Matthew 28:1 says that at the resurrection, Mary Magdalene and another Mary are at the
tomb when it begins to dawn. And Mark tells us in chapter 16, that Mary Magdalene, the
mother of Jesus, and Salome was there. And John, not to be outdone, says Mary Magdalene
was there. He doesn't say only Mary Magdalene was there, but he does say Mary Magdalene
was there but doesn't mention anyone else. But then says that when Mary Magdalene went
to the tomb it was still dark.
Contradictions—age-old, tiresome, weary contradictions.
If Mary Magdalene, and another Mary, and Salome were there, Mary Magdalene was there. So what
John is saying isn't contradicting anything. If they left their home when it was still
dark and arrived at the tomb when the sun was coming up, there's no contradiction here.
Or, 2 Samuel 24 says God provoked David to number the people. But Chronicles says Satan
did it. Ok, Chronicles was written probably a long time after Samuel. God did it in Samuel,
Satan did it in Chronicles. Maybe the author of Chronicles didn't know what was in the
book of Samuel? No. God did it, Satan did it.
Wait just a minute, didn't the prince of preachers last night tell us from Acts 2 of Peter's
sermon on the day of Pentecost, with a huge crowd, and everything that he was saying was
being written down and recorded because it was going to go into Scripture, and didn't
he say about the crucifixion of Jesus that "you," pointing to Jews in Jerusalem, "you,"
by wicked hands took Him and slew Him, but it was all by the determinate counsel and
foreknowledge of God. You did it; it was all by God's divine decree.
Who did it? Doesn't Paul say in Philippians, "Work out your own salvation with fear and
trembling; for it is God who works in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure"?
You do it; God does it. God moved David; Satan moved David. God moved David using Satan as
His tool.