I was almost tempted to skip commenting on these next two pairs of Scripture which Jim Goad states are completely contradictory to one another. It was not because the issues were too hard to resolve, but for the opposite reason. The answers in both case were so patently obvious that they hardly needed any resolution at all. However, since some of you may have wondered about these “contradictions,” I will briefly address them anyway.
In the first place, one should always be suspicious of any critical comparison of a New Testament passage with one from the Old Testament written hundreds of years earlier and belonging to a completely different historical context. Secondly, it is always risky comparing passages written in different genres since language may be used quite differently in different types of literature. As you will see below, Jim Goad provides good (I should say “bad”) examples of both those errors in reasoning.
The first pair of passages he cites is shown below:
Genesis 9:3
“Every living thing that moves shall be food for you; and as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything.”
Romans 14:21
“It is right not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything that makes your brother stumble.”
In comparing these two passages, Goad skips over several intervening covenants between God and man which deal with this subject of permitted food. To be more complete, we must consider the following food regulations which were set down by God to apply to various times during humanity's journey:
1. First was the provision of food for Adam and Eve and their descendants, which was, arguably, a strictly vegetarian diet.
2. But after the flood, God made a new covenant with all mankind which included the allowance of both meat and vegetables.
3. However, when the Jews were set apart from the rest of humanity, the detailed levitical food laws were instituted in order to mark them out as God's unique people.
4. But starting with Peter's rooftop vision in Acts 10:9-16, God declared all foods clean to eat.
5. Unfortunately, this set up some conflicts between the Jewish and Gentile Christians within congregations, and the Jerusalem Council set down an accommodation so that the former group would not be offended by the freedom enjoyed by other brothers. This ruling urged Christians to at least abstain from eating meat offered to idols and that which had not been drained of blood. (Acts 15:29)
6. Similar conflicts broke out in other churches between “weak” brothers who were still quite particular as to their diet and “strong” Christians who loudly proclaimed that they could eat anything they wished. This was the specific background for Paul's comments in Romans 14:21.
Concerning this last passage, Fitzmyer says, “Once it is seen that such an issue is not related to the essentials of Christian faith, the obligation of mutual charity for all becomes clear. Sameness of viewing such indifferent matters is not a Christian ideal...Hence one's conduct should not lead one to criticize a fellow Christian. See 14:10; 1 Cor 10:25-27. There is room in the Christian community for both sorts of people.”
Barclay adds: “A man is always in some sense his brother's keeper. He is responsible, not only for himself, but for everyone who comes into contact with him.”
Morris brings up another good point: “Paul does not say 'It is not good to eat meat', but 'It is good not to eat meat'; he is setting forth the course to action that will help the brother. His use of the aorist tense for his infinitives may be significant. There is nothing wrong with the eating and drinking as such. They are to be avoided when they cause offense but not necessarily at other times. Paul is relating his teaching to a given situation.”
The second contradictory passages according to Goad are:
Psalms 97:1-2a
“The LORD reigns; let the earth rejoice; let the many coastlands be glad! Clouds and thick darkness are round about him; righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne.”
II Timothy 6:15-16a
“This will be made manifest at the proper time by the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no man has ever seen or can see.”
The one-sentence answer to this so-called quandary is: “While God himself dwells in light and is himself light, he shields that unapproachable light from human beings by surrounding himself with clouds of darkness.” A short look at another theophany [appearance of God] in Psalm 18:7-15 demonstrates this fact by including both elements: fire and glowing coals as well as darkness under his feet and clouds covering him all around and over him. Confirmatory comments from others are given below.
Tanner: “This opening section [Psalm 97:1-5] tells of the power of God's reign. In language like that of Exodus 19, Isaiah 6 and Habakkuk 3, these verses portray the great mystery of God's inner sanctum. Verse 1 makes the declaration and calls on the earth and the coastlands to sing, expressing the vast expanse of God's land. This is followed by a description of the throne room of God...Reminiscent of the theophany on Sinai, clouds and deep darkness form the cover.”
Wanamaker: “From Eph. 5:8-9 we may deduce that 'light' with reference to God in the Paulines means 'goodness, righteousness, and truth...Light characterizes his very existence (cf. Ps. 104:2). That light is 'unapproachable...” This last sentence is another way of describing the darkness surrounding God.
M'Caw and Motyer: “The divine advent is seen as associated with smoke and blackness and the voice of words, as when the law was given at Sinai. It is also marked by brilliant radiance and lightning as in the swift illumination of the revelation of grace.” Notice that these scholars bring in another complicating factor that must be taken into account – the possibility that the elements of light and darkness have a primarily figurative meaning rather than a strictly literal one.
Dictionary of Biblical Imagery: “God's power over darkness is evident in the fact that he uses it to achieve his purposes. He uses darkness to cover himself from human view, for example. In Old Testament theophanies the concealing or covering quality of darkness makes it part of the means of God's appearance...God is even said to 'dwell in thick darkness' (1 Kings 8:12; 2 Chronicles 6:1), a transcendent spiritual being veiled from human view...God's veiling of himself in darkness is an act of mercy toward the human race...”
“Fire, lightning, storm and cloud often mark these descriptions...God often appears in the form of fire and smoke (or cloud). Fire attracts and frightens. It purifies and destroys. Smoke, on the other hand, conceals, indicating that while our glimpse of Godhead is accurate, it is also shielded. We learn true things about God, but our knowledge is never exhaustive”
“The cloud represents God's presence but also his hiddenness (see Lam 2:2). No one can see God and live, so the cloud shields people from actually seeing the form of God. It reveals God but also preserves the mystery that surrounds him.”
“Most notable among the lights of the temple was the Shekinah, the glory of God. This was not ordinary physical light, but it was visible in the form of a luminous cloud that filled holy space (2 Chron 5:13-14). This is similar to the glorious cloud that settled on Mount Sinai when Moses ascended to receive the law from God (Ex 24:15-18) after which 'the skin of his [I.e. Moses'] face shone because he had been talking with God.' (Ex 34:29).”
Some specific biblical passages of theophanies containing these same elements include the lightning and flashing arrows and spears in Psalm 18:13-14 and Habakkuk 3:9-12, the fiery bush of Exodus 3:2-4, the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of light by night (Exodus 13:21-22), the fire in Elijah's vision of I Kings 19:11-12, the Ancient of Days in Daniel 7:9-10, the Lord's throne filled with smoke (Isaiah 6:1-8), Jesus' shining face and the cloud during the Transfiguration (Matthew 17:1-5), and the cloud that took Jesus out of sight at the ascension (Acts 1:9)
Finally, at the end of time the saved will see him unveiled “and there will be no more night; they need no light or lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.” (Revelation 22:5
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