Bible Controversies Unpacked

By Getmore Sithole

Bible Controversies Unpacked tackles the very questions that everyone, believers and non-believers, has about the Holy Bible. It further goes to defend Christianity as the only true religion in the world and uses not only Biblical justification but also scientific, historical and archaeological evidence to backup events and claims in the Bible. Some of the 'touchy' topics addressed head on in this Christian Apologetics book include homosexuality, slavery, polygamy, drinking alcohol/wine, submission in marriage and so much more. It answers those questions that you dare not ask your pastor lest you be rebuked or condemned! 

This blog aims to liberate readers by providing evidence to justify and/prove Biblical accounts. Its an interactive environment where readers interact with the author on issues discussed in the blogs.

• Language: English
• Publisher: VT Publications
• Release date: Dec 14, 2020
• ISBN: 9780620882361

Book preview

BIBLE

CONTROVERSIES

UNPACKED

BIBLE CONTROVERSIES UNPACKED

Demystifying The Complex Subjects In The Bible Getmore Sithole

VT Publications

Scripture quotations taken from: Verses marked KJV are taken from the King James Version of the Bible, by Hendrickson Publishers Marketing, LLC, 2013.

Verses marked NKJV are taken from the New King James Version. Copyright ©1979, 1980, 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Verses marked MSG are taken from The Message: The Bible in Contemporary Language.

Copyright ©2002 by Eugene H. Peterson, NavPress. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Verses marked NLT are taken from the New Living Translation: Abundant Life New nd

Testament, 2 Edition. Copyright ©2004 by Tyndale House Publishers. Used by permission.

All rights reserved.

Verses marked NIV are taken from the New International Version® Anglicised. Copyright

©1979, 1984, 2011 by Biblica Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Verses marked AMP are taken from the Amplified Bible. Copyright ©1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987, 2015 by Zondervan and The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Bible Controversies Unpacked

Copyright © 2020 by Getmore Sithole

VT Publications, P.O. Box 76344, Wendywood, 2144, RSA All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information retrieval system, without written permission of the author or publisher.

ISBN 978-0-620-88236-1

To order additional copies of this book contact: Email: [e-mail]

or call [phone]

Table of Contents

Dedication

vii

Acknowledgments

viii

Introduction

x

1

Is Christianity The Right Religion?

1

2

Does God Approve Of Polygamy?

29

3

Slavery In The Bible

45

4

Authority And Government In The Bible

63

5

God Versus Science

79

6

What The Bible Says About Dinosaurs

97

7

Politics And The Church

111

8

Wine And Alcohol

137

9

What Is Wilful Sin?

157

10

The Discussion On Tithing

171

11

Homosexuality

187

12

Submission In Marriage

221

13

Unforgiveness

249

14

Judge Not, Lest Ye Be Judged

259

15

Those Who Never Heard The Gospel

271

Dedication

To Pastors, theologians, the laity and students of the Bible, and any person who has a hunger to have more than just a superficial understanding of the Bible, this book is for you.

To everyone: seekers, doubters, as well as the fervent believers; this book is for you.

Finally, to the aspiring and developing leader within each of us; may we all search for and discover the literal meaning of TRUTH as it relates to the written Word of God, without which we would be like the proverbial

blind leading the blind.

To Pastor Tich Tanyanyiwa, whose powerful, encouraging and inspiring Bible-based teachings elevated my self-belief to the point where I dared dream of writing a book of this nature. I owe my most sincere gratitude to you, Sir.

vii

Acknowledgments

To my wife, Dorriane, and to my outstanding children, Kundai, Venekai and Tawanda, who allow me to exercise my authority as a father in guiding them through the challenging obstacles presented by this fallen world we live in. You guys continue to make me proud. You fuel the passion behind all that I do.

Creating this book has been a personal journey of discovery, in the course of which I have met many old and new guides to help me along the way. I am always conscious that whatever we accomplish or achieve in life is the sum total of all the people, situations and circumstances we have encountered in our lives. This book is evidence of that reality.

I could not have achieved the measure of success to date without the foundational teachings of my late parents Edson and Sarah Sithole. Mum and Dad, you planted the seed that has developed into the insatiable appetite for God’s Word that is in my heart today. I am eternally grateful to you and love you both forever. I look forward to seeing you again in heaven.

I am extremely grateful to my dedicated and talented editor, Vutlhari Tlakula, for getting this material out of my heart and onto these pages. I remain indebted to you for any success our collaboration achieves. My sincere gratitude for the valuable insights given by Mr and Mrs Zingwiro on the subject of Wives Submitting To Husbands, and Mr T. Mancuveni on Authority and Government in the Bible.

Finally, I acknowledge and thank the one and only, the King of kings and the Lord of Lords, the Leader of all Leaders, my Saviour, who Himself viii

established the standard for all of mankind to measure up to. I am forever indebted and grateful to you for your eternal gift of life and for kindling within me the idea of this book.

Introduction

As the world becomes ever more relativistic and everything appears to be defined in subjective rather than absolute terms, finding truth seems to be elusive. If, like me, you are the type of person that digs deep and asks penetrating, probing questions to get to the heart of a matter, this book is a gift to you. It is a tome that grapples with familiar controversial topics found in the Bible yet it offers solutions that are mostly left field. The issues dealt with range from the exclusivity of Jesus, to Polygamy, to Slavery in the Bible, to answering complex subjects, such as whether there is conflict between God and Science and the hotly debated topical issue of our time, which is homosexuality.

By daring to deal with complexity too, I refuse (with respect) to pander to the readers and to provide simplistic answers that do more harm than good. My four key objectives for writing this book are as follows: (a) To equip Christians to better understand their faith and share it more effectively

(b) To answer people’s real questions that hinder them from accepting the gospel

(c) To answer false claims and accusations brought against Christianity by cults and other religions

(d) To correct error within Christendom

I trust that the style of writing – by referencing experts who address these difficult questions – makes the book surprisingly accessible, credible and winsome. With this in mind, I am hoping that as the reader navigates the x

tough subjects that stand in the way of strident skeptics and other truth seekers, some of the toughest intellectual obstacles to the faith will fall away.

Lastly, you will find a recurring theme in this book that I want the reader to allow to be etched in his/her psyche. You cannot take a single verse of scripture and try to make a doctrine out of it. Your interpretation of any single verse has to harmonize with the rest of the Bible. In other words, the Bible was designed to interpret itself. The depth of and extent to which I have gone in researching the subjects covered in this book is my attempt to breathe life to this principle. The inimitable late Christian Apologist Ravi Zacharias titled his TV show Let my people think: Helping the Thinker Believe and Helping the Believer Think. This book was greatly inspired by that thought.

Be blessed as you read,

The Author.

xi

Chapter 1

IS CHRISTIANITY THE RIGHT RELIGION?

1

Bible Controversies Unpacked Out of all the myriad worldviews in the

world, like Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism,

Judaism and others, why must anyone

follow Jesus Christ?

2

Is Christianity The Right Religion?

WAS BORN into a Christian family. My mom and dad attended a I denominational church in Bulawayo, called the United Church of Christ (UCC). My first encounter with God, Jesus and the Bible was at this tiny church, which sat between 150 to 200 adults when it was full. My mom would take us to Sunday school, but I guess it was too long ago for me to remember the sort of teachings we received. My two brothers would be in attendance too, and I recall that we were among the most well-behaved kids at UCC. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that both our parents were strict disciplinarians, although our dad was stricter. If you happened to step out of line while attending the main service, my mother would stare daggers at you, and that would be enough to warn you of impending trouble when you got home. On some Mondays when my dad was off duty from work, I remember we had evenings when we would gather together to sing hymns from a hymn book. Since it had become customary to get together to sing and worship God in this way, my mom became keenly aware of each child’s favourite hymn. I must say I enjoyed those moments, not so much in terms of their spiritual import than the sheer bonding that they created within the family. Nonetheless, the foundations and roots of my later belief in Christ were planted in those precious yet humble family gatherings. Of course, the majority of kids are born into some or other kind of faith, and usually that provides the grounding for the worldview that they follow perhaps for the rest of their life. For me, high school was the stage at which I started to ask deeper, more probing questions about my religion. But it wasn’t until much later in 3

Bible Controversies Unpacked life that I had a proper encounter with the Lord Jesus. And that happened, thanks to a book I read by Josh McDowell, titled More Than A Carpenter.

The book changed my life dramatically. Most of the questions I had about who Jesus was and why Him and not Muhamad or Buddha or Confucius were answered in that book.

Seeking The Right Worldview Must Be

A Priority In Your Life

Life’s greatest failure is to be successful in the wrong assignment. That would be a waste of time. Your time is important because your time is your life. And the key to effective use of your time is establishing correct priorities. When you prioritize correctly you preserve and protect your current life and possibly secure your afterlife. Correct priorities simplify life, but mis-prioritizing will result in you being busy with the wrong things or what famous author Myles Munroe calls ‘majoring in the minor’. Let me illustrate by using an example that we are all familiar with: the purchasing of a house.

People spend a lot of time finding out information about an area or suburb that they aspire to buy property in. They want to know what the traffic is like during peak hours, the ease to connect to the highway, the presence of shopping malls and schools in the vicinity, or municipal parks for family or for walking their dog. The actual property needs to be checked out thoroughly for structural defects and so on. Your home is your sanctuary; it is a place where you are going to spend most of your time, and so you have to make sure that it ticks all your boxes. After your motor vehicle, it is probably going to be the most expensive thing you invest your hard-earned money in. Wise people will not rush to make a decision on this because making the wrong choice can prove extremely costly not just financially, but emotionally, socially and in many other respects.

When you finally make a decision and it proves to be the right one, then all the effort, energy, time and resources spent will have been worthwhile.

4

Is Christianity The Right Religion?

But the wrong choice can be devastating. Now if it is a smart idea to expend so much time in choosing the right home, how much more important and wiser is it for one to investigate the correct worldview as this decision will determine where one will spend the rest of one’s eternity?

What do I mean by worldview?

Ø a comprehensive conception of the world, especially from a specific standpoint

Ø the overall perspective from which one sees and interprets the world

Ø a collection of beliefs about life and the universe held by an individual or group

Ø a particular philosophy of life

Synonyms: faith; school of thought; convictions; ideology; religion; viewpoint

The reality about choosing worldviews is that they can’t all be true because truth is narrow, and because of the law of non-contradiction. The law of non-contradiction says that opposing ideas cannot all be true at the same time. As with any problem in life, some people avoid it because there’s often a pain or discomfort and inconvenience factor to solving a problem. But all you achieve by avoiding the problem is to postpone the pain. The problem doesn’t go away, and sooner or later you’re going to have to deal with the issue. Other people face the pain now with resultant relief later. Those who run from their problems will have to face the pain later. Unfortunately, where a worldview is concerned the avoidance of seeking the truth now could mean spending eternity in a place that’s not heaven. Jesus said to His disciples, You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free (John 8:32). Implicit within that statement is the fact that truth can be known. Hard as it may be to find, truth can be found. Truth is valuable, hence it isn’t easy to find. Valuable things typically don’t come 5

Bible Controversies Unpacked cheaply or easily. So let us define what truth is.

Truth is:

o that which corresponds to reality

o that which matches the facts

o what matches its object; for example, if I was holding a ball in my hand, it would be true for me to say that I am holding a ball in my hand. But it would be false to say I am holding a brick if in fact I was holding a ball.

How To Analyse A Worldview

Brilliant Christian Apologist, the late Ravi Zacharias offers what he calls the 1-2-3-4-5 method of analyzing worldviews. I would like to share it with you because it will provide you a method with which to judge worldview options. But what I will present to you is a shortened version, which I have found to achieve the same result as the 1-2-3-4-5 method. In my assessment the latter is more for those who want to pursue a degree in philosophy or theology. Out of the latter I have picked 2-3-4 because the three explanations fit in with the aims and level of this book. I would urge you to put any worldview or religion to this test and see if it will answer the questions without contradicting itself at some point.

First, a worldview must answer two general questions for it to be true: 1. Correspondents Theory of Truth:

Do the claims of the worldview correspond with the facts? Let us take the worldview of Buddhism. Buddhism holds that the self is an illusion.

There is no YOU. What we call You is your ego, which is a psychological construct that is our identity. For me the difficulty with accepting this is that the very term individual speaks of something that cannot be divided or broken down. So if the individual is an illusion, then Buddhism itself as a religion does not exist because all its leaders and followers are essentially non-existent. So who are we talking to? Buddhism therefore fails the Correspondents Theory of Truth in that it does not correspond to 6

Is Christianity The Right Religion?

reality.

2. Coherence Theory of Truth

In short, this speaks of coherence. Are the philosophy’s arguments consistent? When all the answers are given to the 2-3-4 questions mentioned above, do all the answers converge, and is there consistency within them? Example: continuing with the Buddhist worldview that we’ve examined, one of its core teachings is that life consists of Dukkha or suffering, which we experience as sorrow, pain, unfulfillment and misery.

We suffer because we desire that which is impermanent, and the consequence of that is the illusion of the existence of the individual self.

According to this concept, the solution to suffering is by eliminating Desire. In reading up about the history of Siddartha Gautama, the founder of Buddhism himself, the story goes that he abandoned his wife and child to pursue the answers to the problems of suffering. The irony of this being that he abdicated his responsibility as a father and husband to fulfill his Desire for the elimination of suffering! Did he not create pain by deserting his wife and child? To take it a step further: Today, the Dalai Lama is to Buddhism what Jesus Christ is to Christianity. In other words, all Buddhist followers aspire to be like the Dalai Lama. If Desire is the cause of suffering and must be eliminated, then why do the Buddhists desire to be like the Dalai Lama? Buddhism fails the Coherence Theory of Truth in that there is no consistency in its answers.

Second, there are three tests that a worldview must pass. It must be: 1. logically consistent – its teachings cannot be self-contradictory.

2. empirically adequate – its teachings must match what we see in reality.

3. existentially relevant – its teachings must speak directly to how we actually live our lives.

Third, each worldview must address the following four ultimate questions:

7

Bible Controversies Unpacked 1. origin – where do the universe and human beings come from?

2. meaning – what is the meaning or purpose of life?

3. morality – how do we know what is right and what is wrong?

4. destiny – what happens to us after we die?

Why do I believe that the worldview of biblical Christianity is the best choice? Its teachings are logically consistent, they accurately describe reality as it is, and they speak directly to the human condition.

In addition, Christianity provides compelling and powerful answers to the questions of origin, meaning, morality, and destiny.

If you are a Christian and you haven’t analyzed Christianity using the 2-3-4 method, you are truly missing out. Read, and read some more. Dig into your faith because it provides comprehensive answers to life’s most important questions.

If you are not a Christian, I plead with you to open your heart and mind, and study the Christian worldview. Apply the 2-3-4 method described above, but never forget that the Christian doctrine always revolves around the person, Jesus Christ. He is the embodiment of our faith, and it is to Him that we look. There are numerous worldviews to choose from – Islam, Confucianism, Christianity, the list is endless. Our worldview colours the way we see almost everything around us, so we must choose wisely. Because this is one of the most important choices we are going to have to make in life, we must make sure we have a reliable way of evaluating the worldviews on offer.

To Find Truth, Follow The Evidence Where It Leads Socrates said, The unexamined life is not worth living.

Christians say, The unexamined faith is not worth believing.

The King and Creator of the universe says in His word, You shall love the Lord your God with all of your heart and soul and strength and all your mind. It is the greatest commandment of all, and Jesus laid it on His 8

Is Christianity The Right Religion?

disciples in Matthew 22:37.

Whenever Christians make the assertion that Christianity is the only way to God they always get castigated for being arrogant and presumptuous. How intolerant, narrow-minded and bigoted to make such a statement, the detractors say. We are implored to say that all religions are true. The idea behind what appears to most people to be a humble approach is a very thoughtful one in that no religion should be dominant and forced on others. You cannot enforce Islam or Hinduism or Sikhism or Atheism on anyone. Of course, there are those who attempt to force their religions down the throats of others. There are countries where Christianity is outlawed and Christians are persecuted, burned alive, tortured and so on. This is wrong and should be condemned in the strongest possible terms. Force does not lead to truth; debate and civilized discussion does. What most well-meaning people are trying to do by saying that all religions are true actually does not lead to debate in my view; it shuts down debate and then no one ever gets to the truth. You see, name-calling – as in the case where someone is accused of being intolerant – is a way of blocking discussion and I don’t believe it’s healthy to do. Let me now demonstrate why I believe not all worldviews are true.

There are a number of problems with the claim that all religions are true. The moment you claim that anything is true you are excluding the opposite. Truth by its very nature is narrow. For example, if I claim that two plus two is four I’m excluding the possibility that two plus two is nine or twenty or three hundred. If I say that Pretoria is the capital city of South Africa I’m excluding the possibility that Tietiesbaai is. It does not matter what the subject matter is, whenever you make a truth claim you are naturally excluding opposite answers. Interestingly, even if you say that all religions are true you are being exclusive. What do I mean by that?

When you say that all religions are true you are excluding those who believe that one religion is true or those who believe that some religions are true. The only way to avoid excluding anybody is to shut up and say 9

Bible Controversies Unpacked nothing because the moment you open your lips and make a truth claim you are excluding somebody.

So what about the idea that Christianity is unique and Jesus is the only way to God? Where did that idea come from? It came from Jesus Himself in the gospel of John. John 14:6, Jesus said, I am the way, the truth and the life; no man comes to the Father except through me. That is a staggeringly narrow and arrogant claim unless it is true. In fact, in page after page of the New Testament we find that Jesus is fond of making these outlandish claims that earn him the venom and indignation of the Pharisees. He claims to have authority on a par with God’s, and says that He can forgive sins, and ultimately claims that He is God. Indeed, as these claims stack up you’re only left with one of three possibilities: 1) either Jesus was a liar, manipulating people and making these grotesque claims; or 2) He was a lunatic who had no idea of what He was saying; or 3) He was actually who He claimed to be and that’s the reason He could make these exclusive claims, because they were true and He had the authority to do so. Thus, at the heart of the question about which religion is true lies the person of Jesus. Was He who He claimed to be?

The Resurrection Of Jesus Is A Historical Fact The death and resurrection of Jesus Christ is a well-documented event. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John wrote about Jesus’ crucifixion and His resurrection in great detail. Matthew and John were among Jesus’

twelve disciples. Mark was a scribe for Peter who was one of the three inner circle followers of Christ. Luke was one of the earliest Christians along with the apostles of the book of Acts who travelled with Paul, the writer of three quarters of the New Testament. He (Luke) was also a Greek Physician and historian who carefully investigated the events of Christ’s birth, life, death and resurrection. His historical investigation was based on direct and indirect eyewitness accounts of Paul, Peter, James, Mark and Jesus’ mother and many of Jesus’ first female followers. Luke is considered – by most New Testament scholars,