in a holy book will believe it is the word of God at all costs, and never acknowledge Bible errors. It is true that faith is Biblical ("Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed... Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." [Hebrews 11:1; John 20:29; see also Acts 20:20,21; Hebrews 11:6; Ephesians 2:8,9]). However, citing the book that is in question as justification for believing anything it says, and overlooking all Bible error, simply begs the question. Additionally, at the same time that the Bible advocates faith, it also counsels against blind faith: "Beloved ones, do not believe every inspired expression, but test the inspired expressions to see whether they originated with God." (1John 4:1) Also: "always be ready to make a defense before everyone... " (1Peter 3:15; see also Proverbs 14:15; Romans 12:2; 1Thessalonians 5:21) That would mean every individual has the responsibility of critically evaluating any "inspired expression" and being capable of making a "defense," not simply relying on faith or other people.