Category: Difficult Passages
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Rash Vows and the Case of Jephthah’s Daughter
In 1845, a young sailor named Robert Falls signed onto a voyage that would change his life forever. During a violent storm in the Atlantic, believing death was near, he reportedly cried out to God and vowed that if he survived, he would devote the rest of his life to…
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Are the Bible’s Numbers Wrong?
40,000 or 4,000? Why the Kings and Chronicles number differences strengthen rather than weaken confidence in Scripture.
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Is Yahweh Guilty of Moral Atrocity?
A Critical Examination of Numbers 31 “The LORD spoke to Moses, saying, ‘Avenge the people of Israel on the Midianites.’” (Numbers 31:1–2) Among Old Testament texts, Numbers 31 is often invoked by skeptics with unusual confidence but minimal contextual analysis. It is commonly summarized through emotionally charged categories: genocide, infanticide, sex slavery;…
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“Buy Us and Our Land”
Why Genesis 47 Must Shape How We Read Leviticus 25 There are moments in Scripture where a single sentence quietly establishes the rules of interpretation for everything that follows. Genesis 47 contains one of those moments. In the middle of a famine narrative, as Egypt collapses under seven years of…
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Does the Conquest of Canaan Reveal a Morally Problematic God?
For centuries readers have asked a pressing question: How can the God revealed in Scripture command the conquest of Canaan as described in Deuteronomy 7, Deuteronomy 20, and the narrative accounts of Joshua 6 and 8? Critics allege genocide, indiscriminate slaughter, or ethnic cleansing. Even sincere Christians wrestle with the ethical implications…
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Rethinking Biblical Slavery
Understanding Ancient Servitude Through a Judeo-Christian Lens “The LORD is righteous in all His ways and kind in all His works.” — Psalm 145:17 It’s one of the most common objections skeptics raise against Christianity: If God is good and moral, why does the Bible include laws about slavery? One of my…
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“Some Doubted”
Matthew 28:17 Faith in the Midst of Astonishment “And when they saw him they worshiped him, but some doubted.” – Matthew 28:17 A Verse That Demands a Closer Look Few sentences in Scripture are as brief yet as misunderstood as this one. At the very moment the risen Christ appears…
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When the Unseen Became Seen
Deuteronomy 7:1–6 in Ancient Jewish Eyes “When the LORD your God brings you into the land that you are entering to possess, and clears away many nations before you . . . then you must devote them to complete destruction.” — Deuteronomy 7:1–2 Facing a Difficult Command Deuteronomy 7 is one…
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When a Child Dies
Wrestling with 2 Samuel 12 “And Nathan said to David, ‘The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die. However, because by this deed you have given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme, the child also who is born to you shall surely…
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When the Bible Disturbs Us
Understanding Psalm 137:9 “Happy shall he be, that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones.” – Psalm 137:9 A Troubling Verse Few verses in Scripture shock modern readers as much as Psalm 137:9. The image of “bashing infants against the rocks” seems to stand in direct opposition to…
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Was Jesus the Suffering Servant?
Messiah or Nation? “He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.” — Isaiah 53:3 Few passages of Scripture have sparked as much debate between Jews and Christians…
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Hell: A Just Place or a Cosmic Injustice?
“Where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.” — Mark 9:48 When Jesus spoke of hell, He didn’t soften the edges. He didn’t cloak it in metaphor to make us comfortable. He painted a sobering picture of unending separation from God—a place of spiritual ruin where the worm…
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Swallowed by Bias
Jonah, Skeptics, and the Sea Creature That Won’t Go Away “For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” — Matthew 12:40 The story…
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Hosea 13:16 – Divine Justice or Cruelty?
The Truth Skeptics Ignore One of the most frequently cited passages by skeptics seeking to challenge the morality of the Bible is Hosea 13:16: “Samaria shall bear her guilt, because she has rebelled against her God; they shall fall by the sword; their little ones shall be dashed in pieces, and…
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Hyperbole in the Ancient Near East
War, Kingship, and Divine Claims One of the most striking examples of hyperbole in the ancient Near East comes from Egypt. The Merneptah Stele (shown above), dating to 1208 BC, contains the earliest known extra-biblical reference to Israel and claims that Pharaoh Merneptah (r. 1213–1203 BC) had utterly destroyed them. The stele boldly proclaims: “Israel is laid waste;…
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Joshua’s Long Day: The Sun Stood Still or God’s Glory Shone Forth?
Joshua 10:13 “And the sun stood still, and the moon stopped, until the nation took vengeance on their enemies. Is this not written in the Book of Jashar? The sun stopped in the midst of heaven and did not hurry to set for about a whole day.” The account of Joshua’s…
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Did the Dead Wake Up?
A Closer Look at 2 Kings 19:35 “And that night the angel of the LORD went out and struck down 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians. And when people arose early in the morning, behold, these were all dead bodies.” — 2 Kings 19:35 (ESV) At first glance, skeptics may…
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Was God Unjust in Sending the Flood?
A Biblical Response to Skeptics Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. — Genesis 6:5 Skeptics often argue that the Great Flood of Genesis 6–9 is one of the…
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