3rd-5th-grade

3/29/14 class Lesson 6

Does the Bible Make Mistakes?: Teachers Guide

Psalm 139:1-6, 2 Timothy 3:16-17
You Will Need: Computer to show Power Point Slideshow Internet Connection Ask for Prayer Requests: In your prayer be sure to mention something along the lines of, Let us have the desire
to study and learn the truth for ourselves, so that we can better serve you, God

Slide 1: Ask the class if they know anyone who thinks the Bible makes mistakes and wait for a response. Slide 2-6: Explain to the students what it would mean if the Bible made mistakes. The foundation of Christianity would be destroyed. Make sure the word Contradiction is understood before moving on. Slide 7: Introduce the question Does the Bible make mistakes? Slide 8-18: Tell the class that they should use these questions as a guide to know if something is a contradiction or not. Is it talking about the same person? Is it talking about the same time? Is it talking about the same type of thing? The following slides have easy to understand examples for each concept as well as an example of what some people think is a Bible contradiction. For example, Genesis 6 and Exodus 25:10 both talk about an ark, however Genesis is talking about Noahs ark and Exodus is talking about the ark of the covenant. Slide 19-20: Make it very clear that there is no contradiction unless the same person, thing, or time is involved. We need to study on our own so that we can be

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3/29/14 class Lesson 6

sure of what is true. (There are two videos. Both videos are responding to the idea of there being a contradiction in the Bible involving two separate verses. The video takes the supposed contradiction and uses Bible knowledge to prove that it is not a contradiction at all There may only be time for one video. ) Slide 21-23: Language. Some people try to twist around the words of the Bible until it says what they want it to say. There is more than one sinful reason for twisting Gods inspired word, but some do it to say that they can prove the Bible wrong. Slide 22 uses 1 Corinthians 15:6 as an example of this. It says Some have fallen asleep meaning that some have died. Literally the words say something different than what they mean, but we can still understand it today. Slide 24-27: The inspired writers sometimes add to the events they are writing about. This is not a contradiction! Money is used an example. If you have $10 dollars in your pocket it would still be true that you have $1 in your pocket. What would be wrong would be if you lied and said you had $11 dollars or saying that you didnt have any money at all or saying you had a frog in your pocket you have $10 and thats it. Matthew 14:21 and Mark 6:44 relate the same story of Jesus feeding 5,000 men with only five loaves or bread and two fish, however Matthew includes the women and children who were fed in his story. This is no contradiction; the women and children were always there, Matthew is just completing or adding to Marks story. Slide 28-32: People often say, The numbers dont lie. They try to use this to disprove the Bible as well. For example, in 2 Kings 24:8 says that Jehoiachin became the King of Juda at the age of 18. But, in 2 Chronicles 36:9 it says he was eight years old when he became King. Age 8 and Age 18 are very different Enter, Human Error! God inspired the original Bible, but since then people have copied the original and made small mistakes. Most of these mistakes were so small

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3/29/14 class Lesson 6

that they did not change the meaning of the Bible. For example, Writing the when you were supposed to write a". This means that even though it is true that the copiers made mistakes we can still read and understand the Bible the way God wanted us to. Slide 33-38: The next question would be, How do we know if what we are reading is the original inspired word of God? 5,700 ancient copies of the New Testament that can be used to compare and contrast to find the original message. After all of these ancient writings have been compared it can be seen that today we have over 99% of the original text that God inspired the ancient writers to record. Out of the tiny remaining less than 1% nothing affects our faith. To this day, the Bible is the most accurate ancient book ever created. No one has ever found one real contradiction in the Bible proving it as untrue!!! Slide 39-40: This is awesome, because it means the Bible does not make mistakes and it also means that the foundation of Christianity is intact.