TGC Africa has a great piece called “Can You Trust the Bible When It’s Full of Contradictions?” In it, Ryan van der Avoort asks three questions and offers four suggestions. His approach would help anyone wrestling with the question, or speaking to someone wrestling with the question.
The necessary questions:
- Could you be more specific?
- Are you willing to be humble?
- Will you read and study the Bible for yourself?
The four suggestions:
- No one is saying that the Bible is always easy to understand.
- Tensions are not necessarily the same as contradictions.
- The immediate context of a passage matters.
- The larger storyline of the Bible frequently brings clarity.
