Episode 291 – The Gospel of Contradictions

This week we talk about the contradictions in the gospels and in the news we have death penalty because Jesus, the wrong side gets compared to Nazis, anti-germ theory, anti-anti-vax, Utah’s breweries on the same side as the LDS church, and more.

Dustin’ off the Degree – The Gospel of Contradictions

Birth of Jesus

Matthew

  • They live in a house in Bethlehem.
  • Jesus is born in 6 BCE.
  • Herod is King of Judea.
  • Magicians from the east visit.
  • Flee to Egypt.
  • Herod kills all the baby boys – Josephus would have written about this if it happened since he wrote about lots of Herod’s misdeeds.
  • Herod dies at the end of their 2 years in Egypt (4 BCE).
  • Move to Nazareth because Herod’s son Archelaus was ruling Judea, so Galilee would be safe, except Galilee was being ruled by one of Herod’s other sons, Herod Antipas.
  • Growing up in Nazareth satisfied the prophecy that he would be a Nazarene, however Nazarenes were people who took an oath, not people from Nazareth.

Luke

  • Mary is told that she will be impregnated by the Holy Spirit while engaged to Joseph while Herod is king of Judea, so before 4 BCE.
  • Mary and Joseph traveled from Nazareth to Bethlehem for the census while Quirinius is governor.
  • This census did happen 6 CE and was controversial enough in Judea to cause Judas of Galilee to revolt and establish the Zealots. This census was prompted by bringing Iudaea, which included Samaria Judea, and Idumea under the direct administration of Rome. As such Rome needed to figure out how to tax the region, and like any other census they only cared about where people lived, not where their families were from.
  • Manger
  • Shepherds
  • Temple dedication
  • Return to Nazareth

Sermon on the Mount/Plain

  • Matthew and Luke both have a sermon that starts with the Beatitudes.
  • Matthew has Jesus preaching on the mountain.
  • Luke has Jesus on a level place.

Peter’s denial – Jesus predicted that Peter would deny him three times

  • Each story has Peter denying knowing Jesus or being one of his followers three times.
  • Servant girl in the courtyard (Matt 27:69-70, Mark 14:66-68a, Luke 22:55-57).
  • Servant girl at the entrance/gateway/door (Matt 27:71-72, Mark 14:68b-70a, John 18:17).
  • Bystanders (Matt 27:73-74, Mark 14:70b-71, John 18:25).
  • First man in the courtyard (Luke 22:58).
  • Second man in the courtyard an hour later (Luke 22:59-60).
  • Servant of the high priest (John 18:26-27).
  • Matthew and Mark have the rooster crow and Peter remembers, in Luke the rooster crows and Jesus looks at him, which makes him remember.

NEWS

WY GOP legislator supports the death penalty since Jesus was executed

A bill that would have ended the death penalty in Wyoming pass the state’s House of Representatives and was unanimously endorsed by the Senate Judiciary Committee, but ultimately failed 11-18.

The most bizarre justification to vote against it came from Sen Lynn Hutchings, R-Cheyenne who said:

“The greatest man who ever lived died via the death penalty for you and me. I’m grateful to him for our future hope because of this. Governments were instituted to execute justice. If it wasn’t for Jesus dying via the death penalty, we would all have no hope.”

A House Republican has submitted a bill that would require House committees to use a specific oath with “so help me God”

Let’s move to the US House of Representatives where Mike Johnson (R-LA) introduced House Resolution 110 which reads:

Resolved, That clause 2(m)(2) of rule XI of the Rules of the House of Representatives is amended by striking “may administer oaths to witnesses” and inserting “shall administer the following oath to witnesses: ‘Do you solemnly swear or affirm that the testimony that you are about to give is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God?’”.

Jeffress compared anti-Trump Christians to Nazi enablers. I think he got that backwards

Trump advisor and Dallas mega-church pastor Robert Jeffress when on Todd Starnes’ radio show and called Never Trump evangelicals “absolutely spineless morons” and said:

“We cannot afford to be like German Christians who, in the rise of the evil reign of Adolf Hitler, just remained neutered. They remained silent. And you saw what happened there. I think there’s a similar wave of godlessness that is rising in our country right now, and we must push back against that tide.”

Fox News host doesn’t wash his hands because he doesn’t believe germs are real

Fox and Friends presenter Pete Hegseth was questioned the hosts as to why he eat pizza that had been left out since the day before when he admitted that he hasn’t washed his hands in 10 years because he doesn’t believe germs are real things.

Rebellious Australian teens are sneaking of to the doctor for vaccines against their parents wishes

Queensland, Australia allows children 15 and older to get medical care without their parent’s consent. An interesting trend they’ve started seeing in recent weeks is these teens rebelling against their anti-vax parents and getting vaccinated.

Facebook is considering its options in addressing anti-vax misinformation

Facebook allows for some terrifyingly precise targeting of advertisements based on the plethora of information they have out people. It’s been discovered that anti-vax groups have been targeting pregnant women in the very areas where there are current outbreaks hoping to stop the rising rate of vaccination that these areas are seeing. In response to a lot of public pressure Facebook trying to figure out how to handle this, but it is looking like they will be trying to stop anti-vax groups from buying ads and penalize anti-vax groups and pages in search results.

Instagram removed an account at the request of Indonesia’s government because comics about gay Muslims are offensive to Muslims

Missouri Supreme Court has rejected satanist’s religious freedom challenge to the state’s abortion law

We’ve been following the story of Mary Doe’s lawsuits against Missouri’s abortion informed consent laws on the grounds of her religious beliefs as a satanist. Her federal case was dismissed for lack of standing since she wasn’t still pregnant, but her state case made it all the way to the Missouri Supreme Court and she lost. In their ruling they determined that the informed consent law which required that she be provided with an anti-abortion propaganda booklet and wait 72 hours did not violate her religious beliefs since she was not required to read the text and they also determined that her religious beliefs were not impacted by the waiting period, that just cost her more time and money.

A Utah bill would raise the limit for beer sold in normal stores from 3.2% to 4.8%

A Utah bill would raise the limit for beer sold in grocery and convenience stores from 3.2% to 4.8%. The Mormon church is actively lobbying against this because they oppose any loosening of alcohol restrictions. Utah’s breweries are also opposing this since most of their beers would still not be available at that level, so this change would be a win for ImBev and Coors who since Texas and Oklahoma loosened their rules are only making 3.2% beer for Utah.

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