Many of us get stuck when we see contradictions in the Bible. Pastor John Fogal argues that exceptions in the Bible are never contradictions. This podcast interview will open a window to worship an amazing God who made the greatest exception ever when he extended to us redemption. John W. Fogal lives in Ft. Wayne, IN. He pastored for twenty years and served as a district superintendent with the Christian and Missionary Alliance for 18 years. He has also served as a coach for pastors and churches. John is also the author of Living The Beatitudes.

EXCEPTIONS and CONTRADICTIONS

The God who is revealed in Scripture is so great that He can make exceptions but never so small that He is guilty of contradictions. He can make exceptions without contradicting the foundational truths. We need spiritual discernment to know the difference. We need faith to see that God is always all His Word claims Him to be. And we need strong discipline to never turn one of God’s exceptions into an official human policy that ultimately contradicts and invalidates God’s foundational rule. He is God. We are not. The more I see of God’s exceptions the more I see the greatness of His sovereign authority and the grandeur of His radiant glory.

God  made it clear from the start that when a human being sins, he/she will die. Read the genealogies in Genesis 5 and you will see the number of years that each man lived, “and he died.” Except for verse 24 which reads, “And Enoch walked with God; and was not, for God took him.” Before the 10 commandments were given to Moses everyone (including Cain) instinctively knew that it was wrong to kill another human being. Yet God told Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac on the alter. When Abraham passed the test, God provided a ram, so Isaac did not die prematurely. (However, when it came time for God the Father to sacrifice His only begotten Son, “He spared not His own Son but freely gave Him up for us all.”) God told Hosea to marry a harlot (an exception) to teach him and Israel and us about His love for all of us who are “harlots” in His sight.

True miracles are, by definition, exceptions that do not conform to the general rule. They transcend the general laws of nature and accomplish exceptional and unusual and rare events. The iron ax head floated on the water. The sun stood still. The bush burned but was not consumed. The Red Sea parted. Jonah was swallowed by a great fish. The three Hebrew children miraculously came out of the fiery furnace. God shut the lions’ mouths. Extraordinary miracles happened throughout the Old and New Testaments. The Virgin birth of Jesus was a miracle. So was His resurrection. None of these exceptions negated the overriding, foundational laws of God. We must remember that God’s ways and thoughts are higher and better than ours and are beyond our finding out (Isaiah 55:8-9). 

From our human perspective, the best of God’s “exceptions” is our great salvation. Every human being is “already condemned” and deserves the wrath of God. In His loving sovereign will He chooses us. The Bible calls it “election.” He draws us to His Son; brings us to a place of godly sorrow that leads to repentance; declares us to be justified in His sight; forgives and cleanses us when we confess our sins; makes us new creatures in Christ; calls us to be His children; and Christ is coming soon to take us to be with Him! That makes the “few” exceptional! PRAISE THE LORD! Universalists want to make this exception into a rule and conclude that, in the end, everyone will be saved and go to heaven. That is not what the Bible teaches. “But when He saved my soul, cleansed and made me whole, it took a miracle of love and grace.”

THREE APPLICATIONS

God’s Word makes it clear that He instituted marriage and unites a man and a woman in “one flesh” and that union is to last “until death us do part.” When the Pharisees asked Jesus about divorce He said, “a man shall leave father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate.” They said to him, “Why then did Moses command to give a certificate of divorce?” He said to them, “Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts, permitted you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so.” (Matthew 19:4-8) He then gave clear teaching for the restrictions on the exception called divorce. Add to the large number of marriages that end in divorce all the people who co-habit without being married and it almost seems like the exception has become the rule and the rule has become the exception.. 

What we call a “miscarriage” is one of God’s exceptions. There may even be times when a husband and wife and doctor need to prayerfully decide (with godly, biblical counsel) to end the pregnancy as the only way to save the mother’s life. But that is not the motivation for more than 99% of the millions of abortions. When the sperm and egg are fertilized, a new life, with its own special, individual, unique DNA is formed, and God knits that new body together in the mother’s womb (Psalm 139:13-16 NLT) until the baby is born and the umbilical cord is cut. We are “fearfully and wonderfully made” “in the image of God.” God gives the mother the supreme privilege of providing life for that new life throughout the gestation period, but that new life is distinct from the mother’s body. Abortion is clearly the terminating of the work of God. Shouldn’t we think twice before committing such a crime?

God made us “male and female.” He made us equal but different because He has designed different functions for us to fill. When it comes to the leadership roles in the home and church, it seems to me that God gave us a foundational principle in 1 Corinthians 11:2, “I want you to know that the head of every man is Christ, the head of woman is man, and the head of Christ is God.” There are further details found in verses such as Ephesian 5:22-33, 1 Timothy 2:9-15, and I Corinthians 14:33-35. We need to think foundationally, based on God’s Word, not man’s word. So what about the story of Deborah as a judge in the book of Judges (and all the other places where you may think there are exceptions to the rule.) Remember, they are exceptions, not the rule. Think about all the rest of the judges, and priests, and kings, and prophets, and apostles, and elders, and pastors, and bishops. I believe there can still be exceptions today. But we must know that it is God’s exception and not a man-made human policy. We cannot blur these gender distinctive in leadership without “unintended consequences” such as ultimately negating God’s foundational law, causing confusion, and displeasing and offending the God who created us male and female. He is God. We are not.

The post Podcast 140: Contradictions in the Bible (John Fogal) appeared first on Before You Quit.