We know that God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything 1 John 3:20

Sodom and Gomorrah was true so he went down for a closer look

Then the Lord said, “The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sin so grievous that I will go down and see if what they have done is as bad as the outcry that has reached me. If not, I will know Genesis 18:20-21

God didn’t know what was in the Israelite’s hearts until he led them through the wilderness for forty years

The Lord your God led you all the way in the wilderness these forty years, to humble and test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands Deuteronomy 8:2

God didn’t know that Abraham feared God until he showed his willingness to murder his son for God

Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son, I swear by myself, declares the Lord, that I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore” Genesis 22:16-17 (however note that there are 1 billion trillion stars in the observable universe)

God didn’t know who the men with Balaam were

God came to Balaam and asked, “Who are these men with you? Numbers 22:9

God didn’t know where Satan had been

The Lord said to Satan, “Where have you come from? Job 1:7

Can God do anything?

God can do anything

With God all things are possible Matthew 19:26

All things are possible with God Mark 10:27

God can’t do everything

God couldn’t outwrestle Jacob

You have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome Genesis 32:24-32

God couldn’t defeat iron chariots

The Lord was with the men of Judah. They took possession of the hill country, but they were unable to drive the people from the plains, because they had chariots fitted with iron Judges 1:19

Jesus couldn’t do miracles in his hometown

Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his own town, among his relatives and in his own home.” He could not do any miracles there, except lay his hands on a few sick people and heal them. He was amazed at their lack of faith Mark 6:4-6

God can’t lie

It is impossible for God to lie Hebrews 6:18

Is Jesus God? Yes, Jesus is God In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God John 1:1 Jesus answered: Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father John 14:9 I and the Father are one John 10:30 I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End Revelation 22:13 No, Jesus is not God

“Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good – except God alone Mark 10.18

The Father is greater than I” John 14:28

Either Jesus and the Father are one, or the Father is greater than Jesus…

Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God John 20:17

If Jesus his own God?

Did he ascend to himself?

Did he come to sacrifice himself to himself?

As it is, you are looking for a way to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God John 8:40

Did Jesus receive his teachings from himself?

As he was dying on the cross, Jesus asked God why he had forsaken him:

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Matthew 27:46 Mark 15:34

If Jesus is God, can he forsake himself?

Can God forsake God?

After the Lord Jesus had spoken to them, he was taken up into heaven and he sat at the right hand of God Mark 16:19

Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. “Look,” he said, “I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God Acts 7:55-56

Jesus Christ who has gone into heaven and is at God’s right hand 1 Peter 3:21-22

If Jesus is God, can he sit on his own right side?

Can God sit on his own right side?

Also God cannot be tempted:

When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone James 1:13

But Jesus was tempted… (and therefore can’t be God)

Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil Luke 4:1-2

Since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are – yet he did not sin Hebrews 4:14-15

Does Jesus judge people?

Jesus doesn’t judge people

God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him John 3:17

You judge by human standards; I pass judgment on no one John 8:15

If anyone hears my words but does not keep them, I do not judge that person. For I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world John 12:47

Jesus judges people

The Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son John 5:22

He has given him authority to judge because he is the Son of Man. Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice and come out—those who have done what is good will rise to live, and those who have done what is evil will rise to be condemned. By myself I can do nothing; I judge only as I hear, and my judgment is just, for I seek not to please myself but him who sent me John 5:27-30

Jesus said, for judgment I have come into this world John 9:39

He is the one whom God appointed as judge of the living and the dead Acts 10:42

We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad 2 Corinthians 5:10

What were Jesus last words on the cross?

The gospel writers all disagree:

My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Matthew 27:46 (If Jesus was God, and knew he’d be in Heaven in moments, why would he say that? Also: Can God forsake God?)

Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit Luke 23:46

It is finished John 19:30

Faith vs works leading to salvation

Faith

It is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast Ephesians 2:8–9

Works

What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food.If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.

But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.”

Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds. You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.

You foolish person, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless?Was not our father Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar?You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. You see that a person is considered righteous by what they do and not by faith alone. As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead” James 2:14-26

For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father’s glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what they have done Matthew 16:27

And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books Revelation 20:12

These are just a few of the many contradictions in the Bible…

Why didn’t Jesus want people to understand him?

One thing that is clear from the Bible is that Jesus purposely spoke in very ambiguous terms, often in parables in order to confuse people.

Jesus spoke all these things to the crowd in parables; he did not say anything to them without using a parable Matthew 13:34

When his disciples asked him why he spoke in parables instead of just speaking plainly he said:

This is why I speak to them in parables:

Though seeing, they do not see;

though hearing, they do not hear or understand Matthew 13:13

To those on the outside everything is said in parables so that,

They may be ever seeing but never perceiving,

and ever hearing but never understanding;

otherwise they might turn and be forgiven! Mark 4:11-12

And even when he spoke privately to his disciples they still didn’t understand him.

Most people who met and spoke to Jesus didn’t have a clue what he was talking about – including his own disciples and family.

No wonder there are something like 40, 000 denominations of Christianity. No one can agree on exactly what the teachings are.

In fact, even in the Old Testament God didn’t like clear communication or people understanding each other so he confused all the languages on earth:

The Lord said, If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other Genesis 11:6-7

The Bible isn’t the word of God

When you read the Bible:

Not through a Christian lens

Not the way you’ve been taught to interpret it

Not by cherry picking the things you like, and ignoring the things you don’t like

Not by starting with the assumption that it’s the word of God

But by thinking critically about what you read and asking questions:

Does this make sense?

Is this true in my experience?

What evidence is there for this?

… just like you would with any other book, it’s complete nonsense. Utterly ridiculous.

Noah, a 500+ year old man building an Ark

Moses talking to God face to face

Jacob wrestling with God (and winning)

God making the Sun stand still

Jonah being swallowed by a whale (or “great fish”) and living in it’s belly for 3 days

Elijah taken up to heaven in a whirlwind

People living until they were almost 1, 000 (Methuselah was 969)

Talking donkeys and snakes

Jesus if he existed was either:

A delusional mad man

A cult leader with delusions of grandeur

Completely misrepresented and misquoted by the gospel writers

However because we don’t have access to a time machine we’ll never know.

Can you imagine if God wrote a book how awesome it would be?

It would be infinitely better than the Bible.

Final thoughts

I don’t expect anything I’ve written in this article to change the mind of anyone.

Christians will continue to be Christians, Muslims will continue to be Muslims, Atheists will continue to be Atheists etc.

Most people believe whatever they want to believe, and the simple fact is that most people – especially religious believers – are intellectually lazy and dishonest, won’t follow the evidence where it leads, and refuse to think critically about their guru/holy book/religion or their sacred cows, and stubbornly refuse to concede ground on anything that might threaten their position.

99.99% of the time:

You cannot get a Christian to admit fault in the teachings of Jesus

You cannot get a Buddhist to admit fault in the teachings of Buddha

You cannot get a Hindu to admit fault in the teachings of Krishna

You cannot get a Muslim to admit fault in the teachings of Mohammad

You cannot get a religious person to admit fault in their religion

You cannot get a spiritual person to admit fault in their guru

The end.

Recommended resources

The Atheist Experience

Agatan Foundation

Bart Ehman

The Skeptics Annotated Bible