Confusion

This post will be very brief but, I believe, powerful to the point that I am trying to make about the Christian religion.

There are four points I wish to quickly address regarding Christianity in general.

1. Christian Denominations

   A Christian denomination is an identifiable religious body under a common name, structure, and doctrine within Christianity. In the Orthodox tradition, churches are divided often along ethnic and linguistic lines, into separate churches and traditions. Technically, divisions between one group and another are defined by doctrine and church authority. Issues such as the nature of Jesus, the authority of apostolic succession, eschatology, and papal primacy separate one denomination from another. (Wikipedia)

   Denominations are typically formed for two reasons, the first being that of revelation. If an individual or a group decides that their understanding of scriptures, traditions, etc., is unique they will often form a new denomination in order to support their view. The second reason is that of disagreement, and is usually formed when an individual or group disagrees with the understanding of scriptures, traditions, etc. of an existing denomination and so seeks to branch off.
   
   
   How many different denominations of Christianity are there? According to this Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary report (line 41), there are currently approximately 45,000.
2. Christian Bibles
   While it is true that the Christian bible has been translated into almost every language on the face of this planet, most people don't seem to realize that, in the English language alone, there are dozens -- if not hundreds -- of translations. Here is a list of many of them.
   
   
   Multiple translations have arisen because of different theories in how the ancient Hebrew and Greek should be translated, because of discrepancies in the thousands of different copies of the manuscripts, and because of the way the translators feel the particulars of the ancient languages should be represented in English. And unfortunately, sometimes things were added and sometimes they were removed.
   
   For instance, here are three translations of Matthew 5:3 --
   

   Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. (NIV) 

   God blesses those people who depend only on him. They belong to the kingdom of heaven! (CEV) 

   You're blessed when you’re at the end of your rope. With less of you there is more of God and his rule. (The Message) 

3. Christian Commentaries
   
   There are, literally, thousands of commentaries on the bible. Here are some on Amazon. Commentaries are the personal ideas and thoughts, arguments, compilation of data, which hope to bring to light further information on scripture.
4. Contradictions
   

   There are hundreds of contradictions in the bible, some subtle, some glaring.
   
   For instance, the gospels disagree over who was present at Jesus’ tomb. Genesis contradicts itself with the order of creation. And god tells us he does not tempt people, only to then tempt people. For more information check out this list at EvilBible.com. Andy Marlo at Project Reason created this beautiful poster visualization of contradictions.

Considering the thousands of denominations, hundreds of English bible translations, thousands of commentaries, and hundreds of contradictions, I challenge any Christian to offer an explanation for the following verse:

For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints. 1 Corinthians 14:33 (WEB)

Confused and scratching your head? Yeah, so am I.

Until next Monday,
Frank