Does God contradict Himself in The Bible?

Have you ever wondered if God contradicts Himself? Like in the Bible, for instance? How can we really get to know Him? Does He say one thing, then do something opposite?

Jesus said to His disciples “If you’ve seen me you’ve seen the Father.”

John 14 in its entirety says it all but these particular verses are telling:

⁷ “If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; and from now on you know Him and have seen Him.”

⁸ Philip said to Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us.”

⁹ Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? ¹⁰ Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does the works.¹¹ Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me, or else believe Me for the sake of the works themselves.

Would it be fair to say that by studying what Jesus said, did, and how he reacted to Believers, Seekers, and even the religious leaders, teach us a lot about Him? About God, the Father

Take the issue of death for instance?

What did Jesus do or say with regards to ‘death?’ After all, death is something still in our midst today, something that still hurts us all--Believers, non-believers, atheist, the rich, the poor—you name we struggle with it. When we lose a loved ones, or even when we know that some innocent children have been killed by an evil person, we are affected negatively by death.

1Corinthins 15:

²⁵ For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.²⁶ The last enemy to be destroyed is death. 

So, the Bible refers to death as the last enemy. God’s enemy. The promise is that one day (in the future) death will be no more. But since we, as a human society have not arrived at this point in our human history—whereby death is no more, whereby this last of God’s enemy, will be destroyed--what should we do about death? (Next week we will look at the angel of Death that killed all the first born in Egypt in Moses' time.)

How about looking at what Jesus did? What Jesus said. Most of use Believers want to be like Christ. After all, we call ourselves, “little Christ”---Christians.

Let’s see what Jesus did with death. (Okay, if you are a non-believer, please don’t bother trying to convince me otherwise—I have seen too many miracles in my life and others’, and like they say, the proof is in the pudding. But if you are interested to see how the Bible can help you even in this life, read on.)

Some of the miracles Jesus performed while walking on earth before His resurrection are—click here to read the verses-- Jesus raised the widow's son at Nain (Luke 7:11-17), Jairus' daughter (Matthew 9:18-26; Mark 5:21-43; Luke 8:40-56), and Lazarus (John 11:1-44).

So, my question is--and I know it’s controversial, but I am asking those who believe or say they believe in sola scriptura, and they are not looking at human experiences but at the WORD only—what should we do with the issue of death?

If the Bible says, death is God’s enemy, and if Jesus conquered death and even went about raising people from the dead (and remember these are the recorded miracles—what about the unrecorded miracles? Of which the Bible says are too many to even write about), and if Jesus said we must do as He did and what He did reflected the heart of God, should we take death lying down? Is death from God—referring to the miracles Jesus performed? Because if so, Jesus, in a sense “undid” the will of God in raising those people from death. But Jesus Himself claimed He only did the will of God.

And would God contradict Himself and call “death” an enemy, and then bestow death on people—kids, young mothers, fathers etc.—these days?

And then the issue of being a Christian--shouldn’t we be doing as Jesus did? Rebuking death and raising people from the dead? Should we ever say that “it’s the will of God that this and this person died before his time?” Should we never accept death when it comes our way for our loved ones and ourselves?(And yes, it’s a little difficult when we are dealing with another person facing death since each person really is limited to how much he/she can control another’s faith and fate. But at least for our own self, and our young children who we have spiritual authority over, should we say, “It’s God’s will we are dying, our children are dying etc…?)

I challenge you to look at this because it’s a matter of life and death—sorry about the pun. It’s a matter of what Jesus came to give us victory over. It’s a matter of our witness for Christ.

Okay, this blog is too long as it is. Next week I will look at other challenging issues and verses in the Bible. Till then, keep looking to Jesus alone, and the Word of God—it’s sharper than a double-edged sword! And having the power to change lives.