And the men which journeyed with him stood speechless, hearing a voice, but seeing no man. 9:7
And they that were with me saw indeed the light, and were afraid, but they heard not the voice of him that spake to me. 22:9
In other words they heard a voice but had no idea of what was being said.
What?? The second verse doesn't give any mention to hearing anything. Not a word. The two verses explicitly say different things.
What's more is that both verses were written by the same author. It's conceivable (however highly unlikely) that two different authors could have meant different things. Say for instance every time Paul said "Heard no voice," he was implying that a voice was heard (thats contradictory itself) but not understood. And perhaps if Mark or John or Matthew had written the first one, a case could be made, however weak, that the authors were referring to the same thing.
But unfortunately for you in these verses, Paul errs and says "Heard a voice" in one passage and "not heard the voice." If he meant they didn't understand in the second passage, that contradicts with the first!!
What I find when pointing contradictions out to Christians is that often times very very weak arguments are made. To give you an example, consider how Judas died. Matthew 27:5 says Judas was hanged. Acts 1:18 says that Judas died from "falling headlong" (which means headfirst) and his guts splashing everywhere.
I've shown those very verses to Christians and here's the reply I get: "Oh simple. Judas was hanged over a cliff."
Do you see how a case is made? A possibility emerges however so slight? Is it that ideally Matthew "forgot" to include Judas later fell to his death or Paul "forgot" to mention Judas was being hanged over a cliff? No matter how preposterous the notion may be, if it leaves some degree of "possibiliy," people accept it. I think that's ludicrous.
The the more astute, level headed person not blinded by devotion to one's religion, the errors are clear and distinct. No way of arguing them away. And if someone does argue every one away, I offer you the number contradictions which by far prove the case. There might have been a few in the list I gave you.
Number contradictions are simply when the Bible mentions two exact events and contradicts on a number by sometimes a large amount, sometimes a small amount. Numbers are the most difficult to argue away since there is no interpretation or inference given to passages that include numbers. They are explicit as explicit gets.
I beg anyone reading this post to consider the info carefully and ask yourself whether or not the case presented by Chris is logical or plausible in any sort of way short of deceiving oneself.
May the Peace and Blessings of God, Most Gracious, Most Merciful, Be upon you.
Ray |
