Making Sense of Bible Difficulties: Clear and Concise Answers from Genesis to Revelation

What's Wrong with "The Good Book?"

Norman Geisler and Thomas Howe, having spent their lives studying the Holy Scriptures, bring us this new title, Making Sense of Bible Difficulties.

The authors' position is unequivocal, as suggested by the opening line of their introduction: "The truth is that there is not even one demonstrated error in the original text of the Bible."

Geisler and Howe lament the presumption-of-guilt bias that many modern biblical critics often betray as they subject the Word of God to scathing interrogation. Like Aesop's blind men attempting to describe the elephant, these critics latch onto sticky snatches of Scriptural enigma as if such uncertainties defined the whole.

The authors' primary goal is to supply believers with well-researched and coherent arguments to effectively share and defend the Faith. But, more importantly, they seek to bolster the readers' courage to tackle their own exegetical bogeys without fear of their faith crumbling under the onslaught of reason.

The material is neatly organized. Bible difficulties are trotted out and dispatched one by one, in biblical order from Genesis to Revelation. Each "problem" is concisely stated in a paragraph or two, followed by the authors' "solution"---a few paragraphs of facts and arguments.

They tend to flavor their material with a dash of denominational spice, and in a few instances spin dizzying arguments to support the conclusions at which they have arrived. However, in all fairness, they are not reluctant to acknowledge---and give equal space to---other points of view that merit discussion.

Geisler and Howe defend God's proficiency in matters of science, and attempt to show that His Scriptures are not at loggerheads with scientific fact. On the other hand, they cannot seem to resist taking an occasional potshot at the postulates of science, even suggesting that the very Laws of Thermodynamics are flawed in that they fail to account for a universe where higher laws---God's creative and miraculous phenomena---may occasionally supersede them.

What could stand improvement? First, the actual text of the "problem" Scripture, instead of just a reference to it, should be included in the book. For example, the "problem" statement for I Kings 6:1 opens with a question: "How can this be an accurate calculation if Ramses the Great was the pharaoh of the Exodus?" How can WHAT be an accurate calculation? The reader must reach for a Bible in order to fully comprehend the problem and appreciate its solution.

Secondly, paragraphs. Shorter ones. There are sections of the book that have the reader languishing in the paragraph doldrums---such as the "solution" to Colossians 4:16, which contains a 10-sentence, 251-word paragraph! The greatest thing since sliced bread is a sliced paragraph, so let us hope that Baker does not spare the slicer next time round.

Making Sense of Bible Difficulties... Is it worth the read?

For those who firmly believe that the Bible is an anthology of poetry, myth and superstition, this book is unlikely to be a convincer. But, for the rest of us who are fairly certain that the Bible---at least in its original manuscript form---was the infallible, inerrant Word of God, or if we are desperately hoping for some evidence to that effect, the theses of Geisler and Howe ring true.

As for me, it was a pleasure to crack open my chest of "questions to be asked when I get to heaven", dust a few off, and get some answers that make sense!

1 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

Highly Highly Highly Recommended!!!

The First 30 pages of this book is some of the best that I have ever read hands down. Whether you have been a Christian 3 days, 3 decades, or your not even Christian this book should be read by any and everybody. Point blank, period.

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