Bible Doubt

A catalog of honest questions

The things in the Bible that do not add up, in one place.

Two creation accounts that disagree about the order. Four resurrection mornings that do not line up. A census no Roman record can find. People ask these questions late at night, usually alone. This is a place to read them carefully.

How to read it

Each entry quotes the passages, states the problem plainly, then gives the most common answers from believers and scholars in their strongest form. The last paragraph says where that leaves the question. It is not a verdict. You are expected to decide.

I grew up in church and still take the text seriously enough to read it closely. These pages are written in that spirit, with no mockery and no sermon in either direction. More about who made this and why.

Browse by kind of problem

Contradictions

Places where two passages, read side by side, give different accounts of the same thing.

12 entries

History and archaeology

Where the text meets the ground: dates, rulers, cities, census records and what excavation has or has not found.

6 entries

Science

Claims about the age of the earth, the shape of the world and the origin of living things.

7 entries

Morality

Commands and stories that are hard to square with the God described elsewhere in the same book.

6 entries

Prophecy

Predictions whose fulfilment is claimed by one reader and disputed by another.

5 entries

Text and translation

Questions about manuscripts, additions, dating and what a Hebrew or Greek word can bear.

7 entries

Theology

Tensions inside Christian doctrine itself: ideas the text seems to pull in two directions.

6 entries

Or look up a book and chapter, or search.

Recently added

  • Where is the Trinity in the Bible? Deuteronomy 6:4; Matthew 28:19; John 10:30; John 14:28; 2 Corinthians 13:14

    The word Trinity does not appear in the Bible. The doctrine was set out in the fourth century from texts that can be read in more than one way.

  • Predestination or free will? Romans 9 vs Ezekiel 18 Romans 9:15-18; Ephesians 1:4-5; Ezekiel 18:23; 1 Timothy 2:3-4

    Some passages say God chooses whom he saves before they are born. Others say he wants all to be saved and holds people responsible for their choices.

  • Did Moses write the first five books of the Bible? Deuteronomy 34:5-12; Numbers 12:3; Genesis 12:6; Genesis 36:31; John 5:46

    Tradition names Moses as author of the Pentateuch, but the books describe his death, call him the humblest of men, and mention later kings.

  • Are we saved by faith or by works? Paul and James Romans 3:28; Romans 4:1-5; James 2:14-26; Galatians 2:16

    Paul says a person is justified by faith apart from works of the law. James says a person is justified by works and not by faith alone.

  • Does the Bible teach eternal torment? Matthew 25:46 and the alternatives Matthew 25:46; Matthew 10:28; Revelation 20:10; Romans 5:18; 1 Timothy 2:4

    Traditional Christianity teaches that the lost suffer forever. Some texts support that, others speak of destruction, and a few suggest that all will be saved.

  • Does God change his mind? Numbers 23:19 vs Exodus 32:14 Numbers 23:19; 1 Samuel 15:29; 1 Samuel 15:35; Exodus 32:14; Genesis 6:6; Jonah 3:10

    Some passages say God never repents. Others say God repented, sometimes in the same chapter.