The Life and Times of Bruce Gerencser

How I Handled Bible Contradictions as an Evangelical Pastor

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Bruce Gerencser

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bible inerrancy

As an Evangelical pastor and devout student of the Bible, I saw the “alleged” contradictions and errors. I knew there were verses that contradicted with each other in it. When I ran into verses that were antithetical to each other, I typically studied the verse in its original language, read what commentaries said on the verse, and consulted several “Answers to Bible Contradictions” books I owned. Usually, this process would satisfactorily give me what I needed to be sure that what I was reading was straight from God himself. Or so I thought, anyway.

Occasionally, my studies left me more confused than when I started. Was I reading an actual contradiction or error in the Word of God? Surely, this cannot be, I thought. God says the Bible is inspired, inerrant, and infallible. How could the Bible have errors or mistakes if it is inspired, inerrant, and infallible? Talk about a contradiction.

Ultimately, when faced with insurmountable contradictions or errors, I appealed to faith, believing that every word in the Bible was true; trusting that, in time, God would give me understanding about about the alleged textual problems. I implicitly believed that God would one day make all things known to me, and if not in this life, then in the life to come. And if not in eternity? I trusted that God would ALWAYS do what was best for me.

This I believed for almost fifty years. It was not until I learned that the contradictions and errors of the Bible could not be explained away or justified that I began to question what it was I really believed. And once the genie in the bottle was released, there was no going back.

Were you raised in Evangelicalism? Did you ever come upon contractions and errors in the Bible? How did you reconcile them, or did you even try? Please leave your pithy thoughts in the comment section.

Bruce Gerencser, 69, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 48 years. He and his wife have six grown children and thirteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.

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Comments

15 responses to “How I Handled Bible Contradictions as an Evangelical Pastor”

  1. Ami

    I asked questions all the time when I was a Sunday school kid about Bible things that didn’t seem to make sense/contradictions.

    The adults in the church did not LIKE it when I asked questions, though. I didn’t ask easy ones, I asked things like, ‘Who did Cain marry if Adam and Eve were the first humans and he was their son?’ ‘If he forgives us, why are women being punished forever for what Eve did? And why did Adam stand there, listen to the snake and eat the fruit anyway? Shouldn’t he be have been punished, too?”

    We got into stuff like free will. Simple questions like, “Why is okay for my brothers to wear pants to church and be warm when I have to wear a dress?”

    These questions were never really answered, either. They just sort of dismissed me and then told my parents. And my parents told me to stop asking so many questions.

    Reply
  2. przxqgl

    the first time i asked a pastor about the obvious contradictions in the bible, i was in high school… and the pastor kicked me out of the church (which was in our high school cafetorium). it was that interaction that caused me to decide to go into the seminary, because i figured that if i knew the bible better, i could talk with these people about the bible without offending someone…

    i was wrong, naturally, but it took me a long time to realise it.

    Reply
    1. Avatar
      Bruce Gerencser

      Both of us should get matching tattoos that say:

      “i was wrong, but it took me a long time to realise it 😂❤️

      So true, my friend.

      Reply
      1. Merle

        The three hardest words to say in the English language are “I was wrong”. People have more difficulty saying those three words than they have with any tongue twister.

        But we may be getting to the point where MAGA supporters start saying, “I was wrong.”

        Reply
        1. Avatar
          … Zoe ~

          When I was able to say I was wrong, I felt freedom. A lighter load.

          For MAGA, I think it depends on the personality. A narcissistic MAGA for example, isn’t going to be wrong, because narcissists are never wrong. It’s a trait that really never changes.

          Reply
  3. Avatar
    Matilda

    I used to say to my loving heavenly father that I was sorry I didn’t understand a contradiction I had just read in his Word. If it was sinful to have those thoughts, to forgive me. I was obviously a bear of little brain. I asked him to help me to understand cos he was never wrong. I always then praised him cos one day I’d be able to meet him and he’d lovingly answer my questions when I got inside those pearly gates. And I now describe having those dissonances as putting them in a box on a high shelf. So pleased I took it down finally and deconverted. I need that tattoo as well.

    Reply
  4. Avatar
    Jerry

    Well I was always told that there were “Alleged” Contradictions in the Bible but all of those have all been reconciled. I remember a big book called “The Big Book of Bible Difficulties” by Norm Geisler and “Answers to Questions Skeptics ask” from Josh McDowell that attempted to reconcile all these “difficulties”. At the time I didn’t question my faith I just assumed smart guys like this have explained them all away. Since the Bible was God’s Word and inerrant it simply couldn’t contradict itself, could it?

    Reply
    1. Avatar
      Asphalt-Type Person

      When you need another book to interpret the book you’re reading, what does that say about your book?

      Reply
  5. Merle

    I taught Sunday School for years. And yes, I knew what to do when I came across a verse that seemed to contradict something else. For instance, when teaching through the book of James, I found a reason to declare that James’s attitude toward faith and works matched verses that said salvation required faith alone. And I did not need to prove that the reconciliation I proposed was the author’s likely intention. One simply needed to state a reconciliation and move on. A plausible explanation made the problem go away, or so it seemed to me. LOL, it all seems so foolish now.

    Reply
  6. Avatar
    Bryce Englin

    I have noticed that much of who discusses what relating to theology tends to do with character. Usually those with the best character are the Humanist Atheists and those educated in an accredited seminary.

    Reply
  7. Avatar
    ObstacleChick

    Oh boy, Young ObstacleChick was a thorn in the side of many a Sunday School teacher. I had lots of questions. Here are some examples:

    If God is omniscient, he knew Adam and Eve would sin, and that millions of people would go to hell; so why proceed with creation?
    How did Jonah breathe inside the whale’s digestive tract?
    Why are there not today major miracles like the ones in the OT?
    Did Adam and Eve’s kids have to procreate with their parents or siblings? If so, gross.
    How did polar bears and penguins and other arctic creatures get to the Middle East and survive on the ark? Wouldn’t it have been too hot for them?
    Did all the sea creatures die in the flood, or were they fine?
    Why are Christians required to follow some OT laws like 10 Commandments, but not others like not eating pork orshellfish, or wearing mixed fabrics? How do we know which laws still stand and which do not?
    Why did God not condemn slavery, but we condemn it now?
    How is it fair to assume that God’s sacrifice of Jesus is apparent in nature to those who never heard the story, holding them accountable for eternal torture in hell?
    The Bible never said that females HAVE to wear skirts/dresses, and Jesus and the disciples wore dresses; so why are dresses required for females at church and Christian school?
    Jesus and the disciples had beards – why do boys at Christian school have to be clean shaven with very short hair?
    Why doesn’t God heal amputation?

    Reply
    1. Avatar
      Sage

      If Jesus was already freely forgiving sins, even for people that didn’t ask forgiveness, then why did god have to sacrifice him.

      Why can’t god just forgive without killing his son or animals?

      If Peter is the rock on which the church is built, why is Paul so influential while Peter seems to be out of the scene?

      Did Judas have a choice? Why did god need Judas to point out Jesus anyway? Didn’t they know what Jesus looked like?

      Why were god and Satan testing Job to make a point? It seems shady that a holy god would do this to a human to make a point.

      And, speaking of Job, how could Satan be in gods presence if evil can’t be near god?

      Why did god harden pharaohs heart? That implies pharaoh was ready to let them all leave but god intervened and made pharaoh refuse so he could make a point?

      If there was a global flood and if there was a single boat floating around, how did they keep birds away, especially sea gulls?

      If all the mountains were covered by water then the ark was very high in the atmosphere. How did they breath? How would the manage the ice freezing on the ark? Did they have to worry about water freezing or dangerous ice chunks?

      If Jesus has left earth and has not yet returned, then how Paul meet him like he claims? Does that mean Jesus already returned in the same generation like he said and we all missed it? Or was Paul just hallucinating?

      Reply
      1. Avatar
        ObstacleChick

        Great questions, Sage!

        Reply
  8. Avatar
    GeoffT

    I’ve been recently trying to honestly assess my early background with regard to religion, from arriving in the UK as a two year old toddler from Spain up to the point where I can definitely say I was an atheist, and it keeps changing as new thoughts come to mind. In Spain I’d been subject to the Catholic culture there and, whilst I obviously have no recollection of it, I did get the feeling that my mother (who was English, and left behind my Spanish father in Spain) had quite a solid religious belief. My grandparents who, to all intents and purposes, brought me up had what I see now were fairly disparate beliefs. They were connected to the local Church of England church where I became a member of the cubs and later scouts. Later, following a move of house, my grandfather used to take me to the local Methodist church. My grandmother, and to some extent mother, were quite heavily into spiritualism and healing by touch (lol). All the schools I attended were sort of religious, with daily assemblies and hymn singing and compulsory religious education. I lived in an area with a large Jewish population, so grew up with many Jewish friends. My first wife, who died some years ago, was a fairly fervent believer, though she was brought up in the Salvation Army, later moving to Church of England. I can certainly remember a time when I did believe in God, but it was relatively short lived and I certainly couldn’t handle the deeper objections that were raised on the rare occasions I discussed the matter. I recall that by age 22 whilst at college and during my degree I was seen as a ‘vocal’ atheist, though I knew little about the subject.

    All the while I saw the bible as something apart. I think it was taken for granted that it wasn’t really something you read, other than when verses were read out at church or assemblies. We knew it didn’t make sense. We knew that there was no conceivable way that some, indeed any, of the stories could be true. We didn’t do any meaningful bible study because, quite frankly, it was seen as a fruitless task. In some ways I think that’s how most people in the UK continue to see it, including people who believe in God. Their religion is on one side, and their bible is something that seems to be relevant to it but is actually to one side of it, a very distinct thing.

    Reply
    1. Avatar
      Asphalt-Type Person

      That’s because most people in the UK know Henry VIII started the Church of England simply because the Pope wouldn’t let him bang Anne Boelyn…

      Reply

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