A Question for those who have trust in the Bible/Jesus..

I was just wondering how anyone can put faith in Jesus, a character in a book where even the only eyewitness accounts we have disagree with each other on these very important details.. "Who found the empty tomb? A. According to Matthew 28:1 , only "Mary Magdalene and the other Mary." B. According to Mark 16:1 , "Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome." C. According to Luke 23:55, 24:1 and 24:10, "the women who had come with him out of Galilee." Among these women were "Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary the mother of James." Luke indicates in verse 24:10 that there were at least two others. D. According to John 20:1-4 , Mary Magdalene went to the tomb alone, saw the stone removed, ran to find Peter, and returned to the tomb with Peter and another disciple. 2. Who did they find at the tomb? A. According to Matthew 28:2-4 , an angel of the Lord with an appearance like lightning was sitting on the stone that had been rolled away. Also present were the guards that Pilate had contributed. On the way back from the tomb the women meet Jesus ( Matthew 28:9 ). B. According to Mark 16:5 , a young man in a white robe was sitting inside the tomb. C. According to Luke 24:4 , two men in dazzling apparel. It is not clear if the men were inside the tomb or outside of it. D. According to John 20:4-14 , Mary and Peter and the other disciple initially find just an empty tomb. Peter and the other disciple enter the tomb and find only the wrappings. Then Peter and the other disciple leave and Mary looks in the tomb to find two angels in white. After a short conversation with the angels, Mary turns around to find Jesus." http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/paul_carlson/nt_contradictions.html

N.drew

How? I am a Christian. I do not "put my faith in Jesus". I do not "trust" the Bible. I love Jesus. And the bible? OMG!! It is the best thing I ever found. I might speak for more than myself and say we like it because it isn't perfect. What fun would it be if it was perfectly understandable the first time it reads?

The witness examples that you sight are like the silly telephone game. The account was passed on...passed on...then written down. So?

Jesus was the one who taught to put our trust in the Father. Be trusting the Heavenly Father and not man.

There are other spiritual leaders, but which other one taught that the Heavenly Father loves us and leads us to love, wisdom, goodness and grace? Do you know of anyone else?

Ding

If all four gospels gave details identical in every respect, critics would be claiming collusion, fabrication, or plagiarism.

Given that the testimony of women was not valued at all in that day, it is highly unlikely that the gospel writers would have fabricated a story in which the first witnesses to the resurrection were women. Moreover, the accounts make the male disciples look bad by comparison. They were in hiding -- not the sort of story a group of male disciples of Jesus would concoct.

The core of each gospel account is the same, that on Sunday morning several of Jesus' female followers went to his tomb and found it empty. Later, Jesus appeared alive.

As far as I recall, none of the four gospels claims to be listing all the women who went there, so the fact that one writer focuses on certain women and another mentions other women is not a contradiction. It's like several news reporters giving the accounts of multiple eyewitnesses. With regard to the one young man or two issue, it is quite possible that one woman one young man in the vicinity of the tomb and a different woman encountered two. According to the accounts, Peter and John came later and saw angels. This is not a contradiction.

It isn't at all unusual for people to see different details at the same event, particularly a shocking event. I recently read an account of a killer tornado. Several eyewitnesses saw one funnel cloud while others saw two. Yet another person saw three funnels. A couple of people reported seeing as many as five. Does this mean that they were lying, that the reporters fabricated the stories, or that there was no killer tornado at all?

N.drew

"...different details at the same event, particularly a shocking event."

I was thinking that same thing. It was only three days that passed that that mighty man and their friend was brutally murdered. To be expecting a news report that is unbiased is the difficult thing to believe.

? That is my new favorite word! So? Arrest me!

mouthy

I will answer MY beliefs... I do read scripture,cant say I accept it all,as men
wrote much of it & I still think men "add on" even today,
I asked Jesus Christ to come into MY life Oct 20 1989.& I must say
I believe he did,because he helps me manage all that is in my life
it isnt easy,lost family to the WT,have a grandson in jail whos Mum died ( my daughter)
when he was 14..besides old age issues( I am 84) But even though I call out
during the NEWS to HIM,asking "WHY!!! Please help.!"I must remember it is HIS Creation
HE can do as he wants he dont listen to me.Although I am hoping he does as
scripture reports Come back to WOMEN first on his return....

The Quiet One

N.drew-- Thanks for replying. I can't quite understand what you are trying to say in your first post, though. You said that you don't 'put faith in Jesus' and that you 'don't trust the Bible', and then you conclude your post by basically asking me: 'Who else but Jesus said the things that he was recorded as saying in the Bible'?... This seems contradictory. Ding-- You have given a clear and well thought out argument against eyewitnesses having to agree on even important details. The only problem is that nobody would fail to believe that a tornado had hit a certain place, even many years later when the bodies and damage had been cleared away, because a tornado is something that most people have seen (at least on tv), and that many have experienced, are experiencing now and will no doubt experience again in the future. Also, a persons supposed chance of living forever does not hinge on whether they put faith in a tornado happening somewhere a long time ago, based on conflicting eyewitness accounts.

The Quiet One

Mouthy -- Thanks for sharing that. I'm glad that you have a belief that helps you to keep going. I hope that your grandson learns to deal with his loss in time, and that your faith supports you in learning to live with yours..

N.drew

I trust the Holy One, the Father of Jesus, to lead me. I believe the things that were written are for our understanding of the Holy One. If I had heard of the man and what he taught which is love the Father with all the heart and love your neighbor as though he were yourself, that would be enough for me to want to understand more. The Bible is food. Some food is good for you, some food taken in extreme quanties is very bad. I don't trust the Bible TO LEAD ME. I don't trust the Bible to warn me if I am misunderstnding something. I trust the resurrected Jaheshua to warn me, yes, but remember that he was once a man. The man I do not put my trust in. That would be too heavy a burden even for a perfect man, don't you think?

The Quiet One

N.drew-- So, just to make sure I understand.. You don't believe that the Bible should be trusted to guide you, but you trust the parts that tell you nice things about a loving God, ignoring anything you see that could contradict this as 'bad food'? Or does Yaheshua tell you which parts of the Bible are true and which parts were left in the Bible to confuse/mislead people? Thanks.

A Question for those who have trust in the Bible/Jesus..

Share this