Bible Errors
Putting the Bible to the test with reason and facts.

Is Literal Bible Interpretation Risky?

If people do think the Creator has spoken to them through a holy book, there is little wonder that they then feel compelled to spread the word, defend it, deny error, and muffle any voices in opposition.

When faced with questions about interpretations, contradictions, outright errors, and conflicts with ethics and science, Bible defenders think (at least privately) that others' failure to interpret the holy book "correctly" is due to a spiritual defect. Few stop to think that if a holy book is truly holy, that is, if the Bible is of the hand of the Creator of the universe, no interpretation would be necessary, no errors possible.

All Bible statements are to be taken literally until there is a snag. Then the reader is to assume there is a flaw in their personal spirituality, or the verses are relegated to metaphor, poetry, mystery, or instructional stories ambiguous enough that almost any meaning can be placed on them. These tactics, outrageously inventive at times, effectively inoculate the text against any possible disproof and mislead people into thinking that ethical and spiritual development has to do with one's ability to decipher printed translated words. Interestingly, these liberal tactics are only extended to one's own holy book. When critiquing the holy books of other religions, no such generosity is extended.

If a book is really the literal word of the Creator of the universe, then all of it must be embraced—no selective cherry picking or elisions allowed. Bible errors must be faced, unless it doesn't claim to be accurate and infallible. However, the New Testament refers to 35 of the 39 Hebrew books and mentions in several places that all of its writings are inspired of God: "All scripture is God-breathed and useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness." (2Timothy 3:16) "You received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but as it actually is, the word of God." (1Thessalonians 2:13); Everything in the book was to be followed to a tee upon penalty of death: "See that you do all I command you; do not add to it or take away from it." (Deuteronomy 12:32; also note: Joshua 1:8; Isaiah 40:8: Leviticus 19:37)

Moreover, nowhere are there qualifying comments such as: "The following commands and lessons are only valid for X number of years, then they are all to be considered void, and at most symbolic." Certainly the Creator of the universe would be capable of such clarity and qualifications, just in case of error or contradictions in the Bible. There are allusions to the fulfillment of the "old law" of the Old Testament in the New Testament, but that cannot reasonably be taken to mean that the Old Testament is no longer to be followed: "The word of our God stands forever" (Isaiah 40:8); "The scripture cannot be broken."

Statements in the Bible instructing that it is to be followed exactly put a reader who starts at Genesis chapter one in a jam. It doesn't take very many pages into the book to get the clear message that there are certain rituals that must be performed, foods not to eat, sacrifices to be made, and unbelievers to be killed. A reader would have no reason to believe these instructions are to be altered or modified or that commands in the Bible could be in error. Nowhere in the opening verses does it say to not follow any of the instructions until an undefined "whole Bible" is read and context understood. Neither does it anywhere state that one gets a breather from punishments for not following the book precisely. Before one could ever even hope to get to any supposed "context" part, they would have been institutionalized, imprisoned, or killed for doing what the book said.

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