This article from *The Skeptical Review* , 1999 / July-August, is simply devastating to the biblical inerrancy claim. Comments are welcome:
by Farrell Till
One of the most puzzling tales of the Bible is told in 2 Samuel
24 and
1 Chronicles 21. Yahweh or Satan (depending on which account you want to
believe) "moved David to number Israel" (v:1). Since biblical
inerrantists argue that the Bible is completely free of errors, we will
assume that in some sense Yahweh moved David to number Israel. One would
think that if Yahweh moved David to number Israel, Yahweh would have
been pleased if David did as he had been "moved" and took the census,
but if you think this way, you are reasoning like a rational person,
and Bible stories aren't necessarily rational. In fact, they many times
tax the imagination of those who try to find rationality in them.
That's the case with this story about David. He conducted
the census
just as Yahweh had "moved" him to do, but for some reason known only to
Yahweh and the Gleason Archer type of "apologists" who entertain us
with verbal gymnastics that supposedly explain biblical discrepancies,
Yahweh was ticked off after David had done exactly what he had been
"moved" to do, and so he sent Nathan the prophet to call David on the
carpet for taking the census (2 Sam. 24:12). That wasn't really
necessary, because David had already realized that in doing what Yahweh
had "moved" him to do, he had somehow sinned. That's what the inspired
word of God says: "But afterward, David was stricken to the heart
because he had numbered the people" (v:10). Why taking a census would be
a sin, especially after God had moved David to do it, is anyone's
guess. Well, not anyone's guess, of course, because the professional
"apologists" like Gleason Archer, Norman Geisler, John Haley, etc. were
apparently blessed with special insights that enabled them to know that
the Bible didn't really mean what it plainly said. Just read their
books, and you'll find all of the answers if you can stop laughing long
enough to read them all the way through.