Is the Bible TRUE?

To those confused by my sermon yesterday,

You asked about the sermon yesterday.  Let me see if I can clear up some things.

1) I do believe that the Bible is True.  I believe that everything in it is written without error. 

2) However, there are times that things are written from the perspective of the human author, in ways may not quite square with the way we understand the world today. 

3) This passage at the beginning of Matthew is one of those texts.  I did not know until I started to study the passage last week that the numbers that Matthew presents at 14-14-14, are from my perspective not right.  But from Matthew's perspective he must have had a reason to write it as he did.  I did not mention this on Sunday but Matthew was a tax collector, and would not likely make a mistake in counting!  So what is going on in this chapter. 

a) It could be an example of inclusive and exclusive counting being used for effect.  In the first and last grouping of 14, inclusive counting includes the first and last person in the count and thus gives you 14.  In the middle 14 exclusive counting leaves out the first, and you get the number 14.  Several commentaries suggest that this was a typical practice in Jewish culture. 

b) The kings left out of the count were all cursed by God, and its possible that in the counting of the Kings during Matthew's day, those kings were excluded but everyone, so it is only us - separated by time from the NT era, that want to include those kings in the count. 

There are other options, and I would encourage you to do some research yourself and see what you can come up with. 

The point I was making on Sunday was that God's plan remains perfect, despite our human errors.  In effect it is Romans 8:28, which says God works all things for good.  So all those mistakes made by the people in Jesus' family tree do not keep the messiah from coming to Earth just as planned.  And regardless of how you account for Matthew's numbers, it is clear that God is using Matthew to connect the dots to tell us that Jesus is the legit son of Abraham and David.  Thus, God's perfect plan prevails and we see once again that we can trust him, no matter how messy our own lives become. 

Now concerning your question specifically - did Matthew make a mistake?  And if he did, is this evidence of errors in the Bible, and if so, do we have to admit that the liberals were right and the Bible is full of mistakes and unreliable as a source of ultimate truth in all things. 

I would answer this first question as no, I don't think Matthew made a mistake in what he wrote.  He wrote exactly what he intended to, I just don't know why he would write that.  If he wanted to make a big deal out of the number of generations, it does not make sense to me that he would skip 4 kings in the list of David's decedents, but I suppose it is possible that he was just repeating a pneumatic tool to remember the generations between Abraham and David, and David and the exile.  As for the final set of names, those are specific to Joseph, and Matthew must have learned that list from Mary.  And perhaps is was while comparing Mary's list to a well known memory tool listing the other names, that Matthew came up with the 14-14-14.  

However, as I mentioned on Sunday, and I restate now, as I look at his list, he is missing people and I don't get 14-14-14, and therefore I can see where people would say, "Matthew is wrong!!!"  And having given it some thought, I guess I would have to say that I am not all that bothered by those who might say this.  Often when we put the bible under the scrutiny of modern thought, one can find areas where our ways of thinking are different from the thinking of Biblical times. 

For example, there is a Psalm that says that the Sun revolves around the Earth.  But we now know that the Earth revolves around the Sun.  Does this make the Bible wrong?  No.  It means it was written at a certain period of time historically.  They believed the Sun revolved around the Earth, and we do not. 

They were "creative" in the way they counted generations, we are not.  But this does not invalidate the Truth of the Bible. 

As I said before, I would love hear your thoughts on this.

Mark

Posted via email from Mark Kraakevik