*Alward: The Consequences of Verbal Inspiration

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Farrell Till:

If God had put errors into a book, knowing that he was writing the errors,
knowing that
he had the ability to avoid writing the errors, and knowing that the errors
could mislead people into believing that which is not true and which would
possibly cause them not to understand his plan of redemption, then God would
not be omnibenevolent.

===============
Joe Alward:

Hogwash.  Till has defined a god which could not have inspired the writing of
the bible.  He makes his own rules, and the rules are:  He can't lose. Since
when is god omnibenevolent?  Who decided that?  Even if he were
omnibenevolent, who decided that an omnibenevolent god is incapable of
deliberately confusing bible readers?  Till seems to be defining a god which
cannot perform certain acts by its very nature.  That sounds like a very
limited god, indeed.

Now, read the views of Roger Hutchinson expressed early this year in several
emails to me:  I've paraphrased and edited extensively, and added thoughts of
my own.  (Readers should underderstand that I don't believe any of this; I'm
just playing devil's advocate.)

The Lord deliberately caused his inspired writers to write some verses in a
manner which would confuse its readers. The Lord did this for two reasons:

1. Separate the Wheat from the Chaff


The Lord wished his Bible to be confusing to all but the most faithful. 
The key justification for this belief is represented by passages in 
Luke, Mark, and Matthew which deal with the reason Jesus speaks to his 
disciples in parables. We show here the passage in Luke. 

"And he said, Unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom 
of God: but to others in parables; that seeing they might not see, and 
hearing they might not understand." (Luke 8:10)


Thus, those who will be welcomed into the kingdom of God will have no 
trouble understanding Jesus' parables, but the unbelievers will remain 
in the dark. In the mind of the believer, the psychology seems to be: 
The more difficult the harmonization of certain verses, the more 
tortured the logic, and farfetched the interpretation, then the more 
certain is the sign that the Lord put those verses in his Bible as a 
test--a means of separating the wheat from the chaff, to determine who 
will gain the favored seats in heaven, and who--perhaps--will be cast 
into hell. Thus, the believers feel that the greater the effort they 
expend in attempting to harmonize the Bible, the greater will be their 
display of faith, and, therefore, the more certain and secure will be 
their seat in the heavenly kingdom of God. 

2. Force His Flock to Study Harder

Roger says the Lord made the Bible difficult to understand in places in order
to make 
people study the Scriptures. If there were no unclear verses, he claims, 
then he would not be pondering the meaning of those Scriptures. He 
believes he would become lazy and probably ignore even the clear 
Scriptures. But because unbelievers bring up the issues, he is forced to 
study and understand the Scriptures better, and to pass the wisdom to 
other believers. This is what God wants.

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