Another Flaw in the Perfect-Harmony Theory
Another Flaw in the Perfect-Harmony Theory
Farrell Till
Inerrantists boast that the Bible possesses a thematic unity so
amazing that it can be explained only on the basis of divine inspiration,
but the facts do not support this claim. As we have noted in past
issues, the biblical writers, like the theologians of all ages,
often disagreed in important doctrinal matters. One such disagreement
concerned Yahweh's willingness to forego promised vengeance when
evil-doers turned away from their wickedness.
The prophet Jeremiah taught that when Yahweh pronounced punishment
upon a nation for its sins, the judgment wasn't necessarily final,
for if the nation repented and turned from its evil, Yahweh would
relent:
Then the word of Yahweh came to me, saying... "The instant
I speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom, to pluck
up, to pull down, and to destroy it, if that nation against whom
I have spoken turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster
that I thought to bring upon it" ([ref001]Jer. 18:5-8
, NKJV with Yahweh substituted for the LORD).
The statement seems clear enough, and inerrantists will even appeal
to it to explain why certain Yahwistic prophecies appeared at
times to go unfilled, as in the cases of the prophecies against
Tyre and Egypt ([ref002]Ez. 26:3-14
; [ref003]29:8-14
). The solution to the problem is as simple as claiming that
the nations prophesied against repented, so Yahweh spared them
as he had done in the case of Nineveh ([ref004]Jonah 3:4
; [ref005]4:11
).
In the absence of any textual record that these nations did indeed
"repent," one can employ this dodge with at least a
dubious degree of success and claim that just because the Bible
doesn't specifically say that the nations repented doesn't mean
that they didn't, but there is a story of national repentance
recorded in the Bible that is impossible to harmonize with this
theory that inerrantists have dreamed up to explain why Yahweh's
pronouncements of judgment were not always executed. In this case,
the problem concerns Yahweh's execution of vengeance on a penitent
nation in flagrant violation of his promise to show mercy on nations
that turned from their evil ways.
Inerrantists tout Yahweh as a god who is infinite in all of his
attributes. He is infinite in knowledge, power, goodness, mercy,
justice, etc., etc., etc. So if his nature was to "relent
of the disaster" that he had pronounced upon a nation that
subsequently repented of its wickedness, then his infinite goodness,
mercy, and justice--and especially his justice--would require
him to relent for all penitent nations, wouldn't it?
In one particular case, however, he refused to relent for a people
whose penitence and religious reformation were perhaps unparalleled
in biblical history. When Manasseh, the son of Hezekiah, assumed
the kingship in Judah, he "did evil in the sight of Yahweh"
([ref006]2 Kings 21:2
). He rebuilt the altars of Baal that his father had destroyed,
offered his own son in pagan sacrifice, and "did much evil
in the sight of Yahweh, to provoke him to anger" ([ref007]21:3-6
). He even put graven images in the temple ([ref008]21:5,7
).
So provoked was Yahweh that he vowed to destroy the nation of
Judah:
And Yahweh spoke by His servants the prophets, saying, "Because
Manasseh king of Judah has done these abominations (he has acted
more wickedly than all the Amorites who were before him, and has
also made Judah sin with his idols), therefore thus says Yahweh
God of Israel, `Behold, I am bringing such calamity upon Jerusalem
and Judah, that whoever hears of it, both his ears will tingle.
And I will stretch over Jerusalem the measuring line of Samaria
and the plummet of the house of Ahab; I will wipe Jerusalem as
one wipes a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down. So I will
forsake the remnant of My inheritance and deliver them into the
hand of their enemies; and they shall become victims of plunder
to all their enemies, because they have done evil in My sight,
and have provoked Me to anger since the day their fathers came
out of Egypt, even to this day'" ([ref009]2 Kings 21:10-15
).
Manasseh's evil ways continued after the prophetic judgment was
pronounced. He "shed very much innocent blood, till he had
filled Jerusalem from one end to another" ([ref010]21:16
), and then he died, apparently a natural death, and "rested
with his fathers" and was buried in the garden of Uzza (
[ref011]21:18
).
Manasseh's son Amon then became king, but he was assassinated
after reigning only two years. In those two years, however, he
carried on the tradition of his father and "did evil in the
sight of Yahweh" ([ref012]21:20
) and worshiped and served the idols his father had installed
in the land ([ref013]v:21
). Then on Amon's death, his son Josiah was made king and
reigned for 31 years ([ref014]22:1
).
It was in the reign of Josiah that the phenomenal religious reforms
previously mentioned occurred. The "Book of the law,"
presumably lost for some time, was discovered in the temple during
renovation work and was presented to Josiah in the 18th year of
his reign ([ref015]22:3-10
). Upon hearing the book read in his presence, king Josiah,
realizing that the commandments of the law had not been observed
by his people, rent his clothes in a gesture of penitence ([ref016]v:11
). He called together all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem
and read the "Book of the Covenant" to them ([ref017]23:1-2
). He then swore to observe the commandments and statutes
of the book "with all his heart and all his soul" (
[ref018]v:3
).
There followed, as I said, a religious reformation that was unparalleled
in biblical history. Josiah ordered the removal of all relics
of Baal from the temple and burned them outside Jerusalem "in
the fields of Kidron" and carried their ashes to Bethel (
[ref019]v:4
). He removed from office all the idolatrous priests who had
been ordained by his predecessors ([ref020]v:5
) and burned their wooden images. He tore down all the ritual
booths in the pagan "high places" and cast out their
priests from Geba to Beersheba ([ref021]vv:7-8
), put an end to human sacrifices to the god Molech ([ref022]v:10
), and destroyed many other pagan worship sites too numerous
to detail ([ref023]vv:11-15
). He even carried his reforms into the northern kingdom of
Israel, where he destroyed all the pagan shrines and executed
all the priests "of the high places" ([ref024]vv:18-20
).
On his return to Jerusalem, he ordered a Passover celebration
the likes of which "surely had never been held since the
days of the judges who judged Israel, nor in all the days of the
kings of Israel and the kings of Judah" ([ref025]vv:21-22
). He ordered an end to the cultic practices of mediums and
spiritualists and the worship of "household gods and idols"
([ref026]v:24
). The story of Josiah's reforms ends with this statement:
"Now before him there was no king like him, who turned to
Yahweh with all his heart, with all his soul, and with all his
might, according to all the Law of Moses; nor after him did any
arise like him" ([ref027]v:25
). David was a man after Yahweh's own heart ([ref028]1 Sam. 13:14
), who had done "that which was right in the eyes of
Yahweh and turned not aside from anything he [Yahweh] commanded
him all the days of his life" ([ref029]1 Kings 15:5
), so if Josiah's godliness exceeded even David's, his personal
character has to stand without parallel in the Old Testament.
One would think, then, that if any nation were ever entitled to
have Yahweh "relent" of the disaster he had pronounced
upon it, Judah under the reign of Josiah would certainly have
qualified. But it didn't. After all the reforms of Josiah had
been described in detail, the writer of 2 Kings made this astonishing
announcement:
Nevertheless Yahweh did not turn from the fierceness of His great
wrath, with which His anger was aroused against Judah, because
of all the provocations with which Manasseh had provoked Him.
And Yahweh said, "I will also remove Judah from My sight,
as I have removed Israel, and will cast off this city Jerusalem
which I have chosen, and the house of which I said, `My name shall
be there'" ([ref030]23:26-27).
From this one can only conclude that it wasn't always true that
when Yahweh spoke "concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom,
to pluck up, to pull down, and to destroy it" that he would
"relent of the disaster" that he had thought to bring
upon it if the nation turned from its evil. Judah certainly turned
from its evil, in terms of the biblical sense of evil, in the
reign of Josiah, yet despite this national repentance, Yahweh
refused to relent of the disaster he had pronounced upon it. One
chapter later, the writer of 2 Kings concluded his book with an
account of Judah's destruction by the army of Nebuchadnezzar.
The repentance of an entire nation brought no mercy from the infinitely
just Yahweh. So what does this do to the claim that the Bible
is so unified in its themes that only divine inspiration can explain
its amazing harmony?
Inerrantists cannot argue that Jeremiah prophesied in a time different
from the era of Josiah, because Jeremiah claimed that he received
his revelations from Yahweh "in the days of Josiah the son
of Amon, king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign"
([ref031]1:2
). Jeremiah, then, was a contemporary of Josiah, so if Jeremiah
received his "revelations" in the 13th year of Josiah's
reign, he received them before the reforms that began in the 18th
year of Josiah's reign. Therefore if Jeremiah's words in [ref032]18:7-8
were true when he received them from Yahweh, they should
have been applicable to Josiah and the penitent nation of Judah
under his reign. But they weren't. Why?
Perhaps some inerrantist will accept our offer of space to explain
how that Yahweh's reaction to Josiah's reforms was consistent
with the promise he had made through Jeremiah to withdraw his
wrath from a nation that turns from its evil. Having seen similar
offers in past issues repeatedly spurned, our readers probably
won't hold their breaths until we get a taker.
[ref001] http://www.calvin.edu/cgi-bin/bible?Jeremiah+18:5-8
[ref002] http://www.calvin.edu/cgi-bin/bible?Ezekiel+26:3-14
[ref003] http://www.calvin.edu/cgi-bin/bible?Ezekiel+29:8-14
[ref004] http://www.calvin.edu/cgi-bin/bible?Jonah+3:4
[ref005] http://www.calvin.edu/cgi-bin/bible?Jonah+4:11
[ref006] http://www.calvin.edu/cgi-bin/bible?II+Kings+21:2
[ref007] http://www.calvin.edu/cgi-bin/bible?II+Kings+21:3-6
[ref008] http://www.calvin.edu/cgi-bin/bible?II+Kings+21:5-7
[ref009] http://www.calvin.edu/cgi-bin/bible?II+Kings+21:10-15
[ref010] http://www.calvin.edu/cgi-bin/bible?II+Kings+21:16
[ref011] http://www.calvin.edu/cgi-bin/bible?II+Kings+21:18
[ref012] http://www.calvin.edu/cgi-bin/bible?II+Kings+21:20
[ref013] http://www.calvin.edu/cgi-bin/bible?II+Kings+21:21
[ref014] http://www.calvin.edu/cgi-bin/bible?II+Kings+22:1
[ref015] http://www.calvin.edu/cgi-bin/bible?II+Kings+22:3-10
[ref016] http://www.calvin.edu/cgi-bin/bible?II+Kings+22:11
[ref017] http://www.calvin.edu/cgi-bin/bible?II+Kings+23:1-2
[ref018] http://www.calvin.edu/cgi-bin/bible?II+Kings+23:3
[ref019] http://www.calvin.edu/cgi-bin/bible?II+Kings+23:4
[ref020] http://www.calvin.edu/cgi-bin/bible?II+Kings+23:5
[ref021] http://www.calvin.edu/cgi-bin/bible?II+Kings+23:7-8
[ref022] http://www.calvin.edu/cgi-bin/bible?II+Kings+23:10
[ref023] http://www.calvin.edu/cgi-bin/bible?II+Kings+23:11-15
[ref024] http://www.calvin.edu/cgi-bin/bible?II+Kings+23:18-20
[ref025] http://www.calvin.edu/cgi-bin/bible?II+Kings+23:21-22
[ref026] http://www.calvin.edu/cgi-bin/bible?II+Kings+23:24
[ref027] http://www.calvin.edu/cgi-bin/bible?II+Kings+23:25
[ref028] http://www.calvin.edu/cgi-bin/bible?I+Samuel+13:14
[ref029] http://www.calvin.edu/cgi-bin/bible?I+Kings+15:5
[ref030] http://www.calvin.edu/cgi-bin/bible?II+Kings+23:26-27
[ref031] http://www.calvin.edu/cgi-bin/bible?Jeremiah+1:2
[ref032] http://www.calvin.edu/cgi-bin/bible?Jeremiah+18:7-8
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