The Fourth Commandment stems from the third. If we let Scripture interpret Scripture by letting the clear passages determine which of several meanings an unclear passage may bear, then it follows that Thou shalt not find contradictions in the Bible. God is not the author of confusion, 1 Cor. 14:33. Therefore, if you think you have found a contradiction, all that proves is that you haven't understood one or both of the passages. This answers questions such as, Were there pairs of animals or sevens of them on the Ark? Two angels at the grave of Christ, or one?
The pattern for Bible ``contradictions'' is found in Proverbs 26:4-5. ``Do not answer a fool according to his folly, or you will be like him yourself. Answer a fool according to his folly, or he will be wise in his own eyes.'' Now, if those two sentences were recorded in separate Bible books, they would seem to be a clear case of contradiction. But their nearness to each other tells us instead that the sacred writer wants us to draw some extremely fine distinctions, in his case, telling us when and when not to speak up before egotistic know-it-alls.
The process of solving apparent contradictions is the way in which we find much hidden truth. God has loaded His 1200 chapters with more material than 1200 libraries have any right to contain. I have gotten some of my best sermons out of solving apparent contradictions. For instance: The two accounts of the Cleansing of the Temple seem to contradict each other. Did Jesus say, ``Make not My Father's house a house of merchandise,'' Jn. 2:16, or did He say, ``My house shall be called the house of prayer but you made it a den of thieves,'' Mt. 21:13? In fact, He said both -- once at the beginning of His ministry, as a warning; once at the end, as an announcement of God's judgment.
One of the surest ways of proving a doctrine false is by showing that it makes the Bible contradict itself.
It should be self-evident that when the Old and New Testaments disagree, the New Testament must prevail. Think of the Old Testament as you think of the American Articles of Confederation, in force between 1777 and 1789. Our Constitution developed on the Articles as a foundation and contains some of their material. But where the Constitution contradicts the Articles the Articles must give way. So it is with the Old and New Testaments. Later revelation is more exact than earlier, just as high school physics had more authority than grade school science, just as the prophecies of Christ became ever clearer with time.
What should you do when you find a contradiction? Almost always, you will find that that contradiction is not between one Scripture and another but between a Scripture and your theology.
Most theologians act like I did when I was repairing my motorcycle. I took the blasted thing almost completely apart before I found the problem and fixed it, then had to put it back together. When I was done I had several parts left over. In stead of taking the motorcycle apart and making them fit, I quite naturally, in my arrogance, assumed that I knew more than a bunch of ``Jap'' engineers and simply threw the pieces in the bolt bucket. Apparently those pieces weren't essential, because the motorcycle worked until I sold it. But the word of God isn't a Honda. When you find a single Scripture that contradicts your theology, it's essential to tear your theology completely apart and rebuild it from the ground up until you can make that Scripture fit. If your theology contradicts a single Scripture, start over! So if, for example, you are a Baptist like Kenneth Taylor translating the Living Bible, and you find that ``these are they who believe for awhile, and then in time of temptation fall away,'' accept that fact and throw out your Calvinist theology. Don't translate the passage ``These are they that sort of believe for awhile.'' If they ``sort of believe'' they'll only ``sort of'' be damned and you'll need to re-invent Purgatory and Limbo.