When Critics Ask
Lesson Overview
When Critics Ask with Dr. Norman Geisler
This standalone message is given by Dr. Norman Geisler, a philosopher, longtime apologist, and co-founder of Southern Evangelical Seminary, drawing on his book When Critics Ask. His subject is whether the Bible contains errors. His answer, in two parts: the Bible, errors? No. The Bible critics, errors? Yes. He first gives three reasons the Bible cannot err, then walks through eleven mistakes that critics make when they think they have found an error. Use this overview to review the key points after watching the full video.
Part One: Three Reasons the Bible Cannot Err
Geisler grounds inerrancy in the character of the triune God, framing each reason as a simple logical argument (a syllogism, a form he explains from his book Come Let Us Reason).
Reason one, God the Father. God cannot err. The Bible is the Word of God. Therefore the Bible cannot err. Geisler argues the only way to escape this conclusion is to deny either that God cannot err or that the Bible is His Word. He supports each premise from Scripture (Hebrews 6:18, that it is impossible for God to lie; John 17:17, “your word is truth”; and Jesus’ statement that “the scripture cannot be broken”).
Reason two, God the Son. Whatever the Son of God affirms as true is true. Jesus affirmed that the Bible is the Word of God. Therefore it is true. Geisler suggests reading a red-letter Gospel to see Jesus’ own view of Scripture, and lists what Jesus affirmed about it: its divine authority (the phrase “it is written,” which Geisler notes appears many times and with which Jesus rebuked the devil), its indestructibility (heaven and earth will pass away, but His word will not), its unbreakability, its ultimate supremacy over human tradition, its historical reliability (Jesus treated Adam and Eve, Jonah, and Noah’s flood as real), and its factual inerrancy. His sharp conclusion: if Jesus is the Son of God, the Bible is the Word of God, and the two stand or fall together.
Reason three, God the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of truth cannot utter error. The Bible is the utterance of the Spirit of truth. Therefore the Bible cannot err. He cites 2 Peter 1:20-21, that holy men were “moved by the Holy Spirit,” using the picture of wind moving a sailing ship: the inerrant God used errant human authors who did not err when He carried them along.
Geisler answers a common objection, the argument that “to err is human, the Bible is human, so the Bible errs.” He points out the flaw: the argument would need to prove that humans always err, which is false. Humans do not err when moved by the God who cannot err. As he memorably puts it, God can draw a straight line with a crooked stick.
He also offers his key analogy: the living Word and the written Word. Just as Christ is fully divine and fully human in one person yet without sin, so the Bible is fully divine and fully human in one set of propositions yet without error.
The Right Posture Toward Difficulties
Before turning to specific objections, Geisler draws a comparison between studying science and studying the Bible. Scientists meet many things they cannot yet explain (called anomalies), and they assume the difficulty is explainable and keep studying. We should do the same with the Bible. He notes that he spent decades researching 800 alleged Bible difficulties and concluded that God does not make mistakes, but critics do.
He cites Augustine’s rule: if we meet an apparent contradiction in Scripture, we may not conclude that the author erred. The only options are that the manuscript is faulty, the translation is wrong, or we have not understood.
Part Two: Eleven Mistakes Critics Make
Geisler works through eleven recurring errors that produce false claims of biblical error:
Assuming the Bible is guilty until proven innocent. Like a defendant, the Bible should be presumed innocent until proven guilty; approaching it with a bias against miracles guarantees finding “errors.”
Confusing our fallible interpretation with God’s infallible revelation. The Bible cannot be wrong, but our interpretation can. He admits he has held four different views of the “sons of God” in Genesis 6, so at least three times he was wrong, not the Bible.
Assuming the unexplained is not explainable. Science once could not explain meteors, eclipses, or how a bumblebee flies; many Bible difficulties, likewise, have since been explained (for example, critics once said writing did not exist in Moses’ day, or that the Hittites never existed, and both were later disproven).
Assuming a partial report is a false report. The four Gospels give the inscription on the cross in complementary partial forms that fit together; a partial account is not a contradiction.
Assuming divergent accounts are false ones. One Gospel mentions one angel at the tomb, another mentions two; wherever there are two, there is always one, and neither says “only one,” so there is no contradiction unless a word is added.
Forgetting that the Bible uses non-technical, everyday language. Scripture speaks of the sun rising and standing still, just as modern meteorologists still say “sunrise” and “sunset.” This is observational, not unscientific.
Assuming round numbers are false. The Bible, like everyone, rounds numbers (for example, describing a circular basin in a way that treats pi as about three); round numbers are not errors.
Presuming the Bible approves everything it records. Scripture accurately records lies, David’s adultery, and Solomon’s polygamy without endorsing them; a true record of a sin is not approval of it.
Taking figures of speech literally. The Bible uses parables, allegories, metaphors, similes, hyperbole, satire, and anthropomorphisms (as when it speaks of God’s “wings” or of God “repenting”); reading these woodenly creates false contradictions.
Forgetting that only the original text, not every copy, is without error. Geisler gives examples of copyist errors in numbers (such as an age or a stable count that differ between parallel passages). He stresses these errors are found only in copies, are rare, are usually numerical, and affect no doctrine of Scripture. Using an illustration of a garbled message that still clearly conveys “you have won ten million dollars,” he argues that 100% of the message comes through despite minor copyist slips.
Failing to understand the context of a passage. “A text out of context is a pretext.” The Bible’s “there is no God” is spoken by the fool; the “mustard seed is the smallest” is the smallest seed a first-century farmer sowed in his field; the accounts of Paul’s companions hearing or not hearing the voice mean they heard the sound but did not understand the message.
The Closing Turn: Let the Bible Criticize You
Geisler ends by flipping the whole enterprise around. He observes, with Mark Twain, that it is not the parts of the Bible he does not understand that trouble him, but the parts he does understand, like “love your neighbor” and “you shall not kill.” He pokes fun at date-setters who wrote books predicting Christ’s return in a certain year and were proven wrong, since Scripture says no one knows the day.
His final point, from Hebrews 4:12, is that the Word of God is itself a “critic” (the Greek word) of the thoughts and intents of the heart. We have the game upside down when we sit in judgment on the Bible; instead we should let the Bible judge us. In the main things the plain things, and the plain things the main things. The right posture is to pray with the psalmist, “search me, O God, and know my heart.”
Key Terms
Inerrancy: the teaching that the Bible, in its original text, contains no errors.
Infallibility: the quality of being unbreakable and unable to fail or deceive.
Inspiration: God “breathing out” Scripture through human authors (2 Timothy 3:16).
The living Word and the written Word: Geisler’s analogy between the sinless Christ and the errorless Bible.
Copyist errors: rare, mostly numerical mistakes in later copies (not the originals) that affect no doctrine.
Anthropomorphism: describing God in human terms, a figure of speech not to be taken literally.
Verses to Know
Hebrews 6:18, it is impossible for God to lie. John 10:35, the scripture cannot be broken. 2 Timothy 3:16, all Scripture is God-breathed. 2 Peter 1:20-21, holy men moved by the Holy Spirit. John 17:17, your word is truth. Hebrews 4:12, the Word of God as a discerner of the heart. Psalm 139:23-24, search me, O God, and know my heart.
Takeaway
Geisler argues that because God the Father, Son, and Spirit cannot err, and the Bible is the Word of God, the Bible cannot err, and that every alleged contradiction dissolves once we avoid the eleven mistakes critics make, so the believer’s task is not to sit in judgment on Scripture but to let Scripture, the living and powerful Word, sit in judgment on us.