• A Response To “Why Doesn’t the Bible Address X”?

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Bethyada has written a guest post on MandM looking at why the Bible does not specifically address the issues that the sceptics demand that it addresses:

A not infrequent complaint raised by theism sceptics is that the Bible does not address many issues the sceptics think it should address

I am broadly in agreement with what Bethyada says but I’d like to add my ha’pennethworth.

First, three comments regarding these sceptics:

1. their arrogance in demanding that an author specifically address their concerns is breathtaking.
2. it is very rare to hear such criticisms of holy books other than the Bible, from which I conclude that this is a feeble antitheistic technique rather than a genuine search for truth.
3. they have rejected the abundant evidence of the existence of God that is all around them, and as a result they have become “futile in their speculations” (Rom 1:18-32, Eph 4:17-19). Would you trust the reasoning of such a mind? In my humble opinion that would be as daft as asking a two year old if it’s safe to cross the road.

So, why doesn’t the Bible address X? I have three responses to this:

1. God very specifically addresses that which is important to him (e.g. he forbids murder), but he leaves a bunch of grey areas in which it it possible to have a variety of beliefs and still be a christian. E.g. the bible is not specific about the eschatological time line (the order of events at the end of this present world, leading up to and following the return of Jesus), so there are a variety of beliefs about this. Unless your eschatological beliefs deny the deity of Jesus or involve some other apostasy you’ll still get into the Kingdom of God.
2. some things only become clear when God renews a christian’s mind (e.g. Rom 12:2). Thus a sceptic may think that the Bible does not address X, but that sceptic has an unregenerated mind that is futile in its speculations so may be incapable of seeing that the Bible does in fact address X.
3. God has not left us a deficient manual for godly living, instead he has left us one that contains everything we need for life and godliness:

His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. (2 Pet 1:3 NIV)

For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, so that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. (Rom 15:4 NASB)

A pagan’s failure to see Y in the Bible does not indicate the absence of Y.

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