I’m so glad I had the notes I had prepared…

I’m so glad I had the notes I had prepared for an encounter like this with an atheist so I could say what I did. I recorded the whole thing as best I possibly could immediately, so it’s quit a read because of some notes that I shared & want to share with you. Then your Thoughts please

They came to me & said “Hello sir, I couldn’t help but notice you reading that book the Bible & your shirt. Just so you know I’m an atheist who came out of your religion of Christianity. I’d like to present some contradictions & errors to you that have tripped up other Christians & get your response.”

I replied “ok. Let’s see what you’ve got. First, just so you know I won’t have answers to everything, maybe some educated guesses.”

They sat at another table next to me.
They said “ok. A lot of Christians I have met with had problems with these errors & contradictions. I’ll present 3 seemly small ones then 4 big ones: 2 Samuel 24:24 & 1 chronicles 21:24 different name & different pay, so which one is right; there’s 1 kings 4:26 & 2 chronicles 9:25 how many stalk & horses?; 1 kings 7:26 & 2 chronicles 4:5 how many baths. Then several big ones like the Roman centurion in Matthew 8:5-8 & Luke 7:6 which one is correct; the voice that spoke to Paul & about the tomb, how many women, & lastly Matthew & Luke’s genealogy of Jesus concerning Joseph’s father, among many others. So what do you say to these errors?

I answered “So, what’s the big deal?”

They looked surprised & asked “how could you not think of these as a big deal? after all this is your book, about your God & your Jesus.”

I replied “First, I won’t make a big deal what you atheists claim are a big deal or make a big deal. Won’t happen. I have done my studying on a few of those major ones & I don’t see how those affect the overall message of the Gospel to change or damage it. After all my studying I would expect such differences to exist in a book like this after learning from J. Warner Wallace & Lee Strobel. I do expect some “corruption” in the text to a point which I have journaled on. Would you like to hear my notes?”

“Sure”

“From InspiringPhilosophy.org on textual corruption. Is there any corruption in the Biblical text? The answer is yes, but how much of it is & is it a serious problem for Christianity. Does the fact that we do not have 100% certainty pose theological or textual problems for Christians? What you call corruption is actually cultural compromises that have to be made to deliver the message, not the exact words. There’s just too much to say at this time. So my question to is, what were you expecting anyway?”

They answered “impressive. To answer that, I expected & as well as the majority claim to believe that the Bible is supposed to be word for word perfect with no errors or contradictions; consequently, if anyone finds an error or contradiction, then the whole thing falls apart. Not only that, but you Christians also make it more complicated by trying to make sense of all the original words & what they’re supposed to mean.”

I replied “actually you atheists & agnostics have a very big tendency to over complicate even simple things. So many Christians today are in the sphere of ‘Christian fantasy” so that when attacked by skeptics can be broken down. Any Christian in the sphere of reality can’t be broken. Here’s what I mean by the ‘Christian reality’. My word for it, what I’ve learn from J. Warner Wallace with Cold Case Christianity who did his investigations. 3 plus first or secondhand eyewitnesses to the same event in different times & from different perspectives will never agree on everything. Some things will contradict each other, details will be left out while another fills them in unintentionally, & other different details will play a vital role. It’s the detectives job, in this case, J. Warner Wallace, to put all the details together to make the whole picture. There are minor details that don’t need major attention to make a decision, such as a few of the ones you gave me. It’s not about ‘it depends on which gospel you read’. From all I’ve learned from him, I came to this conclusion, that if the four gospels let alone the whole Bible were anymore the same than it is now then I would be skeptical. Christians in the ‘reality sphere’ know what details to give serious attention to. I have more notes on Jewish Oral Traditions & how they’re passed down, & external evidence of the NT being reliable.”

They asked “so with what you just said, what things would you give attention to?”

I answered “a few questions I would investigate to answer: 1) did Jesus claim to be God? Is that historically reliable? 2) did he rise from the dead, 3) are the epistles in the NT reliable? With what I just said & more the answers to those questions is yes; therefore, I dare not question the whole Bible then. If you can give me anything that’ll really challenge that, then you have my attention.”

They asked “so you can make sense of the examples I gave you?”

I answered “I can & I have for a few of them like. Basically they’re called unintended eyewitness support statements, the Bible is filled with them.”

They replied “I’ve read the Gospels numerous times & put them side by side all I see are authors monkeying around with their details to make sure the whole thing works.”

I replied “I have already journaled about why certain details are the way they are even though they appear to be errors by the authors, let alone, the translations. I just have so much to say about that.”

I could tell they were having trouble

They said “well, you can’t trust the translations we have now, since we don’t have the originals nor copies of the originals & it would be easily corrupted over 2000 years like the telephone game.”

I answered “there’s a big problem with that.”

They asked “with what?”

I answered “it’s the opposite of the telephone game that you & many skeptics try to use. First off, it’s a game!! Secondly, it’s secretive, there’s no opportunity to hear the message more than once, & you have to ask the one who started what they said. It says in here 2 Peter 1:20 that it’s the very opposite.”

They said “so what do you to say about the corrupted copies with 400,000 variants we have today with their errors & discrepancies?”

I answered “I also journaled much about that from InspiringPhilosophy.org on the variants. In short, the hundreds of thousands of variants
75% are spelling errors or differences;
15% are variants in Greek Synonyms & transpositions;
>9% late changes; &
<1% do affect the meaning of the text & are from early manuscripts. None of these variants actually challenge or affect essential Christian doctrine. There happen to be about 40 lines unresolved by textual criticism which is 99.5% of the whole.’ Also I have notes about the Jewish Oral Traditions & how that’s worked out. As I learn from the YouTube channel InspiringPhilosophy, what I learned from J. Warner Wallace about chain-of-custody.” I further said “you & those like you definitely fit into the category of people that 2 Peter 3:16 describes “the Scripture are twisted & manipulated by the naive, ignorant, & unstable to mean something they’re not supposed to mean to their ultimate destruction. Also, you’re not a former Christian since there’s such thing as 1 John 2:19. If you were real, then you wouldn’t have left the Church, & lastly 1 Timothy 4:1 from what I see”. There was a minute of silence, & I could see in their face that they were having trouble with my answers & if I had an answer for what else they had in mind. Then they said “Well, you have to admit that the miracles in Exodus & raising of the dead in the Gospels are just straight ridiculous to believe. I used to believe them, but then I opened my eyes to reality, to science. I’ve seen how science has triumphed over that book. Now, I dare you to tell me I’m wrong!” I immediately replied “ok, you’re wrong.” They got agitated. “The greatest miracle has already happened, that there’s something rather than nothing in all existence. With everything we see & studying all its complexity, then those miracles are child’s play in comparison. I’m all for science & against scientism” as I point my finger at them, “Read Lee Strobel’s books. As for me, I would rather live my life believing this God exists then later find out He doesn’t, than live my for myself then later find out He is real. I have nothing to lose anyway. I have more to say, & the burden of evidence is on you. What else do you have for me?” They got up “thank you for your time sir, have a good day” & they left WOW!!