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[[Harmony of the Gospel (Conservative Version)|Introduction(Main article)]]

:“The “'''The L<small>ORD</small> ''' your God will raise up to you a Prophet from among you, of your brothersbrethren, like me. You shall listen to him. This is according to all that you desired of '''the L<small>ORD</small> ''' your God in Horeb in the day of the Assembly, saying, ‘Let me not hear again '''the L<small>ORD</small> ''' my God’s voice, neither let me see this great fire any more, that I not die.’ '''The L<small>ORD</small> ''' said to me, ‘They have well said that which they have spoken. I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brothersbrethren, like you. I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I shall command him. It shall happen, that whoever will not listen to my words which he shall speak in my name, I will require it of him.’&nbsp;”)

He said, “I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of '''the Lord''',’ as Isaiah the prophet said.”

:Dr.&nbsp;Lightfoot (a Protestant) discusses in detail the ''Epiphanian'', the ''Helvidian'', and the ''Hieronymian'' ("hahy-er-''uh''-<big>'''nim'''</big>-ee-''uh''n" = [[Jerome]] / Jeromian / Ieromian) theories of the relationship of the brothers brethren of the Lord.

Therefore when '''the Lord ''' knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more followers, more disciples than John (although Jesus himself did not baptize, but his disciples), when Jesus heard that John was delivered up, he left Judea and departed into Galilee.

:“I have given to you one portion above your brothersbrethren, which I took out of the hand of the Amorite with my sword and with my bow.”

:“The Spirit of '''the Lord ''' is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to heal the broken hearted, to proclaim release to the captives, recovering of sight to the blind, to deliver those who are crushed, and to proclaim the acceptable year of '''the Lord'''.”

Passing along by the [http://bibleatlas.org/full/sea_of_galilee.htm sea of Galilee], walking by the sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew the brother of Simon, two brothersbrethren''':''' Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew, his brother, casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen.

Going on a little farther from there, he saw two other brothersbrethren, James the son of Zebedee, and John, his brother, who were also in the boat mending the nets; James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets. Immediately he called them, and immediately they left the boat and their father; they left their father, Zebedee, in the boat with the hired servants, and went after him, and followed him.

:'''[[Judas Iscariot]]''' is an example of someone whom '''Satan <big>I</big>tself''' entered (''spirit-beings have no gender''), and yet Judas '''acted like a normal person''', Luke 22:3-6; John 13:26-29. John himself comments that Jesus had already indirectly indicated that Judas was "a devil", and that he was "a thief" who actually cared nothing for the poor, John 6:71; 12:4-6.<br>Similarly, '''Ananias'''' heart was filled with Satan, but '''he too acted like a normal person''', Acts 5:3.

:Seemingly normal people who usually appear to simply regard the moral content of genuine religious practice and devotion to God with tolerant, "hard-headedly practical" attitudes of vaguely sneering contempt and disdain, while still professing to be regular members of the religious faith-based community ([[denomination]]), '''''are occasionally, in some very few cases''''', suddenly and unexpectedly found to be undeniably afflicted with evil spirits, who loathe goodness and piety—who sometimes even [[paradox]]ically characterize with verbal jibes all [[corporal and spiritual works of mercy]] as being at their very root ''probably'' acts "''of the devil''" performed with evil intent (compare Matthew 12:22-37). These unhappy individuals normally seem somewhat unnaturally devoid of any degree of ordinary tender compassion and mercy toward others, rather unforgiving, sternly practical, coolly professing to have only ordinary [[common sense]], even while they are generally polite in a conventional sense in public toward casual acquaintances, business associates (if any) and their own social circle of occasional friends who admittedly confess they don't know them very well. They are not always persons who can be characterized in general as people of ill-will, or as being totally unsympathetic. Even leaders of [[organized crime]] love those who love them, to a certain extent. (See Luke 6:32-34; Matthew 5:46-47.) This does not mean that ''every'' person who acts this way has an unclean spirit that needs to be cast out by exorcism. But it is possible that some few of them do. Real discernment is needed.

:There have been cases where innocent persons have been violently possessed against their will. We can see some of these in the Gospels. For example, the woman in the synagogue who was bent over and could not stand up straight, whom Jesus revealed had been up to that moment bound by Satan for eighteen years up to that moment (Luke 13:11-16). In those known instances where persons have been previously somewhat sinful but not notoriously so, and then have suddenly become unaccountably far worse, with or without the influence of drugs and alcohol, the evil spirit or spirits have attacked and made an already bad situation much worse, having suddenly found an individual, already willfully disposed to sin, who is ready to welcome a much greater evil, but who did not bargain for such an overwhelmingly malevolent increase in wickedness, far beyond the bounds of what that individual had ever believed themselves capable of or expected. The evil spirits either take over ordinary sinners' lives by inducing strong impressions, delusions and physical sensations and by these means with unrelenting pressure eventually dominate the sinfully cooperative will, or they aggravate and inflame the ordinary willful tendencies of the average worldly sinner to eagerly embrace greater, and ever-increasing depths of wicked depravity to an unnatural degree of overwhelming intensity which the sinner never believed possible for himself or herself, with the subtly infused false promise of potential for even greater pleasure and unimaginably immense personal satisfaction. Some persons have confessed to making a compact with the Devil, or of selling their souls to do evil, in order to gain something that they have greatly desired. When they have perpetrated evil in order to obtain something ordinarily considered by the vast majority of worldly mankind to be desirable as a good, for themselves or for society in general, they have been deceived into believing that the end justifies the means to reach it, even if it includes destroying themselves and as many other innocent persons as possible as a form of ultimate self-sacrifice to advance their cause and to punish and rid the world of those who will not and cannot agree with them, either violently or by degrees slowly and insidiously.

:Most ordinary sinners seem to have no real interest in conversations about healthy, practical forms of holiness and down-to-earth compassion for the poor, the sick, and the disabled. This does not mean that every person who acts this way has an unclean spirit that needs to be cast out by exorcism. But people with an unclean spirit always have an aversion to conversations about healthy, practical forms of holiness and down-to-earth compassion for the poor, the sick, and the disabled. They will avoid being in the presence of what is holy and pure, and if they cannot, they will do whatever they can to defile it. This is part of the prudent discernment of a possibly genuine condition of demonic influence not marked by apparent signs of mental or physical illness. Only a very careful, and very thorough, investigation, eliminating entirely as it will natural causes due ''solely'' to mental illness, personal trauma, emotional disturbances, chemical abuse, can finally discern a genuine condition of demonic influence. This does not in every case absolutely absolve every and all demonically dominated persons of personal culpability for their abhorrence of what is holy and pure. Some of them by already choosing a sinful lifestyle have willingly cooperated with evil even before they were possessed—in such cases unclean spirits have grossly intensified the evil.

:*on the one hand, those cases of desperate attention-getters who subconsciously seek to imitate the known actions of persons demonically possessed, who are gravely disappointed or even angrily outraged when told after careful discernment that they are not really possessed and do not need an exorcism performed but do need counselling and/or medical treatment, <br>and together with those cases of other individuals who, if they have never behaved this way before, decide to attend a prayer meeting, or a gathering focused on "deliverance ministry" featuring exorcism for unhappy sufferers of various ills, and being influenced by what they hear and see seize the opportunity to relieve their intolerably drab, anonymous, obscure and seemingly inconsequential existence by imitatively manifesting in the midst of a public gathering signs of apparent demonic possession in order to be the intense focus of a dramatic public exorcism, who are not in fact possessed, but who have suddenly convinced themselves that they too must be possessed, who '''might ''' or '''might ''not''''' be [[Mental illness|mentally ill]], and :*on the other hand, those carefully documented cases which have repeatedly and conclusively demonstrated the fact that many persons who actually do harbor evil spirits are usually unaware of it before conclusive evidence of their presence is discovered, and some cases demonstrate the reality that the evil spirit inhabiting the victim does not always manifest symptoms of illness, or unexpected vocalizations or bizarre behavior causing a complete loss of conscious awareness during such manifestations, and other cases in which the unclean spirit does not seize complete control of the victim's body causing a complete loss of conscious awareness, but can take involuntary control of parts of the victim's body against their will—for example, partial paralysis of limbs, intermittent episodes of partial blindness or complete and permanent blindness, deafness, speech impairment, rashes, peculiar skin eruptions, boils, fevers, chills, involuntary spasmodic movements, unexplainable disabilities resulting in unemployment or inability to care for oneself, "blackouts", amnesia, all without any apparent physiological origin or ordinarily diagnosable observable pathology according to nature. Job 2:7; Exodus 12:23; Luke 13:11 and 16; 1 Timothy 1:20 and 1 Corinthians 5:5; 10:10; Mark 1:26; 3:10-11; 5:2-5 and 8; Mark 9:20-27; Matthew 12:43; Acts 16:16; Acts 19:16; Luke 6:18; 7:21—compare the experience of Saul king of Israel, 1 Samuel 16:14-16 and 23; 18:10-11; 28:3-13; also Saul's behavior 1 Samuel 18:6-29; 19:9-15; 22:11-19; 24:16-17.

:Careful research of case after case of proven demonic possession has demonstrated that evil spirits cannot actually touch the personal will of their victims. The invisible oppressing spirit has made itself a constant companion, attaching itself to its target like a loathsomely vile parasite, often without the victim's knowledge ([http://biblehub.com/1_corinthians/15-33.htm 1 Corinthians 15:33]). The victim is like a city under siege. Possession can take the undramatic obscure form of unrelenting depression or obsession without evidence of any physical [[Genetics|genetic]] or [[pathogen]]ic origin, and may never feature public episodes of bizarre or suddenly unexpected speech and behavior which superficially resemble [[Schizoid personality disorder]], [[Tourette's syndrome]] or [[Epilepsy|epileptic siezures]]. Many victims of oppression by evil spirits are afflicted with unrelieved anxiety, dread, inexplicable feelings of intense guilt, sensations of impending catastrophe, fears of contamination, or with a stupefying malaise or inertia characterized by a profound lack of energy or a total lack of any interest in ordinary daily human activities or personal hygiene or by a constant need to sleep, or a constant state of restless activity, or a condition falsely resembling [[obsessive compulsive disorder]], [[Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder|PTSD]], [[Alzheimer's disease]], the effects of [[Chronic traumatic encephalopathy|traumatic brain injury]], or continuous obsessive agitation over endless projects which deprive the victim of adequate sleep and healthy social interaction (a defilement Jesus called "folly"), all of which are strangely unfocused, oddly generalized, unexpectedly '''without any discernable cause or reason''', defying clear diagnosis, and which are persistently and mysteriously unresponsive to aggressive medical treatment and probing in-depth counselling, but are undramatic cases of genuine suffering. There are many documented cases of oppression by unclean spirits '''''which do not in any way''''' present episodes of inexplicable speech and bizarre behaviors of the kind made infamous by sensation-seeking novels and films about evil demonic entities and demonic possession as forms of "entertainment" (for example, William Peter Blatty's, ''[[The Exorcist]]'', and [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rite_%282011_film%29 ''The Rite'' (2011)], starring Anthony Hopkins, based on Matt Baglio's factual book ''The Rite: The Making of a Modern Exorcist'').

:In those episodes in which the oppressive evil spirit intensifies the attack and does seize complete control of the victim's body, the victim's human mind and will are rendered inert and inoperative, and, after the oppressive and dominating evil spirit concludes the attack, without truly releasing the victim by lifting the siege and actually departing, the victim is afterward utterly unaware of the bizarre physical and verbal (if any) behavior of those moments, and these episodes of attack can happen repeatedly and will continue, and the sense of oppression continues, until the evil spirit is forced to depart by the holy power of God the Father through Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit of the Lord poured down from heaven in compassionate answer to humble prayer invoking divine mercy on the victim. It is Christ who compels the unclean spirit to depart, not the self-assumed authority of the exorcist who claims to be acting in his name, saying, "I bind thee" and "I take authority over thee" and "I cast thee out", a potentially disastrous situation in which claiming spiritual dominance by telling demons where to go degenerates into a personal power play and turns what is supposed to be a sacred ministry into an egotist’s playground. <br>Compare this confidently arrogant attitude to the humility of St. Michael the archangel in [http://biblehub.com/jude/1-9.htm '''Jude 9''']<br> See also [http://biblehub.com/commentaries/jude/1-9.htm multiple commentaries on Jude 9].

:Unfortunately there are independent predatory "quack" practitioners claiming to be expert in "methods of spiritual warfare" who notoriously take advantage of the condition of mentally and emotionally afflicted individuals who are not in fact truly possessed, and mislead them in order to perform dramatic imitations of exorcisms and physical healings of diseases and afflictions which they attribute to evil spirits as the cause, to gain followers and fame and wealth (''see especially'' [http://biblehub.com/1_timothy/6-9.htm 1 Timothy 6:9]; [http://biblehub.com/romans/2-24.htm Romans 2:24]; [http://biblehub.com/2_corinthians/11-13.htm 2&nbsp;Corinthians 11:13]; [http://biblehub.com/2_timothy/3-6.htm 2 Timothy 3:6]; [http://biblehub.com/2_corinthians/11-14.htm 2&nbsp;Corinthians 11:14] and [http://biblehub.com/2_corinthians/11-15.htm 2&nbsp;Corinthians 11:15])—who publish books and conduct seminars promoting dangerously [[Presumption|presumptive ]] attitudes of spiritual invincibility which appeal to pride and prompt their disciples with ill-advised counsel to unwittingly place themselves in situations where they are actually woefully unprepared and at terrible risk of being themselves unexpectedly dominated by genuine evil spirits who do not recognize them as having any kind of spiritual authority to act in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ (see Acts 19:13-16)—clever [[charlatan]]s who take every opportunity to promote themselves as prophets with a revolutionary new mission from God to denounce authentic medicine and religion along with their harsh blanket denunciations of whole churches and denominations and legitimate church leaders, attacking those who have shown good faith in genuinely promoting the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and who have honestly manifested over and over again obviously evident signs of their own authentically anointed ministry as being overall and generally on the whole truly led and taught by the guiding hand of the Holy Spirit of God.

:*[https://www.beliefnet.com/faiths/catholic/interview-with-an-exorcist.aspx?p=1 '''Interview with an Exorcist''', Learn how to protect yourself against demonic attack, by Wesley Barnes, Beliefnet (beliefnet.com), '''page 1''']::[https://www.beliefnet.com/faiths/catholic/interview-with-an-exorcist.aspx?p=2 '''Interview with an Exorcist''', by Wesley Barnes, Beliefnet (beliefnet.com), '''page 2''']::[https://www.beliefnet.com/faiths/catholic/interview-with-an-exorcist.aspx?p=3 '''Interview with an Exorcist''', by Wesley Barnes, Beliefnet (beliefnet.com), '''page 3''']::[https://www.beliefnet.com/faiths/catholic/interview-with-an-exorcist.aspx?p=4 '''Interview with an Exorcist''', by Wesley Barnes, Beliefnet (beliefnet.com), '''page 4''']

:*[https://adoremus.org/2018/01/14/understanding-exorcism-interview-father-jeffrey-grob-specialist-rite-exorcism/ '''Understanding Exorcism: An Interview with Father Jeffrey Grob, Specialist in the Rite of Exorcism''' By Joseph O'Brien, January 14, 2018 (adoremus.org)]:*[https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jul/05/christian-thinktank-warns-of-rise-in-exorcisms-mental-health ''''Spiritual abuse': Christian thinktank warns of sharp rise in UK exorcisms.''' Harriet Sherwood @harrietsherwood Wed 5 Jul 2017 04.47 EDT. Report by Theos warns that "astonishing" increase in exorcisms is doing harm to people with mental health problems (theguardian.com)]

:*[https://www.drcarolministries.com/spiritual-warfare-is-dangerous/ '''When Spiritual Warfare is Dangerous''' - Dr. Carol Ministries (drcarolministries.com)] ''The author says, "The term “spiritual warfare” doesn’t appear in Scripture, and therefore we must be cautious in how we think and talk about it."''<br>Compare [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2+Corinthians+10%3A3-6&version=RSVCE 2 Corinthians 10:3-6]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2+Corinthians+6%3A7&version=RSVCE 6:7]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+Timothy+6%3A12&version=RSVCE 1 &nbsp;Timothy 6:12]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans+13%3A12-13&version=RSVCE Romans 13:12-13]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ephesians+6%3A10-18&version=RSVCE Ephesians 6:10-18]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2+Peter+1%3A3-11&version=RSVCE 2 Peter 1:3-11]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2+Peter+3%3A14-18&version=RSVCE 3:14-18] [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Hebrews+13%3A17&version=RSVCE Hebrews 13:17].

While he was in one of the cities a leper came to him, begging him, kneeling down to him, and saying to him, “If you want towill it, you can make me clean.”

Being moved with compassion, he stretched out his hand, and touched him, and said to him, “I want towill it. Be made clean.”

:“ ‘You shall not make false vows, but shall perform to '''the Lord ''' your vows,’

“Be careful that you do not do your charitable alms-giving before men, to be seen by them, or else you have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. Therefore when you do merciful deeds, do not sound a trumpet before yourself, as the [[hypocrites ]] do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may get glory from men. Most certainly I tell you, they have received their reward. But when you do merciful deeds, do not let your left hand know what your right hand does, so that your merciful deeds may be in secret, then your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.

“No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other; or else he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and [[Avarice|Mammon]]. Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious for your life''':''' what you will eat, or what you will drink; nor yet for your body, what you will wear. Is life not more than food, and the body more than clothing? See the birds of the sky, that they do not sow, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns. Your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of much more value than they?

“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravening wolves. By their fruits you will know them. Do you gather grapes from thorns, or figs from thistles? Even so, every good tree produces good fruit; but the corrupt tree produces evil fruit. A good tree cannot produce evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree produce good fruit. '''Every tree that does not grow good fruit is cut down, and thrown into the fire.''' Therefore by their fruits you will know them. Not everyone who '''says''' to me, ‘Lord‘'''Lord, Lord,'''’ will enter into the Kingdom of Heaven; but he who '''does''' the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will tell me in that day, ‘Lord‘'''Lord, Lord, ''' did we not prophesy in your name, in your name cast out demons, and in your name do many mighty works?’ Then I will tell them, ‘I never knew you. Depart from me, [[Antinomianism|you who work iniquity]].’

Behold, a leper came to him and worshiped him, saying, “Lord“'''Lord''', if you want towill it, you can make me clean.”

Jesus stretched out his hand, and touched him, saying, “I want towill it. Be made clean.”

:The Law of Moses prohibited touching anything or anyone unclean, and whoever did so deliberately was both unclean and cursed by God.  :''Seethe following texts''<br>[https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2+Corinthians+6%3A17&version=RSVCE 2 Corinthians 6:17] and [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Isaiah+52%3A11&version=RSVCE Isaiah 52:11], <br> "touch not the unclean"  : [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Leviticus+13%3A44-46&version=RSVCE Leviticus 13:44-46] <br> "he is a leprous man, he is unclean"  : [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Numbers+19%3A22&version=RSVCE Numbers 19:22] <br> "whatever the unclean person touches shall be unclean, and any one who touches it shall be unclean"  : [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Leviticus+5%3A3&version=RSVCE Leviticus 5:3], <br> "if he touches human uncleanness...he shall be guilty"  : [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Leviticus+11%3A43-45&version=RSVCE Leviticus 11:43-45] <br> "you shall not make yourselves abominable" : [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Numbers+19%3A20&version=RSVCE Numbers 19:20] <br> "the man who is unclean and does not cleanse himself, that person shall be cut off from the midst of the assembly"  : [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Numbers+15%3A30&version=RSVCE Numbers 15:30] <br> "the person who does anything with a high hand, whether he is a native or a sojourner, reviles the L<small>ORD</small>, and that person shall be cut off from among his people." : [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Deuteronomy 24+29%3A20-21&version=KJV Deuteronomy 29:820-21 KJV] <br>"The L<small>ORD</small> will not spare him, but then the anger of the L<small>ORD</small> and his jealousy shall smoke against that man". : [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Leviticus+13-14&version=RSVCE Leviticus 13 and 14] <br>"leprosy...is unclean"  : [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Numbers+5%3A1-4&version=RSVCE Numbers 5:31-4] <br>"The L<small>ORD</small> said to Moses, ''command the people of Israel that they put out of the camp every leper...putting them outside the camp, that they may not defile their camp, in particular'' the midst of which I dwell"  : [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Deuteronomy+24%3A8&version=RSVCE Deuteronomy 24:8] <br>"in an attack of leprosy, to be very careful to do according to all that the Levitical priests shall direct you"  : [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Numbers+35%3A34&version=RSVCE Numbers 35:34] <br> "you shall not defile the land in which you live"  : [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Leviticus+15%3A31&version=RSVCE Leviticus 15:31] <br> "keep the people of Israel separate from their uncleanness, lest they die...by defiling my tabernacle that is in their midst",  : [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Leviticus+20%3A7-8&version=RSVCE Leviticus 20:7-8] <br> "consecrate yourselves and be holy",  : [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Leviticus+20%3A26&version=RSVCE Leviticus 20:26] <br>Numbers "for I the L<small>ORD</small> am holy, and have separated you"  : [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Deuteronomy+27%3A26&version=RSVCE Deuteronomy 27:26] <br> "Cursed be he who does not confirm the words of this law by doing them". :If Jesus were only a man he could have done nothing ([https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+9%3A33&version=RSVCE John 9:33]). Any ordinary Jew who deliberately touched any unclean leper defiantly broke the law of Moses, deliberately made himself abominable, unclean, and thus showed that he was a man who sinfully defied God, ''[[ipso facto]]'' immediately [[Excommunication|cutting himself off from the assembly]] of the people of God (Latin ''[[latae sententiae]]''), and thus demonstrated beyond any reasonable doubt that he was under the curse of God. Compare [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Deuteronomy+29%3A10-15&version=RSVCE Deuteronomy 29:10-15], [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Deuteronomy+29%3A19-21&version=RSVCE 19-21].  :20Jesus ''deliberately'' touched people who were unclean, with unclean diseases, who had unclean spirits, and he was touched by people who were unclean—he even touched dead corpses. ::([https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+4%3A24&version=RSVCE Matthew 4:24]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+9%3A35&version=RSVCE 9:35]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mark+1%3A32-34&version=RSVCE Mark 1:32-34]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+7%3A14-17&version=RSVCE Luke 7:14-17] ''with'' [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Lamentations+4%3A14-15&version=RSVCE Lamentations 4:14-15] ''and'' [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Numbers+19%3A14-22&version=RSVCE Numbers 19:14-22]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Numbers+9%3A6-12&version=RSVCE Numbers 9:6-12] ''with'' [http://biblehub.com/commentaries/luke/11-44.htm Luke 11:44 ''and commentaries''].) :According to the law of Moses this made him unclean, and cursed. (The fact that Jesus was crucified "on the tree" also made him unclean, and a curse, according to the law. [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Galatians+3%3A10-14&version=RSVCE Galatians 3:10-14].) :Throughout the ''[[Tanakh]]'' and the [[Talmud]] only the L<brsmall>Deuteronomy 27ORD</small> God made anyone clean and holy. (''The reader is invited to carefully search this, to see if this is so.'' [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts+17%3A11-12&version=RSVCE Acts 17:11-12]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+5%3A39-47&version=RSVCE John 5:39-47].)  :By actually making the unclean leper clean, Jesus demonstrates that he is God ''and'' man, the '''LORD''' "''who makes you clean''" ([https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Leviticus+16%3A30&version=RSVCE Leviticus 16:30]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Leviticus+20%3A8&version=RSVCE 20:8]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Jeremiah+33%3A8&version=RSVCE Jeremiah 33:8]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ezekiel+36%3A25-26&version=RSVCE Ezekiel 36:25-26], [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ezekiel+36%3A29&version=RSVCE 29], [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ezekiel+36%3A33&version=RSVCE 33]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Exodus+15%3A26&version=RSVCE Exodus 15:26"...for I ''am'' the L<small>ORD</small> that healeth thee"]).  :See also the article <br> [http://internetbiblecollege.net/Lessons/Sanctification%20In%20The%20Old%20Testament.pdf Sanctification In The Old Testament (internetbiblecollege.net)] pdf. :The prophet [[Elisha]] only told Naaman the Syrian, a leper, to wash in the Jordan River, but he did not claim to have cleansed him of leprosy ([https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2+Kings+5&version=RSVCE 2 Kings 5]).  :The Levitical priests, upon examination of anyone who had become clean of leprosy, were authorized to declare that anyone formerly afflicted with leprosy was now clean, but they themselves did not cleanse anyone of leprosy. In the ritual sacrifices they offered for cleansing it is the L<small>ORD</small> God of Israel who cleanses and forgives them in accepting their ritual sacrifices and offerings—the ritual offerings themselves did not cleanse them within, and certainly not from the uncleanness of leprosy ([https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Hebrews+10%3A11&version=RSVCE Hebrews 10:11]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalms+51&version=RSVCE Psalm 51]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Leviticus+1%3A4&version=RSVCE Leviticus 1:4]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Leviticus+19%3A5&version=RSVCE 19:5]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Leviticus+19%3A21-22&version=RSVCE 19:21-22]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Leviticus+22%3A19-25&version=RSVCE 22:19-25]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Leviticus+22%3A29&version=RSVCE 22:29]). See :* [http://www.catholiccrossreference.com/bible/rsv-search.cgi?query=cleansed RSVCE Concordance: "cleansed"]:*[https://biblehub.com/hebrew/2891.htm Strong's number 2891 <big>'''טֱ֛הֱר'''</big> ''țâhêr'', clean, cleanse, purge, purify]:*[http://come-and-hear.com/talmud/kodashim.html '''Babylonian Talmud:''' Introduction to '''''Seder Kodashim''''': Holy Things, ''pertaining to sacrifices'' (come-and-hear.com)] :In the Gospel, Jesus is the one who personally and directly makes lepers clean (''see also'' [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+17%3A11-19&version=RSVCE Luke 17:11-19]). This is [[Evidence|evidentiary]] [[testimony]] from eyewitnesses (Luke 1:1-2), based on the Jewish scriptures, that Jesus Himself is the L<small>ORD</small> God of Israel Who alone cleanses from disease and sin. See [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalms+103%3A2-3&version=RSVCE Psalm 103:2-3]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Jeremiah+33%3A8&version=RSVCE Jeremiah 33:8]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+12%3A40&version=RSVCE John 12:40]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+10%3A8&version=RSVCE Matthew 10:8]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mark+16%3A17-18&version=RSVCE Mark 16:17-18]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=James+5%3A14-16&version=RSVCE James 5:14-16]. :Online searches for explicit accounts of miraculous cures of leprosy (including [[Leprosy|Hansen's Disease]]) after the time of Jesus have to date yielded no results or findings, either legendary or documented, by any Christian church, sect, or denomination, Orthodox, Catholic, Protestant or Independent, through miraculous touch or answer to prayer or [[intercession]]s or relic or blessed cloths or going to any miraculous site or shrine. (''attempts made'' 5/29/2019). :Compare the following::*[https://answersingenesis.org/biology/disease/biblical-leprosy-shedding-light-on-the-disease-that-shuns/ Answers In Genesis. Answers Magazine. <br>Biblical Leprosy: Shedding Light on the Disease that Shuns, by Dr. Alan L. Gillen (answersingenesis.org)]:*[http://smoch.org/christian_medicine.html The Influence of Christianity on Medicine Up to the Renaissance, SMOCH Sacred Medical Order - Church of Hope (smoch.org)]:*[https://cosmosmagazine.com/archaeology/pilgrims-may-have-spread-leprosy-across-medieval-europe Pilgims may have spread leprosy across medieval Europe - Amy Middleton reports (cosmosmagazine.com)]<br>"Throughout the medieval period the act of pilgrimage was viewed as a particularly efficacious spiritual and devotional practice and many of the medieval saints' shrines were associated with miraculous cures and healing, including leprosy." Researchers Simon Roffey and Katie Tucker, University of Winchester, and Michael Taylor, University of Surrey. ''No specific details are given.'':*[https://core.ac.uk/display/63729755 A relation of the miraculous cure of Susannah Arch: of a leprosy and ptysick, wherewith for years past she had been sorely afflicted, Susannah Arch, Robert Hume (Apothecary), Thomas Fortey and b. 1627. Charles Nichols (core.ac.uk)]<br>See [https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo/A45118.0001.001/1:3?rgn=div1;view=fulltext '''Full Text, 1695''' (quod.lib.umich.edu)]:*[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VlQelg1Xl3c Amma Cures Dattan the Leper - YouTube.<br> Author Ethan Walker III (youtube.com)] accessed 5/29/2019. (''Video featuring healing accompanied by audio Indian musical chant of names of Hindu gods, with brief descriptive printed text below the picture''.)<br> Compare [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mark+9%3A38-40&version=RSVCE Mark 9:38-40]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+9%3A49-50&version=RSVCE Luke 9:49-50]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+11%3A23&version=RSVCE 11:23]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+12%3A30&version=RSVCE Matthew 12:30]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Numbers+11%3A27-29&version=RSVCE Numbers 11:27-29]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+24%3A24&version=RSVCE Matthew 24:24]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Deuteronomy+13&version=RSVCE Deuteronomy 13].

"'''''You '' are the light of the world'''" <small>

:''But''''' Jesus '''''is the light of the world '''!''''' John 9:5 :''Compare''<br>[https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+5%3A33-35&version=RSVCE John 5:33-35]<br>[https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts+13%3A47&version=RSVCE Acts 13:47]<br>[https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ephesians+5%3A8-14&version=RSVCE Ephesians 5:8-14]<br>[https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+Thessalonians+5%3A5&version=RSVCE 1 Thessalonians 5:5]<br>[https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Daniel+12%3A3&version=RSVCE Daniel 12:3]<br>''Compare also''<br>[https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+1%3A4&version=RSVCE John 1:4], [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+1%3A9&version=RSVCE 9]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+3%3A19&version=RSVCE 3:19]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+20%3A21&version=RSVCE 20:21]<br>''all of'' 1 John, ''especially'' 1 John 4:14<br>"And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son as the Savior of the world." <br>"As the Father has sent me, even so I send you." <br>"And we have He who hears you hears me" Luke 10:16 :The disciples of Jesus ([https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+5%3A1&version=RSVCE Matthew 5:1]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+20%3A19-23&version=RSVCE John 20:19-23]) are sent as the '''saviors''' of the world (see [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Obadiah+1%3A21&version=RSVCE Obadiah 21]). The '''disciples''' of Jesus are the light of the world (''instead of Jesus?''). Compare [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Philippians+2%3A14-15&version=RSVCE Philippians 2:14-15]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ephesians+3%3A9-10&version=RSVCE Ephesians 3:9-10]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+Timothy+3%3A15&version=RSVCE 1&nbsp;Timothy 3:15]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=James+5%3A19-20&version=RSVCE James 5:19-20]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+John+5%3A16&version=RSVCE 1 John 5:16]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+12%3A35-40&version=RSVCE Luke 12:35-40]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+13%3A37-43&version=RSVCE Matthew 13:37-43] "''Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father''". :Matthew 5:14 illustrates how [[Specious reasoning|specious interpretations]] of scripture, [[Cafeteria Christianity#Proof texts|proof texts]] and [[cherry picking]] words of particular passages, in support of [[polemic]]al arguments against particular [[doctrine]]s often implicitly results in the formation of [[Heresy|heretical positions]] which ultimately set the Bible against itself, in fundamental contradiction to the whole proven [[tradition]] of Christian understanding of [[Hermeneutics|sound biblical interpretation]], and by [[Error|erroneous]] [[Eisegesis|eisegetical]] readings and commentaries based on [[specious reasoning]]s they turn the Bible into a lie ([[falsehood]]), as already expressed in [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Jeremiah+8%3A8-9&version=RSVCE Jeremiah 8:8-9]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2+Timothy+2%3A14-18&version=RSVCE 2&nbsp;Timothy 2:14-18]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2+Peter+3%3A15-18&version=RSVCE 2&nbsp;Peter 3:15-18] ([[Cafeteria Christianity]]). Contradictions can be seen where none exist. What is in fact included within the whole of truth is often excluded by a narrow reading as opposed to the truth. This kind of [[Eisegesis|eisegetical]] reasoning when noticed must be avoided and testify that rejected entirely, together with all such sources publishing such [[falsehood]]s in claiming to be based solidly on ''[[sola scriptura]]'', but by such inconsistencies of reasoning prove they are ''not'' founded on scripture, and therefore ''cannot'' have the mind of Christ ([https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+Timothy+6%3A4-5&version=RSVCE 1&nbsp;Timothy 6:4-5]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2+Timothy+2%3A14-16&version=RSVCE 2&nbsp;Timothy 2:14-16]. The following exercise illustrates their error. :Compare the following texts of scripture::*[https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+9%3A5&version=RSVCE John 9:5 "I am the light of the world"];  ::—[https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+5%3A14&version=RSVCE Matthew 5:14 "You are the light of the world"]. ::—Which one is the light of the world? :*[https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+Timothy+2%3A5&version=RSVCE 1&nbsp;Timothy 2:5 "There is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus"] and [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Hebrews+7%3A23-26&version=RSVCE Hebrews 7:23-26 "He is able for all time to save those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them"] and [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+John+4%3A14&version=RSVCE 1&nbsp;John 4:14 "The Father has sent his Son as the Savior of the world"];  ::—[https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+Timothy+2%3A1&version=RSVCE 1 Timothy 2:1 " I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions and thanksgivings be made for all men"] and [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+Timothy+4%3A16&version=RSVCE 1&nbsp;Timothy 4:16 "you will save both yourself and your hearers."] and [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=James+5%3A20&version=RSVCE James 5:20 "whoever brings back a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul"] ::—Is there one mediator, intercessor and Savior, or many mediators, intercessors and saviors? :*[https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+Corinthians+3%3A11&version=RSVCE 1 Corinthians 3:11 "For no other foundation can any one lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ"] and [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+Peter+2%3A4-8&version=RSVCE 1&nbsp;Peter 2:4-8 "The stone which the builders rejected has become the cornerstone"] and [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Colossians+1%3A17-18&version=RSVCE Colossians 1:17-18 "He is the head of the body, the church"];  ::—[https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ephesians+2%3A20&version=RSVCE Ephesians 2:20 "built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets"] and [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+16%3A18&version=RSVCE Matthew 16:18 "And I tell you, you are "Rock", and on this rock I will build my church"] and [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Revelation+21%3A14&version=RSVCE Revelation 21:14 "And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb"] ::—Is there one foundation, or many foundations? :*[https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans+3%3A10-18&version=RSVCE Romans 3:10-18 "There is none righteous, no, not one"] and [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans+3%3A23&version=RSVCE Romans 3:23 "For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God"];  ::—[https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+John+2%3A1&version=RSVCE 1 John 2:1 "Jesus Christ the righteous"] and [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+John+3%3A7&version=RSVCE 1&nbsp;John 3:7 "He who does right is righteous, as he is righteous"] and [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+25%3A34-40&version=RSVCE Matthew 25:34-40 "Then the righteous will answer him..."] ::—The Bible says without any qualification that ''no one'' is righteous, so how can ''anyone'' be righteous, including Jesus? But if Jesus and the [[saint]]s ''are'' righteous, and the Bible says they are, how then can the Bible say "''no one is righteous, no, not one''"? :*[https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans+5%3A12&version=RSVCE Romans 5:12 "death spread to all men because all men sinned"] and [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=James+2%3A10&version=RSVCE James 2:10 "For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one ''point'', he is guilty of all"] and [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans+3%3A19&version=KJV Romans 3:19 "that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God"];  ::—[https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Jeremiah+2%3A34&version=RSVCE Jeremiah 2:34 "the lifeblood of the guiltless poor"] and [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+12%3A7&version=RSVCE Matthew 12:7 "if you had known what this means, 'I desire mercy, and not sacrifice', you would not have condemned the guiltless."] ::—Is ''any'' human being guiltless? or is it that the guiltless are ''not'' sinners? :*[https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans+1%3A25&version=KJV Romans 1:25 "Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator"] and [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+4%3A10&version=KJV Matthew 4:10 "Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve"] and [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+4%3A24&version=KJV John 4:24 "God ''is'' a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship ''him'' in spirit and truth"] and [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ephesians+4%3A6&version=KJV Ephesians 4:6 "One God and Father of all, who ''is'' above all, and through all, and in you all"]; ::—[https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+14%3A10&version=KJV Luke 14:10 "Friend, go up higher: then shalt thou have worship in the presence of them that sit at meat with thee."] and [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Revelation+3%3A8-10&version=KJV Revelation 3:8-10 "Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie; behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee"] and [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Galatians+5%3A13&version=KJV Galatians 5:13 "by love serve one another"] and [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Hebrews+13%3A17&version=KJV Hebrews 13:17 "Obey them that have the rule over you"] and [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+Peter+2%3A17&version=RSVCE 1 Peter 2:17 "Honor all ''men''. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honour the emperor."] ::—Jesus said to worship God and serve only him, but he also told men who are creatures how to be worshiped, and that he would make men worship at the feet of those men he loves, men who are creatures, and Paul told the Galatians (creatures) to serve each other, and Peter told Christians to honor all men (creatures) and also the [https://www.biblehub.com/interlinear/1_peter/2-17.htm emperor ('''βασιλέα''') a creature] whom the Romans worshiped as a god—doesn't that take away from the worship and honor due to God alone and command the committing of idolatry? :*Consider the apparent contradiction of the command of God to not touch the carcasses of unclean animals that "walk on paws" (this includes badgers), and the command of God to cover the holy [[Tabernacle]] with the skins of unclean animals in the midst of the encampment of Israel, and then the command of God to remove everything unclean so that nothing unclean may be found within the encampment of Israel. For a detailed discussion of this apparent contradiction see the article '''[[Badger skins (Bible)]]'''. :*The ''[[Torah]]'' says the Levitical sacrifices of atonement forgive sins, that they cleanse from sins, take sins away, and even remove them. [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Exodus+30%3A10&version=RSVCE Exodus 30:10]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Leviticus+16%3A30&version=RSVCE Leviticus 16:30] (see entire [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Leviticus+16&version=RSVCE chapter 16]); and [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Numbers+15%3A22-31&version=RSVCE Numbers 15:22-31].  ::—The ''[[New Testament]]'' says the sacrifices of the law of Moses can never take away sins.[https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Hebrews+10%3A1-11&version=RSVCE Hebrews 10:1-11]  ::—The Bible in the Old Testament says without any qualification that the sacrifices of the law take away sins, but in the New Testament it contradicts itself because it says without any qualification that they never did. :This kind of fundamentalistic "either/or" reasoning is devoid of [[intelligence]]. This is the kind of [[specious reasoning]] which takes any one particular statement of scripture as an absolute doctrinal truth isolated in contrast and in opposition to others, apart from the whole of the context of the Bible and 20 centuries of developing understanding of the unity of the Christian faith, and sees only contradiction, because "the Bible says so", but sees no apparent resolution of the dilemma of discrepancy, because the entire Bible is supposed to be the truth of God. See [[Law of Non-Contradiction]] "''Two truths cannot contradict one another''". Compare [[Paradox]]. See also [[Relativism]], [[Casuistry]], [[Sophistry]] and [[Polemic]]. :Conservative Christian believers who believe the Bible is the inspired word of God expressed in human language believe that the Bible does not lie or contradict itself, because God the Author cannot lie or deny Himself. Compare<br>[https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2+Timothy+3%3A16-17&version=RSVCE '''2 Timothy 3:16-17''' "He all scripture is inspired by God"]; <br>[https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Titus+1%3A2&version=RSVCE '''Titus 1:2''' "God, who hears cannot lie"]; <br>[https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+10%3A35&version=RSVCE '''John 10:35''' "scripture cannot be broken"]. <br>Apparent contradictions in the Bible cannot simply be ignored in hope that no one will notice and the problem will go away ([[Cafeteria Christianity]]). For some Bible readers the apparent dilemma finally becomes unavoidable, and the apparently inescapable difficulties seen can become a real crisis of faith. These apparent contradictions disappear when read within the context of the whole of the Bible, within the whole history of the understanding (mind) of the community of the whole body of Christ. This is what is called the ''[[sensus fidelium]]'', the "sense of the faithful", according to discernment of the truth contained in divine revelation. It is not identical with the meaning of what is called a consensus of the majority based on [[Public Opinion Poll|polls]] of public [[opinion]]. See [[Apostolic succession]] (Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican, etc.). Catholics in addition to this also have recourse to the [[Magisterium]]. Protestants look to the Reformation tradition based on the principles of the ''[[Five Solas]]''. :See '''[[Christianity]]''':See also the following article::*[http://www.prayerfoundation.org/what_all_christians_believe.htm What All Christians Believe in Common: Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholic, & Protestant, by Philip Schaff, Author: "Creeds of Christendom": Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant (prayerfoundation.org)]:The Catholic understanding of ''sensus fidelium'' is explained in the following article::*[https://epublications.marquette.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=&httpsredir=1&article=1556&context=theo_fac The ''Sensus Fidelium'': Discerning the Path of Faith, Susan K. Wood, Department of Theology, Marquette University (epublications.marquette.edu)]:The Orthodox understanding of the essential sense of the ecumenical Christian faith is explained in the following article::*[https://www.goarch.org/-/the-orthodox-church-and-the-other-christian-churches The Orthodox Church And The Other Christian Churches, Rev. Dr. Emmanuel Clapsis (goarch.org)] :The contrasting texts in the exercise above all appear to '''[[Contradiction|contradict]]''', ''absolutely''—but only when the consistent tradition of the interpretation of the body of Christ, the church, the "mind of Christ" handed down from the time of the apostles, is rejected, in favor of independent, individualist interpretations formulated (a) according to the unguided intellect of [[Ignorance|uninformed]] Bible readers concentrating on the apparently "simple, plain and obvious meaning of the words" of the text, or (b) according to scholarly theologians, and researchers who have divorced themselves from the past and are standing apart from the whole community of the body of Christ, by isolating passages of scripture, even whole books of scripture, from the context of the Bible as a whole. [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+Corinthians+2%3A11-16&version=RSVCE 1&nbsp;Corinthians 2:11-16 "we have the mind of Christ"]. [https://www.biblegateway.com/verse/en/Sirach%203%3A24 "Their own opinion has misled many" Sirach 3:24] (see [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2+Peter+3%3A16-17&version=RSVCE 2 Peter 3:16-17] and [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2+Peter+1%3A19-2%3A1&version=RSVCE 2 Peter 1:19–2:1]). :[[Specious reasoning|Speciously apparent]] contradictions in the biblical text have been seen by some as providing sufficient ground for a willing pretext, or (unfortunately) an ''unwilling'' pretext, or opportunity for [[apostasy]] from the faith. Many have been so [[scandal]]ized by what they think are inconsistencies in the Bible that they have decided that Christian belief is [[Logical fallacy|wrong]]ly founded on [[falsehood]]s and [[myth]]s without any basis in reality and therefore cannot be true (''"so why should we believe it?"''). The majority of [[Christian apologetics|Christian apologists]] could easily cite the parable of the sower of the seed, and the meaning of "[[Satan]]" as "accuser, faultfinder", the [[Devil]], "the birds of the air" taking away the word ([https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+13%3A18-30&version=RSVCE Matthew 13:18-30]). This is evident in those Christians and non-Christian observers who find fault with Christians in general, with their pastors and ministers, with the preaching of the sermon or homily, with the way the Bible is read in church, with the reasoning of [[Christian apologetics|Christian apologists]], and with all sorts of other things in Christianity, either with things in particular, or things as a whole. The word of truth when they hear it is taken away from their heart by the "nitpicking" accusations of a spirit of faultfinding. The word is taken away by the Accuser of the Brethren.  :There are Christians who place their faith solely in Christ and the truth of the Bible alone without relying on the Church or any scholarly research (''[[sola spiritu]]''), and there are Christians who place their faith in Christ and the Church alone without feeling the necessity of relying solely on understanding the truth of the Bible to confirm their faith. There are also those [[Hypocrites|hypocritical individuals]] who are comfortable in being [[Christian in name only|nominal believers]] for whom doctrine is simply a casual matter of [[opinion]] and [[indifference]], like those careless individuals who are [[Cafeteria Catholic|Catholic in name only]], who believe the Bible does not actually need to be true, who see no need for debate over its meaning, content to be "reasonably moral citizens" who go to church when it is convenient, who pray from time to time when it occurs to them, and are untroubled by apparent inconsistencies and contradictions. They indirectly support the [[Social Gospel|social gospel]] without being [[Activism|activists]] and implicitly accept a vague and indefinite form of [[preterism]]. For them a culturally rich Christianity is ''[[Aesthetics|esthetically pleasing]]''; intellectually, morally, and emotionally satisfying. The simple faith of those untroubled by "contradictions" rests on the belief that ultimately all mysteries will be revealed in heaven. [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalms+131&version=RSVCE Psalm 131]. Compare [[Eternal security (salvation)]]. :Those whose faith dismisses, even strenuously resists, on ''doctrinal principle'', all appeals to supportive arguments based on reasonable logic and scholarly research outside of the Bible, in defense of the reasonable truth of Christianity, are said to have "blind faith". They are presented by liberal [[Skepticism|skeptics]] as evidence of the "ignorant stupidity" of Christian belief ([[Nutpicking]]). But the adherents of "blind faith" Christianity represent only a small minority among Christian believers in the truth of the Bible and the claims of the Christian faith of the apostles. They have been misled ([https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+22%3A29&version=RSVCE Matthew 22:29]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mark+12%3A24&version=RSVCE Mark 12:24]). They claim to know the Bible, but they do not know the Bible. They utterly ignore (''disobey, don't believe'') the scripture that says, "'''and ''be'' ready always to ''give'' an answer to every man that asketh you hears mea reason of the hope that is in you'''" Luke ([https://www.biblegateway.com/verse/en/1Peter%203%3A15 1 Peter 3:15]). They stand on the simple, uncomplicated truth that all scripture is inspired of God for training in righteousness that the "man of God" may be complete, equipped for every good work ([https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2+Timothy+3%3A16-17&version=RSVCE 2 Timothy 3:16-17]). It is enough for them to read it. But in their unconscious pride of being "plain and simple" believers, "''unlike those who have been misled by the [[relativism]] of academically trained intellectuals who '[[ipso facto]]' heed deceitful spirits and doctrines of devils''" ([https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+Timothy+4%3A1&version=RSVCE 1 Timothy 4:1]), they are unaware of the very real danger of the possibility that, being deliberately ignorant, they can unintentionally "wrest" (twist) the scriptures to their own destruction ([https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2+Peter+3%3A16-17&version=RSVCE 2 Peter 3:16-17]). When confronted with what seem to be apparently contradictory inconsistencies in the Bible, and not knowing how to answer, and finally believing that there is no answer, they may lose their faith and fall away ([https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Hebrews+6%3A4-8&version=RSVCE Hebrews 6:4-8]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Hebrews+10%3A23-31&version=RSVCE 10:23-31]), because they have no confidence in the intelligent scholarship and research of academics and theologians with university degrees who '''do''' believe in the [[Biblical inerrancy|inerrantly]] inspired truth of the Bible, and have thus deprived themselves of the possibility of having any recourse to informed, knowledgeable insights and answers in defense of the truth. Satan has gained advantage over them because they have been kept ignorant of his designs by their own ignorant teachers who in many cases are perhaps not deliberately and personally at fault, and are [[Invincible ignorance|innocently ignorant]] even though intelligent, having been themselves ignorantly taught by their own teachers, whom they trusted, who likewise trusted those who taught them before them, all the way back to those who first decided to do away with intelligent understanding as being inherently fraught with danger, who reject intelligence as being hostile to the purely innocent simplicity of faith alone, [[sola fide]] ([https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+15%3A14&version=RSVCE Matthew 15:14];[https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2+Corinthians+2%3A11&version=RSVCE 2 Corinthians 2:11]). They can "fall away from Christ" when they cannot "give a reason for the hope that is in them", based solely on their belief in the truth of the Bible, when confronted by apparent contradictions of inconsistency within it, and they know not what to do. This is tragic. Satan (Accuser, Faultfinder) has snared them by their own ignorance and they have fallen into Its trap. But if in the midst of their innocent ignorance and confusion they truly desire to know the truth, God will not finally abandon them, and he will ultimately bring them to Himself ([https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+7%3A7-11&version=RSVCE Matthew 7:7-11]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts+18%3A24-28&version=RSVCE Acts 18:24-28]). See [[Invincible ignorance]]. :The Christian teaching that '''scripture does not contradict itself''', that it is '''illicit and wrong''' to interpret it that way, is not ''explicitly'' found in any written text of the Bible, but it is an ''implicit'' part of apostolic oral tradition ([https://www.biblegateway.com/verse/en/2Thessalonians%202%3A15 2 Thessalonians 2:15]). :There are many competent verse-by-verse biblical commentaries available in print and online which deal with internal consistency of the Bible regarding particular passages that appear to contradict or to be contradicted by other passages. Most of them offer traditional Christian understandings of how apparent contradictions are in reality only [[Eisegesis|superficial misinterpretations of interpretive readings]] based on a lack of sufficient knowledge—in-depth ''extra-biblical'' knowledge of [[Hermeneutics]] and [[Historical-critical method (Higher criticism)|legitimate, faith-based Higher Criticism]]—knowledge which is not provided by the Bible itself as a whole, but which provides means to discern ''the true [[Historical-critical method (Higher criticism)#The literal sense of scripture|literal sense of scripture]]''. They ably demonstrate that these apparently contradictory texts are in fact verses and passages known to experts in [[Hermeneutics|biblical criticism]] to be reconcilable and resolved without any contradiction, primarily because within the context of the whole teaching of the Bible there is actually no real conflict or contradiction of meaning between them. This is part of the profoundly consoling spiritual work of mercy called "counselling the doubtful" (see [[Corporal and spiritual works of mercy]]). [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=James+5%3A19-20&version=RSVCE James 5:19-20]. :But not all biblical commentators offer individual explicit commentary on particular difficulties of particular verses and texts which might or might not appear to be contradictory, but only indirectly touch on them, or simply pass over them in silence without specifically addressing the particular issue the inquiring reader might wish to find resolved or examined. The inquiring student and Bible reader can occasionally come away unsatisfied and unexpectedly disappointed with available commentaries and Bible dictionaries. :Those few independent, liberal biblical scholars and textual critics in the field of [[Historical-critical method (Higher criticism)|Higher Criticism]], who do '''''not''''' believe in the inspired and [[Biblical inerrancy|inerrant unity of the biblical text]], often (''but not always'') regard the results of successful harmonization of scriptural "difficulties" by conservative biblical scholars, results submitted by those researchers who are in full accordance with Christian doctrine and dogma, as unconvincing, dishonest denials of facts presenting what liberal scholars see as "undeniably" opaque mysteries involving unsolvable difficulties. It is a fact that researchers can reach radically different interpretations when confronted with the same identical textual evidence ([[Cognitive bias]]; [[Confirmation bias]]; [[Prejudice]]; [[Enmity]]; [[Invincible ignorance]]; [[Fallacy of invincible ignorance]]). Compare [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans+14%3A1&version=RSVCE Romans 14:1]. :The interested reader is invited to see how the following commentaries have resolved (''if they have'') the few examples of apparently contradictory texts listed above. :*[https://www.biblestudytools.com/commentaries biblestudytools.com]:*[https://www.studylight.org/commentaries studylight.org]:*[https://biblehub.com/commentaries biblehub.com]:*[http://www.bible-researcher.com/links20.html bible-researcher.com]:*[http://onlinebible.net/commentaries-1 onlinebible.net]:*[http://www.oxfordbiblicalstudies.com/resource/GuidetoCommentaries.xhtml oxfordbiblicalstudies.com]:*[http://www.generationword.com/study.html generationword.com]:*[https://www.autom.com autom.com]:*[https://www.theologyofwork.org/resources/theology-of-work-bible-comentary-free-online theologyofwork.org]:*[https://www.kensaq.com/web?qo=semQuery&ad=semA&q=online%20bible%20commentary&o=765613&ag=fw&an=msn_s&rch=intl608 kensaq.com]:*[https://www.bing.com/search?q=online+biblical+commentaries+catholic&form=EDGEAR&qs=HS&cvid=03c91dfa3f4c4c979a5c0a6e2251ebf4&cc=US&setlang=en-US&plvar=0 online biblical commentaries - Catholic]:*[https://www.bing.com/search?q=online+biblical+commentaries+orthodox&form=EDGEAR&qs=PF&cvid=9754bdc70d374c829e4ed07085917695&cc=US&setlang=en-US&plvar=0 online biblical commentaries - Orthodox] :An excellent example of apologetic writing in defense of the internal consistency of the Bible is '''John Grigg Hewlett, D.D. Bible difficulties explained (1860)''' (pdf text available free at [http://menuadvisor.co.uk/pdfbooks/519653-read-bible-difficulties-explained-pdf.html Bible difficulties explained epub download free])<br>See also [https://defendinginerrancy.com/bible-difficulties/ '''Solutions to Bible "Errors"''' (defendinginerrancy.com)] :Conservative Christian historians and [[Christian apologetics|apologists]] are mindful of this statement by [[John Eck]] addressed to [[Martin Luther]], in the year 1521:::"...there is no one of the heresies which have torn the bosom of the church, which has not derived its origin from the various interpretation of the Scripture. The Bible itself is the arsenal whence each innovator has drawn his deceptive arguments. It was with biblical texts that [[Pelagianism|Pelagius]] and [[Arius]] maintained their doctrines. Arius, for instance, found the negation of the eternity of the Word—an eternity which you admit, in this verse of the New Testament—''Joseph knew not his wife till she had brought forth her first-born son''; and he said, in the same way that you say, that this passage '''enchained''' him. When the fathers of the [[council of Constance]] condemned this proposition of [[Jan Hus|John Huss]]—''The church of Jesus Christ is only the community of the elect''—they condemned an error; for the church, like a good mother, embraces within her arms all who bear the name of Christian, all who are called to enjoy the celestial beatitude."<br>—[http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/luther/lutherbyluther.html#secondnarrative Life of Luther (Luther by Martin Luther)(law2.umkc.edu)] :Compare this article: [https://www.compellingtruth.org/millenial-sacrifices.html '''During the millennial kingdom, will there be animal sacrifices?''' - Compelling Truth: End Times (compellingtruth.org)] ''The author of this article says, "Yes", because the Bible says so.'' (See [[Chiliasm]] and [[Sola spiritu]].) </small> "'''good works'''" <small>:Matthew 5:16:See [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ephesians+2%3A10&version=RSVCE Ephesians 2:10] and [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans+1%3A17&version=RSVCE Romans 1:17] ''with'' [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ephesians+2%3A8-9&version=RSVCE Ephesians 2:8-9]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=James+2%3A14-26&version=RSVCE James 2:14-26]. See [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+John+3%3A7&version=RSVCE 1&nbsp;John 3:7] and [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+John+3%3A10&version=RSVCE 3:10]<br>Compare [[Antinomianism]] and [[Eternal security (salvation)]]. :According to the teaching of Jesus, those who do '''''not''''' do good works will be condemned. Matthew 25:31-46; Revelation 19:6-9 and Matthew 22:11-13. <br>He does not ask if they read the Bible, went to church, prayed, had faith, or what doctrine they professed, or what religion they belonged to. The one reality by which he judges all is the testimony of their works, Revelation 22:12; 20:11-15; 2:2-5, 19, 26; 3:2, 8, 15-16. The work of God is to believe in the One He sent (John 6:29), keep his commands (John 14:21-24; Matthew 7:21-23), and "walk as he walked" (1&nbsp;John 2:4-6; 3:14-18) by "going about doing good and healing all that were oppressed by the devil" (Acts 10:36). <br> See [[Corporal and spiritual works of mercy]].

:In Judaism itself this has already occurred, with the changes made to the Hebrew text of the [[Old Testament|Tanakh]] transmitted by the [[Masoretes]] in A.D. the fourth, fifth and sixth centuries, which removed all intoned readings favoring Christian interpretations and replaced particular individual words that supported Christian doctrine about Jesus as the true Messiah and salvation in him—these ''passed from the law'' through diacritical marks added to the text and alterations made by the Masoretes ([https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Jeremiah+8%3A8&version=RSVCE Jeremiah 8:8] see [[Bible#The melodies of the Old Testament|Bible: the melodies of the Old Testament]]). However, the earlier pre-Masoretic Hebrew text is attested by the extant ancient translations in manuscripts made before the establishment of the Masoretic Text, for example the [[Septuagint|LXX]] and the [[Vulgate]].  :Through the work of faithful Christian scholars, and copyists in [[scriptorium]]s, both east and west, and the finding and preservation of [[Bible manuscript evidence|manuscripts]] such as the [[Dead Sea scrolls]], "''not one jot or one tittle''" (KJV) has actually passed from the law.

:A personal judgment of moral-ethical condemnation. Here it implies rash judgment on the part of the speaker, based on a feeling of personal outrage and irreconcilable hostility ([[enmity]]) toward another person.<br>In first century Palestine, using the word "''fool''" against a man was to judge him as having utterly no redeeming qualities, no intelligence or good sense, no ethical principle, as being too stupid and unwilling (or unable) to change, and by default and ingrained disposition a problem in the community for "decent people", and therefore an unholy enemy of God, and most certain to be condemned to eternal damnation. Examples are unscrupulous and conniving lawyers and politicians, criminals, violent and abusive persons, irreligious and self-destructive individuals, who are in danger of provoking divine judgment on themselves. See [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalms+14%3A1&version=RSVCE Psalms 14:1], [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalms+49%3A10&version=RSVCE 49:10], [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalms+92%3A6-7&version=RSVCE 92:6-7]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalms+53&version=RSVCE Psalm 53]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Proverbs 17 and +1%3A17-26&version=RSVCE Proverbs 1:7-26]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ecclesiastes +10&version=RSVCE Ecclesiastes 10]; and [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Jeremiah+13%3A23&version=RSVCE Jeremiah 13:23]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Deuteronomy+21%3A18-21&version=RSVCE Deuteronomy 21:18-21]; also [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+18%3A9-14&version=RSVCE Luke 18:9-14], and [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans+1%3A18-2%3A24&version=RSVCE Romans 1:18–2:24], [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans+3%3A10-18&version=RSVCE 3:10-18].

:[https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Leviticus+19%3A18&version=RSVCE Leviticus 19:18]<br>[https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalms+139%3A21-22&version=RSVCE Psalm 139:21-22]<br>[https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Amos+5%3A15&version=RSVCE Amos 5:15a] "''Hate evil, and love good...''"

:This strongly suggests a more than material food, a kind of supernatural sustaining nourishment, heavenly bread (as expressed in the hymn phrase based on this same text from Matthew 6:11: "''bread of heaven, feed me 'til I want no more – here's my cup, fill it up and make me whole''" — [https://hymnary.org/text/like_the_woman_at_the_well_i_was_seeking "'''Fill My Cup, Lord'''", Richard Blanchard, 1925-2004]). <br> Compare [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+6%3A31&version=RSVCE John 6:31]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Exodus+16%3A4&version=RSVCE Exodus 16:4], [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Exodus+16%3A15&version=RSVCE 15]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Numbers 1+11%3A9&version=RSVCE Numbers 11:9]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Deuteronomy+8%3A3&version=RSVCE Deuteronomy 8:3]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Nehemiah+9%3A15&version=RSVCE Nehemiah 9:15]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalms+78%3A24-25&version=RSVCE Psalm 78:24-25]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalms+105%3A40&version=RSVCE 105:40].

:Matthew 6:13—[[King James Bible]] :This phrase is not found in the best early manuscripts of Matthew 6:13. Luke does not include it (Luke 11:2-4). The early Church scholars and biblical authorities (historically called "the [[Apostolic Fathers]]" and "early Church Fathers") who commented on the Lord's Prayer make no mention of it. Jerome does not mention it and it does not appear in his Latin translation of the Bible, the [[Vulgate]].<br>See :*[http://biblehub.com/commentaries/matthew/6-13.htm multiple commentaries on Matthew 6:13].:*[https://bible.org/article/majority-text-and-original-text-are-they-identical The Majority Text and the Original Text: Are They Identical? Daniel B. Wallace (bible.org)]:*[http://www.textusreceptusbibles.com/Are_Older_Manuscripts_More_Reliable Are Older Manuscripts More Reliable? (textusreceptusbibles.com)] :*[https://carm.org/KJVO/differences-between-majority-text-and-textus-receptus Differences between the Majority Text and the Textus Receptus, by Luke Wayne - Christian Apologetics & Research Ministry (carm.org)]:*[http://www.bible-researcher.com/kutilek1.html Westcott & Hort vs. Textus Receptus: Which Is Superior? by Douglas Kutilek, 5/24/96 (bible-researcher.com)]:*[https://margmowczko.com/7-things-about-the-king-james-bible/ 7 things you may not know about the King James Bible, by Marg Mowczko (margmowczko.com)]

:A direct allusion to the [[Septuagint]] text, <br>[https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Sirach+29%3A11-12&version=RSVCE '''Sirach 29:11-12'''].

:The minor pagan deity of wealth or money, of economic financial gain and business profit.According to the ''Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary'', the word "<small>MAMMON</small>", in general use was a personification of riches as an evil spirit or deity.:—''Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary'', General Editors Chad Brand, Charles Draper, Archie England; Associate Editors Steve Bond, E. Ray Clendenen; General Editor, Holman Bible Dictionary Trent C. Butler; copyright 2003 by Holman Bible Publishers, Nashville, Tennessee, all rights reserved, p.1073a. ISBN: 978-0-8054-2836-0

:Jesus also said, "Do not judge by appearances, but '''judge with right judgment'''." John 7:24<br>This is no contradiction. :"Judge not" in Matthew 7:1 is part of a Semitic form of expression called parallelism in which "judge not" is joined to "condemn not". [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+6%3A37&version=RSVCE '''Luke 6:37''']. The idea expressed is the same. <br>The passage in John 7:24 expresses a different intention of "judging rightly" as "''[[Discernment|discerning properly]]''" according to the truth. Compare :*[http://biblehub.com/interlinear/matthew/7-1.htm interlinear text of Matthew 7:1]:*[http://biblehub.com/interlinear/luke/6-37.htm interlinear text of Luke 6:37]:*[http://biblehub.com/interlinear/john/7-24.htm interlinear text of John 7:24]:*[http://biblehub.com/commentaries/john/7-24.htm multiple commentaries on John 7:24]:*[http://biblehub.com/commentaries/matthew/7-2.htm multiple commentaries on Matthew 7:2]:*[http://biblehub.com/commentaries/luke/6-37.htm multiple commentaries on Luke 6:37] :Compare [[Misrepresentation]] and [[Polemic]].:Also [[Hostile witness]].

::7:12 parallels LXX [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Tobit+4%3A15&version=RSVCE '''Tobit 4:15 '''] <br> 7:16 and 20 both parallel LXX [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Sirach+27%3A6&version=RSVCE '''Sirach 27:6 ''']

:This leper met Jesus at the foot of the mountain, and is therefore not the leper "''in one of the cities''" in [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+5%3A12-15&version=RSVCE Luke 5:12-15].

'It is more blessed to give than to receive.' :::(Acts 20:35b ''From last phrase of Acts 20:35 "I have showed you all things, how that, working in this way, you should support the weak, and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how He said, '' 'It is more blessed to give than to receive.' ''"'')

<span style=color:red><big><big><big>'''W'''</big></big></big></span>hen he entered again into [http://bibleatlas.org/full/capernaum.htm Capernaum] after some days, when he came into Capernaum, a centurion came to him, asking him, and saying, “Lord“'''Lord''', my servant lies in the house paralyzed, grievously tormented.”

The centurion answered, “Lord“'''Lord''', I am not worthy for you to come under my roof. Just say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I am also a man under authority, having under myself soldiers. I tell this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and tell another, ‘Come,’ and he comes; and tell my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”

When Jesus heard it, he marveled, and said to those who followed, “Most certainly I tell you, I have not found so great a [[faith]], not even in Israel. I tell you that many will come from the east and the west, and will sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the Kingdom of Heaven, but the children of the Kingdom will be thrown out into the outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

When they had done this, they caught a great multitude of fish, and their net was breaking. They beckoned to their partners in the other boat, that they should come and help them. They came, and filled both boats, so that they began to sink. But Simon Peter, when he saw it, fell down at Jesus’s knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, '''Lord'''.”

Another of his followers said to him, “Lord“'''Lord''', allow me first to go and bury my father.”

Behold, a violent storm came up on the sea, so much that the boat was covered with the waves, but he was asleep. They came to him, and woke him up, saying, “Save us, Lord'''Lord!''' We are dying'''!'''”

On one of those days, he was Teaching; and there were Pharisees and Teachers of the law sitting by, who had come out of every village of Galilee, Judea, and Jerusalem. The power of '''the Lord ''' was with him to heal them. Behold, men brought a paralyzed man on a cot, and they sought to bring him in to lay before Jesus. Not finding a way to bring him in because of the multitude, they went up to the housetop, and let him down through the tiles with his cot into the middle before Jesus. Seeing their faith, he said to him, “Man, your sins are forgiven you.”

They told him, “Yes, '''Lord'''.”

Jesus went about all the cities and the villages''',''' Teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the Good News of the Kingdom, and healing every disease and every sickness among the people. But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion for them, because they were harassed and scattered, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his followers, “The harvest indeed is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Pray therefore that '''the Lord ''' of the harvest will send out laborers into his harvest.”

"'''Just say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I am also a man under authority—authority'''" <small>

:The reasoning presented by of the centurion here is puzzling to puzzles many readers of the Bible, who ask why his being a man under military authority has any possible relevance is relevant to his confident request for a healing of his servant. It is because they do not understand military discipline, and obedience to authority.

:Because of the centurion's military duty to immediately obey without question those in command over him, he is saying that he recognizes acknowledges the nature effective power of true genuine authority, and that he . He recognizes the legitimate, powerful authority of Christ also as a commander and lord, to command even nature in matters of sickness and health; and thus he is expressing his understanding of . Roman respect for the effective legitimacy of the power of the Anointed Onenonpolitical, and his belief in his authorityextra-legal, because power of ''auctoritas'' is evident. <br> —See [http://dictionary.sensagent.com/Auctoritas/en-en/ '''Auctoritas''' (dictionary.sensagent.com)]. <br> Through the [[analogy]] of the parallel military reality of his own obligation to willingly obey without hesitation those in authority over him, and of the duty of those under him to likewise obey his own commands without hesitation, he expresses his confidence in the legitimacy of the evident authority of the Anointed One, and the effective power of His word of command. It is entirely natural to him that authority should be obeyed: that is the way of things and the proper order of nature. He is fully persuaded that whatever Jesus commands will be immediately obeyed, because in his eyes Jesus has the obvious dignity of full authority , ''innately'', in and of Himself, to command obedience to his word(''auctoritas''). And just as by analogy a lowlylow-ranking private in military service would feel overwhelmed and unworthy of a visit by the Chief Commanding General of the Armed Forces of the United States of America in response to his petition for help, this Roman centurion declares that he is not worthy to receive Jesus under his roof. This is the same language of proper military form used by a Roman general in humble response to the emperor who announces his favor with a proposed visit to his home. Jesus responds that he has not found in Israel this kind of ready acknowledgement of the obligation of obedience to the will of God and of himself as the One sent by God. As God, the Son of God, Jesus is greatly pleased by the Roman's admirable faith in Him. As a man himself, being fully human, and especially as a Jew, Jesus is amazed at acknowledges the marvel of the Roman pagan's unquestioning belief in his authority as one sent from the God of Israel.</small>

:See the following texts expressing Jesus' authority to command: <small>:*[https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+28%3A18-20&version=KJV Matthew 28:18-20]:*[https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+8%3A23-9%3A8&version=RSVCE Matthew 8:23–9:8]:*[https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+16%3A18-19&version=RSVCE Matthew 16:18-19]:*[https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+18%3A15-20&version=RSVCE Matthew 18:15-20]:*[https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mark+1%3A22-27&version=RSVCE Mark 1:22-27]:*[https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mark+16%3A15-16&version=RSVCE Mark 16:15-16]:*[https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+9%3A1&version=RSVCE Luke 9:1]:*[https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+10%3A16&version=RSVCE Luke 10:16]:*[https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+2%3A11&version=RSVCE John 2:11]:*[https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+3%3A2&version=RSVCE John 3:2]:*[https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+5%3A26-27&version=RSVCE John 5:26-27]:*[https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+10%3A25&version=RSVCE John 10:25], [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+10%3A37-38&version=RSVCE 37-38]:*[https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+14%3A10-11&version=RSVCE John 14:10-11]:*[https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+20%3A30-31&version=RSVCE John 20:30-31]

:See also the parallel New Testament passages regarding legitimately ordained human authority: :*[https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans+13%3A1-10&version=RSVCE Romans 13:1-10]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+Peter+2%3A13-23&version=RSVCE 1 Peter 2:13-23; ]:*[https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+23%3A1-3&version=RSVCE Matthew 23:1-3]:*[https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Hebrews+13%3A17&version=RSVCE Hebrews 13:17]:*[https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2+Corinthians+5%3A18-20&version=RSVCE 2&nbsp;Corinthians 5:18-20 "''ambassadors for Christ''"]. <br> —See [https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ambassador '''Ambassador''' definition (merriam-webster.com)]

"'''When Jesus heard it, he ''marveled'''''" <small>:Matthew 8:10a:"'''''marveled'''''—'''έθαύμασε''' ''ethaumase''"—not in the sense that the Lord Jesus was suddenly shocked, surprised, astonished or amazed at the man's faith, as if this "caught Him off guard", as if Jesus was totally unaware of the faith in the man's heart before that moment. Jesus rather "'''admired'''" his "'''marvelous'''", free expression of faith in Him as "''highly commendable''", "''profoundly impressive''", an "admirable example" to others, as an instructive practical expression to his followers of "praiseworthy confidence" to be heeded and learned from. It was, in fact, an act of faith most delightfully pleasing personally to Himself as Lord, especially coming from a Gentile. :"I have not found so great a faith". From this particular mention of faith in the New Testament, we may gather that ''faith, belief'' (as well as ''unbelief'') is in both the understanding and the will. The Lord thus characterized the centurion's faith as being the result of deliberation and free choice. Deliberation is the province of the understanding; free choice is the offspring of the will. This contradicts the firm doctrinal assertion of [[Calvinism]] that the soul has no free will to believe in the Lord, and that the gift of free will is bestowed solely on the elect alone. This requires a response based on the same inspired sacred scripture of the Bible which John Calvin cites as authoritative for the rule of faith and practice. :Jesus is both God and man, divine and human. <br>As a man and a devout Jew, Jesus admired the centurion's marvelous faith in his authority. <br>As God, Jesus was well-pleased with the centurion's faith in him. (See Luke 23:39-43) <br> In the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit testifies that God can indeed be delighted and pleased with admirable men of faith and obedience who freely choose to honor Him with truth and good works. This is evident in the words of the following scripture passages:::[https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis+6%3A8-9&version=RSVCE Genesis 6:8-9] <br> [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Numbers+14%3A8&version=RSVCE Numbers 14:8], [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Numbers+14%3A24&version=RSVCE 14:24] <br> [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Deuteronomy+26%3A19&version=RSVCE Deuteronomy 26:19] <br> [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+Samuel+13%3A14&version=RSVCE 1 Samuel 13:14] <br> [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+Samuel+15%3A22&version=RSVCE 1 Samuel 15:22] <br> [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+Kings+3%3A10&version=RSVCE 1 Kings 3:10]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+Kings+10%3A9&version=RSVCE 10:9] <br> [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalms+11%3A7&version=RSVCE Psalms 11:7]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalms+18%3A19&version=RSVCE 18:19]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalms+37%3A23&version=RSVCE 37:23]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalms+50%3A23&version=RSVCE 50:23]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalms+69%3A30-31&version=RSVCE 69:30-31]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalms+104%3A34&version=RSVCE 104:34]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalms+149%3A4&version=RSVCE 149:4] <br> [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Proverbs+3%3A12&version=RSVCE Proverbs 3:12]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Proverbs+8%3A30&version=RSVCE 8:30]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Proverbs+12%3A22&version=RSVCE 12:22]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Proverbs+15%3A8&version=RSVCE 15:8]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Proverbs+16%3A7&version=RSVCE 16:7] <br> [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Isaiah+62%3A4&version=RSVCE Isaiah 62:4] <br> [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Jeremiah+9%3A24&version=RSVCE Jeremiah 9:24]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Jeremiah+33%3A9&version=RSVCE 33:9] <br> [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Micah+7%3A18&version=RSVCE Micah 7:18] <br> [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Philippians+2%3A13&version=RSVCE Philippians 2:13] and [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ephesians+2%3A10&version=RSVCE Ephesians 2:10] <br> [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Hebrews+11%3A5&version=RSVCE Hebrews 11:5]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Hebrews+13%3A16&version=RSVCE 13:16] :In his ''Institutes of Christian Religion'' '''[[John Calvin]]''' teaches that man cannot please God, that human souls have no free will to choose to do what is pleasing to Him, for it is God alone who does in man whatever is pleasing to him: ::([https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Philippians+2%3A13&version=RSVCE Philippians 2:13]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Jeremiah+9%3A24&version=RSVCE Jeremiah 9:24]). :If human beings have no [[free will]] to choose to do either good or evil they cannot of themselves merit either praise or blame, for according to Calvinist doctrine they cannot choose to do otherwise. ''Of themselves'' men and women can neither please nor displease God, though by nature they are displeasing to Him. Therefore they have no personal moral responsibility for what they do and what they fail to do. Those who actually do good by the irresistible, sovereign grace of God's [[Predestination|election]] cannot of themselves merit praise as if they of their own free will choose to do good, for they only do what good He wills by his sovereign pleasure alone. ::([https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+17%3A10&version=RSVCE Luke 17:10]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Philippians+2%3A13&version=RSVCE Philippians 2:13]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Revelation+4%3A11&version=KJV Revelation 4:11 KJV "for thy pleasure"]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Revelation+4%3A11&version=RSVCE Revelation 4:11 "by thy will"]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans+9%3A18-19&version=RSVCE Romans 9:18-19]). :Calvin reasons that if men are "dead in trespasses and sins" they are spiritual corpses, and a corpse has no will to decide to do anything, good or bad. ::([https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ephesians+2%3A1-3&version=RSVCE Ephesians 2:1-3]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalms+115%3A17&version=RSVCE Psalm 115:17]; compare [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ecclesiastes+9%3A4-10&version=RSVCE Ecclesiastes 9:4-10]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Jude+1%3A10&version=RSVCE Jude 10]). :Calvinists reason that souls only act by instinct as irrational animals. They are dead in trespasses and sins. Because they have no free will, the logical conclusion is that those who displease Him by nature cannot merit any blame or personal responsibility for what they do by instinct, for they are by nature deprived of the grace of God, a sanctifying grace which in strict justice He is not obligated to bestow, and sovereignly withholds from most of them, in order to allow them to fulfill without any interference their inherently self-destructive destiny, being by nature "children of wrath" (Ephesians 2:3), for they have no free will. For this very reason Jesus should not have been amazed or astonished by the faith of the centurion—that is, if the man had no free will. Calvin adamantly insists that Jesus is the divine Son of God. He knew all men and what is in man. Calvin insists that Jesus is fully divine, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity. The fulness of Deity was, is, and ever shall be in Him. The Spirit of the Father is the Spirit of Jesus, the only one who knows the Father, for all that the Father has, Jesus has. He is in the Father and the Father is in him.::([https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Colossians+2%3A9&version=RSVCE Colossians 2:9]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+1%3A1&version=RSVCE John 1:1], [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+1%3A14&version=RSVCE 14], [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+1%3A18&version=RSVCE 18]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Revelation+11%3A15-19&version=RSVCE Revelation 11:15-19]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Revelation+1%3A4&version=RSVCE Revelation 1:4], [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Revelation+1%3A8&version=RSVCE 8]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Revelation+4%3A8&version=RSVCE 4:8]; and [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+Corinthians+2%3A10-16&version=RSVCE 1&nbsp;Corinthians 2:10-16]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+11%3A27&version=RSVCE Matthew 11:27]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2+Corinthians+3%3A17-18&version=RSVCE 2&nbsp;Corinthians 3:17-18]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans+8%3A9&version=RSVCE Romans 8:9]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Galatians+4%3A6&version=RSVCE Galatians 4:6]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+14%3A8-11&version=RSVCE John 14:8-11].) :This point must be [[Reiteration|reiterated]]. According to the [[Calvinism|Calvinist]] doctrine of election nothing good that men do could possibly cause him surprise or amazement or admiration for any reason. For according to this doctrine the Lord Jesus would already know that they are acting solely according to the sovereign choice of the irresistible grace of God's election, and they cannot do otherwise. Nothing good is done by the dead will of man: "there is none that doeth good, no, not one" (Romans 3:12). The glory belongs to God alone. The doctrine of election in Calvinist theology is not based on whether the predestined elect evidently manifests the habitual practice of good or evil. What one does, either good or bad, has absolutely no bearing whatever on the Calvinist doctrine of election. Good works are evidence of the operative grace of the sovereign Lord God "who alone is good", but they are not [[ipso facto]] therefore an infallible sign of the Irresistible Grace of Election unto Salvation and Eternal life in Heaven. See [https://jesusisworthy1.wordpress.com/2014/12/22/calvins-view-of-the-trinity-2/ '''Jesus is Worthy - Calvin's View of the Trinity''', J. Wesley Carpenter (jesusisworthy1.wordpress.com)]<br>Compare '''[[Eternal security (salvation)]]''' and '''[[Fatalism]]'''.  :See [https://www.ccel.org/ccel/calvin/institutes.toc.html John Calvin, '''''Institutes of the Christian Religion''''' (ccel.org).] :'''[[Jacobus Arminius|Jakob Harmenszoon]]''' ([[Arminianism]]) opposed this view in favor of the reality of [[free will]] in man. He is among those Christian (and Jewish) believers who hold that God is pleased when the human creature made in His Own Image acts righteously. They are persuaded from their reading of the scriptures that God has sovereignly made man capable by nature of choosing either good or evil and therefore human beings are able to freely choose the good, even when they are pressured by circumstance or the [[deceit]] of [[specious reasoning]] to choose evil. (Compare '''[[Job]]'''.)  :Arminian Protestants are convinced that God is delighted with people that He has [[Omniscience|omnisciently]] seen within the body of the fallen human community struggling to do right, who defend justice and truthfulness, and are therefore regarded by Him as being truly worthy of praise, and admirable in His sight. They see the Lord as pleased with them because of their willing righteousness in freely choosing Him and seeking to do His Will, by voluntarily not resisting the available assistance of His grace. They insist from their reading of the Bible as a whole that whoever says that God is not delighted with evident deeds of righteousness in man, scripture bearing witness to them, is someone who does not know the Bible, and contradicts the Scriptures. They grieve over the influence of those scholars who by their commentaries and books promote the Calvinist doctrine of Irresistible Grace, Limited Atonement, Total Depravity of man, and denial of Free Will, in what they claim is an opposition to the evident doctrine of the Bible by turning the truth of scripture into a lie. [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Jeremiah+9%3A24&version=RSVCE '''Jeremiah 9:24''']; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mark+12%3A24&version=RSVCE '''Mark 12:24'''] :According to Arminian Protestants and Catholics and Orthodox, mankind—Adam—both men and women, have free will. Their freely chosen path of righteousness pleases the Lord, but their deeds of righteousness and goodness cannot ''[[ipso facto]]'' of themselves save them from the death merited by the collective guilt of the whole human race as heirs truly descended from guilty Adam the father of all mankind who by birth bear his name and his nature as man (Hebrew, ''adam''). ::([https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis+5%3A1-2&version=RSVCE Genesis 5:1-2]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalms+49%3A7-15&version=RSVCE Psalm 49:7-15]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Wisdom+2%3A23-24&version=RSVCE Wisdom 2:23-24]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans+5%3A12-19&version=RSVCE Romans 5:12-19]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Hebrews+9%3A14-28&version=RSVCE Hebrews 9:14-28 "to save those who are eagerly waiting for him"]). :Compare [[Pelagianism]]. :The Calvinist view of [[original sin]] is analogous to the pagan idea of "bad blood". The doctrine of "bad blood" holds that the (rumored) guilt of an entire family or clan or tribe or ethnic group belongs even to innocent individuals who by birth alone are members of their racial or ethnic community. The guilt of an entire family, clan, tribe, ethnic group or nation with a long-established reputation for inherent (inherited) criminal, social, religious wicked behavior, is held to belong by nature even to those innocent individuals who in contradiction of their heritage have actually demonstrated consistently that they themselves fundamentally differ in character from the bad reputation of their own whole family or tribe. They may have actually demostrated by their own personal actions that they are actually law-abiding, innocent, and morally righteous, and that they themselves as individuals do not personally deserve to be charged with having the same wicked, guilty character as the rest of their people. But however good they seem to be, because of the doctrine of "bad blood", their good deeds and evident individual character are unjustly rejected as utterly worthless and [[Hypocrites|hypocritical]]. They are judged automatically guilty of being ''inherently'' bad because of their association with the name and bloodline of their family and people. They belong to them. They are irrevocably branded as one of them by name and nature and instinct. "Sooner or later, bad blood will out." It is inevitable. The enormous, indelible guilt of an entire people for the unforgettably monstrous outrage of unfathomable evil that they committed against all purity and goodness and decency cannot simply be overlooked, wiped out and forgotten as if it never happened. It remains. A few individuals cannot erase that wound. Every one of them is a reminder of the horror. The presence of even one of them in the community is an offense, an outrage against decency. And whatever good they do and have done personally, and the evidence of their own good deeds, and their obvious personal character in both manner and speech, in clearly having no part personally in the guilt of what their forebears or their own parents, brethren, sisters and relatives have done, this still does not absolve them of the inherent guilt of having "bad blood" in the eyes of "decent, law-abiding Christians". Even their infants and children are judged guilty "from the womb". They have the name, they have the guilt. Popular dramas set in 19th century America (such as [[Westerns]]) frequently illustrate the dynamic of various [[prejudice]]s regarding "bad blood". See [[Racism]] and [[Xenophobia]]. ::(Compare [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalms+58%3A3-4&version=RSVCE Psalm 58:3-4]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Isaiah+1%3A4&version=RSVCE Isaiah 1:4]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Jeremiah+13%3A22-23&version=RSVCE Jeremiah 13:22-23]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ezekiel+18&version=RSVCE Ezekiel 18]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Daniel+9%3A3-19&version=RSVCE Daniel 9:3-19]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ezra+9%3A6-15&version=RSVCE Ezra 9:6-15].) :The doctrine of [[original sin]] asserts that every descendant of Adam has inherited his guilt. Proof is seen in the fact that all human beings die because of the guilt of that sin. (Genesis 2:16-17; 3:17-19; 1 Corinthians 15:21-22). Calvin reasons that spiritual death means the spiritual power of will in mankind is dead: as a corpse has no life and no freedom of will, so mankind, dead in trespasses and sin has no spiritual life (Ephesians 2:1-3; Ecclesiastes 9:10); and as the will of any corpse is dead, so Calvin reasons that it logically follows that a spiritual corpse has no life and therefore no will. A criminal convicted of a capital crime and sentenced to death and summarily executed no longer has any will to appeal to the court and remains a guilty corpse with no free will. But Calvin's reasoning contains a fatal flaw that contradicts the Bible.  :If the centurion had no free will to exercise faith in the word of Jesus (Matthew 8:10-12), then his faith was no marvel worthy of admiration or praise by the incarnate Lord. Calvinist doctrine maintains that all glory belongs to God alone. Therefore the centurion, ''of himself'', '''has no faith'''. He is not personally responsible for his faith if he has no free will. It is a gift, an offer he can't refuse. According to Calvin, irresistible grace. He can neither accept it nor refuse it. He merits neither praise nor blame for what he does or for the faith he has in Jesus. Jesus, who is God the Son, as God, already knows what is in man. The Calvinist interpretation of the Gospel represents the Lord as illogically marveling at what God the Father does by the Spirit, the Father whom the Son alone truly knows intimately, whom God cannot possibly surprise or astonish, he who is "in the bosom of the Father" John 1:18; 7:29; 14:11; John 5:19-46. ::([https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+10%3A22&version=RSVCE Luke 10:22]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+Corinthians+2%3A11-16&version=RSVCE 1 Corinthians 2:11-16]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans+8%3A9&version=RSVCE Romans 8:9]). :According to the interpretive theology of Calvinism, Jesus is thus seen marveling, not at the faith of the centurion, but at what the Father has sovereignly done with the centurion by his divine will, the Father Whom he so fully knows'''!''' ::([https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+5%3A19-20&version=RSVCE John 5:19-20]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+14%3A10-11&version=RSVCE 14:10-11]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+2%3A25&version=RSVCE John 2:25]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Hebrews+4%3A13-14&version=RSVCE Hebrews 4:13-14]). :If the centurion who approached Jesus has no free will, he is therefore not personally responsible for the faith he expresses, and he merits neither credit nor praise, for then God alone would be responsible, and Jesus would instead be praising himself and the Father in him and he in the Father, to whom alone glory belongs, not the centurion. The real wonder, then, if the centurion has no free will, would not be the faith expressed by the centurion, but that Jesus marveled at that faith'''!''' But if the man has free will, and is freely expressing his own personal confident trust in Christ of his own free will, by the enabling gift of God and his willing consent to the influence of that gift, which he freely embraces, he does merit praise from the Lord for his marvelous faith in personally responding to that gift. :Most Christian believers conclude that the Calvinist position, based on "proof texts" that man has no free will to exercise a praiseworthy faith in him, is fundamentally a contradiction of the Bible as a whole ([[Cafeteria Christianity#Proof texts|Proof texting]]). See for example ::Deuteronomy 30:19; Joshua 24:14-24; Psalm 25:12; Proverbs 1:28-30; Isaiah 1:2; 7:15-16; 56:4-5; 65:12; Ezekiel chapter 18; Malachi 1:6-14; John 5:14; 7:17; Hebrews 6:4-6; James 2:12; 5:19-20; 2 Peter 2:20-22; 3:14. :See [http://www.ccel.org/ccel/arminius?show=worksBy '''Works by Jacobus Arminius''' (ccel.org)]. :Compare the official Catholic ("papist") doctrine on free will: :*[http://www.scborromeo.org/ccc/p3s1c1a3.htm '''''Catechism of the Catholic Church'' (CCC), Part Three Life in Christ, Section One Man's Vocation Life in the Spirit, Chapter One The Dignity of the Human Person, Article 3 Man's Freedom''' (scborromeo.org)]. :Compare the Orthodox understanding of free will::*[http://orthodoxyinfo.org/AzkoulFreeWill.htm '''On the Faith - An Introduction to the Orthodox Christian Understanding of Free Will''', By Father Michael Azkoul (orthodoxyinfo.org)]:*[http://saintandrewgoc.org/home/2014/7/7/the-free-will-of-man-according-to-the-holy-orthodox-christia.html '''The Free Will of Man According to the Holy Orthodox Christian Church''' - St. Andrew Greek Orthodox Church (saintandrewgoc.org)]:*[https://carm.org/quotes-orthodox-church-fall-grace '''Orthodox Church Quotes on Fall, Free Will, Good Works, Grace''', by Matt Slick - Christian Apologetics & Research Ministry (carm.org)] :The Gospel says that Jesus "'''marveled'''" Greek '''έθαύμασε''' ''e'''thauma'''se'' / '''έθαύμασεν''' ''e'''thauma'''sen''—See [https://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?t=nkjv&strongs=g2296 Strong's number ''2296'' '''θαυμάζω''' ''thaumazō''] to wonder; by implication, to admire, to have in admiration, to marvel, to wonder at; from [https://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?Strongs=G2295 ''2295'' '''θαῦμα''' ''thauma'':—admiration]. <br> Jesus admired the centurion's faith. :Greek Orthodox Bible Matthew 8:10 <br>"''' 10 ἀκούσας δὲ ὁ Ἰησοῦς <big>ἐθαύμασε</big> καὶ εἶπε τοῖς ἀκολουθοῦσιν· ἀμὴν λέγω ὑμῖν, οὐδὲ ἐν τῷ Ἰσραὴλ τοσαύτην πίστιν εὗρον.'''" (''emphasis added'') :In the ordinary realm of human experience, there are people of extraordinary abilities, whose careers span decades, who are a constant marvel and source of admiration. Over time we are not entirely surprised at their admirable abilities, knowing what we can probably expect of them, but we are still amazed and we sincerely do admire them, and we marvel. Jesus was not suddenly astonished by the centurion's faith, as if he did not know his heart and was unexpectedly surprised at something entirely new; he understandably appreciated, admired and marveled at this kind of confident faith. It was a faith freely expressed, an act of free will. The Roman centurion, with his own personal moral responsibility for having freely chosen—without any irresistible spiritual compulsion or influence sovereignly imposed on him from above without his consent—freely chose to have complete faith in Jesus and the power of his word. This is ''Marvelous! Wonderful! Admirable!'' And in the face of willful resistance by the leading elders, priests, scribes and Pharisees of the Jews, by contrast, his freely offered faith is ''Refreshing! Consoling!''  :Jesus extolled his faith with praise, and also at the same time expressed a tone of sadness for the chosen people of God, whom he had irrevocably elected from the beginning, the very same elect he had irrevocably called, many of whom would be cast into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. ::([https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans+11%3A28-29&version=RSVCE Romans 11:28-29]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Hebrews+10%3A23-31&version=RSVCE Hebrews 10:23-31]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+19%3A41-44&version=RSVCE Luke 19:41-44].) :If it is true that the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable, it is also true that those on whom his irrevocable gifts and calling have been bestowed can reject them. He has not withdrawn them. They have withdrawn themselves. According to his word no one can take them out of his hand—but they can choose to depart. ::([https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+10%3A27-30&version=RSVCE John 10:27-30]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans+8%3A38-39&version=RSVCE Romans 8:38-39], ::[https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+8%3A31&version=RSVCE John 8:31]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+15%3A1-6&version=RSVCE 15:1-6]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Galatians+1%3A6-7&version=RSVCE Galatians 1:6-7]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Hebrews+10%3A35-39&version=RSVCE Hebrews 10:35-39]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Revelation+2%3A5&version=RSVCE Revelation 2:5], [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Revelation+2%3A10&version=RSVCE 10], [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Revelation+2%3A25-26&version=RSVCE 25-26]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Revelation+3%3A2-3&version=RSVCE 3:2-3], [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Revelation+3%3A15-19&version=RSVCE 15-19]). :Though nothing else in heaven or on earth can separate them from Christ, ''through their own fault alone'' they can turn away from him and be condemned. ::([https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Hebrews+6%3A4-12&version=RSVCE Hebrews 6:4-12]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=James+5%3A19-20&version=RSVCE James 5:19-20]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+John+5%3A14-16&version=RSVCE 1 John 5:14-16]). :This is why the New Testament has so very many warnings to remain faithful, and not to fall away from the hope that is in Christ Jesus, because it is possible to [[Apostasy|fall away]]. ::([https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2+Peter+3%3A17&version=RSVCE 2&nbsp;Peter 3:17]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+Corinthians+10%3A12&version=RSVCE 1&nbsp;Corinthians 10:12]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+24%3A45-51&version=RSVCE Matthew 24:45-51]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+15%3A4-6&version=RSVCE John 15:4-6]). :Calvinism teaches the doctrine that the elect cannot fall away. If this is true, it would mean that such warnings are unnecessary and superfluous. And if it is also true that those not elected unto salvation, whom he sovereignly allows to perish, are naturally not saved, then it would mean that such warnings are futile and likewise superfluous. Warnings in either case would therefore make no sense whatever, because they would absolutely make no difference. And by taking all scripture together in context, the Calvinist doctrine of election leads the conservative Bible believer to the logical conclusion that the Bible as a consistently unified whole of divine revelation does not support Calvinism.::([https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans+9%3A18&version=RSVCE Romans 9:18]; compare [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2+Peter+3%3A9&version=RSVCE 2 Peter 3:9 "not willing that any should perish"]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Revelation+22%3A17&version=KJV Revelation 22:17 "And whosoever '''<big>will</big>'''"]). :Thus, against Calvinist doctrine, sacred scripture teaches that it is possible to please God with admirably marvelous faith, a gift freely accepted in the heart and soul and mind, not refused. And while '''[[Arminianism]]''' teaches the doctrine that one who has been saved by grace can fall away, it also maintains that once one has fallen away from the truth it is impossible to restore that soul again. Against this doctrine too, sacred scripture teaches that the soul fallen away can be brought back and saved. ::([https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=James+5%3A19-20&version=KJV James 5:19-20]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+John+5%3A16&version=KJV 1 John 5:16]—the "mortal sin" mentioned here meaning [[suicide]], as distinct from the "blasphemy not forgiven in this world or the world to come". Compare commentaries on [http://biblehub.com/commentaries/matthew/12-32.htm Matthew 12:32] and [http://biblehub.com/commentaries/romans/9-18.htm Romans 9:18].):The same kind of misinterpretation of the Bible is found in the (Protestant) doctrine of '''[[Traditionalism]]''' which denies that any person is regenerated prior to or apart from hearing and responding to the Gospel. This doctrine is based on an interpretation of [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans+10%3A14-15&version=KJV Romans 10:14-15] as applying strictly to individuals, and never to whole communities as in the days of the preaching of the apostles to whole assemblies of people who gathered to hear them, and converted by the thousands, hundreds and tens, with their families and children together, accepting Jesus Christ as the Savior sent by God to free them from their sins and cleanse their souls. Against this Traditionalism doctrine also—the doctrine that regeneration only follows hearing and responding to the Gospel—against this doctrine many cite what they have traditionally interpreted as Bible support for salvation through being "[[Baptism|baptized]] into Christ" through the "washing of water with the word", and the fact that "even infants were brought to him to be blessed" and he received them, saying "Forbid them not", so that even infants without understanding can receive in their souls the blessing of salvation through baptism into Christ, and that this has always been the "tradition" by "word" as handed down from the apostles of the Lord, that whole "households" and "all their families" with all "your children" were baptized.::('''KJV—''' [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans+6%3A3-11&version=KJV Romans 6:3-11]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+Peter+3%3A21&version=KJV 1 Peter 3:21]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Hebrews+10%3A19-22&version=KJV Hebrews 10:19-22]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts+22%3A16&version=KJV Acts 22:16]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ephesians+5%3A25-27&version=KJV Ephesians 5:25-27]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts+2%3A39&version=KJV Acts 2:39]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts+11%3A14&version=KJV 11:14]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts+16%3A15&version=KJV 16:15], [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts+16%3A31&version=KJV 31], [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts+16%3A33&version=KJV 33]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts+18%3A8&version=KJV 18:8]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+18%3A15-17&version=KJV Luke 18:15-17]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2+Thessalonians+2%3A13-15&version=KJV 2 Thessalonians 2:13-15]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Hebrews+13%3A17&version=KJV Hebrews 13:17]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2+Timothy+2%3A2&version=KJV 2 Timothy 2:2], [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2+Timothy+2%3A23-25&version=KJV 23-25]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Jude+1%3A3&version=KJV Jude 3]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2+Peter+3%3A14-18&version=KJV 2 Peter 3:14-18]. —''Especially'' [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalms+22%3A9-10&version=KJV Psalms 22:9-10]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalms+58%3A3&version=KJV 58:3]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalms+71%3A6&version=KJV 71:6]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Jeremiah+1%3A5&version=KJV Jeremiah 1:5]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+1%3A41&version=KJV Luke 1:41], [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+1%3A44&version=KJV 44]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts+17%3A27-28&version=KJV Acts 17:27-28]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans+8%3A26&version=KJV Romans 8:26]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Galatians+1%3A15&version=KJV Galatians 1:15]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2+Peter+3%3A9&version=KJV 2 Peter 3:9]):See the following articles regarding "household salvation" and "infant baptism"::*[https://www.compellingtruth.org/household-salvation.html '''Is household salvation biblical?''' (compellingtruth.org)] <br> — the writer says no.:*[http://netbiblestudy.com/00_cartimages/householdsalvation.pdf '''Household Salvation''' (netbiblestudy.com)] pdf — Testimonies of the [[Saint Ambrose|Bishop of Milan]] regarding Saint Monica mother of [[Saint Augustine]], Catherine Booth wife of William Booth founder of the [[Salvation Army]], [[Jonathan Edwards]], Dr. A.J. Gordon, founder of [[Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary|The Gordon Bible Theological Seminary]], and examples of other households unnamed, two mothers, a father converted to Christ, and his son. <br> — the writer says yes.:*[https://www.gotquestions.org/household-salvation.html '''What does the Bible say about household salvation?''' (gotquestions.org)] <br> — the writer says no.:*[https://www.catholic.com/tract/infant-baptism '''Infant baptism''' (catholic.com)] <br> [https://www.catholic.com/tract/early-teachings-on-infant-baptism '''Early teachings on infant baptism''' (catholic.com)] quotes from [[Irenaeus of Lyons|Irenaeus]] (A.D.189), Hippolytus (215), [[Origen]] (248), Cyprian of Carthage (253), [[Gregory of Nazianzus|Gregory of Nazianz]] (388), [[John Chrysostom]] (388), [[Saint Augustine|Augustine]] (400, 488, 412), Council of Carthage V (401), Council of Mileum (416) <br> — the ancient sources say yes.:See especially '''[[Great Apostasy]]'''. :"I have not found so great a faith, not even in Israel". Commentaries are divided on the speculative possibility that the centurion (Matthew 8:5-10) may have been the first Gentile convert to manifest saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. See [http://biblehub.com/commentaries/matthew/8-10.htm multiple commentaries on Matthew 8:10]. :Not one of the whole nation of Israel had manifested such ready acceptance of the obvious evidence of Jesus' authority being from God as did the Roman centurion. This included even Jesus' own disciples and apostles personally drawn by Him from among the Jews. Even Nathanael was hesitant when first told about Jesus. And Thomas refused to believe what he was told without evidence he could see and touch. Compare [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts+10%3A1-11%3A18&version=RSVCE Acts 10:1–11:18] where even Peter and the other apostles and the brethren (believing Jews) had '''not believed''' the Gentiles could repent, but afterward did believe. In contrast to the unbelief of the Jewish Christians who believed in Jesus, Cornelius and his friends and his whole household had immediately accepted Peter's words about Jesus as Lord and Savior—the Holy Spirit fell on them and they too spoke in tongues, as a sign to Peter and the brethren with him that God had also granted to the Gentiles repentance unto life'''!''' The [[Great Commission]] to the apostles to "go into all the whole world" to make disciples of "all nations" implicitly included making the Gentiles disciples and baptizing them. ::(Matthew 28:18-20; Mark 16:15-16; Luke 24:45-48; John 20:21-23; Acts 1:7-8), :The apostles had not yet understood this, thinking that Jesus meant all Jews throughout the world, and therefore they themselves had '''not believed''' that God has granted even to the Gentiles repentance unto life, until they were shown by revelation of the Holy Spirit and His falling on them with the sign of [[Speaking in tongues|tongues]]. "Wherefore tongues are for a sign, not to them that believe, but to them that believe not" 1&nbsp;Corinthians 14:22 (KJV). ::Compare [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts+18%3A25-26&version=RSVCE '''Acts 18:25-26'''] and [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts+19%3A1-7&version=RSVCE '''19:1-7''']. :It is possible to have true belief and yet still need further instruction to correct the defect of [[Ignorance|ignorant]] unbelief, like the apostles themselves in the beginning. Tongues are therefore evidence of ignorant unbelief among believers who have true faith in Christ, but an incomplete and ignorant faith, who nevertheless still need correction and further instruction in the faith about things they do not yet believe, and perhaps have never heard before, but things which are part of the full Gospel. According to St. Paul, speaking in tongues will not convince outsiders and those without faith, who are unbelievers (1 Corinthians 14:23-25), but [[prophecy]] will: "if all prophesy...the secrets of his heart are disclosed; and so, falling on his face, he will worship God and declare that God is really among you." (RSVCE) (See [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2+Corinthians+5%3A20&version=RSVCE 2 Corinthians 5:20].) :Conservative Christian believers reject every interpretation of scripture [[Specious reasoning|speciously]] adduced by some [[Exegesis|exegetes]] as apparently demonstrating (to them) that Jesus in his human nature was not also aware with divine knowledge, as the Prophet of God foretold by Moses ::([https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Deuteronomy+18%3A15-18&version=RSVCE Deuteronomy 18:15-18]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+1%3A19-28&version=RSVCE John 1:19-28]). <br>See for example [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+6%3A5-6&version=RSVCE John 6:5-6]; also [https://biblehub.com/multi/john/2-25.htm John 2:25]; [https://biblehub.com/multi/john/1-47.htm 1:47]; [https://biblehub.com/multi/john/6-61.htm 6:61], [https://biblehub.com/multi/john/6-64.htm 64]; [https://biblehub.com/multi/mark/2-8.htm 13:11]; [https://biblehub.com/multi/mark/2-8.htm Mark 2:8]; [https://biblehub.com/multi/matthew/9-4.htm Matthew 9:4]; [https://biblehub.com/multi/matthew/12-25.htm 12:25]; [https://biblehub.com/multi/luke/5-22.htm Luke 5:22]; [https://biblehub.com/multi/luke/6-8.htm 6:8]; [https://biblehub.com/multi/luke/9-47.htm 9:47]; [https://biblehub.com/multi/luke/11-17.htm 11:17]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Hebrews+4%3A13-14&version=RSVCE Hebrews 4:13-14]). :On the basis of the whole context of the Bible, the conservative Christian [[Exegesis|exegete]] can confidently say that Jesus was neither "astonished" nor "amazed" as he nevertheless "marveled" at the centurion's faith and "admired" it. :Translators who seek to defend the doctrine of Jesus' divinity and fulness of divine consciousness ::([https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Colossians+1%3A19&version=RSVCE Colossians 1:19]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Colossians+2%3A3&version=RSVCE 2:3], [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Colossians+2%3A9&version=RSVCE 2:9]), :and bearing in mind the texts cited above (and others), carefully read the Greek text of the New Testament according to the technical meanings of the actual vocabulary, syntax and grammar of the Greek language, and what is termed the [https://www.thoughtco.com/semantic-field-analysis-1691935 "semantical field" (the ''lexical'' context or thesaurus) of relevant words], by choosing allowable readings (translations) of them in favor of this truth (see [[Dynamic equivalence]]), readings which are consistent with the whole context of the Bible and the Christian faith, claiming to be bound by the meaning of the text.  :Translators who disagree, who prefer interpretive readings permitted by the technical meanings of particular Greek words according to the semantical field of the Greek [[Lexicon|lexicon (dictionary, thesaurus)]], by choosing instead allowable definitions that they know would strongly imply to their readers that Jesus had no divine knowledge of what is in the heart of people—translators and exegetes who [[Prejudice|prejudicially]] ''reject'' allowed interpretive lexical readings with [[connotation]]s that ''do'' support divine consciousness in Jesus, because they believe Jesus had no divine knowledge—such translators are not seeking to defend Him or the Christian faith. They too claim that they are bound by the meaning of the text ([[confirmation bias]]). [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2+Peter+3%3A17-18&version=RSVCE 2 Peter 3:17-18]. :See [https://biblehub.com/multi/matthew/8-10.htm multiple versions of Matthew 8:10]. <br> (Note the interesting but minor difference between texts: <br> '''ἐθαύμασε''' ethoumase, and <br> '''ἐθαύμασεν''' ethoumasen.)<br>Compare [https://biblehub.com/commentaries/matthew/8-10.htm multiple commentaries on Matthew 8:10]. :Many Bible commentators do not actually believe that the eyewitness narrative text of the [[The Gospels|Four Gospels]] in the Bible is true. They do not believe the promise of Jesus in [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+14%3A26&version=RSVCE John 14:26] and [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+16%3A13-14&version=RSVCE 16:13-14] ("''forever''"—"''into all truth''"). This is evident in the undeniable fact that many of them are convinced that Matthew 8:5-13 and Luke 7:2-10 relate the same incident. They are not the same. ''Just because two similar narratives sound the same does not prove they are the same''. Such an unfounded, [[Specious reasoning|speciously reasoned]], ''[[a priori]] (taken for granted), [[ipso facto]]'' assumption is responsible for [[Ignorance|ignorant]] assertions of unresolvable discrepancies which immediately call into question the truthful reliability of [[the Gospel]], discrepancies that do not in fact exist. (See [[Confirmation bias]].) The conservative Bible scholar who takes the text seriously is sensitive to factual details related in the narrative. In Matthew 8:5-13 "a centurion came forward to him" in person. In Luke 7:2-10 a centurion "sent to him elders of the Jews" in his place. These two statements are [[Contradiction|contradictory]]: if the reader and interpreter assumes that both passages ''must'' be relating ''the same identical event'', then they cannot both be factually true. If the text of the Bible is true, and factual, and worthy of belief, then both Matthew and Luke are true, and factual, and worthy of belief, and Matthew and Luke are relating separate events. The promise of Jesus in [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+14%3A26&version=RSVCE John 14:26] is operative here for the conservative [[Biblical Exegesis|biblical exegete]] who believes in [[Biblical inerrancy]]. Difference in narrated details demonstrates difference of event. Moreover, in placing the accounts of the four Gospels side by side, with the assumption that they are all four in chronological order, in placing the accounts side by side as being in chronological order, the account of the healing of a centurion's servant related in Luke appears as a later occurrence than the account of the healing of a centurion's servant related in Matthew, and there is no reason to see any discrepancy between them. This approach is against the assertion of [[Papias]] related by [[Eusebius]] that not all the Gospels are related in order of sequence (''Ecclesiastical History'', Book III, chapter 39). One of the primary purposes of this ''Harmony of the Gospel (Conservative Version)'' is to demonstrate that there is no contradiction or discrepancy in the scriptures of the Bible. [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2+Peter+1%3A16-21&version=RSVCE '''2 Peter 1:16-21''']. Compare [[Cafeteria Christianity#Proof texts|Proof texting]].</small> "'''I have not found so great a <big>''faith''</big>'''" <small>:Matthew 8:10b:The Bible frequently shows that [[faith]] in God is similar to confident expectation (Christian [[hope]]) relating to [[belief]], and that personal faith can affect the fulfilment of the Lord's answer to prayer. "How can God enter in if with doubt we shut him out?" According to the word of Jesus himself, the granting of many of the prayers or petitions for healing presented to him ("I pray thee, I beg of thee, I beseech thee") were dependent solely on the faith of the individual who prayed him to respond to their petition for help ([[Prayer]] and [[Intercession]]). God had made the outcome of his sovereignly willed answers to prayer contingent on our faith alone—"according to '''your''' faith" the Father's Will ''will'' be done. '''''If''''' you open the door to Him, '''your faith''' will make possible the response which is only awaiting your '''''[https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fiat fiat]''''' to be done, your consent, to be granted. The centurion's express faith (Matthew 8:8) was his ''fiat'' that the Lord's will be done. This doctrine of free will so clearly evident in the Bible absolutely repudiates the [[Calvinism|Calvinist doctrine]] of Irresistible Grace which absolutely denies free will in the souls of men and women, and is thus completely against (''anti-'') the teaching of Christ as found in the Bible—it is "anti"-Christ. The doctrine of free will in man appears to the Calvinist to deny the absolute sovereignty of God alone as God, by falsely attributing divine power to human faith independent of God, thus making God helplessly subject to human will as supreme, utterly dependent on the consent or ''fiat'' of the creature, instead of the will of God—a doctrine of [[idolatry]]. A "''literalist''" reading of the Bible presents the [[scandal]]ous doctrine that it is human faith alone that heals and works wonders, not God. Does not God's word say that the faith of individuals is the cause? ::"Your faith has made you whole"—he does not say "God has made you whole." ::"Your faith has saved you"—he does not say "God has saved you (''or'') I have saved you". :This example demonstrates that a literalistic "proof texting" of the scriptures alone (''[[sola scriptura]]'') based solely on the words of the text alone is a false and unreliable method of [[exegesis]], which leads only to controversy, and is the reason it has always been and still is the main tool of [[heresy]]. (Compare the hair-splitting distinctions of Jewish [[Pilpul]] and the deviant subtleties of [[Casuistry]].) The literalist claims to be "enchained by the scripture", as the firm basis for his assertions, as [[Jan Hus]] and [[Martin Luther]] also firmly and unswervingly maintained, but only as long as other particular Bible texts do not also by a likewise literalist reading also inescapably contradict the literalist's conclusions and proof texts. Conservative Christians believe firmly that the Bible cannot contradict itself. The abundance of biblical texts already presented here in demonstration, attests to the doctrine of operative personal free will in man and faith as a free expression of the evidently biblical doctrine of free will in man. ''Therefore'' faith is in the will to choose to '''believe in''' and '''consent''' to the willing help of the sovereign God, while faith does not of itself possess the power to directly cause the effect that the Lord himself stands so ready to effect as an act of divine love the moment real faith in him is present. Faith itself is a divine gift of God, according to the majority of Christian theologians. [[Pelagianism]] fundamentally denies that man needs such help, having the ability to come to an intelligent understanding of faith in what is not seen, independent of God's grace. And since according to the Bible God is not willing that any should perish (2&nbsp;Peter 3:9) it seems completely reasonable to believe that the gift of faith is universally available to all mankind, to "whosoever will", to all who choose in their soul to not resist it, but freely accept it (see [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Revelation+22%3A17&version=KJV '''Revelation 22:17''' KJV]). Thus, whoever has the gift of divine faith has not willed to reject it. Calvinism denies that faith is available to all, that it is only given to those elect whom God has chosen from all eternity to believe in him, those whom he foreknew would believe. According to the doctrine of [[Biblical inerrancy]], a truly Biblical doctrine does not contradict the Bible. The doctrine that each person is personally and morally responsible for freely accepting or rejecting the divine gift of faith in God and in authorized ambassadors sent by him is therefore consistently and completely consonant with the context of the whole as being according to the mind of Christ through the Spirit of the Lord. See [[Cafeteria Christianity#Proof texts|Proof text]]. Compare the following undeniable Bible texts::*Revelation 3:20:*Matthew 9:22, 29:*Matthew 15:28:*Matthew 17:20:*Matthew 21:22:*Mark 4:40:*Mark 5:34:*Mark 10:52:*Luke 7:9, 50:*Luke 8:48:*Luke 17:19:*Luke 18:42-43:*Acts 3:16:*Acts 14:9-10:*Colossians 2:4:*Jude 20-21:*1 Timothy 6:3-5:*2 Timothy 2:14, 23-26:*2 Timothy 3:3-4:</small> "'''When Jesus came into Peter’s house, he saw his wife’s mother'''". <small>:Matthew 8:14a:This was Peter's wife's mother, Peter's mother-in-law , not "''Jesus' wife's mother''", as if Jesus had a mother-in-law. Jesus had no wife.<br>The structure of Greek grammar does not point to Jesus but to Peter having the wife whose mother was sick. Moreover, it was Peter's house they entered, not Jesus' house. <br> Compare ''[[The Da Vinci Code]]''.  :See the [http://biblehub.com/interlinear/matthew/8-14.htm interlinear text of Matthew 8:14] and [http://biblehub.com/commentaries/matthew/8-14.htm multiple commentaries on Matthew 8:14].</small> "'''he saw his wife’s mother lying sick with a fever'''" <small>:Matthew 8:1114b:KJV "he saw his wife's mother laid, and sick of a fever":See the previous redaction of Mark 1:30; Luke 4:38; Mark 1:31, presented as an earlier, separate episode in this ''Harmony of the Gospel (Conservative Version)''. <br> —[[Harmony of the Gospel (Conservative Version) longer form Chapters 8-14#Ten|Chapter Ten, redacted texts Mark 1:28-30; Luke 4:38-39; Mark 1:31]].

:Some commentators and redactors constructing a harmony of the gospels both see both Mark 1:29-34 (first) and Matthew 8:14-17 (second) as relating the same identical episode based solely on the nearly identical wording of both texts. On this basis many scholars assume that the Gospels are literary constructions without historical reality, or if historical, that they are not presented in chronological order. The fourth century Christian historian Eusebiusfor example, in his ''Ecclesiastical History'', Book III, chapter 39 "Writings of Papias", relates the assertion of [[Papias]] that Mark did not arrange the discourses and deeds of the Lord in the order in which they were spoken or done, but nevertheless told the complete truth without distortion about what was said and done by the Lord.

:Luke 5:10:This passage in Luke 5:1-16 differs from the narrative texts of Matthew 4:18-22 and Mark 1:16-20.

:*Neither Matthew nor Mark relate a miraculous catch of fish when Jesus first calls Simon and Andrew, and James and John. <br>Luke does. :*In Luke 5:1-16 Jesus does not say, "Follow me." <br>:*Neither the Gospel of Matthew nor the Gospel of Mark relate the words of Jesus to Simonin the Gospel of Luke, "Do not be afraid; henceforth you will be catching men." <br>:*Neither Matthew 4:18-22 nor Mark 1:16-20 state that "they left everything". <br>Luke does. :There is no substantial textual basis for asserting that Luke is relating a variation of the first calling of the disciples as related by Matthew and Mark.</small> "'''What kind of man is this, that even the wind and the sea ''obey'' him?'''" <small>:Matthew 8:27:"'''obey'''". The centurion in Matthew 8:5-13 had acknowledged by faith the reality of the obedience of nature to the word of Jesus. Here again nature obeys. Throughout this ''Harmony of the Gospel (Conservative Version)'' the words "'''obey'''" and "'''obedience'''" are consistently highlighted with boldface emphasis. The issue of obedience to proper authority, and the obedience of faith in God and what God has ordained, is fundamental to an understanding of righteousness and godliness, [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+Timothy+3%3A16&version=RSVCE 1&nbsp;Timothy 3:16] "[[religion]], [[piety]]" (Greek [https://biblehub.com/greek/2150.htm ''eusebia'']), as revealed within the whole context of the Bible.  :Obedience is an act of the will. If man, male and female, has no free will, disobedience to the will of God is not possible, for according to that doctrine they only act according to their nature, "and by those things that they know by instinct as irrational animals do, they are destroyed" Jude 10 (RSVCE). Human beings can choose to disobey. That is why faith and obedience without the coercion of fear and pain are free acts of the will. The will of men can be enslaved in bondage to the will of Satan and the coercion of evil individuals through fear of death. Hebrews 2:15.<br>See the article '''[[Free will]]'''.

:Matthew 9:2-8; Mark 2:1b-12; Luke 5:17-26 :''First''Matthew 9:2-8, "And getting into a boat he crossed over and came to his own city. And behold, they brought to him a '''paralytic''', lying on his bed." (The crowd is not mentioned, a house is not mentioned)—"Take heart, '''my son'''; your sins are forgiven." <br>''Second''Mark 2:1b-12, "It was reported that he was at home. And many were gathered together, so that there was no longer room for them, not even about the door; and he was preaching the word to them. And they came, bringing to him a '''paralytic ''' carried by four men. And when they could not get near him because of the crowd, they '''removed the roof ''' above him"—"'''My son''', your sins are forgiven." <br>''Third''Luke 5:17-26, "On one of those days, as he was teaching, there were Pharisees and teachers of the law sitting by, who had come from every village of Galilee and Judea and from Jerusalem; and the power of the Lord was with him to heal. And behold, men were bringing on a bed a man who was '''paralyzed''',...they went up on the roof and let him down with his bed '''through the tiles ''' into the midst before Jesus. And when he saw their faith he said, "'''Man''', your sins are forgiven you."<br> :The differences in the three narratives are enough to justify presenting each of them as separate accountsin any Harmony of the Gospels. In each case the spiritual and theological lesson is the same, and each . Each of the three [[Synoptic gospels|synoptic Gospels]] uses one. :The faith of the men who brought a paralytic to Jesus was visible and active: "He saw their faith". In each passage of this Bible narrative, men showed their faith by what they did, by the working of their faith. These Bible passages illustrate the doctrine of James 2:14-26, ''in particular'' [http://biblehub.com/multi/james/2-24.htm '''James 2:24'''] <br> "'''You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone'''". The same doctrine is found in <br> [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+John+3%3A14-18&version=RSVCE 1 John 3:14-18] and [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+25%3A31-46&version=RSVCE Matthew 25:31-46], <br> also [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ephesians+2%3A10&version=RSVCE Ephesians 2:10]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Philippians+2%3A12-13&version=RSVCE Philippians 2:12-13]; and [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Jeremiah+9%3A24&version=RSVCE Jeremiah 9:24].

:Tradition holds that both are the names of the apostle and evangelist St. Matthew, yet this has been debated. 9:9—the name "Matthew"<br>Mark 2:14; Luke 5:27—the name "Levi"

:Tradition holds that both "Matthew" and "Levi" are the names of the apostle and evangelist [[Matthew the Apostle|Saint Matthew]], yet this has been debated.  :The account of Matthew is not here combined with the account of Levi as a redacted text; both accounts of Levi are redacted as one; and the . The account of '''Matthew ''' is here given firstas a separate narrative. The Both accounts of '''Levi''' in Mark and Luke are redacted into one narrative, as a subsequent episode. Textually, the two similar narratives, "Matthew " and "Levi", textually differ enough to justify presenting both as separate episodes. <br> :If Levi the son of Alphaeus was ''not'' Matthew (who is never called "the son of Alphaeus"), the fact that the name of Levi the son of Alphaeus is not among the listing of the Twelve, possibly indicates that Levi was among those who left Jesus when the Lord spoke of his flesh and his blood as real food and real drink (John 6:60-66). He "Levi son of Alphaeus" may have been the brother of James the son of Alphaeus, one of the twelve, or (not the brother of James and John the sons of Zebedee). Or he may be in fact the same man, both "JamesLevi" the son of Alphaeus and "LeviJames"the son of Alphaeus, being called by either name, . He would thus be the apostle , [[St. James the son of AlphaeusLess]], who, like Matthew himself, was a tax collector. Similarly, the apostle Judas son of James, is also called [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+10%3A3&version=KJV Lebbaeus and Thaddaeus] (see [https://biblehub.com/matthew/10-3.htm parallel versions of Matthew 10:3]; [https://biblehub.com/mark/3-18.htm Mark 3:18]; [https://biblehub.com/luke/6-16.htm Luke 6:16]; [https://biblehub.com/acts/1-13.htm Acts 1:13]).<br>Tax collectors were held to be unclean traitors to their fellow Jews. Calling ''any'' tax collector to be a disciple was a profoundly significant act in the eyes of the Jews, and shocking to the scribes and Pharisees. If the tax collector Levi son of Alphaeus is James son of Alphaeus, Jesus called two of them. :This proposal is speculative only, and most significantly it disregards the most ancient tradition which unquestioningly attributes both names of Levi and Matthew to St. Matthew the Evangelist.  :While the speculation that Levi son of Alphaeus is not Matthew but James son of Alphaeus does not appear to directly affect biblical doctrine, and for that reason seems inconsequential and harmless, it does reject the ancient tradition of the understanding of the consistent mind of the church over a period of almost two thousand years. This is potentially dangerous. Such novel exegeses as this one at first glance seems to be, however clever, attractive and reasonable they may seem to be, should ''always'' be treated with extreme caution. The biblical exegete suddenly taken with what seems to him or her to be the novelty of a brilliant light of revolutionary insight (which this is not) must weigh carefully the possibility that those ancients closest to the time of the apostles had a tradition of information no longer accessible to us nineteen hundred and fifty years after the fact. Knowledge of the extant ancient writings of the early Christian church leaders following after the apostles is a fundamental requisite for a valid biblical hermeneutic of the original Gospel of the Lord. A military analogy holds that a new second lieutenant may have the theory and rank to command a platoon, but the thoroughly experienced veteran sergeant major with decades of service under him has the solid practical expertise in the field that the new lieutenant would be a fool to ignore if he wants to keep his troops alive and earn their respect. :The original developer and contributor of this encyclopedic feature, ''Harmony of the Gospel (Conservative Version)'' rejects the speculation he has presented here that Levi son of Alphaeus is probably ''not'' Matthew the apostle. According to further additional research it is not exactly new. It is deliberately presented here solely as an instructive example of jumping to a [[Specious reasoning|specious conclusion]] without doing more thorough background research. The original contributor's ''complete rejection'' of the conclusion he has presented here in this feature regarding the identity of Levi son of Alphaeus is an entirely reasonable rejection, firmly based on the solid foundation of the expert [[opinion]]s of highly qualified, carefully reasoned professional researchers in the field of [[Historical-critical method (Higher criticism)]]. Compare [[Peer review]].  :Consider the example of Martin Luther's documented claim that he himself "is a doctor above all the doctors in Popedom" (scripture scholars and biblical theologians and ecclesiastical historians) <br> —''from'' [http://www.bible-researcher.com/luther01.html '''Open Letter On Translating By Martin Luther''', 1530. Translated from "Ein sendbrief D.M. Luthers, Von Dolmetzschen und Fürbit der heiligenn" in ''Dr. Martin Luthers Werk'' (Weimar: Hermann Boehlaus Nachfolger, 1909) Band 30, Teil II, pages 632-646 Revised and annotated by Michael D. Marlowe, June 2003]; Stoddard J. Rebuilding a Lost Faith. 1922, pages. 101-102; see also Luther M. Amic. Discussion, 1, 127. <br> Luther was steadfastly unconvinced by every attempt to persuade him, even from scripture, that he was wrong. His defenders declare that he was right. His detractors represent him as at best an example of [[Invincible ignorance]] and [[Specious reasoning]].

"'''Fast'''", "'''Fasting'''"<small>:Three Matthew 9:14 and Luke 5:33 "fast"; Mark 2:18 "fasting" (RSVCE, WEB, many other versions) :These texts present three criticisms of Jesus and his disciples, by three distinct groups, in three different settings: :*Those who were present, who spoke to his disciples in Jesus' hearing(Luke 5:33); :*those who came afterward, who spoke to his disciples, and Jesus heard them(Mark 2:18); :*and the disciples of John, who came to him directly(Matthew 9:14).

:A conservative textual critic takes the weight of the collective textual witnesses as trustworthy and reliable, in ''every detail'' as recounted in the Gospels, according to Jesus' promise in [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+14%3A26&version=RSVCE John 14:26] ([https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalms+12%3A6&version=RSVCE Psalm 12:6]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalms+18%3A30&version=RSVCE 18:30]); and holds as a principle that similarity of narrative does not necessarily prove identity of event: ''just because it sounds the same does not mean it is the same''.

:'''''New wine''''' (Greek '''οίνον νέον''' ''oinon neon'') has mildly intoxicating properties (Acts 2[https:13; //www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Hosea+4%3A11&version=RSVCE Hosea 4:11]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts+2%3A12-15&version=RSVCE Acts 2:12-15]). This is most commonly grape juice that has begun to naturally ferment in the hot middle-eastern climate at the time of the grape harvest, about the season of Pentecost (the "Feast of Weeks" in the month of ''Sivan'', May/June).

:Cultivated grapes that are ripe and still on the vine already contain alcohol in trace amounts naturally, about one-tenth of one percent, similar to the amount in fresh-squeezed orange juice, and a naturally occurring yeast is always present on the outside of the skins of unbroken grapes. If the skin of the grape is even slightly broken, this natural yeast will begin to cause a mild fermentation of the juice within the berry, and the grape berry containing the resultant new wine will be considered to contain a blessing. <br> "As the new wine is found in the cluster, and ''one'' saith, Destroy it not; '''for a blessing ''is'' in it: … '''" [https://biblehub.com/isaiah/65-8.htm Isaiah&nbsp;65:8]. (''boldface emphasis added'')<br>Grape juice that has been ''[[Pasteurization|pasteurized]]'', removing killing any naturally occurring yeastand allowing the trace amounts of natural alcohol present in the fruit to dissipate harmlessly, will not ferment ''if kept sterile'', and thus pasteurized grape juice contains no alcohol. <br>In the heat of the ordinary climate in Palestine, a few hours after grapes with the skins have been pressed and the unpasteurized juice with its own natural yeast is stored in pitch-lined clay jars in unrefrigerated rooms, an unavoidable natural process of fermentation begins to change it into wine. After 12 to 24 hours the alcohol content of the stored grape juice ranges from 1 to 3 percent, similar to that of mild beer, due to the natural fermentation action of the yeast of the grapeskins included in the press of the grapes. There is a profound difference between the juice of grapes turning into wine, and spoiled and rotten grape juice and rotten grapes and the juice that happens to come out of them when they are stripped off the vine and discarded to be burned later. They have an unmistakably rotten smell that is utterly unlike the aroma of grape juice being turned into wine by proper natural fermentation.

:New wineskins are flexible, moderately-sized new leather pouches or bags , usually whole animal skins, sewn very tightly together (KJV leather "bottles") , which, when filled with this newly fermenting grape juice in its second phase and carefully sealed tightly, can expand and distend as the gas of the second phase of fermentation is producedand held by the tightly sealed leather "bottle", eventually turning the new wine into "old", with a higher alcohol content of 12 to 18 percent. Old Once stretched by this fermentation process, the leftover old wineskins , as completely suitable containers for "old wine", are no longer flexible and cannot expandany more, and the increasing gas pressure from the remaining phase of fermentation of another batch of new wine in put into them and tightly sealed would burst them. Compare Acts 2:12-15. From this passage and others, it is clearly evident that when Jesus refers to "new wine" and "burst" wineskins or "bottles" he is not speaking of unfermented grape juice.

:See [http://www.ccel.org/ccel/hastings/dict2/Page_824.html '''''Hastings Bible Dictionary''''' (1909) p. 824 "'''WINE'''"(ccel.org)].

:The issue is controverted. The Greek word '''οινος''' "''oinos''" (lit. literally, "wine") means simply "the fruit of the vine", an expression similar to the phrase "the fruits of our labors". Ordinarily, the generic phrase "fruit of the vine" generally means "all products of the vine", which ([https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Numbers+6%3A1-4&version=RSVCE '''Numbers 6:1-4''']). This includes preserves, raisins, jams, jellies, syrups and all grape-derived beverages, together with the whole spectrum of products of viniculture, all the way from immediately pressed fresh grape juice to carefully refined alcoholic wines derived from fermented grape juice, including what we know today as brandy. Against this generally all-inclusive meaning of "the fruit of the vine", (See [[Fundamentalism|Christian FundamentalistAlcoholic drink]] doctrine clearly teaches that wine in the modern sense of an alcoholic drink was not a common drink, especially among the Jews, and that contrary to popular belief, ''[https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/connoisseur connoisseurs] of grape juice'' (as distinct from the average ordinary person) actively sought to stop it from fermenting and in fact had five different methods available to them to accomplish this. They assert firmly that Jesus never used, and in particular did not produce in the miracle at Cana, any wine that had any potentially intoxicating properties, because he did not sin, because he would never have provided an opportunity to sin, and because he absolutely would never promote the sin of drunkenness in the celebration of a wedding feast by providing more than 100 gallons of intoxicating wine (John 2:1-11). The very use of wine with any degree of alcoholic content would therefore immediately constitute a sin of drunkenness the moment it touched the lips ::(Leviticus 10:9-10; Judges 13:4, 7, 14; 1&nbsp;Samuel 1:13-16; Proverbs 4:16-17; 20:1; 23:20, 29-35; Isaiah 5:11, 23-24; 28:7-8; Jeremiah 35:5-8; Ezekiel 44:21; Daniel 1:8-20; Hosea 4:11; Habakkuk 2:5; Acts 2:13-15; Romans 14:21; Ephesians 5:18; 1&nbsp;Timothy 3:2-3, 8-9; Titus 1:7; 2:3; 1&nbsp;Peter 4:3-5),:and thus the production of alcoholic wine by Jesus would have involved him in providing immediate opportunity for serious sin. Therefore, what Jesus miraculously produced was fresh grape juice, "the best wine", and they assert that no Jew ever got drunk on the wine provided at any Jewish marriage feast, and that being "full of wine" did not mean being drunk with alcohol but only "full to satiety" (satiated, filled to the full, fully satisfied, unable to consume any more).

:See'''''Against''''' this generally all-inclusive meaning of "the fruit of the vine", e.g.[[Fundamentalism|Christian Fundamentalist]] doctrine clearly teaches that wine in the modern sense of an alcoholic drink was not a common drink, especially among the Jews, and that contrary to popular belief, ''[https://ia802605www.usmerriam-webster.archive.orgcom/5dictionary/items/oinosdiscussiono00fieliala/oinosdiscussiono00fieliala_bw.pdf "connoisseur '''Oinosconnoisseurs''' of grape juice]'' (as distinct from the average ordinary person) actively sought to stop it from fermenting, and in fact had five different methods available to them to accomplish this. Fundamentalist Christian doctrine firmly asserts that Jesus never used, and in particular that He did not produce in the miracle at Cana, any wine that had any potentially intoxicating properties, : *because he did not sin, :*because he would never have provided an opportunity to sin, :*and because he absolutely would never promote the sin of drunkenness in the celebration of a discussion wedding feast by providing drunken guests with more than 100 gallons of ''intoxicating'' wine, as distinctly different from ''non-intoxicating'' new wine (John 2:1-11). :The fundamentalist position is clear: the Bible very use of wine questionwith ''any'' degree of alcoholic content would therefore immediately constitute a sin of drunkenness the moment it touched the lips," by Leon C''the fatal first step''". Field ::(1883)'''KJV texts—''' [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis+9%3A20-27&version=KJV Genesis 9:20-27]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Leviticus+10%3A9-10&version=KJV Leviticus 10:9-10]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Judges+13%3A4&version=KJV Judges 13:4], also online article [httphttps://www.orgsitesbiblegateway.com/kypassage/jesusfirst?search=Judges+13%3A7&version=KJV 7], [https:/_pgg9/www.php3 biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Judges+13%3A14&version=KJV 14]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+Samuel+1%3A13-16&version=KJV 1&nbsp;Samuel 1:13-16]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Proverbs+4%3A16-17&version=KJV Proverbs 4:16-17]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Proverbs+20%3A1&version=KJV 20:1]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Proverbs+23%3A20&version=KJV 23:20], [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Proverbs+23%3A29-35&version=KJV 29-35]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Proverbs+31%3A1-7&version=KJV 31:1-7]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Isaiah+5%3A11&version=KJV Isaiah 5:11], [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Isaiah+5%3A22-23&version=KJV 22-23]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Isaiah+28%3A7-8&version=KJV 28:7-8]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Jeremiah+35%3A5-8&version=KJV Jeremiah 35:5-8]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ezekiel+44%3A21&version=KJV Ezekiel 44:21]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Daniel+1%3A8-20&version=KJV Daniel 1:8-20]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Hosea+4%3A11&version=KJV Hosea 4:11]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Habakkuk+2%3A5&version=KJV Habakkuk 2:5 KJV]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Habakkuk+2%3A5&version=RSVCE Habakkuk 2:5 RSVCE] [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2+Maccabees+15%3A39&version=RSVCE 2&nbsp;Maccabees 15:39]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts+2%3A13-15&version=KJV Acts 2:13-15]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans+14%3A21&version=KJV Romans 14:21]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ephesians+5%3A18&version=KJV Ephesians 5:18]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+Timothy+3%3A2-3&version=KJV 1&nbsp;Timothy 3:2-3], [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+Timothy+3%3A8-9&version=KJV 8-9]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Titus+1%3A7&version=KJV Titus 1:7]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Titus+2%3A3&version=KJV 2:3]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+Peter+4%3A3-5&version=KJV 1&nbsp;Peter 4:3-5]),:The fundamentalist conclusion, that the sin of drunkenness is inextricably linked to wine, leading '''Jesus And Wine?''always'], both of them in (partial) contradiction of facts cited in ''Hastings Bible Dictionary'' entry to poverty, crime, disease, insanity and death, is the basis of the doctrine that the production of alcoholic wine by the sinless Jesus would have involved him in providing immediate opportunity for serious sin. Christian fundamentalists who demand total abstinence teach that what Jesus miraculously produced was fresh grape juice, "WINEthe best wine, the good wine", and they assert that no Jew ever got drunk on the wine provided at any Jewish marriage feast, and that being "full of new wine" did not mean being drunk with alcohol but only "full to satiety" (satiated, filled to the full, fully satisfied, unable to consume any more).

:Compare The apostles on the refuting arguments day of Pentecost were accused of being drunk, of being "full of new wine", because each one of the crowd of devout Jews in Jerusalem there from 16 nations, coming together, confounded and amazed because of the sound, heard them each in their own languages loudly telling the mighty works of God (Acts 2:13-15). It seemed to some of them that no sober man would act that way unless he was really inebriated.  :No one ever became drunk by drinking too much grape juice. No one exhibits eccentric or disoriented public behavior as a reaction to drinking too much freshly squeezed grape juice. (However, grape juice consumed in excessively large amounts does have a strongly laxative effect, usually resulting in episodes of diarrhea.) :Consider the relevance of Luke 5:39 to John 2:9-10 and Hosea 4:11:*"No man having drunk old wine immediately desires new, for he says, ‘The old is better.’ " <br>Luke 5:39. :*"You have kept the good wine until now" <br>John 2:9-10.:*"Wine and new wine take away the understanding" <br>Hosea 4:11. :See, for example, the following two articles::*[httphttps://wwwia802605.churchhistory101us.comarchive.org/docs5/Wine-Ancient-Worlditems/oinosdiscussiono00fieliala/oinosdiscussiono00fieliala_bw.pdf "'''Wine in Oinos: a discussion of the Ancient World Part 1Bible wine question''', R" by Leon C. A. BakerField (1883), Ph178 pages (ia802605.Dus. Ecclesiastical History (churchhistory101archive.org)]:*[http://www.orgsites.com/docsky/jesusfirst/_pgg9.php3 '''Jesus And Wine?''' (orgsites.com)]:Both of these discussions are in (partial) contradiction of facts cited in ''Hastings Bible Dictionary'' entry "WINE" above. :This doctrine asserted by Leon C. Fields that "new wine" in the Bible "''always''" means only non-Ancientintoxicating "freshly squeezed grape juice" containing no alcoholic content whatever, is a [[falsehood]] that contradicts the teaching of the Bible, the same Bible which clearly demonstrates that drinking an excess of new wine does produce drunkenness, that new wine "takes away reason". See again Acts 2:13-World15 and Hosea 4:11 and those other texts already cited above which specifically mention new wine.pdf)While the charge of drunkenness hurled by some of the crowd in [[mockery]] at the behavior of the apostles was not true, it is clear from the context that drunkenness was commonly attributed to the consumption of too much new wine. :"The Son of man comes eating and drinking and they say, Behold a glutton and a drunkard." Matthew 11:19; Luke 7:34. A public figure who is seen drinking wine with some minimal or moderate alcoholic content might be called a drunkard and a wine-bibber by his detractors and critics, but not one who is seen strictly drinking only freshly-squeezed grape juice instead of wine. No disgrace of drunkenness is attributed to drinking only unfermented grape juice. Excess consumption of food including nonintoxicating beverages is called gluttony, but never drunkenness. :Compare the refuting arguments in the following articles:

:*See also [http://biblehub.com/commentaries/matthew/9-17.htm commentaries on Matthew 9:17], in particular '''Barnes' Notes on the Bible''', ''which refutes the claim that fermenting new wine would break have the pressure to burst even fresh wineskins''.

:The character [[specious reasoning]] of Leon C. Field's argument for total abstinence based on citing the example of Jesus Himself is summarily exemplified on page 85 of '''''Oinos: a discussion of the Bible wine question''''' where , in reference to the Last Supper, he states:

::(After which he set aside on the table as refuse [''fœces''] the pulp of the grapes he had just squeezed into the cup.)

:Leon C. Field states as an established scientific fact that alcohol is never found in nature, :*that it is the result of corruption and decay, :*that it is always a poison, destructive to human tissue, :*that God never created it, :*that it is solely the artificial and unnatural product of corrupt human activity opposed to the holiness of God, :*and that rabbis from the time of Moses to the present day have universally forbidden the use of alcoholic wine in the celebration of the Passover, because the Law of Moses forbids the offering of products of fermentation (of leavening, yeast) to the Lord ::—(Leon C. Field, ''Oinos: a discussion of the Bible wine question'' 18531883, pages 76-79). :Therefore , he reasons, Jesus, whom no one can convict of sin, never sinned by providing opportunity to sin by promoting and providing intoxicating wine and used only freshly squeezed grape juice on the night of his Last Supper. ::" 'Christ never made a drop of alcoholic wine in the grape. In the whole realm of living nature he has never once created an atom of alcohol. That destructive spirit is nowhere a product of nature. Alcohol is a purely artificial product, obtained only by carefully carried out chemical methods. It exists nowhere in nature,' says Dr. Niel Carmichael. <br> "Dr. Eichardson describes alcohol as 'an artificial product devised by man for his purposes.' Similar is the testimony of Sir Humphrey Davy, Liebig, Chapital and Turner. <br> "If Jesus did make an alcoholic substance on this occasion, as Chancellor Crosby, Dr. Moore, and Professor Bumstead would have us believe that he did, then the act was without a parallel in creation." <br> —(''Oinos: A discussion of the Bible wine question'' 18531883, pages 54-55):Field maintains the absolute [[Temperance|temperance position]] that everyone who partakes of alcohol sins; and every church that uses wine in [[Eucharist|Christian worship]] blasphemes God and dishonors Jesus as a promoter of corruption and death by using in his name the fermented product of corruption and decay, which the scriptures present as the very image of the nature of sin , which the Bible condemns. He says the only image therefore that represents the sinless blood of Jesus Christ is the juice of the grape freshly squeezed into the cup and immediately consumed by his followers without delay.

:On the night of His Last Supper, Jesus expressly commanded, "'''Do this''', as often as ye drink it, in remembrance of me" 1 Corinthians 11:25 (''boldface emphasis added''). We know of no Christian church that where, in the ritual of Christian communion , the chief presiding leader, brother, minister, elder, pastor, priest or bishop, takes up a cluster of ripe grapes , and in the presence of the congregation squeezes the fresh grape juice into the cup of blessing that we receive ([https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+Corinthians+10%3A16&version=KJV 1&nbsp;Corinthians 10:16]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+Corinthians+11%3A23-29&version=KJV 11:23-29]).

:(There have been anecdotal accounts of rare occasions when ordinary grape juice purchased by Leon C. Field in ''Oinos: a church or provided free of cost by a local farmer from his grapevines has been prepared a few hours in advance discussion of the worship service and inadvertently left uncovered indoors on a hot day without air conditioningBible wine question'' quotes documented early church records that do mention cases of ''emergency'', and when taken later at wine is unavailable for the moment celebration of communion has been discovered to have slightly fermentedthe Lord's Supper, to documentary accounts which authorize by permission that fresh grapes squeezed into the embarrassment cup of blessing by the preparers and the amusement president of the pastor and the congregationassembly, who usually forgive what is understandably accepted as an accident. This inadvertently gave them a taste of or that new wine, may be used for the [[Eucharist]]. But these accounts always relate this authorized practice as the exception, not the normal rule.)

:Field's discussion cites and quotes There have been anecdotal accounts in opposition to his total abstinence position abundant evidence put forth by established anthropologists, historians, biblical scholars print and Hebrew and Greek textual critics who maintain that the normal Bible meaning online of "wine" is the form of drink that varies in alcoholic content and is potentially intoxicating rare occasions when abused ordinary grape juice purchased by ''excessive'' indulgence. He dismisses them in favor a church, or provided free of every permissible exception they allow which supports cost by a local farmer who has extracted and stored pasteurized homemade grape juice from his argument that the ordinary wine own cultivated grapevines, has been prepared a few hours in the ancient Middle East and among the Jews advance of Palestine was ''invariably non-intoxicating and non-alcoholic'' while ignoring every assertion that the ordinary wine was intoxicating worship service, and alcoholic (an example of [[Confirmation bias]])inadvertently left uncovered indoors on a hot day without air conditioning. His citations of scripture are consequently very selective. Those passages which show wine as a blessing and a comforting benefit created When tasted later by God as a good for mankind and as a foretaste of the richness and exhilarating joy of congregation at the coming Kingdom moment of God under the authority and rule of the King Messiah are always reinterpreted to exclude the possibility of the image [[Typology|type]] of the ecstasy of spiritual intoxication by the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit (1&nbsp;Samuel 10:5-6communion, 10-12; 16:13; Psalm 104:14-15; Isaiah 25:6; Matthew 9:17; 13:44; 25:21; Mark 2:22; Luke 1:46-47; 5:37-39; 15:22-24, 32; John 2:1-11; 4:13-14; 7:37-39; 15:1-8; 1&nbsp;Corinthians 14:14-19; Galatians 5:22; Ephesians 5:15-20 "be not '''drunken''' with wine" (he does not say "do not drink wine"); 1&nbsp;Timothy 4:4-5; Jude 12). He constantly refers it has been discovered to alcohol as a "stimulant"have become slightly fermented, when in fact it was already known to the 19th century international medical establishment embarrassment of his day as a "depressant". Rarely does he clarify that he means that it ''invariably (always)'' "stimulates" the baser passions of lust preparers and aggression, insisting instead that it is a stimulant, and always an evil one, a poison having utterly no redeeming qualities whatever. Even the mildest state amusement of cheerfulness and exhilaration produced from as little as 1 ounce of wine is presented as physiological proof of poisoning, of a genuinely existing poisoned condition manifesting as the earliest stage of actual drunkenness in which the soul is utterly lost pastor and '''''cannot''''' be saved—''not even Jesus Christ Savior'' (Greek [http://biblehub.com/greek/4990.htm ''Σωτήρ'' "Soter" Savior]) ''can save that soul'''''!''' Against the interpretation of the majority of modern scriptural scholars, a state of ''non-salvation'', Greek ''άσωτία'' "asotia"congregation, who usually forgive what is predicated of ''οίνος'' "onios", wineunderstandably accepted as an accident.::"Drunkenness in all its stages is This inadvertently gave them a state taste of insalvableness. It is a condition in which one not only ''is'' not, but ''can'' not be saved. We believe, however, that this passage predicates ''άσωτία'' of ''οίνος''. We understand very well that this is not the interpretation of the majority of modern expositors." (Field, ''Oinos: the Bible new wine question'', page 118):He dismisses as a [[Great Apostasy|pagan corruption and departure from the pure Gospel of Christ]] the traditional usage of the ancient [[Apostolic succession|Apostolic]] Orthodox and Catholic Churches in the [[Eucharist]] as irrelevant (ordinary wine is used, having a natural 3 to 12 percent alcohol content only).<br> Compare 2&nbsp;Thessalonians 2:15; 2&nbsp;Peter 1:3-4.

:Field's discussion cites and quotes, ''in opposition to his total abstinence position'', abundant evidence put forth by credibly established anthropologists, historians, biblical scholars and Hebrew and Greek textual critics, who maintain that the normal Bible meaning of "wine" is the form of drink that varies in alcoholic content and is potentially intoxicating when abused by ''excessive'' indulgence. ''He dismisses them'', in favor of every permissible exception they allow which supports his argument that the ordinary wine in the ancient Middle East and among the Jews of Palestine was ''invariably non-intoxicating and non-alcoholic'', while ignoring every verifiable assertion supported by abundant documentary evidence that the ordinary wine of the Jews in Palestine was normally intoxicating and alcoholic in content. This is an example of [[Confirmation bias]]. (Compare the [[Straw man fallacy]]). His citations of scripture are consequently very selective. Those passages which show wine as a blessing, and a comforting benefit created by God as a good for mankind, and as a foretaste of the richness and exhilarating joy of the coming Kingdom of God under the authority and rule of the King Messiah, are always reinterpreted by Field to ''exclude'' the image of wine as a [[Typology|type]] of the ecstasy of spiritual intoxication and cheerful joy caused by the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit ::([https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Judges+9%3A13&version=KJV Judges 9:13 "wine which cheers gods and men"]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalms+104%3A14-15&version=KJV Psalm 104:14-15]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Proverbs+9%3A1-6&version=KJV Proverbs 9:1-6]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Sirach+31%3A35-37&version=DRA Ecclesiasticus (Sirach) 31:35-37]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Isaiah+25%3A6&version=KJV Isaiah 25:6]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+9%3A17&version=KJV Matthew 9:17]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mark+2%3A22&version=KJV Mark 2:22]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+1%3A46-47&version=KJV Luke 1:46-47]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+5%3A37-39&version=KJV 5:37-39]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+15%3A22-24&version=KJV 15:22-24], [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+15%3A32&version=KJV 32]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+2%3A1-11&version=KJV John 2:1-11]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+4%3A13-14&version=KJV 4:13-14]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+7%3A37-39&version=KJV 7:37-39]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+15%3A1-8&version=KJV 15:1-8]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Galatians+5%3A22-23&version=KJV Galatians 5:22-23]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ephesians+5%3A15-20&version=KJV Ephesians 5:15-20 "be not '''drunken''' with wine", he does not say "do not drink wine"]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+Timothy+4%3A4-5&version=KJV 1&nbsp;Timothy 4:4-5] with [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Wisdom+1%3A13-15&version=RSVCE Wisdom 1:13-15]; and [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2+Peter+1%3A3-4&version=KJV 2&nbsp;Peter 1:3-4]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Revelation+19%3A9&version=KJV Revelation 19:9]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Revelation+22%3A17&version=KJV 22:17]). :Leon Field in his 1883 published paper ''Oinos: A discussion of the Bible wine question'' constantly refers to alcohol as a "stimulant", when in fact it was already known to the 19th century international medical establishment of his day as a "depressant" of the central nervous system (not meaning "depressing"). Rarely does Fields clarify for his readers that he means that wine '''''invariably''' (always) "'''stimulates'''" '''the baser passions of lust and aggression by suppressing (depressing) inhibitions''''', insisting instead that it is a stimulant, and always an evil one, a '''poison''' having utterly no redeeming qualities whatever. Field asserts that even the mildest state of cheerfulness and exhilaration produced from as little as one ounce of wine is physiological proof of poisoning, a genuinely existing poisoned condition manifesting as the earliest stage of actual drunkenness in which the soul is immediately, now, at that very moment of mild inebriation, already, utterly lost and '''''cannot''''' be saved—'''''not even Jesus Christ Savior can save that soul !''''' (Greek [http://biblehub.com/greek/4990.htm ''Σωτήρ'' "Soter" Savior]) '''''— not even at the moment of repentance in the midst of an excessively immoderate drunken state of confusion and facing immediate death !''''' <br>(Recall the "[[good thief]]" on the cross, who was himself doubtlessly doped with the draught of myrrh and wine normally offered at the site of execution, Mark 15:23-27; Luke 23:39-43.)<br> Against the interpretation of the majority of modern scriptural scholars and theologians, Field says a state of ''non-salvation'', [https://biblehub.com/greek/810.htm Greek ''άσωτία'' "asotia"], is predicated of ''οίνος'' "onios", wine. He says,::"Drunkenness in all its stages is a state of insalvableness. It is a condition in which one not only ''is'' not, but ''can'' not be saved. We believe, however, that this passage predicates ''άσωτία'' of ''οίνος''. We understand very well that this is not the interpretation of the majority of modern expositors." (Leon C. Field, ''Oinos: the Bible wine question'', page 118, ''italic emphasis his''.):He concludes that even mildly alcoholic wine is ''per se'' sin (that wine in and of itself is intrinsically sin, not only its abuse, but wine itself is sin)<br>—''Oinos: the Bible wine question'', page 3, quoting Tayler Lewis, American Preface to the "Temperance Bible Commentary", pages xii, xiii. <br>He dismisses as a [[Great Apostasy|pagan corruption and departure from the pure Gospel of Christ]] the traditional usage of pure grape wine in the celebration of the [[Eucharist]] in the ancient [[Apostolic succession|Apostolic]] Orthodox and Catholic Churches, the [[Coptic Church]] and the [[Independent Eastern Churches]]. The ancient antiquity of their traditional use of wine is dismissed by him as wholly irrelevant (ordinary 100% grape wine is used, having a natural 3 to 12 percent alcohol content only).<br> Compare [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2+Thessalonians+2%3A15&version=KJV 2&nbsp;Thessalonians 2:15]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2+Peter+1%3A3-4&version=KJV 2&nbsp;Peter 1:3-4]. :The greater majority of Christian apologists warn that the practice of abstinence itself can also be immoderate and extreme, that it can be taken too far, an excessive love of physical denial, a "[[gluttony]]" of self-deprivation to the point of physical and mental harm—being actually the opposite of temperance, which consists of humble moderation in all things—and in such cases is evidence of inhuman Satanic pride, [[Pharisees|pharisaically]] exalting one's self over others judged as justly condemned without mercy to hell for being moderately indulgent. Moderation by others in the use of wine is interpreted as a deadly spiritual compromise with gross moral corruption. It is condemned as a form of [[culpable negligence]] through careless moral and spiritual laxity, thus making them culpably guilty for their spiritual prudence of avoiding the two extremes of excessive self-indulgence and excessive self-mortification ([https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+18%3A9-14&version=RSVCE Luke 18:9-14]). See '''[[Envy]]'''. (Compare '''[[Syncretism]]'''.) :In contrast to fundamentalist warnings, those Christians who appeal to the Bible in accordance with their interpretation of the apostolic tradition, condemned by fundamentalists as the traditions of men and corrupt doctrines of devils (Matthew 15:6-9; 1 Timothy 4:1), claim that the true virtue of abstinence is not that a man or woman abstain altogether from wines with alcoholic content, but that he or she abstain from ''immoderate'' use of alcoholic drinks and all other things. Abstinence is understood as avoiding ''excessive'' indulgence in using the good things of creation wrongly, by avoiding any illicit perversion of their proper use into an improper use ( 1 Timothy 4:4-5]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Wisdom+1%3A12-15&version=RSVCE Wisdom 1:12-15]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=James+4%3A1-4&version=KJV James 4:1-4]). The Catholic Church, the Orthodox Church, the Anglican Communion and Lutheran churches, for example, teach that common sense corroborates the consistent, historical human experience that wine, like food, sex, laughter, and dancing, is a good thing when appropriately enjoyed with sensibly responsible moderation in its proper time and context with respect for human dignity <br> ([https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+Timothy+4%3A4-5&version=RSVCE 1 Timothy 4:4-5]; <br> [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Sirach+31%3A35-37&version=DRA Sirach 31:35-37 Douay], <br> [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Sirach+31%3A27-28&version=RSVCE Sirach 31:27-28 RSVCE]; <br> [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ecclesiastes+3%3A1-13&version=KJV Ecclesiastes 3:1-13]). :The representative Catholic doctrine of moderation, which is also held by many other professing Christians, is a doctrine ardently condemned on the Reformation interpretive principle of ''[[sola scriptura]]'' by Protestant Evangelical and Fundamentalist Christian writers, who unhesitatingly warn of danger to the soul of man through the [[deceit]]ful compromise of moderation, a moderation which is condemned as a compromise with evil. The ancient traditional doctrine of prudent moderation, as rather an expression of the apostolic virtue of temperance, is clearly put forth as a reasonable, biblical and Christian practice by [[Christian apologetics|mainline Christian apologists]] in the following articles and sources available online::*[https://www.learnreligions.com/temperance-a-cardinal-virtue-542135 Temperance: A Cardinal Virtue. Moderation in All Things, by Scott P. Richert (learnreligions.com)]:*[https://catholicapologetics.org/moral/alcohol.htm Alcohol / Drunkenness (catholicapologetics.org)]:*[http://baltimore-catechism.com/lesson6.htm The Baltimore Catechism #3 (1885) Lesson 6~ Questions '''304-308''' (Baltimore-catechism.com)] ''scroll down the page to ''Q.304'' and following''.:*[http://www.scborromeo.org/ccc/p3s2c2a5.htm Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) Part 1, Section 2, Chapter 2, Article 5, paragraphs '''2289-2291''' (scborromeo.org)] ''scroll down the page to ''2289. :In 1 Corinthians 6:10 St. Paul clearly states that '''''drunkards''''' will not inherit the kingdom of God. Yet drunkards are not mentioned by Jesus in Matthew 25:31-49 nor in Revelation 21:8, 27; 22:15. St. Paul says nothing about those who drink wine in moderation. He even recommends "a little wine" for digestive troubles and other ailments 1&nbsp;Timothy 5:23. He does say, "Do not get '''''drunk''''' with wine, for that is debauchery" Ephesians 5:15-20 (RSVCE). He does '''''not''''' say, "Do not drink wine." :The assertion on page 54 of his Leon C. Field's discussion of the ''Bible wine question'' , that alcohol does not occur in nature , is totally refuted by the evidences presented in the following article:

:Leon C. Field's assertion that strictly authentic Jewish rabbinical authority and the Torah absolutely forbids the use of any kind of fermented wine at Passover is false. The Torah forbids the '''''eating''''' of anything leavened during the feasts feast of Passover and of Unleavened Bread, and specifies nothing about wine, only that nothing leavened is to be found in their dwellings, . This is normally understood in the [[Talmud]] to apply to grain and grain breads and grain products that may be freely eatenat any time outside of the season of Passover and Unleavened Bread, not to any liquids they drink ([https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Exodus+12%3A1-51&version=RSVCE Exodus 12:1-51]). By extension, anything that included yeast obtained from any of the five forbidden grains , wheat, rye, oats, spelt, and millet, in the process of its manufacture is regarded as the product of leavening, and therefore as leavened. Because A distinction is made between "kosher wine" and "kosher for Passover wine". Ordinary "kosher wine" is fermented by using yeast from these five grains. But because the yeast used for producing specifically approved "kosher for Passover wine " is from yeast found on fruit and not from yeast found on the five grains that are forbidden at Passover, the rabbis thus allowed for the legitimate fermented production and enjoyment of kosher for Passover alcoholic wine at the Passover Seder as a sign of gladness and joy at the deliverance of the Lord ([https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalms+104%3A14-15&version=KJV Psalm 104:14-15]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Deuteronomy 10+14%3A22-26&version=KJV Deuteronomy 14:1022-26]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2+Chronicles+30%3A13-27&version=KJV 2&nbsp;Chronicles 30:13-27]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Exodus+29%3A38-42&version=KJV Exodus 29:38-42]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Leviticus+2%3A11-13&version=KJV Leviticus 2:11-13]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Leviticus+23%3A13&version=KJV 23:13]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Numbers+15%3A4-10&version=KJV Numbers 15:4-10]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Numbers+28%3A14&version=KJV 28:14]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Sirach+31%3A30-42&version=DRA Sirach 31:30-42 Douay]–[https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Sirach+31%3A25-31&version=RSVCE 31:25-31 RSVCE]). See the following articles::*[http://www.angelfire.com/pa2/passover/passover-wine/kosher-for-passover-wine.html '''Kosher for Passover Wine ''' (angelfire.com)]

:*[https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/tractate-pesachim-chapter-10 '''Babylonian Talmud <nowiki>[BT]</nowiki>: Tractate Pesachim: Chapter 10: Regulations concerning the meal on the eve of Passover and the four cups of wine to be drunk with the meal''' (jewishvirtuallibrary.org)] —''this is an extensive document. Reading time about 2.5 hours''.<br> Potentially intoxicating alcoholic wine was understood in the Talmud as the ordinary wine of Passover, as seen in these two lines from [BT]&nbsp;''Pesachim'' 10: <br> "''&nbsp;'Nor shall a person have less than four cups of wine.' —''How can the rabbis order a thing which might involve danger? " (drunkenness). :In the first century at the time of Jesus, wedding feasts normally lasted 7 days, sometimes longer (for example, [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis+24%3A52-55&version=RSVCE Genesis 24:52-55]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Tobit+8%3A19&version=RSVCE Tobit 8:19]). It was entirely the normal, ordinary custom to moderately and intermittently enjoy wine frequently during all that time of feasting, to rejoice with good cheer without getting ''immoderately, excessively'' drunk. An abundance of wine was regarded as a necessary compliment of cheer accompanying celebrations of joy. The fact that "they have no more wine" suggests that the wedding feast at Cana drew a great many more guests than the families had reasonably expected, and no more wine would mean that the joy of celebration would be diminished (but not destroyed). Since the time of the early [[Apostolic Fathers|church fathers]] the marriage feast at Cana has anciently been seen as a prophetic allegory of the kingdom of heaven and the joy of resurrected life in the eternal communion banquet of everlasting fellowship with God ([https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Hebrews+12%3A22-24&version=RSVCE Hebrews 12:22-24]). The glory of the realized kingdom of God foretold by the prophets included the image of a great wedding feast of joy, "unto all people a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the lees well refined." Isaiah 25:6. See [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Isaiah+25%3A6-9&version=RSVCE Isaiah 25:6-9]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Isaiah+60-62&version=RSVCE chapters 60–62].  :An abundance of alcoholic wine at a Jewish wedding feast does not normally result in drunkard guests, or even intoxication. Almost all of the alcohol ingested in a beverage or food is metabolized at a constant rate, independent of the amount of alcohol ingested. The human body burns about 1/3 to 1/2 oz. of alcohol per hour, representing little less than one average 4 to 8 oz. glassful of wine with a 6%-12% alcohol content, ingested at the rate of one drink per hour. With more of the beverage than that during one hour, alcohol accumulates in the bloodstream, and the person drinking more than 8 oz. of 6%-12% alcoholic wine in an hour becomes intoxicated. The unalterable rate of alcohol metabolism (burned up) in the body, and a prudently decent rate of drinking a moderate amount of alcoholic wine combined with food (which slows the rate of alcohol absorption), substantially supports a lack of ''immoderate'' drunkenness during a 7 day marriage feast with abundant food. One 6 oz. serving of 12% wine in one hour, at the rate of one per hour day and night while feasting at moderate intervals on an available abundance of food, the guests coming and going frequently, will not produce intoxication over a period of 7 days. :The adequate availability of an abundance of fermented alcoholic wine on such an occasion (John 2:10 KJV) does not automatically justify any assumption that that the guests who had '''[https://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?t=nkjv&strongs=g3184 "well drunk"]''' of the wine '''''must''''' have been falling down drunk like pagan Greeks and Romans. This is an utterly unfounded assumption, a form of [[confirmation bias]] based on abstinence [[polemic]], which sees no distinction between a sip of wine and the gluttony of unrestrained drinking of alcohol to the point of mindless imbecility, all indifferently condemned as the single sin of drunkenness damning the soul to [[hell]]. The Bible itself recognizes several degrees of intoxication, from the cheerful joy of light inebriation, to the absolute disgrace of grossly drunken immoral behavior ending in slurred speech, blurred vision, loss of coordination, mindlessly irrational, babbling incoherency, vomit-covered garments and tables, brawling, bruises, falls, hallucinations and unconscious collapse. A responsibly informed Christian [[Hermeneutics|hermeneutic]] charitably assumes the ordinary, historically confirmed cultural meaning that the wedding guests at Cana "''had drunk well''" as Jews, "''rightly, properly''", to at most a point of light or moderate intoxication, thus "''doing well''" (James 2:8; 1&nbsp;Peter 2:15-16) with a prudent measure of reasonable moderation, in accordance with normal Jewish cultural custom, which strongly disapproved of immoderate drunkenness.  :The '''assumption''' of Leon C. Fields and his cited supportive sources that, if the wine at Cana was indeed even mildly alcoholic wine, and the Jewish wedding guests at Cana were ("''of course '''!''' ''") normally all regular "drunkards" as he proposes<br>—the '''assumption''' that they were all drunkards who, using that occasion as a pretext, would therefore have been expected to seize the opportunity to be ''immoderately, excessively, utterly'' intoxicated from an uninterrupted binge of seven days and nights of non-stop drinking of alcoholic wine to the extreme point of vomiting and falling down unconscious in an alcoholic stupor ([https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Isaiah+28%3A1-8&version=RSVCE Isaiah 28:1-8]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+Peter+4%3A3-5&version=RSVCE 1&nbsp;Peter 4:3-5])<br> —the '''assumption''' that even one sip of alcoholic wine is the unforgivable sin of drunkenness, because Paul says "drunkards cannot inherit the kingdom of God"<br> —the '''assumption''' that Jesus would walk among them and therefore ''ipso facto'' have knowingly, ''sinfully'', provided "a crowd of drunkards" (meaning all of the invited wedding guests) with even more alcohol, 120 to 180 gallons of what the caterer called "the good wine" (an even better wine than they had been drinking, which would certainly and unavoidably enable them all as drunkards to get even more intoxicated)<br>—'''''this assumption''''' is an outstanding example of what the Bible condemns as "rash judgment". <br> [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+7%3A1-5&version=RSVCE Matthew 7:1-5]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+7%3A24&version=RSVCE John 7:24]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans+13%3A8-14%3A23&version=RSVCE Romans 13:8–14:23]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+Timothy+4%3A4-5&version=RSVCE 1&nbsp;Timothy 4:4-5].  :Wine was a '''food''' in [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Israelite_cuisine Ancient Israelite cuisine]. <br> '''[http://biblehub.com/mark/7-19.htm "Thus he declared all foods clean." Mark 7:19]'''. <br> See [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mark+7%3A14-23&version=RSVCE '''Mark 7:14-23''']. <br> See also [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts+10%3A14-15&version=KJV '''Acts 10:14-15''']; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+12%3A20-37&version=KJV '''Matthew 12:20-37''']; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+7%3A21&version=KJV '''Matthew 7:21''']; <br> [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+7%3A24&version=KJV '''John 7:24'''] and [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+7%3A1-5&version=KJV '''Matthew 7:1-5''']. <br> Compare [[Scandal]], [[Prejudice]], [[Straw man fallacy]], [[Polemic]] and [[Falsehood]].  :''See especially'' [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2+Timothy+2%3A23-26&version=RSVCE '''2 Timothy 2:23-26''']; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans+14&version=RSVCE '''Romans 14''']; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Revelation+22%3A11-12&version=RSVCE '''Revelation 22:11-12''']; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+15%3A12-14&version=RSVCE '''Matthew 15:12-14'''].

:Compare the results of medical studies of the benefits to health of red wines and other alcoholic beverages in moderation (average 4 oz. to 8 oz. daily and occasionally , on rare occasions, more - ''as at Passover once a year'''!'''''):

:An allusion to the [[Septuagint]] text, [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Judith+11%3A19&version=RSVCE '''Judith 11:19'''].

Now when Jesus saw great crowds of people around him, He gave orders to leave for the other side. And a certain scribe came, and told Him, "Master, I will follow you wherever you go." And Jesus told him, "Foxes have holes, and the birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of man has no place to rest His head." And another of His pupils said to him, "Lord, first permit me to go to bury my father." But Jesus told him, "Follow Me, and let the dead bury their own." And when He had gone into a boat, His pupils followed Him. And behold, a great storm arose on the lake, so much that the boat was swamped with the waves. But He was asleep. And His pupils came to Him, and woke Him up, saying, "Lord, save us; we're dying!" And He said to them, "Why are you afraid, you of little faith?" Then He got up and rebuked the winds and the sea, and a great calm fell. But the men were amazed, saying, "What kind of Man is this? Even the winds and the sea '''obey ''' Him!" And when He had come to the other side into the country of the Gadarenes, two demon-possessed men met Him, coming out of the tombs, so fierce that no man dared pass by that way. And suddenly they cried out, saying, "What business do we have with You, Jesus, Son of God? Have you come here to torment us before the time?" And a herd of many pigs was feeding a fair distance from them. So the demons begged Him, saying, "If you're going to throw us out, let us go away into the herd of pigs." And He said to them, "Go." And when they came out of the two men, they went into the herd of pigs. And the entire herd of pigs ran pell-mell down a steep bank into the sea, and drowned in the waters. And those who had been keeping the pigs ran away, and went back into the city, and told about everything that had happened, and what had happened to the formerly demon-possessed men. And then the entire city came out to meet Jesus, and when they saw Him, they begged Him to go away from their coasts.

He said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. Therefore the Son of Man is lord '''Lord''' even of the Sabbath.”

He said to them, “The Son of Man is lord '''Lord''' of the Sabbath.”

:“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. You shall labor six days, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to '''the L<small>ORD</small> ''' your God. You shall not do any work in it, you, nor your son, nor your daughter, your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your livestock, nor your stranger who is within your gates; for in six days '''the L<small>ORD</small> ''' made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day; therefore '''the L<small>ORD</small> ''' blessed the Sabbath day, and made it holy.”

Mark 2:23–3:6 <br> Luke 6:1-11 <br> Mark 3:7-12 <br> John 5:1-10<br>Exodus 20:8-11<br>John 5:11-611–6:2 <br> —LXX Wisdom 2:16

:More literally, "'''''on the second first Sabbath'''''" — '''Ἐν Σαββάτῳ δευτεροπρώτῳ''' ''en Sabbato deuteroproto'' "The Sabbath second-first". <br> See [http://biblehub.com/interlinear/luke/6-1.htm the interlinear text of Luke 6:1]—the word '''δευτεροπρωτω''' ''deuteroproto'' does not appear.

:The word '''δευτεροπρώτῳ''' "second-first" is absolutely unique in Greek literature, found only here in the Gospel of Luke, and is found in no other Greek author. Moreover, it is not found in the majority of the more ancient authorities, that is, it is not found in the majority of the more anciently authentic authoritative manuscripts. For this reason many recent translations simply read "''On a sabbath''" and entirely omit the phrase in the [[Textus Receptus]] (KJV "And it came to pass on the second sabbath after the first"). <br> See [http://biblehub.com/luke/6-1.htm multiple versions of Luke 6:1].

:There is a difference between early and late witnesses in extant Greek texts ([[Bible manuscript evidence|manuscripts]]), between '''σαββατω δευτεροπρωτω διαπορευεσθαι''' ''sabbato deuteroproto diaporeuesthai'' and '''σαββατω διαπορευεσθαι''' ''sabbato diaporeuesthai''. <br> See [http://biblehub.com/multi/luke/6-1.htm multiple versions of Luke 6:1]. :The academic question of the precise meaning and intent of '''δευτεροπρώτῳ''' ''deuteroproto'' is of interest to the antiquarian scholar, but is scarcely of any interest to the [[Theology|theologian]]. Such details are not entirely trivial, but this one has no direct impact on the message of the Gospel or on the question of the reliability of the transmission of the text of the Bible. <br> ''See'' [http://biblehub.com/commentaries/luke/6-1.htm ''multiple commentaries on'' Luke 6:1].<br>Some interpreters understand this in reference to Passover, pointing either to the first and second solemn assemblies at the beginning and end of the seven days of Unleavened Bread, the 15th and 21st of Nisan, each of which was a holy sabbath-day apart from the regular weekly sabbath observed on Saturdays, or alternatively to the first day of Unleavened Bread Nisan 15 as the second sabbath of the holy season immediately following the day of the feast of the Passover of Nisan 14 as the first sabbath ([https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Numbers+28%3A16-25&version=RSVCE Numbers 28:16-25]). The text does not, however, say this explicitly. More literally, since only one Sabbath in Nisan, the first month of the year in the religious calendar of Jewish "ordinary time", precedes the day of Passover on the 14th of Nisan, the designation, "On the second first sabbath", can also mean "on the second sabbath after the first sabbath [of Nisan] following Passover" (which would then be the normal Saturday Sabbath on the calendar immediately following the 8-day season of Passover and Unleavened Bread, the second Sabbath of the first month Nisan in Jewish "ordinary time"). <br> Here in this chapter of ''Harmony of the Gospel (Conservative Version)'' the text in Luke 6 relating the grain in the field followed by the healing in the synagogue is placed ''after'' the similar narrative text in Mark 2, so that the "second Sabbath after the first", first mentioned in Luke 6:1, is subsequent to the (first) Sabbath in Mark 2:23-3:6.

:Christians devoutly devoted to the Bible often express their love and devotion by a kind of hobby of knowing entertaining details about the text, and engaging in exercises such as oral and written [[Sunday School]] Bible quizzes, including church sponsored Bible Quiz competitions local and regional, all the way up to a Christian version of the National Spelling Bee competition, exercises such as knowing what is the longest and shortest verse in the Bible, the exact number and order of the books of the Bible, even how many words are in any one of the books of the Bible in the King James Version (either the 1611 or 1769 edition), and can recite from memory the text of any passage of scripture when given only the chapter and verse numbers, and standard doctrinal proof texts to be used in witnessing to other people and in debates with other Christians both public and private. Unfortunately, this initially innocent diversion can sometimes become a serious distraction for the Christian, and a real danger to the soul, especially to the young and the newly converted adult novice, equivalent to the Jewish digression into '''''[[pilpul]]''''' in [[Torah]] studies, in which the heart of the message of the revelation of God in the Bible—"judgment, mercy, and faith" (Matthew 23:23)—is slowly eroded, then lost and forgotten, and the Christian becomes proud, [[Elitism|elitist]], ''knowing the Bible'', intolerant of other Christians, and adept at condemning sinners ''according to the Bible'', without any perceptively outward sign of a life of gentle mercy and compassionate forgiveness toward any repentant sinner (1&nbsp;Peter 3:15-16; Matthew 18:23-35), each believing that he or she is [[Eternal security (salvation)|absolutely assured of salvation]], because he or she "knows the Bible" without knowing the will of the Lord of love (John 16:2-3; Matthew 7:15-27; 23:2; 1 John 3:15 "God is love"). It is possible for any professing Bible Christian, including pastors, scripture scholars, and Bible theologians, to know every word of the Scriptures in both translation and [[Bible manuscript evidence|extant manuscripts]] and not actually hear what the words say. See [[Corporal and spiritual works of mercy]]. Even [[Satan]] knows the scriptures (Matthew 4:1-11; Luke 4:1-13; John 5:39; James 2:19; 1 John 3:15; John 8:44) and is that spirit of false religion who goes about like a roaring lion seeking whom he can consume (1&nbsp;Peter 5:8). His followers are those who are "eaten up, consumed" with their own self-righteousness and despise others (Luke 18:9-14). Compare [[Westboro Baptist Church]] and [[Hypocrites]]. <br> In [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+25%3A31-46&version=RSVCE Matthew 25:31-46], when the Son of man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he does not ask those he judges if they read the Bible or went to Church, but only if they saw him hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison and actually ministered to his needs (see [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+John+3%3A11-18&version=RSVCE 1&nbsp;John 3:11-18]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+7%3A21-23&version=RSVCE Matthew 7:21-23]).

:Jesus heals a withered hand (Mark3:1-5): Jesus heals a withered right hand (Luke6:6-10): two separate Sabbaths. As there was more than one paralytic whom Jesus healed, so also it is not impossible that there was more than one man with a withered hand whom Jesus healed.<br> To the first account of the grain fields before "One Sabbath" in Mark 2:23 add the two Sabbaths of Luke 6:1 "On the second Sabbath" and 6 "It also happened", with the second account of going through the grain fields between the two Sabbaths and then "again" entering the synagogue, "Again he entered the synagogue" Mark 3:1. However, arranging instead an alternative redactive sequence, by placing the narrative of Luke 6:1-5 before the narrative of Mark 2:23-28, note the resulting progression of Jesus' increasing anger, Luke 6:6-11 to Mark 3:1-6, and the progression of the anger of the scribes and Pharisees, adding to it a further conspiracy with the Herodians, Luke 6:11 to Mark 3:6. Either arrangement of the two narratives can be set forth in a harmony of the Gospel without loss of text or alteration of the meaning and intent of the Gospel message.

“Why do you call me, ‘Lord‘'''Lord, Lord,'''’ and do not do the things which I say? Everyone who comes to me, and hears my words, and does them, I will show you who he is like. He is like a man building a house, who dug and went deep, and laid a foundation on the rock. When a flood arose, the stream broke against that house, and could not shake it, because it was founded on the rock. But he who hears, and does not do, is like a man who built a house on the earth without a foundation, against which the stream broke, and immediately it fell, and the ruin of that house was great.”

Jesus went with them. When he was now not far from the house, the centurion sent friends to him, saying to him, “Lord“'''Lord''', do not trouble yourself, for I am not worthy for you to come under my roof. Therefore I did not even think myself worthy to come to you; but say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I also am a man placed under authority, having under myself soldiers. I tell this one, ‘Go'''!'''’ and he goes; and to another, ‘Come'''!'''’ and he comes; and to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”

Soon afterward, he went to a city called [http://bibleatlas.org/full/nain.htm Nain]. Many of his disciples, along with a great multitude, went with him. Now when he came near to the gate of the city, behold, one who was dead was carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow. Many people of the city were with her. When '''the Lord ''' saw her, he had compassion on her, and said to her, “Do not cry.”

His mother and brothers brethren came to him, and they could not come near him for the crowd. Some people told him, “Your mother and your brothers brethren stand outside, desiring to see you.”

But he answered them, “My mother and my brothers brethren are these who hear the word of God, and do it.”

His mother and his brothers brethren came, and standing outside, they sent to him, calling him. A multitude was sitting around him, and they told him, “Behold, your mother, your brothersbrethren, and your sisters are outside looking for you.”

He answered them, “Who are my mother and my brothersbrethren?”

Looking around at those who sat around him, he said, “Behold, my mother and my brothersbrethren'''!''' For whoever does the will of God is my brother, my sister, and mother.”

Jesus commanded the unclean spirit to come out. And he '''fell down''' before him, and crying out with a loud voice, he said, “What have I to do with you, Jesus, you Son of the Most High God? I [[adjure ]] you by God, I beg you, do not torment me, do not torment me'''!'''”

As he was entering into the boat, he who had been possessed by demons begged him that he might be with him. He did not allow him, but said to him, “Go to your house, to your friends, and tell them what great things '''the Lord ''' has done for you, and how he had mercy on you.”

“A disciple is not above his Teacher, nor a servant above his '''lord'''. It is enough for the disciple that he be like his Teacher, and the servant like his '''lord'''. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more those of his household'''!''' Therefore do not be afraid of them, for there is nothing covered that will not be revealed; and hidden that will not be known. What I tell you in the darkness, speak in the light; and what you hear whispered in the ear, proclaim on the housetops. Do not be afraid of those who kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul. Rather, fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in Gehenna.

At that time, Jesus answered, “I thank you, Father, '''Lord ''' of heaven and earth, that you hid these things from the wise and understanding, and revealed them to infants. Yes, Father, for so it was well-pleasing in your sight. All things have been delivered to me by my Father. No one knows the Son, except the Father; neither does anyone know the Father, except the Son, and he to whom the Son desires to reveal him.

“you would not have condemned the guiltless. For the Son of Man is '''Lord ''' of the Sabbath.”

While he was yet speaking to the multitudes, behold, his mother and his brothers brethren stood outside, seeking to speak to him. One said to him, “Behold, your mother and your brethren stand outside, seeking to speak to you.”

He stretched out his hand toward his disciples, and said, “Behold, my mother and my brothersbrethren'''!''' For whoever does the will of my Father who is in heaven, he is my brother, and sister, and mother.”

They answered him, “Yes, '''Lord'''.”

Mark 5:22-43 and Luke 8:41–9:541–56

:Luke is an important guide for the conservative redactor of the Gospels. He states at the beginning of his account of the Gospel that he was writing everything "in order" (in sequence). After the choosing of the twelve, Jesus comes down the mountain with them, delivers the Sermon on the Plain, re-enters Capernaum, heals the centurion's slave; then accompanied by "many of his disciples" raises the widow's son at Nain, gives answer to the disciples of John the Baptist, forgives the woman who anoints his feet, teaches the parable of the seeds and the lamp, warns about the unforgivable sin against the Holy Spirit, declares those who do his Father's will his brothersbrethren, sisters and mother; he departs, heals the Gadarene demoniac, returns and is touched by the woman with a hemorrhage and raises Jairus' daughter, ''and only then does Luke relate that Jesus sends out the twelve to preach and to heal''. <br>In Matthew 10:1-15, after the naming of the twelve and instructing them before sending them out to preach and to heal (parallel to Luke 9:1-6 and Mark 6:7-8), Jesus departs, and immediately Matthew relates that John sent his disciples to Jesus to ask if he is the one expected. The conservative redactor, in preserving intact the chronological integrity of the textual sequence of both Luke and Matthew, cannot reconcile the two accounts of John's sending his disciples to Jesus as the same identical event or episode (Matthew 11:2-30 and Luke 7:18-35). In Matthew John's disciples come to Jesus after he sends out the twelve, in Luke John's disciples come to Jesus before he sends out the twelve. This apparent difficulty is resolved according to the principle that similarity of narrative does not demonstrate identity of event. Just because they sound the same does not mean they are the same. It is not impossible that John in prison sent his disciples to Jesus a second time, after receiving the Lord's initial response, "''the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have good news preached to them. And blessed is he who takes no offense at me.''" He did not directly say "yes" or "no". Through the testimony of others who were eyewitnesses Jesus invited John to reach his own conclusion, based on their anecdotal evidence. It is not impossible that John desired a clear and simple answer, and sent them a second time, to be certain.

:Luke 6:17, ; 8:1, and Mark 4:10 together with their places in the narrative, as found in the textual sequence of events related in the two Gospels, are strongly suggestive of the period of the initial formal training of the twelve, prior to Jesus sending them out to preach and to heal. The conservative redactor uses such details as facts to aid in determining the actual chronological sequence of events in constructing an historically faithful ''Harmony of the Gospel'' by avoiding narrative inconsistencies and obvious contradictions. They cannot simultaneously be out on mission and also be present with him and with the other disciples about him. These verses, Luke 6:17, ; 8:1, Mark 4:10, are not preceded by any statement that Jesus summoned them or called them (back) after sending them out. (See note below: "with him were the twelve" and "those who were around him with the twelve".)</small> "'''''When he ''heard'' about Jesus'', he sent to him elders of the Jews, asking him to come and save his servant.'''" <small>:Luke 7:3:Various details in the narrative of Luke 7:1-10 demonstrate that this is not the same as the episode in Matthew 8:5-13. Similarity of narrative is not proof of identity: just because they sound the same does not mean they are the same. The policy of redacting the texts of the four Gospels together into a single ''Harmony of the Gospel'' by placing them side by side, and strictly retaining the sequence of each of them in the order of their narratives, on the conservative assumption that they are set forth by the Evangelists each in chronological order, places the episode in Luke 7:1-10 later than the episode in Matthew 8:5-13. In Matthew's account the centurion comes to Jesus. In Luke the centurion sends elders of the Jews instead of coming himself. They are not the same man. This strongly suggests the scenario that when his own servant was close to death he had probably just now "''heard''" from another centurion there in Capernaum of the earlier healing of the servant who had been suffering in terrible distress from paralysis. Here in this account in Luke the centurion not only had respect for the Jewish community, he had earned their respect by building a [[synagogue]] for them. The chief elders were ready to accede to his request to have Jesus heal his servant as he had previously healed the servant of his fellow centurion who had gone to Jesus himself. But when he heard that the [[rabbi]] Jesus was actually coming to his house, the Roman pagan centurion was overwhelmed. He humbly acknowledged the ''auctoritas'' of Jesus' power and dignity by his own words of faith in him as had his fellow centurion. As with the other man, who earlier had humbly demonstrated such unquestioning faith in him, Jesus praised this pagan's faith too, saying that he had not found such faith even in Israel. This statement made directly to the elders of the Jews sent to him was the rebuke of a prophet reproaching them for their lack of faith in him. "I have not found such faith, no, not in Israel." This text is not necessarily a demonstrable contradiction of the sequentially redacted apparently earlier expression of "such faith" from the centurion who came to him in Matthew 8:5-13 when the Gospels are placed in parallel columns without rearranging their sequence. The grammatical structure of the Greek text points to lack of such marvelous faith in Israel, not to the faith of the other centurion. The Jews, who had received as a people the revelations of God from Moses and the prophets with signs and miracles of power, knowing the scriptures and seeing the signs he had done among them as works worthy of belief, should have had the very faith that these pagans had manifested, but they did not have it. They did not express doubt that Jesus could heal the centurion's servant; the Jewish elders of the nation as a whole doubted that his healings were adequate proof that he is the Messiah. The elders urged Jesus to "do this for him" only because they wished to enjoy the continued favor the centurion had bestowed on them, not because they had any faith that Jesus is the Messiah foretold by Moses.</small> "'''I am not worthy for you to come under my roof...but say the word, and my servant will be healed.'''" <small>:Luke 7:6:The centurion's words here are adapted in several forms of the [[Eucharist]] in Christian worship. The whole congregation before partaking of [[Communion]] says together in some form the collective prayer, "Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof; but only say the word, and my soul shall be healed." <br> Compare [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2+Peter+1%3A3-4&version=KJV 2 Peter 1:3-4], ''especially'' [https://www.biblegateway.com/verse/en/2%20Peter%201%3A4 "partakers of the divine nature" 2&nbsp;Peter 1:4].

:The WEB text "coffin", while ''technically'' permitted, is misleading and is replaced here with "bier" according to the [http://biblehub.com/multi/luke/7-14.htm majority versions of Luke 7:14]. See [https://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?t=kjv&strongs=g4673 Strong's number ''4673'' '''σορόs''' ''soros'' "a funereal receptacle (urn, coffin), by analogy, a bier.] Compare [http://biblehub.com/interlinear/luke/7-14.htm interlinear text of Luke 7:14 '''σοροῦ''' ''sorou''].

:A literal reading of the "clear, plain and simple" meaning of the words of this verse absolutely contradicts the "clear, plain and simple" reading of the meaning of the preceding passage of Luke 7:37 "'''a woman in the city who was a sinner, ''when she knew'' that he was reclining in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster jar of ointment.'''". Jesus says quite clearly, plainly and simply that the woman started kissing his feet the moment he entered the room. But according to verse 37, Luke says that he was already seated at table in the Pharisee's house and eating with him when the woman first learned that he was sitting at table in the Pharisee's house! By this literal method of reading the Bible, scripture is made to contradict scripture. : Luke contradicts the words of Jesus, and Jesus contradicts the words of Luke. This is not a legitimate way to read and understand the Bible.

:In contrast to the unnecessary difficulties and contradictions created by a literalistic approach to reading the Bible, Bible scholars strongly recommend an understanding informed reading of the true ''[[Historical-critical method (Higher criticism)#The literal sense of scripture|literal sense of scripture]]'' in accordance with for understanding its true meaning. The truly literal meaning includes an informed understanding of the ordinary first century [[Semitic languages#Differences between Semitic and Indo-European language structure|semitic]] mode of speaking by use of [[hyperbole]] within the ''mileau'' of the culture of the time . This meaning resolves the difficultydifficulties of literalistic interpretation from an unconscious ''[[eisegesis]]''. To their credit, most literalist readers of the Bible using their innate [[common sense]] do not take the strictly literalistic surface reading of the bare words of this passage Luke 7:37 and 7:45 as the actual meaning of these Bible verses, and normally do not see a contradiction. In accepting the actual meaning of Luke and Jesus according to the narrative of what the woman did to Jesus as he sat at table in the Pharisee's house and when she did it. In accepting the actual meaning of Luke's narrative and the words of Jesus according to the context of the situation within the narrative and the normally expressive mode of speaking at the time ([[hyperbole]]), they implicitly dismiss as absurd the principle of reading the Bible solely according to the "clear, plain and simple" meaning of the individual words of every passage in the Bible, because . Because of its the evident absurdityof this approach, and they adopt instead the accommodated understanding of the ''literal sense of scripture'' according to its true meaning: that from the moment '''''she''''' came in she has not ceased to kiss his feet, in contrast to Simon who from the moment Jesus came into Simon's house Simon had not greeted him with a kiss, nor washed his feet, nor anointed him with oil. She showed her love in gratitude, Simon demonstrated no welcoming love. Where a literalistic reading creates a contradiction "from the time I came in", a reading according to the literal sense removes it.

:Another clear example is the statement by Jesus himself in [http://biblehub.com/commentaries/matthew/13-32.htm Matthew 13:32] that the mustard seed is the "least" or "smallest" of seeds. [[Liberal]] critics of Christianity eagerly cite this statement to prove that Jesus is in error, since there are numerous other kinds of seeds that are much smaller than the mustard seed, some of them nearly microscopic in size. The majority of biblical exegetes understand this parabolic saying (parable) as an example of customary Middle Eastern hyperbole. See [http://biblehub.com/multi/matthew/13-32.htm multiple versions of Matthew 13:32]. In an absolute sense it is not the "smallest of seeds", yet there is little argument against understanding the mustard seed as most probably the least important of all commercially available seeds sold for cultivation in the Middle Eastern marketplace. (There is were no "mustard farmfarms"dedicated to the production of mustard seed as a commercial cash crop.)

:Some Fundamentalist Christians who believe, and teach, that the hot, molten core of the earth is the literal location of the lake of fire and hell, where the resurrected wicked sinners condemned for their unrepented evil deeds will physically spend everlasting eternity (Revelation 20:10-15) will physically spend everlasting eternity (; Daniel 12:2-3), . They understand the core of the earth itself to be the literal meaning of the heart of the earth, where Jesus went when he lay in the tomb, and that "he went and preached to the spirits in prison" (1 Peter 3:19-20) where "Tartarus" or "Hell" is located ([https://www.biblegateway.com/verse/en/2%20Peter%202%3A4 2&nbsp;Peter 2:4]). Jesus did not say that the Son of Man will only "spiritually" be in the heart of the earth, but that he would "'''''be''''' three days and three nights in the heart of the earth", and . And Peter does say that Jesus went "spiritually" or "alive in the spirit" to preach to the spirits in prison" (1&nbsp;Peter 3:18-19). In the most literal reading of the Greek text of [http://biblehub.com/interlinear/luke/16-22.htm Luke 16:22] and [http://biblehub.com/interlinear/luke/16-23.htm 23], the rich man is "buried in '''hell'''", (Luke 16) ²²...'''ἐτάφη''' ²³'''καὶ ἐν τῷ ᾅδῃ'''—this is the reading of the [[Douay-Rheims|Catholic Douay-Rheims Bible 1899]], "''the rich man also died: and he was buried in hell''" [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+16%3A22&version=DRA Luke 16:22] from —from [[Jerome]]'s Latin Vulgate translation "'''et sepultus est in inferno'''".

:Biblical [[Exegesis|exegetes]] tell us that "''sheol, gehenna, hell''" is the grave. Thus "ashes to ashes and dust to dust" (see Genesis 3:19; 18:27) is the meaning of "the heart of the earth", as being the place of the dead, the grave, the tomb. The speaker's intended reference to the grave, according to the ''[[Historical-critical method (Higher criticism)#The literal sense of scripture|literal sense of scripture]]'', is understood as [[death]], the sealed tomb—not the molten core of the planet. Moreover, the core of the earth will also be destroyed when

:It should be evident that the core of the planet, the "heart of the earth" according to this a literalistic doctrine[[exegesis]], cannot be the everlasting hell of [http://biblehub.com/multi/revelation/20-10.htm Revelation 20:10]; likewise . Likewise the alternate interpretation instead that the center of the [[Sun]] is hell is dismissed by the Bible, because neither of them the earth nor the sun will last forever. <br>See article [https://www.gotquestions.org/where-is-hell.html Where is Hell? What is the location of Hell? (gotquestions.org)].<br>Moreover, John saw that even "death and hell were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire." Revelation 20:14.

:To truly discover and understand ''the sacred authors' intention,'' the reader must take into account the conditions of the sacred authors' particular time and culture, the literary genres in use at that time, and the modes of feeling, speaking, and narrating then current, not the meaning understood by the plain, ordinary American English-speaking 21st century reader. (See [[Historical-critical method (Higher criticism)]].) The reader must be especially attentive to the content and unity of the whole Bible, as having one supreme Author who cannot deceive or be deceived, speaking through inspired writers chosen by him to express the truth of God's revelation to man, "for he cannot deny himself". Any method of reading any text of the Bible by a literalistic interpretation which produces absurdities and contradictions is proven false by the very fact that it produces that result: "A tree is known by its fruit." It takes away from the words of the book of prophesy. It violates the principle set forth in Revelation 22:18-19. Compare Jeremiah 8:8-9. What has been called by Protestant scholars the "''perspicuity of scripture''" is obscured by an ignorantly literal reading of the "clear, plain and simple" surface meaning of the words of the Bible. Sometimes this results in unexpected confusion for the uninformed reader who innocently uses this method of reading the scriptures for the sole purpose of simple devotion and guidance and does not know how to resolve what simply and plainly and clearly appears to be inconsistencies in the word of God. Sometimes literalistic reading is done for the purpose of citing "proof texts" as ammunition for [[polemic]]al arguments, which frequently violates the actual meaning of the Bibleas a whole by unintentionally turning the Bible against itself. The reasons for this do not lie in the Scriptures themselves but in the unconscious baggage of uninformed interpretive assumptions which many people bring to their reading of the Sacred Scriptures. Many denominations have creeds or statements of faith that they use as a norm to define themselves. In doing so they tend to view Scripture through the lens of their stated beliefs ([[Confirmation bias]]). In other cases some people inherit their particular interpretation of scripture from their forefathers without questioning whether it actually corresponds to the ''[[Historical-critical method (Higher criticism)#The literal sense of scripture|literal sense of scripture]]''. See [https://www.biblegateway.com/verse/en/2%20Peter%203%3A14-17 2 Peter 3:14-17]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/verse/en/Hebrews%2013%3A7 Hebrews 13:7] and [https://www.biblegateway.com/verse/en/Hebrews%2013%3A17 17]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/verse/en/Romans%2013%3A1 Romans 13:1 (includes "church authorities")] and [https://www.biblegateway.com/verse/en/Romans%2013%3A2 13:2 (includes "church government")].It is better to adjust our understanding to the scriptures, than to adjust the scriptures to our understanding. Some people discover that many of the doctrines they had previously believed, are directly contradicted by the Bible in passages that they had often casually read, but now have suddenly found to be significant with meanings that they had never fully noticed before, simply because they had never been mentioned from the pulpit or emphasized in commentaries and study materials they had read in support of their particular denomination or church doctrine. For this reason many of them leave their churches and denominations to seek one that more closely expresses the whole entirety of authentic biblical doctrine, not just the part of it emphasized by their founders to the neglect of the rest of the text as a rationalization for their particular doctrinal position. (See [[Sophistry]] and [[Specious reasoning]]; also [[Fallacy of exclusion]] and [[Confirmation bias]].)

"'''His mother and brothers came to him, and they could not come near him for the crowd. Some people told him, “Your mother and your brothers stand outside, desiring to see you.” But he answered them, “My mother and my brothers are these who hear the word of God, and do it.'''” <br> —"'''The multitude came together again, so that they could not so much as eat bread. When his ''friends'' heard it, they went out to seize him; for they said, “He is insane.” '''" <small>:Mark 3:21:Mary the mother of Jesus is not mentioned here as being with the "friends", literally "those of him", his neighbors in Nazareth. What the text does '''''not''''' say can often be as important to the understanding and interpretation of Bible doctrine as what it does say. :Compare Luke 8:19-21; Mark 3:20-21. Few readers of these passages suppose that His relatives, his brethren and sisters, and his mother had traveled that day to see Jesus and had just arrived to greet him. Jesus took the opportunity to teach them that faithful obedience to God and His revelation of truth transcends the loyalty of blood relationship alone.

:Translations of Mark 3Compare [https:21 differ//biblehub. The Greek term com/greek/3844.htm Strong's number ''Οἱ παρʼ αὐτοῦ3844''' literally means "''those of himπαρα''", that is, the common general term for ''acquaintances, relatives, hometown (citizens), those who knew him as one of their own'para''. Some translated readings say "his friends" (KJVpar'), some say "his family". <br> Howevernear, against both of these interpretive readingsfrom beside, the Greek term '''τους φίλους του''' ''tous philous tou'', "his friends", is not at/in Mark 3:21. The Greek term '''οικογένειάς του''' ''oikogeneias tou''vicinity (of), "his family"proximity (to), is not in Mark 3:21. As for the reading "his own people"contrary (to), the Greek term '''τους δικούς του ανθρώπους'''beyond, ''tous dikous tou anthropous'', "his own people", is not in Mk 3:21. The most probable [[Historical-critical method apart (Higher criticism)#The literal sense of scripture|literal sense]] of the wording in Mark 3:21 would be "''his neighbors''", those from his hometown who did not accept him (compare Mark 6:1-6; Matthew 13:53-58; Luke 4:16-30; John 7:2-9). <br> Depending on which version the reader prefers, Mary is '''''not''''' among "his friends" who say "He is beside himself" in opposition (KJVto) / "He is insane"—'''or'''—Mary is '''''included''''' among "his family" and agrees with them in saying "He is beside himself" / "He is insane". <br> Compare [http://biblehub.com/multi/john/10-20.htm John 10:20] "''he hath a devil and is mad; why hear ye him?''" (KJV).

:Translations of Mark 3:21 differ. The version that reads Greek term '''Οἱ παρʼ αὐτοῦ''' ''oi parʼ autou'' literally means "his family''those of him''" implies , that Mary had ceased to believe in Jesus and therefore that she too had sinned against Him by disbeliefis, the common general term for ''acquaintances, relatives, that she had lost faith in hometown (citizens), those who knew him and had [[Apostasy|apostatized]]as one of their own, and had [[Blasphemy|blasphemed]] against Him by sayingthe people of his vicinity''. <br>The Greek text here allows a latitude of interpretation, "He is insane"offering translators a choice of interpretive readings. This is adduced The choices they make are directly influenced by many Protestant Christian [[Exegesis|exegetes]] as biblical their own beliefs and doctrinal proof that Mary had sinned, and committed blasphemy, and therefore that or denominational persuasion. In the Catholic doctrine that Mary was wholly and entirely free context of sin by the grace situation in the Gospel of God from Mark 3:20-35 interpreters are directly influenced by their own personal attitudes regarding the moment of her [[Immaculate Conception]] Orthodox and entirely throughout her life is a false Catholic doctrine and a [[Satan|satanic]] deception (see 1&nbsp;Timothy 4:1-2). of Mary therefore was a sinnerthe mother of Jesus, either opposing it or not directly opposing it.

:The version that reads Some translated readings say "his friends" does (KJV), in the context of this verse implying those with some sympathy toward him, and implicitly excluding his relatives and mother. But some say "his family", implicitly including Mary among them as his mother. <br> However, ''against both of these interpretive readings'', the Greek term '''τους φίλους του''' ''tous philous tou'', "his friends", is not [[Eisegesis|eisegetically]] read into in Mark 3:21 evidence that Mary was among those who thought Jesus was insane. Exegetes The Greek term '''οικογένειάς του''' ''oikogeneias tou'', "his family", is not in support of Mark 3:21. As for the view that Mary was not among the group assert that the plain and simple reading of "his own people", the Greek text does term '''τους δικούς του ανθρώπους''', ''tous dikous tou anthropous'', "his own people", is not justify in Mark 3:21. (Compare [http://biblehub.com/interlinear/john/1-11.htm the reading interlinear text of John 1:11 "''his familyown''"]. Therefore there is no explicit scriptural support here for the contention that Mary had sinned by disbelief.)

:The most probable [[Historical-critical method (Higher criticism)#The literal sense of scripture|literal sense]] of the wording in Mark 3:21 would be "''his neighbors''", those from his hometown who did not accept him, and therefore not in sympathy with him (compare Mark 6:1-6; Matthew 13:53-58; Luke 4:16-30; John 7:2-9).  :Depending on which version the reader prefers, ''either'' (1) Mary is '''''not''''' among "his friends", "his acquaintances" who say "He is insane" / "He is beside himself" (KJV)—'''or'''— (2) Mary '''''is''''' included among "his family" in Mark 3:21 "his friends", "his people", "his relatives", "those of him", "his own", and according to this interpretive version his mother Mary agrees with them in saying "He is beside himself" / "He is insane". <br> Compare [http://biblehub.com/multi/john/10-20.htm John 10:20] "''he hath a devil and is mad; why hear ye him?''" (KJV). :The translated Bible version that reads "his family" here strongly implies that Mary had ceased to believe in Jesus and therefore that she too had sinned against Him by disbelief, that she had lost faith in him and had [[Apostasy|apostatized]], and had [[Blasphemy|blasphemed]] against Him by saying, "He is insane". This is readily adduced by many Protestant Christian [[Exegesis|exegetes]] as biblical and doctrinal proof that Mary had sinned, and committed blasphemy, and therefore that ''the Catholic doctrine that Mary was wholly and entirely free of sin by the grace of God from the moment of her [[Immaculate Conception]] and entirely throughout her life'' is a false doctrine and a [[Satan|satanic]] deception (see 1&nbsp;Timothy 4:1-2). On the basis of this interpretive reading Mary therefore was a sinner. :The version that reads "his friends" does not [[Eisegesis|eisegetically]] read into Mark 3:21 evidence that Mary was among those who thought Jesus was insane. Exegetes in support of the view that Mary was not among the group assert that the plain and simple reading of the Greek text does not justify the reading of "his family". Therefore there is no explicit scriptural support here for the contention that Mary had sinned by disbelief. On the basis of this interpretive reading according to the structure of Greek grammar in this passage Mary therefore was not among those sinners who said He was insane. :In either case, a basic understanding of the natural psychology of mothers toward their children sees in Luke 8:21 and parallel texts (Matthew 12:46; Mark 3:31) a mother's natural concern and anxiety over the reaction of Jesus' relatives. Many have ''supposed '' that His relatives on the several occasions mentioned in the Gospels had come to call Jesus apart from His followers and the crowd, in order to reason with Him and beg Him to cease embarrassing them and alarming the Roman authorities, and that Mary His mother in her worried concern about what they might be planning to do was only motivated by her anguish over their obvious doubts about Him. In this interpretation, Mary was alarmed by the belief of '''Οἱ παρʼ αὐτοῦ''' ''oi par' autou'' "those of him", who knew were acquainted with him, that her child was insane, and in her fear for Him she could not remain aloof and apart from them when they gathered to confront Him and "take charge of him / take him into custody" as a madman, to "protect him from himself". In this view, they were only causing her sorrow. The Greek text of Mark 3:21 does not present proof that Mary was with '''Οἱ παρʼ αὐτοῦ''' ''oi par' autou'' "those of him", and it does not present proof that she agreed with them, even if she happened to be present with them "who heard of it" when they gathered to "seize him", to "lay hold on him" (KJV). However reasonable it may seem that Mary believed that Jesus was "beside himself" insane, there is in fact no text in the Bible that explicitly says so, or states by name that she (Mary) no longer believed in Him, or sided with his enemies against him by rejecting him as a deceiver of the people. This interpretation must be "read into the text" ([[Eisegesis]]). :The doctrine of Christ that those who hear the word of God and do it are his brother and sister and mother is a semitic expression of close loyalty and affection, as Jonathan was David's faithful brother. 2 Samuel 1:26. Mary is not excluded as his mother, for she believed in him. Luke 1:45; John 19:25-27; Acts 1:12-14; Romans 16:6 (?); Revelation 12. The unqualified statement of the Lord "''For whosoever shall do the will of God, the same is my brother, and my sister, and mother''" (Mark 3:35 KJV) does not exclude those who were outside at that moment and not sitting around him with the twelve apostles. It did not exclude Mary. It does not exclude us.

:Allusion to the [[Septuagint]] text, [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Sirach+40%3A15&version=RSVCE Sirach 40:15]

:Throughout this ''Harmony of the Gospel'' the name of Jesus in one parallel text does not eliminate the personal pronoun "He" in another, and the name of Jesus immediately repeated more than once in a redaction of parallel texts is not replaced by the word "He" for the sake of avoiding an unpleasant repetitious experience for the English speaking reader-audience, but the Semitic pattern of poetic parallelism is used, so that the content of both texts is preserved. Here, the repetition also suggests the stubbornly rebellious resistance of the demons and the victim's hesitant reluctance to be rid of them due to their dominating influence on him. The persistence of Jesus in the face of resistance is an example to those who seek to follow him.

:When this "twelve years" is taken literalistically as an exact figure of precisely twelve years, no more and no less, ::and Mark 5:25 is seen as identical with Matthew 9:20 and Luke 8:43,  ::and similarity of narrative is taken as proof that these three texts relate ''exactly'' the same episode,  ::as if such an occurrence was absolutely unique and therefore could only have happened once, :a chronological harmony of the accounts of the four Gospels which preserves unaltered the sequence of their narratives becomes impossible. <br>When the expression "twelve years" is taken as the more probable, well-known cultural middle eastern expression of an imprecise or approximate figure of speech (the ''[[Historical-critical method (Higher criticism)#The literal sense of scripture|literal sense of scripture]]''), ::together with the fact that it is not impossible that more than one woman at the time of Jesus' ministry suffered from a chronic discharge of blood, and was healed by touching him, :the apparent problem of comparative internal textual inconsistency is resolved. "''Similarity of narrative does not demonstrate or prove identity of event: just because it sounds the same does not mean it is the same.''" This principle allows the interpreter of the Gospel to compare the detailed differences in circumstance and see as distinctly different episodes the raising of the daughter of Jairus (an '''ἀρχισυναγώγων''' ''archisunagogon'', a chief rabbi of the synagogue), and the raising of the daughter of a ruler (an '''ἄρχων''' ''archon'', a civil magistrate), both of them "'''''about''' twelve years of age''" (Mark 5:1-43 and Luke 8:22-56; Matthew 8:28-9:26). Jairus was an '''ἀρχισυναγώγων''' ''archisunagogon'', a chief rabbi of the synagogue; the ruler was an '''ἄρχων''' ''archon'', a civil magistrate. They are not the same thing. Both of these episodes were circumstantially preceded by the healing of women who had each suffered a long time with a continuous discharge of blood for years and sought to touch him to be healed. If this parallel of incidents had happened in our time we would say that this was a "remarkable coincidence", and we would see no discrepancy in the fact that it happened that way. See also Mark 3:10, 6:56; Luke 6:19. As part of the proclamation of the Good News of Jesus Christ, it was only necessary that a single representative episode out of many be related in detail in the narrative account of any one of the Gospel writers. Matthew simply related one of them, and Mark and Luke separately each simply relate others; just as the similar narratives of the feeding of the 5,000 and the feeding of the 4,000 are related by Matthew and Mark (Matthew 14:15-21; 15:32-38) and ; Mark (6:35-44; 8:1-9), but only the narrative of the feeding of the 5,000 is related in Luke and John with no mention of the feeding of the 4,000 (Luke 9:2-17) and ; John (6:5-13) with . See '''John 21:25'''.</small> "'''Someone did touch me, for I perceived that power has gone out of me.'''" <small>:Luke 8:46:Jesus was aware that she desired to remain hidden, and therefore did not immediately reveal her identity without eliciting her consent to come forward freely, of her own free will, to openly acknowledge what she had done and why, and testify to the power of his mercy to cleanse her and make her whole. (See the next note below, "This he said to test her.") :This verse is directly relevant to the doctrine of Unlimited Atonement universally available to [http://biblehub.com/revelation/22-17.htm "''whosoever will''" Revelation 22:17 (KJV)], also 2&nbsp;Peter 3:9 that the Lord is "not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance". Compare [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+11%3A28-30&version=RSVCE Matthew 11:28-30 "'''''all'''''"].  :The woman had no mention power to save herself, but her faith immediately appropriated the readily available power of God from within the feeding Lord Jesus Christ; not that she of herself had any power to sovereignly command by her willing faith the 4power of God,000as if her faith compelled Christ as God to act without his consent or made the power come forth from him; but the universal love of God for every human being had already made, and does constantly make readily available his saving power to all who will not refuse it; and the power of his love is able to call back to him again anyone who has turned away and who afterward does not refuse to return to him repentant at any time before the very moment of death. See [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=James+5%3A19-20&version=RSVCE James 5:19-20]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+John 21+5%3A15-17&version=RSVCE 1&nbsp;John 5:2515-17]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+15%3A11-32&version=RSVCE Luke 15:11-32]. The water available in a vast reservoir will immediately flow whenever an opening is made. [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Revelation+3%3A20&version=RSVCE Revelation 3:20 "any one"]. Compare [http://biblehub.com/luke/7-30.htm Luke 7:30 "but the Pharisees and lawyers rejected the purpose of God for themselves."] His whole purpose of love is to save the whole world, [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+3%3A16-17&version=RSVCE '''John 3:16-17'''].

:The scriptures consistently attest the fact that Jesus knew the interior thoughts and motivations of people, and that nothing was hidden from him even as a man. See John 1:47-51; 2:23-25; 6:64, 70-71; 13:11; 18:4; Matthew 9:4; 12:25; Mark 12:13-17; Luke 11:15-17. See also Acts 1:7 and 2 Corinthians 12:2-4. <br>Liberal theologians point biblical literalists to texts such as Luke 8:45-46 and Mark 13:32 and Matthew 24:36 to support their position that Jesus had only imperfect knowledge as a man, themselves inferring and then implying and suggesting that he could not in fact at the same time be God. This is an application of the [[logical fallacy]] of the [[loaded question]]. ::(The "Son" in Matthew 24:36 is properly understood as a reference to the whole community of '''''Israel''''' as God's "son" in accordance with Old Testament texts such as Exodus 4:22-23, and many Christian theologians also see in this a distinction between the Persons of the Blessed Trinity which does not deny the equal divinity of the Son with the Father.) :They isolate these texts from the rest of the Bible and from Christian traditional doctrine([[Fallacy of exclusion]]), by emphasizing a literalistic reading of the text while ignoring the ''literal sense of scripture'', and by removing such texts from the context of the whole of the Christian revelation about Jesus in both the sacred scriptures and sacred tradition, which together say of him that he is "''true God and true man''" ::([[Apostles' Creed]], [[Nicene Creed]], [[Council of Chalcedon]], ; <br> ''see the article'' [https://www.catholicity.com/catechism/true_god_and_true_man.html "True God and True Man" (catholicity.com)] ).  :This deliberate approach of liberal and atheistic biblical scholarship is aimed directly at a fundamental weakness of the [[Fundamentalism|Fundamentalist]] method of strict literalism in the reading of the Bible ([[Sola scriptura]]). It is a method which often inadvertently violates the warning in Revelation 22:18-19 by either adding to or taking away from the intentional meaning of the words of the Book by a literalistic reading of the textwithout considering the literal sense of scripture. The conservative textual critic can always respond by pointing out that the text (Mark 5:30) does '''''not''''' say that Jesus did not actually know who touched him; it says that he '''asked''', "''Who touched my garments?''" (RSVCE). This is no different from a parent who, fully knowing what happened, and what the child has done, lovingly asks, "Who did this?", thus giving the child opportunity to honestly, humbly, and courageously testify to the truth of the matter.

:In heeding the particular details of narrative, an additional distinction is noted between Luke's sending of the twelve [together] (Luke 9:1-2) and Mark's sending of the twelve "two by two" (Mark 6:7), which suggests to the more conservative textual critic a progression in the training of the Twelve. Note also the difference in sending them out without a staff in Luke 9:3 and the (later) exception that they are to take a staff in Mark 6:8. The conservative redactor sees in this difference an indication of two separate events. <br> :The more liberal textual critics, assuming on principle that ''similarity of narrative demonstrates identity of event'', see in such divergent details in apparently similar narratives a contradiction or "confusion" in relating the "same event". Their readings of the [[The Gospels|Four Gospels ]] according to this principle ''a priori'' (from the first) allows them to represent [[Misrepresentation|misrepresent]] the narrated events in the Gospels as poorly remembered anecdotal evidence, which they assert should consequently be regarded as unreliable, even "contradictory", and therefore "uncertain". See the following three sources refuting the academic opinion that the Gospels are myth:

:*article in ''Strange Notions: The Digital Areopagus - Reason. Faith. Dialogue.'' [http://www.strangenotions.com/gospels-myth/ "'''Are the Gospels a Myth?'''" by Fr. Dwight Longenecker- article in ''Strange Notions: The Digital Areopagus - Reason.Faith. Dialogue.''] (''He says they are not''.) <br> —"If “myth” means a made up story with no basis in history or fact, then 'no' the gospels are not myth." :Conservative textual critics assume ''[[a priori]]'' on principle that the scriptures are accurate and truthful, according to the apostolic tradition of the Church that their primary author is God the Holy Spirit "''who cannot lie''", and assume that the Gospels are factual accounts provided by truthful, reliable eyewitnesses. They are guided according to the principle that apparent inconsistencies (as ''subjectively'' perceived by the reader) can be resolved by the strong possibility (the [[hypothesis]]) that differences in detail indicate different occasions, or separate events. It is an example of what is called '''''elegance''''' in science and mathematics, an elegant solution to an apparently difficult problem.<blockquote>::"Looking at the overall picture it becomes clear that elegant proofs or theories or experiments possess most or all of the following features: they are simple, ingenious, concise and persuasive; they often have an unexpected quality, and they are very satisfying. What is more, once one has understood the argument behind the proof or theory or experiment, it can be seen at a glance, and one has no doubts about its validity. " ([https://www.nhbs.com/elegance-in-science-book Ian Glynn, author of ''Elegance in Science, the Beauty of Simplicity''].)</blockquote>:It is a fundamental principle that any unwillingness on the part of researchers and scholars to entertain and consider ''all'' possible hypotheses is a violation of the [[Scientific method|scientific principle]]. This applies to biblical textual criticism, which includes the hypothesis of "the historical integrity, reliability and internal consistency of the testimony of the scriptures", an hypothesis that liberal agnostic and atheistic biblical textual critics reject on the assumption ''a priori'' that it is impossible. See [[Historical-critical method (Higher criticism)]] and [[Philosophical naturalism]].</small> "'''Do not go among the ''Gentiles'', and do not enter into any city of the Samaritans.'''" <small>:Matthew 10:5:'''Sepphoris''', a major metropolitan center rebuilt by Herod in Galilee over the site of a huge cemetery as a showcase of pagan Greco-Roman culture (and included a synagogue with Greco-Roman mosaics on its walls and floor) only 4 miles from Nazareth is never mentioned in the Gospels, or anywhere in the New Testament. This fact has been variously regarded by Bible scholars and historians as "astonishing", "puzzling", "a mystery", "significant". The instruction Jesus gave to the twelve when he sent them out to preach "to the lost sheep of the house of Israel" is most probably the reason. There is no record in the scriptures that the Gospel was preached there.:*[http://www.land-of-the-bible.com/Sepphoris_The_Forgotten_City Sepphoris – The Forgotten City (land-of-the-bible.com)]:*[https://gospelsmuseum.div.ed.ac.uk/exhibits/show/sepphoris-mosaic/new-testament-significance--hi New Testament Significance: Historical Jesus. Did Jesus ever visit Sepphoris in his public ministry? (gospelmuseum.div.ed.ac.uk)]:*[https://biblewalks.com/Sites/Sepphoris.html Sepphoris (biblewalks.com)]:*[https://itsgila.com/highlightssepphoris.htm Holy Sites: Gila's Highlights. Let's consider whether Jesus visited Sepphoris (itsgila.com)]:*[http://doctorwoodhead.com/jesus-zippori-a-key-to-authenticating-the-gospels/ Jesus & Zippori A Key to Authenticating The Gospels, Dr. Daniel Woodhead (doctorwoodhead.com)]:*[https://vridar.org/2012/08/29/a-little-quirk-in-the-historical-reconstruction-of-the-jesus-story/ A Little Quirk in the "Historical" Reconstruction of the Jesus Story, by Neil Godfrey (vridar.org)] —''An atheist historian's point of view of the historical and cultural evidence and influential sociological significance of Sepphoris in Galilee only a relatively short distance from Nazareth. The information in the articles listed here offer material insights and conclusions in reasonable response to Godfrey's conclusions''''':''':::"His 'biographers' know nothing of Sepphoris. The literary heritage of Jesus bears no relationship to historical geographic reality."

:The New Testament has an abundant number of passages warning against the danger of falling away, and losing what has been freely given, joined to admonitions to remain faithful to until the day of the coming of the Lord. See 2 &nbsp;Peter 3, in particular verse 3:17; also Hebrews 12:12-17; 6:4-8.<br> ("Faithful until the day"—the admonition to believers to "remain faithful until" does not mean that Christians must cease to be faithful when "the day of the coming of the Lord" has arrived. The biblical meaning of "until" '''έως''' ''heos'' means "at any time before" and "up to the day of". Strong's number ''2193''. It does not imply anything about what happens or should happen after the terminus of the indicated period. See Acts 2:34-35; 23:1; 2&nbsp;Corinthians 3:14; Philippians 1:5-6; 1&nbsp;Timothy 6:14; Hebrews 1:13; 2&nbsp;Peter 1:19; 1&nbsp;John 2:9; Matthew 1:24-25.)

:This ''Harmony of the Gospel'' represents John the Baptist twice sending his disciples to Jesus. <br>In Luke, this episode follows the Sermon on the Plain, the healing of the centurion's slave, and the raising of the widow's son at Nain—before Jesus sends the twelve out to preach and to heal. <br>In Matthew it is related immediately after Jesus had finished instructing his disciples and sent them out. <br>The conservative redactor, seeing the distressing situation that John is in, understands that it is not impossible that John sent his disciples to Jesus twice, to ask for certainty. The second time Jesus reiterates his first response ''verbatim''. The differences in what Jesus said to the crowds after John's disciples departed are suggestive of two separate episodes, as related by eyewitnesses who heard and remembered exactly what Jesus said each time. The Evangelists Matthew and Luke each related a single representative occasion—both present the same teaching. Mark and John were not prompted by the Holy Spirit to relate either one. Liberal textual critics reject the possibility that the witnesses could remember exactly word-for-word ''verbatim'' exactly what Jesus said after more than twenty years. This dismisses the powerful impact of Jesus' personal presence and the extraordinary and unforgettable impression his utterances made on the hearers. Compare John 7:46 KJV, "Never man spake like this man." In the Middle East from before the first century and even unto this day a retentive memory is highly valued and deliberately cultivated even among the common people. This fact alone supports the veracity of the testimony of the eyewitnesses who heard Jesus speak. Moreover, on the basis of all the historical evidence available to us, the contemporaries of the apostles and their disciples, those who opposed the Christians and their writings, do not deny that Jesus said the words attributed to him by the writers of the Gospels, they only reject them as the utterances of a false prophet—not as the creative invention of the writers' imaginations.

:Jesus clearly and emphatically states that the one unforgivable [[sin]] is [[blasphemy]] against the [[Holy Spirit]]. (The "mortal sin" in 1&nbsp;John 5:16-17 is most probably [[suicide]].)

:Many published commentaries discuss, debate and speculate with uncertainty what exactly is meant by the sin of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, or what it could possibly mean. The text of Mark 3:30 plainly says that it is the sin of saying or declaring that the Holy Spirit is unclean, that is, that the Holy Spirit is a defiling evil spirit—"''for they had said, 'He has an unclean spirit'&nbsp;''". This is blasphemy. According to a literalistic reading of this text the words themselves are enough:<br>"''For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.''" Matthew 12:37. <br>"''The good man out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil man out of his evil treasure produces evil; for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks''" Luke 6:45. <br>Many others affirm against the literalistic reading of these texts that ''the literal sense of scripture'' actually means that the words alone do not condemn the speaker but that the words said together with intent, that is, said with conviction and certainty as a serious charge about the very Spirit that is empowering and performing the works, that these words do condemn. Those who simply say or mouth the words are not condemned, but those who mean what they say against the Holy Spirit—as Spirit will never be forgiven this sin against the Holy Spirit as the [[Soul]] of the [[Christianity|whole Christian community]] animating the works of goodness and holiness and sanctification in changing lives—will never be forgiven this sinlives. <br>See multiple commentaries on [http://biblehub.com/commentaries/matthew/12-31.htm Matthew 12:31] and [http://biblehub.com/commentaries/matthew/12-32.htm 32]

:See [http://www.angelfire.com/ny4/djw/lutherantheology.lutherdevilsfraud.html '''The Devil's Fraud, Lies, and Deception, Martin Luther''' (angelfire.com)] ''The lying deceit of Catholic miracles and healings as false support of Catholicism''. <br> Luther maintains in this writing that even if the miracles prove to be real, the fact that they are offered as proof that Catholicism is true (as in Acts 4:30 and Mark 16:17-18), is proof rather that such miracles are performed by the Devil"to deceive, if it were possible, even the elect" (Mark 13:22-23; 2&nbsp;Thessalonians 2:9-12). See [[Intercession of the saints]].

:"It follows that a bodily healing does not always ensue from this sacrament, but only when it is requisite for the spiritual healing : and then it produces it always, provided there be no obstacle on the part of the recipient."<br>—[http://www.newadvent.org/summa/5030.htm#article1 ''Summa Theologica'', Supplementum, Article 2, question 30, answer 2 (newadvent.org)] (see [http://www.newadvent.org/summa/5.htm Supplement to the Third Part (''Summa Theologica, Tertiæ Partis'') (newadvent.org)] —''scroll down to'' Extreme Unction. <br><small>Compare Code of Canon Law 1004.1 and Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) 1514.</small> :'''Cessationism ''' is the doctrine that the miraculous gifts of the Holy Spirit ceased with the passing of the Twelve Apostles.<br>'''Continuationism ''' or non-cessationism is the doctrine that the gifts of the Holy Spirit have continued and will continue until the ''[[Parousia]]''.<br>See the following articles:<br>—[https://bible.org/article/questions-cessationists-should-ask-biblical-examination-cessationism Questions Cessationists Should Ask: A Biblical Examination of Cessationism, Lecture edited by Greg Herrick, Ph.D. (bible.org)] ''Excellent balanced discussion of both positions by a Protestant Bible scholar''.<br>—[http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03588e.htm Charismata - Catholic Encyclopedia (newadvent.org)] ''Condensed complete discussion of the purpose of the gifts of the Holy Spirit then and now''<br><br>. :Some '''cessationists''' unhesitatingly maintain, [http://www.angelfire.com/ny4/djw/lutherantheology.lutherdevilsfraud.html as Luther did], that every claim of evidence of miraculous healings after the time of the apostles is '''''not ''''' evidence of the active presence of the truth of pure Christian doctrine in operation and the work of Christ, but is proof of Satanic deception and diabolical activity designed to lead astray the ignorant into superstition and idolatry against the simple purity of the Gospel of salvation. ::"''Even him'', whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them a strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness." 2&nbsp;Thessalonians 2:9-12 (KJV). :Anointing of the Sick with oil is rejected as a vain display—"''but the gift ceasing, it is vainly used''" (from [https://biblehub.com/commentaries/poole/james/5.htm Matthew Poole's Commentary on James 5].)<br> The same Catholic Church that Luther and many Evangelicals and all Fundamentalists condemn as Satanic, claims to manifest the continuation of miraculous gifts of healing through its [[sacrament]]s. ::The sacraments of the Church now continue the works which Christ had performed during his earthly life (cf.§1115). The sacraments are as it were "powers that go forth" from the Body of Christ to heal the wounds of sin and to give us the new life of Christ (cf.§1116).<br>—Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC), second edition. :It is an undeniable fact that "continuationists" in opposition to "cessationists" point to occasional documented cases of genuinely [[Miracle|miraculous]] physical cures resulting from the Sacrament of [[Anointing of the Sick]] administered to those in danger of death as evidence that the gifts of the Holy Spirit have not ceased. (See also [[Canonization]].) This position strongly implies that all "cessationists" preach a false doctrine. (''Both sides in the debate cite'' 1&nbsp;Timothy 4:1-2; ''cessationists cite'' 1&nbsp;Corinthians 13:8-13, ''while continuationists cite'' Romans 11:29 ''and'' Matthew 28:20.) Orthodox Catholic apologists see evidence of miraculous spiritual and physical healing by the Church as vindicating the truth of their doctrinal teaching, as a Divine answer against the claims of those who oppose them as teaching superstition and doctrines of devils. Compare [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+12%3A33-37&version=KJV Matthew 12:33-37] and [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+14%3A12&version=KJV John 14:12]; also [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+10%3A24-25&version=KJV Matthew 10:24-25]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+5%3A11-12&version=KJV 5:11-12] (''these last verses are cited by both sides of the controversy against their detractors and critics.'') :Some '''continuationists''' unhesitatingly maintain that rejection of the evidence of miracles of healing and of restoring the dead to life and health is a blasphemous rejection of the obvious work of the Holy Spirit, and is clearly evidence of the active presence of demonic heresy operating in opposition to the Bible , and in opposition to the Church as the temple of the Holy Spirit, just as the [[Pharisees ]] rejected Jesus' miracles as evidence that He rejected Moses and was in league with Satan.

And as they departed, Jesus began to say unto the multitudes concerning John, What went ye out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken with the wind? And as they were leaving, Jesus began to say to the crowds about John, "What did you go out into the desert to see? A reed shaken in the wind?

<small>Ad Gloriam Dei, 31 January 2019—developed by Michael Paul Heart and the editors of Conservapedia.<br>[https://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Harmony_of_the_Gospel_(Conservative_Version)_longer_form_Chapters_8-14&oldid=1538230 Revised Tuesday the 14th Week of Ordinary Time, 9 July 2019, by Michael Paul Heart]</small>