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Ex-Christian Sis. Esther Dhanraj’s tirade against Christianity has recently increased in popularity; thanks to Mr. Rajiv Malhotra and social media.
Mrs. Esther Dhanraj, as per her YouTube videos, is an Ex-Christian without any religious affiliation (for now). She completed her M.Div from a seminary in the USA. She has read the Bible cover to cover. However, while pursuing her Masters course in Divinity, she lost her faith in Christianity.
Wikipedia describes Rajiv Malhotra as “an Indian-American author who, after a career in the computer and telecom industries, took early retirement in 1995 to set up the Infinity Foundation, which focuses on Indic studies…”1 He is a devout Hindu.
Sis. Esther is an ex-Christian. During Christ’s time on earth and since then many have abandoned their faith. To be an ex-Christian is one thing but to publicly defame Christianity is another thing altogether.
Why is Sis. Esther an Ex-Christian? While speaking to Rajiv Malhotra, Sis. Esther spells out her reasons for leaving Christianity. Simple common sense suggests that Sis. Esther should have a strong, if not bullet-proof, reasons to accuse a historic faith. Interestingly, her reasons are very weak.
The Bible Teaches Young Earth Creationism?
Sis. Esther alleges that the Bible teaches Young Earth Creationism (YEC). On the contrary, she believes that the earth is very old a.k.a. Old Earth Creationism (OEC). Since she believes that the Bible teaches young-earth creationism, she claims the Bible to be false and hence she abandoned Christianity.2
The issue at hand is this. The YEC vs. OEC debate is an outcome of Biblical Hermeneutics (science of biblical interpretation). Whether the earth is young or old is an in-house discussion for Christians because this involves, very minimally, the interpretation of the word ‘day’ mentioned in the creation chapters of Genesis.
Devout Christians are present on both sides of this debate. Is Sis. Esther even aware of this?
Significantly, this conflict does not affect one’s salvation. A person who abandons Christianity because of a misunderstanding that the Bible only teaches YEC may be oblivious to the fact that this debate does not concern one’s salvation.
It does not matter if a Christian subscribes to YEC or OEC, both the Young Earth Creationists and the Old Earth Creationists (within Christendom) would be saved.
Is Sis. Esther so naïve that she is ignorant of this truth? Or could depravity play a role?
A concise response to Sis. Esther would be in order. A reader can literally interpret the word ‘day’ as a 24-hour time period or can understand that the Hebrew word yom can also mean epochs or long time periods. A reader is not erroneous if he understands the word ‘day’ (in Genesis 1 and 2) to mean long periods of time.
This understanding is further corroborated in these verses: The Psalmist said, “A thousand years in your sight are like a day that has just gone by, or like a watch in the night.” (Psalm 90:4, NIV). Apostle Peter wrote, “Now, dear friends, do not let this one thing escape your notice, that a single day is like a thousand years with the Lord and a thousand years are like a single day.” (2 Peter 3:8, NET).
So Sis. Esther should learn that devout Christians could hold to any of these theories – YEC or OEC, and that it would not affect their salvation one bit.
The Bible Is Not An Encyclopedia Of Science, History & Geography
Sis. Esther alleges that her race is not found in the Bible. Apparently, the Bible does not mention India. This is offered as another reason for her to abandon Christianity.3
The Bible is all about God’s revelation to man. It’s an account of God’s action in the world, and his purpose with all creation. The Bible is neither a scientific handbook nor an encyclopedia of history and geography.
The Bible is not meant to mention every country and every race in the history of mankind. Expecting the Bible to mention one’s country and race exhibits either a total lack of understanding of the basic purpose of the Bible or the innate depravity of the person.
Due consideration should be offered to the aspect of decadence. Is Sis. Esther creating a ‘Straw Man’ (Straw Man logical fallacy) in her endeavor to debunk the Bible? Deliberately creating a straw man when there is none, to debunk a truth claim is an outcome of evil.
To state that the Bible does not mention India or her race is akin to creating a straw man. Sis. Esther may know that the Bible is not expected to mention every race and every country. However, creating a condition that the Bible should mention every race and every country (thus creating a straw man) is appalling.
Once a straw man is created, this person would claim that the Bible does not mention every country and every race, hence the Bible is false or invalid (this is how the person knocks off the straw man that he/she has created.).
This is not only a logical fallacy but this is a pathetic exhibition of evil.
The Bible Contains Contradictions?
Correct me if I am wrong; another reason for Sis. Esther to forsake Christianity is her lack of understanding of the Bible. Alternatively, a dim flaunt of decadence cannot be ruled out.
Sis. Esther asks, if the Bible is divinely inspired, how can there be contradictions?4 She goes on to add, how can there be errors in the text of the Bible when it was written by God HIMSELF or the Holy Spirit?5
To start with, neither God nor the precious Holy Spirit wrote the Bible directly. The inspiration of Scripture means that there was the supernatural influence of the Holy Spirit on the Scripture authors which rendered their writings an accurate record of the revelation or which resulted in what they wrote actually being the Word of God.
The Bible witnesses to its divine origin in several ways. Let’s consider two references only.
The New Testament author Peter taught this about the Scriptures of his day (Old Testament), “Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation of things. For prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.” (2 Peter 1: 20-21, NIV). This is what Apostle Paul taught, “Every scripture is inspired by God and useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness…” (2 Timothy 3:16, NET).
So neither God nor the precious Holy Spirit wrote the Bible themselves.
Only the original texts (autographs) are inerrant. We do not have the autographs with us. All we have are copies of the original text. No one in Christendom claims that the copies are inerrant.
What about the contradictions in the Bible?
Ruminate on this route as a response to this question. This excerpt is from a previous blog of mine entitled The Bible Has Errors, What Do We Do?: [Emphasis Mine]6
Would an erroneous Bible entail the non-existence of God? No, not by any chance!
God exists necessarily. God’s existence is not predicated or intricately linked to the veracity of the Bible. In other words, God will not cease to exist if the Bible is erroneous.
In fact, God existed even before the Bible was written. It was God who inspired the human authors to write the Bible. Bible reveals God. However, the Bible is not the only source that reveals God (cf. Romans 1: 19-20).
The Lord Jesus Christ, the means to salvation of mankind, existed independent of the Bible’s veracity. For instance, history affirms Christ’s existence and resurrection.
Dr. Gary Habermas asserts that Jesus death by crucifixion, HIS postmortem appearances to HIS disciples, and Paul’s vision of the resurrected Christ, are the most affirmed historical facts by both Christian and non-Christian scholars. 7
Therefore, if the Bible is proven to be with errors, neither would God cease to exist nor would Christ. If history affirms Christ’s resurrection, then salvation through Christ is also a fact that remains independent of the Bible.
This is not an exercise to undermine Bible’s authority. This is a mere exercise to affirm the independent existence (apart from the Bible) of God, the Lord Jesus Christ and salvation of mankind through Christ.8
Therefore, even if the Bible is proven to contain errors, it would not and cannot undermine God, Christ and salvation of mankind. In other words, Christianity would not crumble if the Bible is proven to be with errors.
God is at the core of Christianity. Christ and the salvation that HE offered to mankind are at the core of Christianity.
But inerrancy of the Bible need not be at the core of Christianity. If inerrancy of the Bible is to remain at the core of Christianity, then it would presuppose that inerrancy of the Bible is far superior in value to God, Christ and salvation. However, since God is the source of the Bible, God ought to be at the core of Christianity and not the inerrancy of the Bible. Inerrancy is the corollary of God’s nature.
Unfortunately, this is not what Bart Ehrman thought. Bart Ehrman, the James A. Gray Distinguished Professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, lost his faith in Christ because he apparently discovered one minor error in the gospels. It seemed Professor Ehrman held the doctrine of biblical inerrancy as the core of Christianity.
When a particular passage in the Gospel of Mark befuddled Bart Ehrman, his strong belief in inerrancy of the Bible was shaken. He became a liberal Christian and then ended up as an agnostic atheist after being unable to reconcile the philosophical problems of evil and suffering.9
So should inerrancy be an essential doctrine of Christianity? Maybe so. However, God who is the source of the Bible ought to be at the core of Christianity and not the inerrancy of the Bible. Disputing inerrancy would not and cannot damage God or Christ or salvation of mankind.
The theme of this article is intended to touch the scores of ordinary Christians. By ordinary Christians, I refer to Christians who are not into serious Christian pedagogy or academics.
The full blown wrath of Christianity’s detractors, such as the New Atheists, is aimed to rattle the faith of these ordinary Christians. At the first instance, when you hear the relentless tirades of these detractors, your faith in Christ may shake…
So, fear not!
God is at the core of Christianity. Christ and the salvation offered to mankind are at the core of Christianity. The Bible reveals our triune God. The Scripture cannot be broken. Let us continue to totally trust and study God and HIS Word. Amen.
So Sis. Esther need not worry about the contradictions in the Bible. There are many useful works online and offline that tackle these contradictions. She may as well study this book: The Big Book of Bible Difficulties: Clear and Concise Answers from Genesis to Revelation authored by Norman Geisler and Thomas Howe.
Finally, was Rev. Billy Graham a hypocrite? Sis. Esther, in the context of contradictions in the Bible, rudely condemned Rev. Billy Graham as a hypocrite.7 Only a naïve or a depraved detractor of Historic Christianity could make such an accusation.
Sis. Esther should recognize that there are Christians who cannot grasp the deep complexities of Historic Christianity. How do these Christians believe in Christ then? By faith alone:8
Famed Christian evangelist Billy Graham went through a crisis of faith when his evangelist friend Charles “Chuck” Templeton questioned the veracity (truthfulness or accuracy) of the Bible and abandoned his faith in Christ. Billy Graham, however, overcame his crisis situation.
Billy Graham reminisced those moments, “The exact wording of my prayer is beyond recall, but it must have echoed my thoughts: “O God! There are many things in this book I do not understand. … I can’t answer some of the philosophical and psychological questions Chuck [Templeton] and others are raising.” I was trying to be on the level with God, but something remained unspoken. At last the Holy Spirit freed me to say it: “Father, I am going to accept this as Thy Word—by faith!” … I sensed the presence and power of God as I had not sensed it in months.”2
Templeton’s departure from Christianity did not deter Billy Graham. He survived the crisis and became a more committed believer in Christ.
How?
Through faith. Simple faith!
You and I will not be remiss if we simply believe that the Bible is the word of God.
This article partially responds to one YouTube video of Sis. Esther Dhanraj. So this is the first part of a counter to Sis. Esther Dhanraj and Mr. Rajiv Malhotra. Part two will be published soon.
Endnotes:
1https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rajiv_Malhotra
2https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNdgGttyvyA&t=1804s; Time: 15:57
3https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNdgGttyvyA&t=1804s; Time: 16:34
4https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNdgGttyvyA&t=1804s; Time: 23:04
5https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNdgGttyvyA&t=1804s; Time: 23:56
6http://rajkumarrichard.blogspot.com/2016/03/the-bible-has-errors-what-do-we-do.html
7https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNdgGttyvyA&t=1804s; Time: 38:09
8http://rajkumarrichard.blogspot.com/2019/08/does-bible-contain-errors-or-not-how.html
Websites last accessed on 9th February 2020.
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