We apologize for the poor audio quality of this lesson.
Transcript
If this is your first time joining us, and you wonder who we are and what we are up to: My name is Charles Paisley. I and most of our listeners here are formerly members of the cult following of William Branham known as The Message. The Message is a global doomsday cult with millions of members. The Message started here in Jeffersonville, Indiana, and spread all over the world.
I am formerly the associate pastor of the second-oldest Message church in the world, which was the flagship church of one of the oldest and largest international sects of The Message. And this is a little mission we operate to offer encouragement to those leaving The Message and to take a look at the plain reading of scripture.
Today, we are continuing our Message question series. For our lesson today, we are going to tackle the question: Does the Bible have contradictions?
And before we begin, let me pray.
So the question we are tackling today is this: Does the Bible have serious contradictions? For your average Christian, that is the sort of question or allegation that would come from a critic of Christianity.
There are a lot of people who are hostile to Christianity, and that is one of the main arguments they use to say Christianity is a false religion. Because if the Bible contains serious contradictions, then it would naturally imply that Christianity is a false religion. And, on that front, I would agree.
If the Bible contains serious contradictions, then I would agree that Christianity would be a false religion, at least the way most people practice it. If the Bible contains serious contradictions, then that tells us the Bible is not really authoritative. A contradiction is evidence of an error. Both sides of a contradiction cannot be right. Something is either true or false, and if the Bible says something is both true and false, then we would have a contradiction. One of those two statements is an error.
And if there are errors in the authoritative text of the Bible, then the entire Bible falls into question. If we no longer can have assurance that the Bible is fully authoritative, then the basis of our Christian faith, as we live, practice, and believe it today, falls apart.
If the Bible is a flawed and untrustworthy book, then it follows that Christianity, as we practice it today—inasmuch as it is based on that book—is equally flawed and untrustworthy. If the source material is flawed, then what we base on that source material is equally flawed.
And that is a very correct thing to say. That is why critics of Christianity often allege that there are serious contradictions in the Bible.
But today, we are not tackling this because atheists are saying bad things about the Bible. We are tackling this because foolish and ridiculous Message preachers say the Bible has serious contradictions.
As we all know, William Branham said all kinds of conflicting statements. One day he was a Trinitarian; the next day, he was Oneness; the day after that, he was Arian. He said many things that were dead wrong—totally false, made-up stories, fake visions, fake “thus saith the Lords,” fake healings, fake discernments. He made a lot of mistakes, even on recording.
People in The Message have different ways of reconciling all of those conflicting things he said and did. One way, which some of the most wicked Message preachers do, is to make an argument like this:
They will say, “The Bible contains contradictions; therefore, it is okay that William Branham had contradictions.” They will say, “The Bible has errors; therefore, it is okay for William Branham to have errors.”
That is the honest argument some of them make. They follow the exact same logic and reasoning as the atheists. They will even cite the atheists as their sources. I kid you not.
Someone sent me a video of the wicked and false pastor of Tucson Tabernacle doing that very thing a few weeks ago. From a Christian standpoint, it is an easy case to say that what those Message preachers are doing, when they make that argument, is nothing short of blasphemy. Absolute blasphemy.
The foolishness of the way they go about it is really hard to comprehend. By undermining the Bible, they undermine their entire religion. What they are doing might work in their false-only religion of “only-believism,” but it does not work in authentic Christianity.
Only-believism is a religion that says to believe everything you hear, whether it contradicts or not. Only-believism tells you it can be true and false at the same time. But that is not what the Bible teaches. That is not what historic, Bible-based Christianity teaches.
What is so awful about these wicked and false preachers, like Danny Evans, is that, in order to defend and protect William Branham, they have to tear down the Bible and Jesus Christ. Then, when people wake up and leave, and end up as atheists, do you know who is to blame?
His name is Danny Evans, and all these other wicked Message preachers who have attacked the Bible and the sufficiency of Jesus Christ. Some people leave their false churches, realizing William Branham was a false prophet, but they have been poisoned against the Bible and Jesus by these false Message preachers.
As we go into this today, I want to tell you directly: If the Bible has serious contradictions—real, legitimate contradictions that we cannot find a solution for—then we are in big trouble. Very big trouble.
If the Bible is not trustworthy, then the overwhelming majority of what we believe as Christians has no solid basis on which to believe it. If you have a mind capable of thinking—which the brainwashed people in The Message don’t, because they are brainwashed—you realize that if the Bible is not authoritative, there is no basis to believe The Message.
It is a totally foolish argument to even try to justify The Message by saying the Bible contains errors. The mere fact that someone would make that argument speaks to the deep level of confusion going on in their head.
Now, today, I am going to examine just one of the supposed contradictions that the wicked and false preacher Danny Evans brought up. There are other Message preachers who allege the same thing. James Allen actually preached along the same lines several years ago with these verses we are about to examine.
Before we read these verses, let me say to you: There are about ten different issues, like the one I am going to examine with you today, where you have two verses of the Bible that, on their face, seem to say the exact opposite thing. Most of them are pretty minor, not related to doctrine or anything very important.
But this one we are going to look at today is the only one of these in the entire Bible which we could categorize as being serious. By serious, I mean this: If this is a real contradiction, then it is a contradiction over one of the most core and central Christian doctrines. If this is actually a contradiction, we have a big problem.
Now, let’s examine the two scriptures. The first one is in the book of Romans. Turn there with me: Romans chapter 3. We spent a lot of time here in Romans 3 in our series on Romans—you can find that in our archives. The verse I will read is verse 28. Paul says:
Romans 3:28 (English Standard Version)
28 For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law.
Now, turn with me to the book of James. I will read one verse here, and it is in chapter 2, verse 24. James writes:
James 2:24 (English Standard Version)
24 You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone.
Now, as you can see, on its face, James and Paul seem to be saying the exact opposite thing. Paul says we are justified by faith, without works. James says we cannot be justified by faith alone, but we must have works.
On its face, that seems like a really major contradiction concerning core doctrines of the church. James says you must do works to be justified, but Paul says you do not have to do works to be justified.
Some wicked Message preachers, rather than tell you the normal explanations, will embark on convincing you that the Bible contains contradictions and, therefore, William Branham’s lies and contradictions are exonerated—which, as I said at the open, is blasphemy.
Now, I am going to explain to you the four different ways in which normal Christians reconcile these two verses, and you can see which way makes the most sense to you.
#1 Catholic Explanation
The first explanation, I will give you, is how the Catholics do it.
The Catholics say the works that James is talking about and the works that Paul is talking about are two different categories of works. And the category of works which Paul is talking about are works that do not have anything to do with salvation. But the category of works James is talking about does.
And so, you do need to do works to be saved, and it is the works which James speaks about but not the works Paul speaks about.
That is essentially how the Catholics explain it. And there is a lot more we could add there, but, as you and I know, the Protestant Reformation started over this very subject. Martin Luther, and the entire Protestant Reformation, turns on rejecting that Catholic explanation.
If you agree with the Catholic position, then you are not a Protestant Christian, which, as we know, The Message is not. The Message absolutely believes in works to save yourself, and just like the Catholics. And, a lot of them actually will use the Catholic explanation here because the Catholic explanation is the one most compatible with The Message.
The way you will most often hear that expressed in The Message is with a phrase like, “You have to clean your vessel before the Lord will fill it.” And there is this idea that you need to clean up your life before you can receive the Holy Spirit.
And so, that is the first way some Christians reconcile these two verses, by saying James and Paul are talking about different kinds of works.
#2 The Book of James is Not Inspired
Now the next three ways that these scriptures are reconciled are Protestant ways of doing it.
And before I give you the way most Protestants do the reconciliation, I will give you the two less accepted ways.
One way which Protestants deal with this issue is the way in which Martin Luther himself dealt with it. Martin Luther said the book of James was not inspired by God and that it did not belong in the Bible. And, if you are like Martin Luther, and you read what James wrote, and you conclude that when James says the words faith, and justification, and works, that means the exact same thing as Paul, when Paul says faith, and justification, and works, then that is really the only conclusion you can come to.
If both Paul and James are using the same definition for the words faith, and works, and justification, then there is indeed a contradiction here. And if there is a contradiction, then one of those two men is preaching something wrong, and one of those two men needs to be removed from the Bible.
We don’t say, there are contradictions, and that justifies William Branham’s contradiction. Instead, we say, there is a contradiction, therefore the book of James is an invalid book of the Bible. And we reject the whole thing because God cannot contradict himself.
And that is what Martin Luther did himself, and that is what a minority of Protestants do. If we were to somehow detect an error in scripture, then that error is a sign that something we are reading is not really scripture because scripture cannot have errors. The presence of errors eliminates the authority of the writing.
And so, that is how that would be handled. And the way we would figure out the book of the Bible that needs to be cut out is by comparing the contradiction to the whole of scripture.
If we do that here with James, we would find that James here is all alone in saying justification, or salvation, is from both faith and works. To say that is to contradict not just Paul but also Jesus Christ himself. It contradicts Peter, it contradicts Jude, and it contradicts John.
And so, if our opinion is that James is saying you must do works to be saved, then James is wrong. James is out on a limb by himself, and he is contradicting Jesus Christ himself.
Jesus said, “Whosoever believes on me has passed from death unto life.” It’s not “whosoever believes on me and does works has passed from death unto life,” but it is just “whosoever believes.”
And Jesus spoke that way many times: “God gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believes on him might have eternal life.” Not “whosoever believes on him and does works,” but just “whosoever believes.”
The salvation, the justification in the eyes of God, comes at the moment a person has saving faith.
And to teach otherwise is totally wrong. And if that is indeed what James is writing, then we have to throw out the book of James, which is what Martin Luther and a number of others did.
#2.5 It’s to the Jews
Now there is another view I have heard. James Allen actually preached this one, and it is very similar to throwing out the book of James.
James Allen said Paul was writing to Gentiles, and James was writing to Jews. And the Jews and Gentiles have a different set of requirements. So, therefore, it is not really a contradiction; it is just different requirements for different people.
And, as the church today, we can safely ignore what James said there because it has no application to us.
And so, that is what James Allen said, which is garbage. There is only one gospel, and there are not different requirements for different people.
But that is another way in which people have found to sort of ignore the book of James.
#3 James predates the doctrine of Justification by Faith
Now I am going to tell you the third explanation that comes from Protestants.
And this is a fairly widespread view, though I don’t think it is the majority, from what I can tell. There are some preachers who will say that the book of James is the oldest book in the New Testament. And James wrote this down before the apostle Paul was even a Christian. This was before the early church had a fully developed doctrine on justification.
And so, they will take a sort of progressive revelation approach to it, saying that Paul came later and had the more full explanation. Therefore, we go with what Paul said over James and understand that James came from an earlier time.
Now, personally, that does not satisfy me. I see a lot of issues with that position. Because, really, there is no way to know if James was the oldest book of the New Testament or not—that is just speculation.
And, in Luke, it says Jesus appeared to the apostles and explained all this to them perfectly after his resurrection. So, James had to know what was right because he got it from Jesus directly. And we have Peter teaching justification by faith before Paul was even converted: Acts 2:38, “Repent and be baptized, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”
There are no works in that. There are no works in what Peter said on the day of Pentecost.
So, the concept of being saved just through faith in Christ is present from the day of Pentecost. And it doesn’t matter how early in church history you go, that concept was there.
So, saying James is the oldest book of the New Testament just does not really seem like a good answer to me. But that is the third explanation out there for how to reconcile what James and Paul said about justification.
#4 James & Paul are talking about different kinds of Justification
And now, I will move on to explanation #4.
This is, to the best of my understanding, the explanation used by most Protestants. And, personally, I think it is the best explanation. The last explanation is this:
Paul and James are talking about two different kinds of justification. I believe that bears out if we carefully read both James and Paul. I believe they are talking about different kinds of justification.
And I might put it like this: Paul is talking about being justified before God, in the sense of salvation, but James is talking about being justified before men, in the sense of proving you are saved.
It is the difference between being justified before God and being justified before men. If you read both James and Paul carefully, you will notice that this fits very well. Let me show that to you.
Turn to James chapter 2, and I will read verse 18 to you. James writes:
18 But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.
So, you can see there, James is talking about proving to another person that you have faith.
To God, He knows we have faith—He can see in our hearts. But to those around us, they can’t see in our hearts. If we want the people around us to know we have faith, it’s going to take some action to prove it.
It’s going to take something to prove, or to justify, our claim that we have faith.
And that is exactly what verse 18 is getting at. James is saying we prove we have faith to others by our works. And our works, in this respect, is the fruit of the Spirit. Think about what Jesus said in John 14. He said:
He that believes on me, the works I do he shall do also.
Works follow faith. Let me repeat that. Jesus said, “He that believes on me, the works I do, he shall do also.” First, you believe on Christ, then you do the works—not the other way around. Works follow faith. Jesus said, “Every branch that is in me bears fruit.”
That is when we bear the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, meekness, self-control, patience. When we do the works that Christ did, that is the fruit of the Spirit—that is proof we believed on Christ.
It’s not proof to God, but it is proof to our neighbors.
And it is proof to ourselves too.
When we see the fruit of the Spirit in our lives, we are justified—not justified in salvation but justified in saying we have faith, because we have proof of it that we can show others.
Analyzing the passage
Let me read verse 18 again:
He that believes on me (faith) the work I do he shall do also (works follow faith).
Paul is talking about being justified before God, whereas James is talking about being justified before men. James is speaking of having practical evidence of your faith, for others to see. Let’s read it all, starting at verse 14, James chapter 2:
14 What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him?
A faith that produces no fruit—can that faith save you? Is that really faith at all if it produces no fruit? If it produces no love, no joy, no peace, no gentleness, no kindness, no patience, no self-control? If it produces nothing at all, then do you really have faith?
The answer to that would seem to be no. Faith in Christ is what saves you. But if it is genuine faith in Christ, there should be some fruit. And Jesus said, some 30-fold, some 60-fold, some 100-fold. It’s not one size fits all. We are not all equal or identical. Some people have more fruit than others. But zero fruit? If we are in that situation, we might just not actually be saved.
If the Holy Spirit is abiding within, then there should be fruit of the Spirit growing. It’s very natural to think that way.
Verse 16:
15 If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? 17 So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.
You notice there, James shifts, and he is not talking about faith in a salvational sense, but faith in God to provide. Faith that God will feed your hungry neighbor. Genuine faith does not say, “Go in peace, be warm and filled,” and just expect it to materialize out of thin air. A genuine faith will result in the person actually saying, “Come into my house, sit by my fire, let me give you a meal.”
Genuine faith produces an action. It produces fruit that is manifest in some way.
Verse 18:
18 But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.
This is not proving our faith to God, but proving it to other people. And, in context again, it seems this is the same faith as in verse 17. He was talking about faith in God to provide.
In terms of that hungry and cold person, the faith was worthless if all you did was wish for them to go and be warm. If the saving faith of God was in you, that faith would bear fruit in that instance, and you would invite your cold, hungry neighbor in to warm up and have some food.
It would prove you have saving faith and the Holy Spirit it brings, abiding within. It would not prove it to God, but it would prove it to men. And, really, that is the only way we can prove it to others. Because we can’t open our hearts and let them look inside. They just have to see it through the life we live.
18 But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.
19 You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder! 20 Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless?
Unless a person converted that faith into an action, it was useless in helping that situation. In this example James gives, unless you invited the person to come sit by the fire and have a meal, that faith was worthless in a practical sense.
Verse 21:
21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar?
Not justified before God, but justified before men. How did the people around Abraham know he had faith in God? How do you and I know Abraham really had faith in God when we read the Scripture? It is because his faith turned into action.
God said, “In Isaac, I will make you a great nation.” Isaac had to live. How did Abraham prove he believed in God’s promise? By obeying God. He offered up his son because he had faith God would spare the boy somehow, some way, because God had promised to make a great nation through him.
And we know Abraham believed God because his actions proved it. Abraham was justified before his family and friends, and even us, by proving to us he did have faith.
Verse 22:
22 You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works;
Notice that wording: works completed, or perfected, his faith. Those good works were the completion or the finishing up of the matter.
Verse 23:
23 and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”—and he was called a friend of God.
Abraham was justified when he believed. That is what the word righteousness is there in verse 23. The word righteousness and justification are the same word in Greek. We can miss that in English, but it is the same word.
We could read verse 23 like this:
23 and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as [justification]”—and he was called a friend of God.
24 You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone.
And this is really where we can be sure that when James says “justified,” he does not mean the same thing as Paul. Because, in verse 23, James said Abraham was justified by believing God. Then in verse 24, he says that a person is not justified by simply believing.
So, James would not simply be contradicting Paul. He would actually be contradicting himself, which does not really make any sense. It is apparent that justification in verse 23 is different than justification in verse 24.
The difference seems to be justification before God compared to justification before men. Abraham was indeed justified before God through faith. But it says Abraham was called the friend of God.
Who called him that? The answer was people—the people around him. That is where James’ emphasis lies. Why did the people around Abraham start to call him the friend of God? It was because they saw evidence of his faith.
Evidence of Abraham’s faith became visible to them through his actions. Let me read that again:
21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar?
22 You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works;
23 and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as [justification]”—and he was called a friend of God.
24 You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone.
Again, the emphasis in verse 24 seems to be on being justified in the sight of people, not being justified in the sight of God.
We will notice the same thing in verse 25. James says:
25 And in the same way was not also Rahab the prostitute justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way?
How did she prove to those messengers that she believed? She hid them, she protected them, she took actions that proved she believed them. And who was she proving it to? Not to God, but to those messengers. She was justified in their eyes because they saw her faith turn into action.
25 And in the same way was not also Rahab the prostitute justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way?
26 For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.
So, I am going to leave off here. But I hope you can see, there are multiple ways to address the supposed contradiction between Paul and James here.
We could be like the Catholics and say they are talking about different kinds of works. I would not recommend that, but you could say that.
We could be like Martin Luther and say the book of James is not inspired. That is being consistent.
Or we could be like most Protestants and say they are talking about different kinds of justification.
None of those options involve us saying, “The Bible has contradictions; therefore, contradictions and errors are okay. Just let them stand.”
There is no legitimate Christian explanation that says, “The Bible contains errors and contradictions. Therefore, tolerate errors and contradictions from your preachers and leaders.”
That is just blasphemy.
Closing
Any false and wicked message preacher who uses these verses, or any others, to make such an argument—they are blasphemers. And unless they repent, they are going to have a very bad end.
Tucson Tabernacle is a false church. It was started by a criminal, lying thief who stole millions of dollars from people—a man so wicked that he drove multiple people to suicide through harassment and cruel treatment.
That is the legacy of Tucson Tabernacle. Tucson Tabernacle sponsored and helped plant numerous cruel and abusive message churches, including Golden Dawn. They are responsible for these things directly.
Tucson Tabernacle leaders were directly involved in the cover-up of the sexual abuses and child rapes at The Park.
We have their leaders, Pearry Green and others, on tape, directing the cover-up, forbidding people from reporting on what Leo did.
That is their legacy.
And it is outrageous that a man like Danny Evans would run down the Bible in order to justify and excuse William Branham.
Shame on you, Danny Evans.
I hope you will repent and turn from your wicked ways.
Let me close here in prayer.
Prayer
Lord God,
As we bring this lesson to a close, I pray for Danny Evans and especially all the people in the Tucson Tabernacle.
That you would help them and give them strength.
That you would work a miracle on them, and heal their minds of cognitive dissonance.
And that testimonies will come from them that they have been delivered from a religious delusion.
I pray that Danny Evans will change his course, and quit mentioning the name of William Branham, and begin to teach the people the gospel from the Bible.
Let him see it’s time to turn the corner.
I thank you for all my friends in Arizona, especially the ones who reach out and listen faithfully.
Lord, I pray that you help each one be a light of the gospel to those around them, and help them to find a godly, healthy church where they can feel at home.
And for the leaders who refuse to repent, and who are complicit in holding people captive in the communes in Arizona, we pray you visit swift judgment on them and set the people free.
This I ask in Jesus’ name.
Amen.