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Conflicting Reports In The Bible? Two Or One Demon Possessed Men, Matthew 8:28-34, Luke 8:26-38
Feb 20, 2025
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It’s very interesting that those who criticize the Bible do not submit their own documents and resources to the same rigorous authentication process. I think in the deepest recesses of their hearts, they truly believe that the Bible is indeed the word of God. So anytime there seems to be a conflict in the Scripture there is a deep sigh of relief in their minds since now they can refute the claim that the Bible is the word of God and continue living in Sin. Most critics point their guns at the word of God not because they are sincere Truth seekers but because of their immorality. One of the things they usually look for, are the “so called "contradictions in the Bible, especially in the gospels. Today we are going to look at the account of the Gadarenes demon possessed men or man. Matthew mentions two demon possessed men while Luke mentions a demon possessed man. So the immediate question that comes to our minds when we encounter this is: why are the reports conflicting? And we tend to panic, thinking that there is a contradiction. We’re going to reconcile both accounts today by letting Bible be its own defender, see video
Scripture References:
Matthew 8:28-34
Luke 8:26-38
Luke 1:1-3
1 Kings 18:6-8
1 Kings 18;42-43
John 16:13
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0:00
hey good morning this is taiva at
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highest.com
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and today's topic is what you see on the
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screen
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is conflicting reports in the bible
0:10
where there are two or one demon
0:11
possessed man
0:13
now i'm gonna give you the introduction
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and we're gonna go from there
0:17
basically it's very interesting
0:20
that those who criticize the bible they
0:23
don't submit their own documents and
0:25
resources to the same
0:26
rigorous authentication process and i
0:29
think in the deepest
0:30
recesses of their own minds or heart
0:33
they truly believe
0:34
that the bible is indeed the word of god
0:37
so anytime there seems to be a conflict
0:39
in the scripture there's a deep sigh of
0:41
relief in their minds
0:43
since now they can kind of refute the
0:44
claim that the bible is the word of god
0:47
and continue living in sin and then most
0:49
critics
0:50
point their guns at the word of god not
0:52
because they are sincere truth seekers
0:54
but because of their own immorality and
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one of the things that they usually look
0:59
for
1:00
are the so-called contradictions in the
1:02
bible
1:03
especially in the gospels now today we
1:06
are going to look at the account of the
1:07
gatherings demon possessed man or man
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in which matthew mentions two demon
1:13
possessed men while luke mentions
1:15
a demon possessed man so the immediate
1:18
question that comes to our minds when we
1:20
encounter
1:21
this kind of uh conflict is
1:24
why are the reports conflicting are
1:27
there contradictions in the bible
1:29
and then the tendency is to panic and to
1:31
think that there is a contradiction
1:34
now what i'm going to do to this i'm
1:35
going to reconcile both accounts
1:38
and we are going to let the bible be its
1:40
own defender and that is the amazing
1:43
thing about the word of god you don't
1:45
have to defend the word of god let the
1:47
word of god defend himself
1:49
because god is the author of the word of
1:52
god
1:52
so we are going to investigate that
1:54
today all right so
1:56
buckle up and let's get into that so
1:59
we're going to juxtapose
2:00
both account so in matthew 8 verse 28 to
2:03
29
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scripture says when he arrived at the
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other side
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in the region of the goddard rings two
2:10
demon possessed men coming from the
2:12
tombs
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met him they were so violent that no one
2:16
could pass
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that way what do you want with us son of
2:19
god
2:20
they shouted have you come here to
2:22
torture us before the appointed time
2:25
this is in matthew and now in luke 8 27
2:28
we read
2:29
when jesus stepped ashore he was met by
2:32
a demon-possessed man
2:34
from the town for a long time this man
2:36
had not worn clothes or lived in the
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house
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but had lived in the tombs now before i
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get into that i want to pause for a
2:42
second and i want to show you
2:44
one thing before we get into the the
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demon possessed
2:48
man or man now the first thing that i
2:50
noticed is this
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in verse 28 of matthew 8 scripture says
2:55
when he arrived
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at the other side in the region of the
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gatherings
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let's pause for a second and let's go to
3:01
look
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luke said they sailed to the region of
3:04
the ghetto since
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so immediately we are met with this uh
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two words like
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gatherings or gerusens what city is it
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is it the gatherings or is it a garrison
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so people go well
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they don't even mention in the same city
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you have to understand that
3:20
matthew is usually very broad in his
3:22
writings so matthew mentions
3:24
the gatherings the gatherings as to the
3:27
nearest city
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but then luke mentions the galaxy
3:31
important
3:32
city now i'm going to give you a quick
3:33
example i live in urbana that's in
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maryland
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urbana we call this place urbana
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now the closest city to urbana is
3:43
frederick
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sometimes i say i live in frederick
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sometimes i say i live in urbana when i
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want to be specific
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i say urbana but when i want to be broad
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i just say i live in frederick because
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people know frederick
3:58
better than urbana van is really
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specific is the most important city
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the most important place for me is
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urbana i live in urbana
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but usually even on my zip code and my
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city i write frederick i don't write or
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urbana when i send out my letter so my
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whatever i write it's always frederick
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maryland and 21704 which is a zip code
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but when i want to be specific i say
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urbana
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so that's the only thing that's going on
4:25
here so there is no conflict
4:27
gatherings us into the nearest city
4:30
and then ghetto scenes to be more
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specific so
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don't even waste time with that this is
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an easy one to answer now the most
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important now is is what we are going to
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look at now
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which is the the number of dead
4:42
of demon possessed man or man so that's
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that's the most important
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so again like
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so what we have to do initially is we
4:53
have to read both accounts
4:54
fully and then we can make our
4:56
observations which i'm gonna do again in
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front of you
4:58
so let's read both accounts so when you
5:01
arrived
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at the other side in the region of the
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gatherings two demon possessed men
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coming from the tombs met him they were
5:08
so violent
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that no one could pass that way what do
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you want with us
5:13
son of god they shouted have you come
5:16
here
5:17
to torture us before their appointed
5:18
time some distant from them
5:21
a large herd of pigs was feeding the
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demons begged us
5:24
back jesus if she drive us out send us
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into the herd of pigs
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he said to them go so they came out and
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went into the pigs
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and the whole herd of rush down the
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steep bank into the lake and died in the
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water
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those standing the pigs ran off went
5:40
into the town and reported all this
5:42
including what happened to the
5:44
demon-possessed man
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then the whole town went out to meet
5:46
jesus and when they saw him
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they pleaded with him to leave the
5:50
region now let's go to look
5:54
they said to the region of the ghetto
5:55
saints which is across the lake from
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galilee
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when jesus stepped ashore he was met by
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a demon possessed man from the tower
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for a long time this man had no had not
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worn clothes or lived in the house
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but had lived in the tombs when he saw
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jesus he cried out and fell at his feet
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shouting at the top of his voice what do
6:14
you want with me jesus son of the most
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high
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god i beg you don't torture me for jesus
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had commanded
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impure spirit to come out of the man
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many times
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he had seized him and though he was
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chained hand
6:26
and foot and kept under god he had
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broken his chains and had been driven by
6:30
the demon into the solitary places you
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just ask them
6:34
what is your name he replied because
6:38
many demons had gone into him
6:40
and they begged jesus repeatedly
6:42
repeatedly not to order them into the
6:43
into their beasts
6:45
a large head of pig was feeding there on
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the hillside the demons begged jesus to
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let them go
6:50
into the pigs and he gave them
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permission when the demons came out of
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the man they went into the pigs and the
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herds rushed down the steep bank into
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the lake and was drowned
6:59
when those standing the pigs saw what
7:01
had happened they ran off and reported
7:03
this into town
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and countryside and the people went out
7:07
to see what had happened
7:08
and when they came to jesus they found a
7:10
man from whom the demons are gonna sin
7:12
at jesus feet
7:13
dressed and in his right mind and they
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were afraid
7:18
those who had seen it told the people
7:19
how the demon possessed men had been
7:21
cured
7:22
and all the people of the region of the
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ghetto sins asked jesus to leave them
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because they were
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overcome with fear he got into the boat
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and left
7:31
the man from whom the demon had gone out
7:32
begged to go with him but jesus sent him
7:34
away saying
7:35
go and tell people i'm going to read the
7:37
full chapter here because i wanted to
7:39
read that verse is important
7:42
the man return home and tell how much
7:45
god has done for you
7:46
so the man went away and told all over
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town how much
7:49
jesus had done for him so now let's go
7:52
back into our presentation
7:54
and now that we read wolf account
7:57
we're gonna jump into um a little
8:00
background here
8:02
so the observation first thing is this
8:04
first we need to know the background of
8:06
both
8:06
writers now matthew was one of the 12
8:10
disciples he was once a tax collector
8:13
and he mainly wrote to the jews to prove
8:16
that jesus was indeed the messiah the
8:18
eternal king
8:19
and his gospel was written probably
8:20
about 80 60 or 65.
8:23
now luke on the other hand was not one
8:25
of the 12 disciples
8:27
but he was paul's traveling companion he
8:30
he was a doctor and by nationality
8:33
nationality in greek his gospel was
8:35
written about 60 a.d
8:37
so i want you to look at look one verse
8:40
one to three it's very important
8:42
okay now listen to this this is what
8:45
luke says in
8:46
luke chapter one verse one to three many
8:49
have undertaken to draw up on account of
8:52
the things that have been fulfilled
8:53
among
8:54
us just as they were handed on to us by
8:57
those who from the first were
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eyewitnesses
9:01
certain servants of the world with this
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in mind
9:06
since i myself have carefully
9:08
investigated everything from the
9:09
beginning
9:11
i too decided to write an orderly
9:14
account for you
9:15
most excellent theophilus so that you
9:17
may know
9:18
the certainty of the things you have
9:20
been taught
9:22
now do you see that this is incredible
9:25
basically luke pretty much investigated
9:28
the claims of the eye
9:30
witnesses he basically fact checked
9:34
everything that had been written about
9:36
jesus
9:37
he authenticated the claims and the
9:39
stories that were told about jesus
9:41
as a true historian most people that had
9:44
witnessed the ministry of jesus were
9:46
still alive so luke
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went through all the places where jesus
9:49
and his disciples walked
9:51
to authenticate the claims of the
9:52
eyewitnesses
9:54
this is very important because luke
9:57
pretty much didn't quite
9:58
have any dogs in his fight he was a
10:00
gentile not a jew
10:02
he was an educated man a doctor he was
10:04
very intelligent
10:06
yet he took a considerable amount of
10:08
time to investigate
10:09
carefully what was said about jesus
10:13
so jesus luke was pretty much an
10:15
investigator
10:16
he said okay i'm gonna everything has
10:19
been said about jesus
10:20
i'm gonna go and ask questions i'm gonna
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travel to these places
10:25
and fact check everything that has been
10:27
said
10:28
i will authenticate these claims i will
10:30
authenticate the
10:32
account of the eyewitnesses so that's
10:34
what look did for us
10:35
so pretty much luke was like a pi
10:39
a private investigator he went and
10:41
investigated he had no dogs in his fight
10:43
but he did that for our sake
10:46
for theophilus but for our sake as well
10:49
okay
10:49
so we gotta keep that in mind now that
10:52
we have this background
10:53
we're gonna investigate these seemingly
10:56
conflicting reports
10:58
so let's let's do that now was there any
11:00
conflicts between the two account
11:02
is the question that we are asking
11:03
ourselves right and we're gonna answer
11:05
that right now
11:07
now let me pull this up
11:11
again i pulled both of them and i put
11:13
them side by side
11:15
scripture said when he arrived at the
11:17
other side in the region of the
11:18
gathering
11:19
two demon possessed men coming from the
11:21
tombs matter
11:22
and in luke when jesus stepped ashore he
11:25
was met by a demon-possessed man from
11:27
the town
11:28
okay now first of all we need to
11:30
understand that luke never used the
11:32
phrase
11:33
only one luke never said when he stepped
11:35
ashore he was met by
11:37
only one demon possessed man you kind of
11:39
you have to really pay attention to that
11:41
luke never said jesus was met by only
11:43
one demon possessed man he said
11:45
a possessed man that is very important
11:48
to understand
11:49
luke was not an eyewitness so he went
11:51
and asked a lot of questions
11:53
and he investigated the claims and you
11:55
see that in luke's account the man
11:56
possessed
11:57
asks jesus if he can follow him and
12:00
jesus says no
12:02
matthew doesn't even mention that
12:04
because matthew is very broad in his
12:06
writing
12:08
now here's what i'm convinced of i'm
12:09
convinced of this fact
12:11
there were two demon possessed men one
12:14
was probably the most vocal
12:16
the most violent pretty much leading the
12:19
other
12:20
the second man was probably not very
12:22
talkative and was overshadowed
12:24
by the most striking one and for that
12:26
reason
12:27
people that look investigated probably
12:30
remembered
12:31
the most violent one remember what jesus
12:33
told him jesus said to him
12:36
return home and tell tell how much god
12:38
has done for you so the man went away
12:40
and told
12:41
all over town how much jesus had done
12:43
for him so one of them was most violent
12:45
most talkative
12:46
most striking so basically he
12:48
overshadows the other one
12:50
people are going to remember the one
12:51
that is crazier you see that and that's
12:54
what happens with matthew
12:55
and look matthew just mentioned both of
12:58
them
13:00
well look when he goes and asks a lot of
13:03
questions people
13:03
remember the guy that actually was the
13:05
craziest and the most talkative
13:07
and they mentioned him because the other
13:09
one is overshadowed by this one
13:11
and i'm gonna show you a couple of
13:12
things in scripture here to prove this
13:15
now this man basically he went around
13:18
proclaiming the gospel
13:20
wherever he went so people probably
13:21
remember remembered him more than the
13:24
other
13:24
and this actually reinforces the
13:26
veracity and truth for the gospel
13:28
luke could have easily fabricated the
13:30
story to match matthew's account
13:32
but he doesn't do so he only reports
13:35
what he has authenticated
13:37
he didn't try to force it he writes what
13:39
he's been told by people
13:41
remember he's fact checking everything
13:43
okay
13:45
so let's go to the next now
13:49
i said earlier that the bible is its own
13:51
interpreter and defender
13:52
and i want you to go back to the old
13:54
testament and we're gonna see a similar
13:56
account
13:57
to show you what i'm talking about now
14:00
in first kings 16 68 scripture says
14:04
so they divided the land they were to
14:06
cover ahab going in one direction and
14:09
over die in another
14:10
as obadiah was walking along along
14:14
elijah madam obadiah recognized him
14:17
bowed onto the ground and said it is
14:19
really is it really you my lord elijah
14:22
yes he replied go tell your master
14:25
elijah is here
14:27
now let's go to verse 42 and 43 and
14:30
you'll notice something different
14:33
now so ahab went off to eat and drink
14:35
but elijah climbed up to the top of
14:37
caramel bent down to the ground and put
14:40
his face between his knees
14:43
go and look toward you see he told his
14:45
servant and he went and he went up and
14:47
looked
14:49
now i said he told the servant i put
14:50
that in red for a purpose
14:52
here's what i want to show you elijah
14:54
was never alone
14:56
he was always with his servant but in
14:59
verse 7
15:00
we are told that elijah met obadiah
15:04
see his servant is not mentioned the
15:06
scripture didn't say
15:07
elijah and his servant met obadiah but
15:09
the scripture says
15:11
elijah was met by abadiah only elijah is
15:14
mentioned
15:16
obadiah was made by the two men but only
15:18
the most relevant
15:19
is mentioned in the account in this case
15:21
the larger the prophet see
15:23
it was customary of the prophets of old
15:26
like elijah
15:27
they always had a servant elijah had his
15:29
servant gehazi
15:30
elijah had a servant he later on he
15:32
abandoned
15:33
elijah and elijah went and then was
15:36
called
15:37
to go and call out elisha but the
15:40
prophet
15:41
never traveled alone he always had his
15:43
servant well if you see in first kings
15:46
18 verse 68 scripture says
15:49
as i was walking elijah met him it was
15:52
elijah
15:53
and his servant but nobody talks about
15:56
elijah's servant because he's irrelevant
15:58
in this story
15:59
the main character is elijah it's the
16:02
same thing that happened with a
16:03
demon-possessed man
16:05
one of them is more relevant in the
16:07
sense that he is
16:08
the craziest and for the sake of
16:12
the story his mention the other one is
16:14
not mentioned
16:15
not that he's not there he's there but
16:17
he's not mentioned because one of them
16:19
is more striking it's the same way with
16:20
elijah
16:22
elijah was there with his servant well
16:24
only elijah has mentioned now somebody
16:26
could have said
16:27
elijah and his servant met over die and
16:30
somebody else could have said elijah met
16:31
him so were those conflicting reports no
16:34
it was just like the story put an
16:38
emphasis
16:38
more on elijah than his servant that's
16:40
basically
16:41
what it is so and i'm gonna give you my
16:44
own personal example
16:46
because i truly want you to understand
16:47
this i have a friend named kevin and one
16:50
day he came to visit me
16:51
with his stepson but i wasn't home so
16:53
when i came back my wife told me kevin
16:55
came looking for you
16:58
and then my son was a friend of his
17:01
stepson also said to me
17:02
he said to me dad kevin and tyler came
17:05
looking for you
17:07
so i'm not alright the question is this
17:11
were they both telling the truth where
17:13
this conflicting report
17:14
was my wife contradicting my son or vice
17:17
versa
17:18
of course not my wife was only focused
17:20
on telling me about my friend because
17:22
he's the main character in our
17:23
friendship
17:24
kevin is my friend so she had no
17:27
business mentioning thailand
17:29
my son was telling me about my friend
17:31
and his own friend because my friend his
17:32
friend
17:33
my son is friend with tyler so basically
17:36
they were both present
17:38
but while my my wife put an emphasis on
17:40
kevin
17:41
because he was more relevant to me my
17:43
son put his emphasis on both of them
17:45
because he wanted to include his friend
17:46
as well
17:47
so they were both telling the truth it
17:49
was kevin and tyler
17:51
but my wife only chose to mention kevin
17:53
because she knows that kevin is more
17:54
relevant to me
17:55
so she had no business saying kevin and
17:57
tyler came looking for you she said
17:59
kevin came looking for you but my son
18:01
goes
18:02
kevin and tyler came looking for me so
18:04
basically
18:05
they were both telling the truth so you
18:07
see where i'm going with it right
18:09
so basically that's the same thing
18:12
that's taking place in the gospels
18:14
and we tend to forget that the writers
18:15
were humans like us
18:17
they didn't lose their personality when
18:19
they were writing the gospels
18:21
while the whole work was superintendent
18:24
by the holy spirit
18:25
the writers still maintain the integrity
18:28
of their personality
18:30
while they were recording their accounts
18:31
for our sake basically
18:33
matthew maintained his personality he
18:35
was very broad
18:36
luke was more specific luke was a doctor
18:39
he was organized he was an intellectual
18:42
matthew was a tax collector turned
18:43
disciple and he was just writing
18:46
so they didn't lose their personality
18:48
just like my wife didn't lose her
18:49
personality she told me kevin came
18:51
looking for you
18:51
my son didn't lose his personality he
18:53
said kevin and tyler
18:55
both telling the truth but one chooses
18:57
to focus on the most relevant and the
18:59
other one just mentions both of them
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it's the same thing so this is how you
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reconcile these passages
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okay and this reinforces my trust in the
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lord so what can we learn
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it all comes down to the same remark i
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made in the beginning of this
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presentation
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see we have to remember that people are
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by nature
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hostile to the things of god because of
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their own adamic
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sinful disposition
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hate the truth because it endures us and
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exposes our sin so we try to find ways
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to discredit the bible
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in order to cling on to our immoral
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behaviors and attitudes
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so most people don't even question 90 of
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the things they believe
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in the same in the sense that they don't
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even scrutinize their own ideologies
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the way they do the scriptures so we can
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be confident that the bible is truly the
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inspired word of god
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we can easily panic when we come across
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the so-called
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discrepancies in the bible but instead
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of giving into fear
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and doubt let's remember what the lord
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said in in john
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john 16 13 jesus said but when the
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spirit of truth comes
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he will guide you into all the truth he
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will not speak on his own he will speak
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only what he hears
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and he will tell you of what is yet to
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come basically what i'm saying is this
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when you come across those
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passages where you are having trouble
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reconciling
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the account instead of panicking thank
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god that he's giving you the eyes to see
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that because now
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he's going to reinforce your trust in
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the word of god because your job is to
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investigate it
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and the holy spirit himself is going to
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guide you so when you come out of that
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you come out stronger your belief in the
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word of god is even stronger
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it makes you love the word of god more
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because you can see that this is
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actually
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accurate and this is the truth so
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instead of panicking
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say thank you god that you give me this
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task
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of searching your word because i know
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that you're going to show me some
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nuggets of truth in there
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all right so don't panic investigate
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because the bible is always going to
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prove to be true so never panic when you
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come across these things
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all right have a wonderful day i'll see
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you next time