The Christian Bible contains contradictions.

Thanks to pro for his comments. --"If the word heaven can refer to the skies and it's my opponent's position that Elijah did not go to heaven but was carried into the "sky" couldn't the same be said of Jesus?"-- The answer is no, the same can't be said for Jesus. There is strong biblical support for Jesus being in Heaven, with God. John 14: 1-3 puts Jesus, clearly, in the Father's house, Heaven. "Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also." Hebrews 12:2 "Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. Jesus is sitting at the right hand of God. These 2 verses, and there are more, clarify that Jesus is in the Heaven where God is. --""No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man." "No one has ascended into the sky except he who has descended from , the Son of Man." Again, the verses I cited above, apply here. The Bible is clear, in many places, that Jesus is in the same Heaven where God is. A couple more examples: John 6:38: "For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me." Those are Jesus' own words, and it doesn't get much clearer than that. How could He be sent down from Heaven, by God, if He weren't in Heaven, with God?? John 6:46: "Not that any man hath seen the Father, save he which is of God, he hath seen the Father." Again, Jesus' own words. How could He see the Father, unless He was with the Father?? ----- --"Furthermore, why does Elijah have to be dead in order for him to go to heaven?"-- Which Heaven?? It's easily seen that they referred to 3 different heavens, in the Bible. That was just simply their language, the way they talked. What's interesting is that there is no record of God's presence, in Elijah's experience. No words from God, no conversation, no orders from God, no vision or description of what Heaven looks like. Remember, Elijah was still alive. After his experience, he reappeared in, I believe, Judah. Does it sound logical that he would have visited Heaven, and seen God, yet never said a word to anyone about it?? There is no record, that I know of, where Elijah claimed that he was in Heaven and met God. The man himself, never made the claim that he was in Heaven, with God. Now over 2,000 years later, atheists claim that he WAS there, and use this to try and show that the Bible isn't true. But there's simply no evidence for their claim, outside the author's use of the word "heaven". One other thing, 2 Kings 2:16 says, "And they said unto him, Behold now, there be with thy servants fifty strong men; let them go, we pray thee, and seek thy master: lest peradventure the Spirit of the LORD hath taken him up, and cast him upon some mountain, or into some valley. And he said, Ye shall not send." Now why would these people want to go look for Elijah if it appeared that he had disappeared up into the skies?? Since we know that Elijah was still alive, and that he surfaced somewhere else, doesn't it make more sense that they saw the chariot take him up and ACROSS the skies?? This would still put him up in the heavens, and would explain why those people wanted to go search for him. Here is proof of the three different uses for the word "heaven". There are many more for each level but this should make the point. Deuteronomy 11:17 and 28:12 refer to the sky. Psalm 19:4 and 6, and Jeremiah 8:2 refer to outer space. 1 Kings 8:27 and Psalm 2:4 refer to the dwelling place of God. The story does not specify which Heaven, Elijah went to. I have shown biblical proof that "heaven" has three different meanings, in the Bible. I have shown that Elijah did not die, and that he reappeared somewhere else. I have shown that people wanted to go look for him. Why would they want to go look for him, on land, if he had disappeared into the skies?? There is no record of any claim, by Elijah, that he went to Heaven and saw God. We've shown that Jesus said that no man has been to Heaven. My opponent has offered nothing to prove this to be a contradiction, except a football analogy, and his insistence that heaven can only mean, the Heaven where God resides. Clarification: Are you really claiming Enoch, in Genesis 5, as a contradiction?? If so, I will deal with it next round. --"In order to provide further information on a subject one must add further detail. For example, If Genesis 1 is the chronological order of creation and my opponent states that Genesis 2 is to provide further detail, than Genesis 2 would provide information on how sea animals, land animals, etc. were created. Simply stating something that has already been stated does not provide further information."-- Every single verse in chapter two adds something that wasn't in chapter one. It may not be the level, or category, of detail my opponent wants to see, but nonetheless, each verse gives new detail, of some kind. I ask how chapter 2 is simply restating what chapter 1 said?? Yes, 2 does make reference to things that happened in 1, but it's far, far from just restating it. --"Furthermore, to state that events are not categorized chronologically in Genesis 2 is false."-- I read my response again, and I did not say that events are not categorized chronologically. Nor did I say that chapter 2 abandoned any sense of accuracy. The "out of order" that I was referring to was the verses claimed as contradiction, and the ones I used as examples. The whole point is that the created order is established in Genesis 1. With that done, the author is free, in chapter 2, to go into further detail. In doing so, he combined a couple of, seemingly innocuous verses, possibly to save time or space, and now atheists think they have found a contradiction. I did say that chapter 2 does not need to be, nor does it imply, that all events are chronologically accurate. Another way to explain what I mean is, chapter 1 specifies what happened on day 1, this happened on day 2, that happened on day 3, etc. Everything has a specified time, and order, that it happened. That isn't there in chapter 2, except for the events of day 7. It simply says that this happened, AND that happened, AND something else happened, AND another thing happened. If order were an important intent of chapter 2, instead of so many ANDs, we would expect to see words like then, after, next, etc., something indicating time or order. So, again, the important information regarding creation order, is contained in chapter 1. In chapter 2, there was no need to mention the animals earlier, so the verses were combined into 1, therefore, no contradiction exists. --"3. The New York Jets won a football game after trailing by 5 points."-- The jets won a game????? I didn't foresee this problem, so I didn't mention it in the rules, therefore I have no right to insist. However, I'm asking, in the interest of fairness, can we conclude discussion of one contradiction before introducing new ones?? I can do 2 at a time, but I'm running low on space, and simply don't have room to discuss the others. If one of us concedes a point, or we agree to leave the decision to the voters, then we can move on. I would be more than happy to continue into other debates, about this, if you'd like. Is this agreeable to you?? I look forward to pro's comments.