Learn to Read in 3D

Layers of Truth and How to Discern Them

Skeptics love to point out “contradictions” in the Bible. Believers sometimes go through all sorts of mental gymnastics to resolve them. But in most cases, they aren’t contradictions at all, and when there are conflicting facts in a story — placing four gospel accounts side by side has a way of highlighting such things — they can often be seen as a matter of perspective rather than a real discrepancy.

In any case, much of this glee or angst (depending on one’s agenda) over biblical inconsistencies is the product of faulty assumptions about how scripture presents truth. We bring a certain mindset to the text that determines how we interpret it, and often that mindset is overly analytical, applying a modern sense of precision to ancient thought and expression.

Turning the wisdom of proverbs into promises is one way this happens. For one example — and there are many to choose from — I’ve heard people claim Proverbs 16:7 as a blanket promise for their lives: “When a man’s ways please the Lord, He makes even his enemies to be at peace with him.”

Is that true? Absolutely — as a general condition of life in this world, as well as when the Holy Spirit speaks that verse to someone in the midst of a conflict or crisis as a rhema word (an in-the-moment application that makes general revelation specific to a situation).

But Jesus’ ways were unquestionably pleasing to the Lord, yet he told his disciples, “They hated me, and they’ll hate you too.”¹ His enemies were decidedly not at peace with him. Same with Peter, John, Paul, and quite a few other early Christians, who suffered at the hands of their adversaries for doing exactly what God led them to do.

Is that a contradiction? Is Proverbs 16:7 wrong? Not at all. It’s wisdom for life in this world. It isn’t a promise when the ways of the world clash with the kingdom of God.

There are many other examples too: