Alleged Discrepancies of the Bible
Lesson 7
Ethical Discrepancies
Rationale: The student will encounter (some) ethical
discrepancies and will become familiar with plausible
explanations that reconcile the alleged ethical
discrepancies with scripture. Remember, there is a big
difference between “knowing” something to be true
and “showing” something to be true.
I. The Bible forbids murder and the killing of the
innocent.
Exodus 20:13 (NASB) "You shall not murder.
The purpose for this commandment is to preserve
life: to teach people the sanctity of human life, that
they are to honor and hold human life in the highest
esteem. Man is created in the image and likeness of
God; therefore, man's life is of infinite value to God
(Genesis 1:26-27).
I. The Bible forbids murder and the killing of the
innocent.
Exodus 23:7 (NASB) "Keep far from a false charge, and do
not kill the innocent or the righteous, for I will not acquit
the guilty.
One of the greatest tragedies ever committed is when an
innocent man is executed for a crime he did not commit.
Great care is to be administered by the judges before
sentencing a man to die. They must know without a
doubt that the man is guilty of the crime.
I. The Bible forbids murder and the killing of the
innocent.
Leviticus 24:17 (NASB) 'If a man takes the life of any
human being, he shall surely be put to death.
Throughout the legal system of the Bible and some of the
near Eastern Nations there is this fundamental principal:
the punishment must match the crime. This is known as
the principal of lex talionis. It is sometimes called the
principal of retaliation or of retribution. Premeditated
murder and serious sins against the family and God's holy
name did merit the death penalty.
I. The Bible forbids murder and the killing of the
innocent.
Jeremiah 7:6-7 (NASB) 6 if you do not oppress the
alien, the orphan, or the widow, and do not shed
innocent blood in this place, nor walk after other gods
to your own ruin, 7 then I will let you dwell in this
place, in the land that I gave to your fathers forever
and ever.
When people obey God and live righteously, then and
only then do they become acceptable to the LORD and
truly worship Him. Four important righteous
behaviors are specified in these verses: 1) treating
others justly 2) not oppressing the foreigner,
fatherless, or widow 3) not committing murder 4) not
following false gods or worshipping idols.
I. The Bible forbids murder and the killing of the
innocent.
Jeremiah 22:17 (NASB) "But your eyes and your heart Are
intent only upon your own dishonest gain, And on
shedding innocent blood And on practicing oppression
and extortion."
Although Jehoiakim was the son of a godly king, he was
corrupt and wholly given over to evil. He was a cruel,
dictatorial ruler who bitterly opposed Jeremiah. God’s
indictment against Jehoiakim includes many charges in
Jeremiah chapter 22 that show the depth of his
corruption, one of which was the shedding of innocent
blood.
I. The Bible forbids murder and the killing of the
innocent.
Revelation 21:7-8 (NASB) 7 "He who overcomes will
inherit these things, and I will be his God and he will
be My son. 8 "But for the cowardly and unbelieving
and abominable and murderers and immoral persons
and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their part will
be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone,
which is the second death."
•The rejection and fate of the people who will be
rejected by God at the judgment throne are clearly
spelled out: the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable,
immoral persons, sorcerers, idolaters, liars, and
particularly, murders, those who kill the innocent.
•It is obvious that from the teaching of the Bible that
God absolutely forbids the killing of an innocent life, it
is safe to ascertain this as a Biblical fact. The alleged
ethical discrepancy comes from what is perceived as
an inconsistent position by God:
II. God condones the murder of the innocent,
namely, Jesus.
Isaiah 53:10 (NASB) But the LORD was pleased To
crush Him, putting Him to grief; If He would render
Himself as a guilt offering, He will see His offspring,
He will prolong His days, And the good pleasure of the
LORD will prosper in His hand.
•The Lord Jesus Christ became the substitute sacrifice
for sin (v.10). His substitutionary death is the major
theme of this great chapter of Isaiah. Jesus Christ did
not die as a martyr, as someone put to death for his
beliefs. Nor did He die as an example, as someone
showing us how to face death with a positive attitude.
•He died neither by accident nor because fate decided
it was time for Him to die. Jesus Christ died
deliberately, purposefully, and at the hands of God
the Father. God Himself had determined that His Son
would die for the sins of the world. His death was
predetermined, planned by God before human history
even began.
Acts 2:23 (NASB) this Man, delivered over by the
predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you
nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put
Him to death.
The death of Christ was not something that was
unseen by God, or that came as a reaction or an
afterthought in God’s redemptive plan. God
determined ahead of time the plan to be followed in
the redemption of man.
2 Corinthians 5:21 (NASB) He made Him who knew no
sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become
the righteousness of God in Him.
God made Christ to be sin for us, how? God placed all
sin, guilt and condemnation upon Christ and let Him
bear it all Himself. Hence, Christ had to be sinless in
order to be made sin; this is how Christ became sin
for us.
Hebrews 4:15 (NASB) For we do not have a high priest
who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One
who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet
without sin.
Jesus was tempted by the master tempter, Satan, and
yet for approximately 33 years he lived a sinless life in
thought, word, and deed. The one that God delivered
up to be murdered by Roman crucifixion was an
innocent sinless man.
Given the fact that Jesus was sinless and innocent the
opponents of the Bible state that God acted
inconsistently in doing something that He explicitly
condemns, thus the Bible contains a huge ethical
discrepancy, one that completely undermines
Christianity altogether.
Some opposition points are:
1. The murder of Jesus was immoral because an
innocent man must not be murdered in the place
of a criminal; this is a miscarriage of justice.
Mark 15:15 (NASB) Wishing to satisfy the crowd,
Pilate released Barabbas for them, and after having
Jesus scourged, he handed Him over to be crucified.
2. The murder of Jesus was immoral because it
nullifies the personal responsibility of the criminal.
Romans 5:6 (NASB) For while we were still helpless, at
the right time Christ died for the ungodly.
3. The murder of Jesus was immoral because an
innocent man is morally obligated by the truth to
prove his innocence.
Matthew 26:63 (NASB) But Jesus kept silent. And the
high priest said to Him, "I adjure You by the living God,
that You tell us whether You are the Christ, the Son of
God."
4. The murder of Jesus was immoral because it sets a
dangerous precedent that the guilty are exempt from
punishment.
1 Corinthians 6:9-11 (NASB) 9 Or do you not know that the
unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not
be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor
adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, 10 nor
thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor
swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 Such were
some of you; but you were washed, but you were
sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord
Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.
5. The murder of Jesus was immoral because of God’s
previous law that the punishment must fit the
crime.
Deuteronomy 19:21 (NASB) "Thus you shall not show
pity: life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for
hand, foot for foot.
6. The murder of Jesus was immoral because Jesus
committed divine suicide.
Hebrews 7:27 (NASB) who does not need daily, like
those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for His
own sins and then for the sins of the people, because
this He did once for all when He offered up Himself.
1. After the fall of mankind and particularly with the
establishment the tabernacle system of worship,
the justice of God always demanded that the
repentant criminal be offered an opportunity to
make restitution through the blood of an innocent
animal.
Leviticus 17:11 (NASB) 'For the life of the flesh is in the
blood, and I have given it to you on the altar to make
atonement for your souls; for it is the blood by reason
of the life that makes atonement.'
2. Those who do not repent will be held personally
responsible for their crimes against God.
Revelation 2:5 (NASB) 'Therefore remember from
where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds
you did at first; or else I am coming to you and will
remove your lampstand out of its place—unless you
repent.
Revelation 2:16 (NASB) 'Therefore repent; or else I am
coming to you quickly, and I will make war against
them with the sword of My mouth.
Revelation 2:20-22 (NASB) 20 'But I have this against
you, that you tolerate the woman Jezebel, who calls
herself a prophetess, and she teaches and leads My
bond-servants astray so that they commit acts of
immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols. 21 'I gave
her time to repent, and she does not want to repent of
her immorality. 22 'Behold, I will throw her on a bed of
sickness, and those who commit adultery with her into
great tribulation, unless they repent of her deeds.
Revelation 3:3 (NASB) 'So remember what you have
received and heard; and keep it, and repent. Therefore
if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you
will not know at what hour I will come to you.
Revelation 3:19 (NASB) 'Those whom I love, I reprove
and discipline; therefore be zealous and repent.
Revelation 9:20 (NASB) The rest of mankind, who
were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the
works of their hands, so as not to worship demons,
and the idols of gold and of silver and of brass and of
stone and of wood, which can neither see nor hear nor
walk;
Revelation 16:9 (NASB) Men were scorched with fierce
heat; and they blasphemed the name of God who has
the power over these plagues, and they did not repent
so as to give Him glory.
Revelation 16:11 (NASB) and they blasphemed the
God of heaven because of their pains and their sores;
and they did not repent of their deeds.
3. Mankind may or may not be morally obligated to
prove his innocence; however Jesus is God in the
flesh and as the righteous judge of the earth He is
under no obligation to prove His innocence to
anyone.
4. The guilty will not be exempt from eternal
punishment:
Revelation 20:15 (NASB) And if anyone's name was
not found written in the book of life, he was thrown
into the lake of fire.
5. To say that the murder of Jesus did not match the
law of an eye for an eye is an argument from
ignorance. Deuteronomy 19:21 deals specifically
with man to man civil laws. God as the righteous
judge is the only one who can determine the
punishment for the sins of the world.
6. The murder of Jesus was not divine suicide,
voluntarily offering one’s life to save another is not
suicide:
John 10:17-18 (NASB) 17"For this reason the Father
loves Me, because I lay down My life so that I may
take it again. 18"No one has taken it away from Me,
but I lay it down on My own initiative. I have authority
to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again.
This commandment I received from My Father."
III. Reconciling God’s prohibition of the murder of the
innocent with the death of Christ requires
understanding God’s person, which can only be
accomplished by reading the entire Bible in
context, only then can one fully understand
Romans 3:21-26.
1. Because God is the creator of all, and because He
is both ontologically and ethically holy, only He can
judge and must punish sin.
2. Because God is holy He is righteous, which makes
him a righteous judge.
3. Because God is love He is also endowed with
mercy.
4. His holiness demands that mankind be eternally
destroyed for sin against him.
5. His love demands that mercy and forgiveness be
extended to mankind who was created in His image,
mankind whom God loves.
6. His righteous justice demands that mankind be given
an opportunity to pay restitution to Him for sin,
however, because God is holy, mankind has nothing in
and of himself in which he can make restitution to
God’s divine court, for the only thing that will satisfy
God’s court is innocent blood, for the life of the
creature is in the blood.
7. In order for God to be “just” and the “justifier” is
to both punish sin and offer forgiveness according
to His holiness, therefore He must offer himself in
Jesus Christ voluntarily, and shed innocent blood
on behalf of sinful mankind.
8. For mankind to be acquitted of His crimes against
God, he must be legally justified by the divine
court according to God’s holy prescription, namely
in and through Jesus Christ.
This is a brief summary of justification; sanctification
involves treating the resurrection of Jesus from the
dead.