A serious Bible contradiction for me

sabastious

Mark 9:
38 “Teacher,” said John, “we saw someone driving out demons in your name and we told him to stop, because he was not one of us.”
39 “Do not stop him,” Jesus said. “For no one who does a miracle in my name can in the next moment say anything bad about me, 40 for whoever is not against us is for us. 41 Truly I tell you, anyone who gives you a cup of water in my name because you belong to the Messiah will certainly not lose their reward.

vs

Matthew 12:
30 “Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters. 31 And so I tell you, every kind of sin and slander can be forgiven, but blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. 32 Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.

These are two completely conflicting fundamental values here. Matthew's account has Jesus sounding like an Al Quaida leader and Mark makes Jesus sound like Buddah. I cannot possibly attribute both statements to the same person... so one has to go. Since Mark was written first, I'll take his account.

-Sab

miseryloveselders

The context of both would have to be considered. Matthew 12 was when he talking with the Pharisees and their foolishness.

snowbird

Agreed, Misery.

Context, dear Sab, context.

Syl

mindmelda

Since the "sin against the spirit" is the topic of the second passage, Jesus is using the same phrase in a different context, seems to me.

The sin against the spirit seems to be not the enemies of Christ denying him so much as denying the supernatural power or miracles he exhibited through the spirit.

Being against Christ in that human form wasn't his concern, apparently. Being unwilling to be open to the spiritual side of existence he was trying to open people's minds to was far more serious for them.

WontLeave

Even with no context, there is no problem. Jesus promotes a common idea in the Bible: There are only 2 sides, a dichotomy - like a flip of a coin. If it's not heads, it's tails. In the cosmic sheep/goats division process, everyone must fall into a "friend" or "foe" category.

designs

And then maybe it was all being made up by Bishops way afterwards.....

trevor

Only one serious Bible contradiction?

Where d hell u bin man?

SweetBabyCheezits

EDIT: Nevermind what I'd written here a second ago. For a B&W thinker, I'm sure it works just fine.

mindmelda

Sorry, not a "either/or" thinker. Which is why I made a lousy JW.

brotherdan

blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven.

Sab, I think this is a profound post, although I don't really know if it will get the attention it deserves. But what Jesus said here is VERY interesting to me.

What he says is that the ONLY unforgivable sin is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. If I blaspheme the Father...I can be forgiven. Same with the Son. What is interesting when you take this all into consideration is the WT anti-semitist view that the Jews have been rejected by God because they rejected His Son.

But was THAT unforgivable? No. Blasphemy against the son is NOT unforgivable. This can be illustrated in the comments of some prophets in the Bible that were pretty much condemning God for things that He did and did not do. Can you imagine saying, "I can't believe that you have actually allowed evil to be stronger than you!" That sounds like blasphemy to me. But yet, God reasoned with Habakkuk and showed him that He was really righteous.

Anyway, yes, the other Christians on the board are right. We are talking context.

If I am of another religion, but I am proclaiming faith in Christ, but I don't necessarily agree with a Christian with another view, then you could say, "Whoever is not against us is for us." However, if you were to talk about those that FIGHT against belief in Christ, you would be justified in saying, "He who is not for me is against me!"

Does that make reasonable sense? Or no?

A serious Bible contradiction for me

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