Please obtain a copy of the “Gideon Bible” from a Hotel or Motel near you. It is distributed free since 1899, all over the world, by The Gideon Society. In the beginning of this famous Bible, John 3:16 is translated in 26 popular world languages. You may be amazed to discover that in the English translation, the editors have used the traditionally accepted term “His only begotten son.” Whereas, in several other languages the editors have used the term “His unique son” or “His one of a kind son.”

John 3:16 and John 1:18 each have the word ‘monogenes’ in Greek. This word ordinarily means “of a single kind.” As a result, “unique” is a good translation. The reason you sometimes find a translation that renders the word as “only begotten” has to do with an ancient heresy within the church. In response to the Arian claim that Jesus was made but not begotten, Jeremy (4th century) translated the Greek term ‘monogenes’ into Latin as ‘unigenitus’ (“only begotten”). Paul B. Duff, 22 April, 1992.

Professor Duff’s response was based upon “Anchor Bible,” volume 29, page 13-14. The Greek term for “begotten” is “gennao” as found in Mt.1:2, which John did not use.

Lamb of God . The reference is probably to the Paschal lamb, though commentators differ.

Some say of God

Some Provided by God for sacrifice.

If Jesus is lamb of God .Then what sin did God commit and to whom he is offering Jesus as a sacrifice ?

If it means provided by God for sacrifice .Then it would mean God going against his own command as God clearly said he does not want human sacrifice in Deuteronomy 12:31 and Deuteronomy 18:10 .

Still if we consider that Jesus is the lamb provided by God for sacrifice he cannot take the sin of world as the verse says because in Judaical law the sinner should offer the sacrifice and the world did not offer Jesus as a sacrifice.Still more Jesus himself said he was sent for the lost sheep of Israel and how can a person sent only for a particular people take away the sin of the world?

Moreover he did not fill any of the requirement of the sin sacrifice which are
1. The sin offering must be brought forth by the person seeking atonement, and slaughtered either by the sinner or by the priest.
2. Death must be caused by a sharp, perfect blade cutting across the neck, resulting in blood loss and swift death.
3. The offering must be physically unblemished.
4. In the case of mammal offerings (bulls, lambs, etc.) the offering must be less than one year old.
5. In the case of mammal offerings, the mammal must have cloven hooves and chew cud.
6. The sacrifice must be brought at the Temple
7. The sacrifice must have its blood taken by a priest and sprinkled on the altar.
8. The sacrifice must be salted.

If you read John in context the actual meaning of what this verse is trying to say will be clear .The context starts from verse 25

25 And they asked him, and said unto him, Why baptizest thou then, if thou be not that Christ, nor Elias, neither that prophet?

26 John answered them, saying, I baptize with water: but there standeth one among you, whom ye know not;

27 He it is, who coming after me is preferred before me, whose shoe’s latchet I am not worthy to unloose.

28 These things were done in Bethabara beyond Jordan, where John was baptizing.

29 The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.

30 This is he of whom I said, After me cometh a man which is preferred before me: for he was before me.

31 And I knew him not: but that he should be made manifest to Israel, therefore am I come baptizing with water.

32 And John abare record, saying, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode upon him.

33 And I knew him not: but he that sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me, Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending, and remaining on him, the same is he which baptizeth with the Holy Spirit.

Now see people ask John why are you baptizing since you are not Christ, nor Elias, neither that prophet .People know that only these can baptize.Then John says after him will come a person who is much bigger and will baptize with holy spirit and will cleanse sin by doing that and then when he sees Jesus he says lamb of God who takes away the sin .Jesus takes away the sin by baptizing with holy spirit .Gospel of Luke says in Chapter 3 verse 4 Jesus went into the region about the Jordan , preaching a baptism of repentance for forgiveness of sin.So it is that Jesus takes away the sin by asking people to repent .

SOME FOOD FOR THOUGHT FOR CHRISTIANS

Luke 5:17-26 records that four men brought their paralysed friend to Jesus to be healed. When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralysed man “Man, your sins are forgiven ”

Here Jesus forgives sin did he take a sacrifice from the man to forgive his sin .So forgiveness of sin does not require sacrifice .

IF JESUS HIMSELF FORGIVES SIN WITHOUT SACRIFICE THEN WHY WOULD GOD WANT SACRIFICE TO FORGIVE SIN

Matthew 5:20″for i tell you unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and pharisees ,you will never enter kingdom of heaven”

The word for righteousness used here is ‘dikaiosune’ .It means being proper or right in the sense of being fully justified being or in accordance with what God requires is the quality of being upright. In its simplest sense ‘dikaiosune’ conveys the idea of conformity to a standard or norm. In this sense righteousness is the opposite of hamartia (sin), which is defined as missing of the mark set by God. In this sense righteousness is the opposite of hamartia (sin), which is defined as missing of the mark set by God

This is what Charles Haddon Spurgeon a famous preacher of 19 century said about this verse “The scribes and Pharisees were supposed to be righteous beyond all others. ‘Nay,’ saith Christ; ‘you must go beyond them.’ They were, after all, superficial, flimsy, pretentious, unreal in their righteousness; and we must have a far nobler character than they ever attained, or we “shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.”

So basically what Christ says is we have to be good not just pretend to be good just like scribes and pharisees .So if one is having more bad deeds than good deeds can we be called righteous?.No not at all

You said “The problem with such a statement is how does one know how many good deeds one has to do to be saved?”

It is not a fixed criteria that we have to do this many good deeds and once we reached it no need to do good any more .God requires us to abhor evil and prefer goodness over evil till we live, he never said only this many good deeds are required.

Coming to your perfectness in deeds i too agree that no body can be perfect Quran says 35:45 “If God were to punish men according to what they deserve. He would not leave on earth a single living creature”.But should we stop doing good knowing that nobody can be perfect? and moreover being perfect is not same as our good deeds surpassing bad deeds

You quoted Matthew 11:28 “come to me all you who labour are are heavy laden (with sins) and I shall give you rest” .You did not the give the context and it does not mean what you are showing.The context starts i verse 20 where Jesus says ” Then Jesus began to denounce the towns in which most of his miracles had been performed, because they did not repent. “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes”.

Here Jesus is asking to repent for the sins and is denouncing the towns where he showed his miracles and still after that people in them are not repenting and he is also saying that had he performed his miracles in tyre and sidon they would have repented.Then he says in verse 28″Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest”. In verse 29 he says ” Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls”. Jesus is asking the people of Chorazin and Bethsaida to come to him,learn from him that repenting is the way to get relived from the burden of sin that they used to do.

You quoted John 20:31 “but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name.”

We belief Jesus is the Christ and coming to son of god the bible uses it for many and basically uses for selected persons of god.We too believe Christ is son of god in the sense that he is the selected of god not a literal son of god which even the bible does not use it in that sense

My reply: That statement is erroneous because it is not what the verse actually says. It is your take on it. In fact this ‘good deeds must outweigh bad deeds’ concept is the common denominator in all religions except one. The problem with such a statement is how does one know how many good deeds one has to do to be saved? In contrast to this Jesus said “come to me all you who labour are are heavy laden (with sins) and I shall give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). Christianity gives people a rest from striving to reach a perfection that is impossible to attain by ones own merit. It is Gods way of salvation. The alternative is struggle, dissatisfaction and ultimately ruin. It is by grace we are saved through faith in Christ NOT our works. It is a Gift that only the Christian will accept (Ephesians 2:8:9).

You quote the Gospels where you think it suits your cause, but will you heed the Gospels in their entirety? Also your assessment of John 1:29 is uncontextual. You are putting your slant on that verse but ignoring the context. Jesus takes away the sin of the world by replacing the sacrificial lamb/system of the Old Testament once and for all (Hebrews chs 8 & 9). When did the Jewish Priesthood/sacrifice for sins system end? Answer: Not long after Jesus died because God has done away with the old system! History has spoken.

Matthew 26:28: “For this is my blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins”.

Mark14:24: “….This is my blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many..”

See also Luke22:20

The term ‘Son of God’ is used over 40 times in the N.T.
John 20:31 says: “but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name.”
So if you don’t believe he is the Son of God, you do not have life.

If you truly believe then you will delight to obey the commandments of God, however, obeying them does not ‘save’ you. It is rather an indication that you are saved…the fruit.

Galatians 2:16: “..for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.”

the christians have no shame brother. one of them by the name of madmanna was aked if solomon was symbolically burning god to god. you see they see god in animal sacrifices and assume that animal sacrifices symbolized murder of thier god. is it in anyway possible that solomon burnt animals because in his mind he thought he was burning god to god? what difference is it then between solomon and idol worshippers?

BUT why jesus’ MURDER one needs for cleansing of sin? a man needs a torch to see in the dark so you must accept the torch coz it is neccessary, but why need jesus’ murder? it has absolutely know affect on your soul or spirit or mind, what does have affect on your mind is that GOD is watching EVERY single one of your moves.
deeds /actions which we OBSERVE are meant to change the person within us.
but how does SELF ABUSE help us? “forgive me god for killing yourself and then rewarding yourself later on by placing yourself at the right hand of the 1st person in trinity” what is this nonsense? when you eat an apple do you ever ponder on who made it? you say THE all powerful God made it. do you say that god who killed himself made it? no you qualifiy God with the word “powerful” do you see that you and your god are hooked on murder of your god? you and your god CAN’T SEE PAST THE murder of your god and both of your REQUIRE THAT as an INTERMEDIARY .

BULL SAID 1 John 5:12 says: “He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.”

It means he who obeys Jesus will have eternal life and he who does not obey he will not .

NOW LET US SEE WHAT JESUS SAID FOR SALVATION IN THE NEW TESTAMENT

GOSPEL OF MATTHEW
1) Chapter 5 verse 1 to 20 Jesus sermon on the mount . In all these verses Jesus says who are good people and verse 20 he says to the people gathered to listen his sermon that unless your righteousness exceeds bad deeds you will not enter kingdom of heaven.
2) Chapter 5 verses 21 to 48 all deal with how our actions should be and to be good verse 48 says we have to be perfect as our heavenly father is perfect.
3) Chapter 6 verse 12 Jesus shows how to pray and ask for forgiveness of our sins.
4) Chapter 7 verse 21 Jesus says he who does the will of my father will enter the heaven.
5) Chapter 12 verse 7 Jesus confirms hosea verse 6 of chapter 6 “I desire mercy not sacrifice”
6) Chapter 16 verse 24 Jesus tells here that a man should carry his own cross.
7) Chapter 18 verses 21 to 35 in these verses Jesus tells how heavenly father will forgive us if we forgive our brother.

GOSPEL OF MARK
1) Chapter 7 verse 8 he is telling Pharisees and scribes that not to leave commandment of god and not to hold fast to tradition of men.
2) Chapter 8 verse Jesus tells to carry one’s own cross .
3) Chapter 10 verses 17 to 20 Jesus tells that to inherit eternal life keep all commandments in verses 14 , 15 and 16 of same chapter he says “…whoever does not receive kingdom of god like a child shall not receive it ..”.here again he says we should be sinless like children to get kingdom of god showing children are sinless as opposed to Christian doctrine of original sin .
4) Chapter 11 verses 24 and 25 Jesus tells to ask for forgiveness in prayer and to forgive others so as the father may forgive us.

GOSPEL OF LUKE
1) Chapter 3 verse 4 Jesus went into the region about the Jordan , preaching a BAPTISM OF REPENTANCE FOR THE FORGIVENESS OF SINS.
In john chapter 1 verse 33 Jesus is described as he who baptizes with holy spirit .So Jesus showed repantance as a method of forgiveness of sins and this is how he baptized with holy spirit.
In john chapter 1 verse 29 Jesus is showed as the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world .Jesus showed repantace and this is how he takes away the sin.
You can see clearly here that JESUS SAID REPENTANCE FOR SINS. Where is the blood and where is the crucifixion here.
2) Chapter 6 verses 20 to 45 in these verses Jesus tells what we have to do to get reward .in verse 46 to 49 of same chapter he says he who does what Jesus tells is the one building a strong house.
3) Chapter 11 verse 3 Jesus is telling to pray and ask for forgiveness.
4) Chapter 13 verses 1 to 5 Jesus gives examples of Galileans and Siloam and says unless you repent you will perish.
5) Chapter 14 verse 27 Jesus says whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me, cannot be his disciple.
6) Chapter 15 verse 7 Jesus says there will be more joy in the heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety nine righteous persons who need no repentance.
7) Chapter 18 verse 17 Jesus says “…whoever does not receive kingdom of God like a child shall not receive it ..”

GOSPEL OF JOHN
1) Chapter 8 verse 1 to 11 Jesus protects a women who has committed adultery and says to the women not to sin again.
2) Chapter 14 verse 15 “if you love me you will keep my commandments”.

Christians falsely say that Muslims have no love for God they are only involved in the commandments without love .They do not know that the basis of relation with God in Quran is direct one to one and on basis of love but love is through keeping the God’s commandments not just superficial love. This is explained in this verse by Jesus .

If a man truely loves his kith and kin and his friends he does it in his actions and not just superficial love by saying I love them and doing nothing in actions.

3) Chapter 17 verse 3 and 4 Jesus says “ .. and this is eternal life that they know thee the only true God , and Jesus Christ whom thou has sent.” Here Jesus clearly says eternal life is knowing the only true god and Jesus who is the christ.He did not say this is eternal life that they should believe that iam dying for their sins

In all these verses where is the blood of Christ where is crucifixion where is redemption on believing Christ died on cross?

PEOPLE SINNED BEFORE JESUS CHRIST WERE THEY NOT FORGIVEN BY GOD WHEN THEY REPENTED .DID GOD BECAME A SACRIFICIAL LAMB TO FORGIVE THEM IN DAYS BEFORE JESUS THAT HE SHOULD BECAME SACRIFICIAL LAMB LATER ?

So bull read your own bible first before commenting.We Muslims follow all the above said things by Jesus not your invented idea of sacrifice and sacrificial lamb .

exercizing a thing called guilt now and again. aknowledging that God sees everything and sees you when you are alone. sees you when you attempt to cheat the old lady down the road by adding water in the milk container to increase the amount of milk.

” By doing prayers, washing etc. ”

why not? if God asked me to sacrifice my life to him wouldn’t that be million times more DIFFICULT? what is wrong with SACRIFICING FEW MINUTES FOR THE ALMIGHTY ? WHAT IS WRONG WITH RAISING YOUR HANDS and saying that you SURRENDER BEFORE THE ALMIGHTY? WHAT IS WRONG WITH BOWING before THE ONE WHO provided you LUNGS TO BREATH? WHat is WRONG WITH ASKING HIM TO GUIDE TO THE STRAIGHT PATH? you symbolize EATING your gods meat and drinking his blood , then why don’t we SYMBOLIZE THAT WASING IS SYMBOLIC FOR A CLEAN HEART BEFORE THE ALMIGHTy?

“It is a futile mans way of attempting to get to God.”

if only you knew the meaning behind EACH action and if only you knew the meaning behind the words recited in prayer, you would not be uttering your words.
you think it is a ritual MEANINGLESS, BUT your christian thinking as allowed you to painT ISLAM with the brush the nt uses to PAINT THE PHARISEES. are you FAIR?

I QUOTE

“Prayer and zakaah are nothing but the practical manifestations of this concept, and are the very foundation and purpose of the religious law. Prayer connects man with God ALmighty, and it is the core expression of love, gratitude and humility before God. Zakaah is the connection to humanity, where Allah commands men to spend on society, which not only includes the poor, but inherent in it, is the concept of social justice”

Allah states things like, “Do good, as God has done to you.”

” To worship God as if you see him, and if you see him not, know that He sees you”

” You must accept Jesus sacrifice for your sin.”

jesus’ “sacrifice” required for him to work/action/deeds
when you christians sin, you don’t replay jesus’ “sacrifice” in your head you look to the ot and try to follow the DEEDS of old prophets who DID DEEDS using thier OWN HANDS TO DO THEM. even your god required to do deeds to appease himself. DEEDS your god REQUIRED . but ALLAH HAS DONE MANY DEEDS FOR US HUMAN BEINGS. He gave us the sun which never disobeys Him and comes out on TIME TO give LIGHT TO THE EARTH, it is an OBEDIENT CREATION. it never said to God , “sorry, i am lazy today, i can’t give light to the earth”
ALLAHs works are all GOOD. Allahs works benefit us everyday, jesus’ “sacrifice” by giving his life to his cosmic form only BENEFITED him like a self abuser cuts himself to please himself. god in christianity applied his CONTROLED wrath unto himself, theN REWARDED himself for “sacrificing” himself by carrying out his deeds he wrote for himself in the ot and no jew ever thought that god himself would abuse himself to release the humans BEFORE christianity EXISTED

i don’t need jesus and neither do christians need jesus. all they got to do is look at the mirror and say that the person who can fix things is the ugly guy in the mirror.

people USED thier GUILT even BEFORE jesus EXISTED.

People didn’t look back at deeds PERFORMED IN THE past, they asked , “what did i do WRONG”

One great example of how forgiveness takes place WITHOUT the shedding of blood AT AL is the story of Zacchaeus in Luke 19 whereby it was said of him, “salvation has come to this house”. This statement was made after Zaccaheus promised to pay back what he owed to the people that he had slighted and oppressed. The sincerity to make amends led him to salvation. There was NO blood.

Not all The Bull posts are The Bull posts.
1 John 5:12 says: “He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.”
Therefore I’m not too worried about your opinions. How are your sins forgiven? By doing prayers, washing etc. It is a futile mans way of attempting to get to God. You must accept Jesus sacrifice for your sin.

its a blasted exclamation when one asks IN A SUPRISED way , ” HOW DID THE TREE WITHER IMMEDIATELY?” that there is NO SUPRISE/EXCLAMATION/ SHOCK/ WONDER “MAA ajmala hadhi asayaarah” ONLY “HEARD” the CURSE should tell you thAT you are PLAYING /toying/ DESTROYING/FIDDLING/mocking/blaspheming against/wrecking marks version

don’t you know your BLASPHEMY will send you in the DEPTHS OF HELL AND your soul aswell as your flesh will be DESTROYED ?

did marks hand get heavy ? was he unable to INCLUDE the cAPITALIZED words?

“rabbi ! the tree is (present tense) withered EVEN MORE”

is it me or am i detecting christian pride in this statement? you really giving yourself a goldfish aren’t you?

Penetrating heart injuries are of 2 types one which causes pericardial tamponade and the other exanguinating hemorrhage

Pericardial tamponade is caused by those injuries where the defect in the pericardium is small or when a single chamber of the heart is injured.Here there is no hemorrhage as blood is contained with in the pericardium or the covering of heart

Exanguinating hemorrhage is caused by
those injuries where defect in pericardium is more and more than 1 chamber of heart is damaged

Jesus was pierced with a spear on one of his side.Either right or left the spear should pass through either chest or the abdomen to reach heart

Suppose from the chest the spearing may cause tamponade or hemorrhage but as gospel of John 19:34 says “at once came blood and water” this indicates an hemorrhage.But it is scientifically impossible for the bones of the chest not to broken as penetrating trauma to heart with hemorrhage from the thorax is always associated with chest bone fractures.But this is not the case as John says in same chapter verse 36″not a bone of him shall be broken”

Now coming to abdomen the spearing should pierce heart from the diaphragm and right ventricle lies over the diaphragm and most of the right ventricle injuries cause tamponade rather than hemorrhage.Even if we go with hemorrhage the blood goes into the vast chest and abdominal cavity instead of coming out.

Even if it comes out blood and water are not separately visible as John tells in 19:34 says “at once came blood and water” because pericardial fluid is 5-15 ml and mixes with blood and is never separately visible .

This point was even told by Mike Licona in his debate with Yusuf Islam on the topic 1st century Jesus.This was told to him by American troops stationed in Iraq as they deal with penetrating injuries day in day out.

Then Mike Licona says in the debate ” it is possible if Jesus was having pulmonary contusion before he was speared as it would result in blood and water coming out”

This even is not possible as for pulmonary contusion to occur huge amount of force is required as that seen in road traffic accidents and Mark,Matthew,Luke and John never mentions that Jesus was heavily beaten on the chest .

Even if we take it as a possibility it does not match with the mode of death in the gospels because all the 4 gospels tell Jesus was talking on the cross till the end and shouted “my god my god why have you forsaken me” when he breath last .

But patients of pulmonary contusion because of the hypoxaemia or the low oxygen in blood become delirious and loose their conscious before they die but Jesus did not .Even if we take it for granted still pulmonary contusion patients when pierced in the chest does not pour out blood and water as mentioned in John .

So the whole episode of chest piercing and the events following are a scientific impossibility and most probably an later insertion for apologetic purposes as brother Anwar showed.

Even more the death of Jesus on cross does not match any mode of medical death which i will show later.

“…the fig tree which WITHERED has dried up”
?

now in bull’s case he will try to reconcile

the ROPE broke and Hussain banged his HEAD unto the floor.

now imagine there is NO mention of WHERE exactly hussain was in the OFFICIAL account, the christians will use ommision to thier advantage.

THE WORDS

“And heard ēkouon the disciples…”

BECAUSE THERE IS NOTHING IMPORTANT TO REPORT ABOUT THE SEEING.

IT DOESN’T MATTER IF THE DECIPLES SAW THE TREE, they according to mark, saw that the curse HAD NO IMMEDIATE AFFECT ON THE TREE, THAT IS THE REASON WHY MARK IS USING “HEARD” . THE “HEARD” IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN THE “SEEING” IT ” HEARD” WOULD BE REMEMBERED THE FOLLOWING DAY.

“And having remembered, Rabbi look, the fig tree fig tree you cursed is dried up.”

WHAT THE BLOODY HELL DID PETE REMEMBER?
THE ONLY THING POSSIBLE for him to REMEMBER IS WHAT TOOK PLACE BEFORE AT THE TIME OF THE CURSE AND THAT IS,

“And heard ēkouon the disciples…”

REMEMBERED WHAT he HEARD .

bull, why didn’t mark have pete say, “COMPLETELY dried up” .pete is USING words as IF FOR THE FIRST TIME , AND TO his SUPRISE, he HAS SEEN what the CURSE DID TO THE TREE.

….

M2

And dried up exēranthē immediately parachrēma the fig tree

parachréma

Short Definition: instantly, immediately
Definition: instantly, immediately, on the spot.

Disciples marveled, saying How immediately parachrēma is dried up the fig tree?

…

there you go bull, mat had the DISCIPLES USE THE WORD IMMEDIATELY/parachrēma . QUALIFIED the “dried up” , but mark was too LAZY to QUALIFY petes “dried up / exērammenēn ” ?

WHO READING MARK ALONE WILL CREATE THE BULL S H IT WHICH YOU HAVE DREAMED UP?

you would think that immediate WITHER /dry up in some sense is SEVERE

se·vere   /səˈvɪər/ Show Spelled[suh-veer] Show IPA
adjective, -ver·er, -ver·est.
1. harsh; unnecessarily extreme: severe criticism; severe laws.
2. serious or stern in manner or appearance: a severe face.

man, one could even say that the immediate withering was “unneccessarily extreme” considering that it was a DEFENCELESS tree.

or “the TREE RECEIVED severe punishment”

My reply:
Thank you. All of the points that I have made in the article is not favourable to conservative Christian belief which you hold. That means you have admitted that some of the beliefs held by conservative Christians are wrong.

The Bull said:
One possible explanation for the apparent differences between Mark and Matthew is that both accounts are true and not exclusive of the other. We know that Marks Gospel is really Peters Gospel and this could explain why his activity is specifically captured in this account. What I propose is that Jesus repeated (and added) to Peter what he had earlier said to the disciples when the tree had withered in Matthews account. After all isn’t repetition an effective means of teaching?

Consider this: The tree withered immediately to a certain degree when Jesus pronounced the curse. A more severe degree of withering had occurred by morning which is why the expression ‘up from the roots’ was used and this explains Peters further exclamation of what had already happened.

My reply:
Both accounts cannot be true unless you wish to create a new gospel for the New Testament that was never envisioned by any of the Gospels’ authors. If you mash the different versions of the same event together what you have is The Gospel According to The Bull. That is essentially what the conservative Christian apologist tends to do. Rather than stick with the Bible they introduce new material that was never thought of by the original authors. This is what Dr. L. Michael White calls the car wreck fallacy and Bart Ehrman discusses this fallacious conservative Christian reasoning in many of his books including Misquoting Jesus. The fact of the matter is that you’re clutching at straws as any reasonable and astute reader can see. You can’t accept the fact that the authors of the Gospels invented and modified historical information to suit their own motives and agendas. This is the predicament that believers in Biblical inerrancy suffer from. Notice that The Bull is actually unable to prove any of the points that I have made in the above article and my replies to his comments. Rather what he’s doing you is offering a “possible” alternative way at looking at things. Offering a possible interpretation beside another does not prove one to be better than the other. It certainly does not disprove any possible alternatives. What The Bull has to do is to actually prove that there is no development in the narratives from one Gospel to the next. Anyone who has been following the discussion so far can see that he has utterly failed to do so. I and Rocko have both shown clear developments in the story that have clear and significant theological implications . The Bull has been soundly refuted once more.

”

heard it not react to what was heard coz reaction takes place a day later , so allow mark to tell you what he wants to say. “the fig tree i HEARD you CURSE has WITHERED …”

simple mathetmatics