Peripatetic said in post 47:
A skeptic could easily answer your theory by countering, "then how do you explain why John has so many variations from the other three Gospels when recounting Jesus' passion and death (including chronological differences)?"
Can you specify the purported variations and differences that you are referring to?
Peripatetic said in post 47:
Why did Jesus say the mustard seed is the smallest?
It was the smallest seed
sown in the earth by his hearers (Mark 4:31).
Peripatetic said in post 47:
John's gospel is more theological, while the other three are more synoptic, which explains why the details vary.
If the details are wrong, then the Bible is wrong, and we are lost with regard to knowing what is the truth.
Peripatetic said in post 47:
Some of Jesus' teachings are to be taken literally, but He often used figurative language such as unscientific examples (mustard seed) and hyperbole (pluck out eye).
The words in a transcript do not have to all be taken literally.
Peripatetic said in post 47:
And some is symbolic and cryptic (like Revelation).
Revelation is almost entirely literal, for it is unsealed (Revelation 22:10), meaning that it should not be difficult for saved people of any time to understand it if they simply read it as it is written: chronologically and almost-entirely literally. The few parts of it that are symbolic are almost always explained afterward (for example, Revelation 1:20, Revelation 17:9-12). And Revelation's few symbols not explained afterward (for example, Revelation 13:2) are usually explained elsewhere in the Bible (for example, Daniel 7:4-7,17). Just as Jesus' second coming in Revelation 19:7 to 20:3 will be fulfilled almost entirely literally, so the events of the preceding tribulation in Revelation chapters 6 to 18 will be fulfilled almost entirely literally. Also, the millennium in Revelation 20 will be literal, and will begin after Jesus' second coming (Revelation 19:7 to 20:6, Zechariah 14:3-21), when he will reign on the earth with the bodily resurrected church for a thousand years (Revelation 20:4-6, Revelation 5:10, Revelation 2:26-29, Psalms 66:3-4, Psalms 72:8-11). After that, the events of Revelation 20:7 to 22:5 will occur literally.
Peripatetic said in post 47:
God's word can be true, but still hold some mystery for US!
Why would he bother giving details to us which were impossible for us to understand (2 Timothy 3:16-17)?
Peripatetic said in post 47:
Hebrews 4:12
How does that verse require that the Gospels cannot be a transcript of what Jesus actually said (for example, Matthew 4:7), and an accurate account of what Jesus actually did (for example, Luke 9:42-43)?