:The contrasting texts in the exercise above all appear to '''[[Contradiction|contradict]]''', ''absolutely''—but only when the consistent tradition of the interpretation of the body of Christ, the church, the "mind of Christ" handed down from the time of the apostles, is rejected, in favor of independent, individualist interpretations formulated (a) according to the unguided intellect of [[Ignorance|ignorant]] Bible readers concentrating on the apparently "simple, plain and obvious meaning of the words" of the text, or (b) according to scholarly theologians, and researchers who have divorced themselves from the past and are standing apart from the whole community of the body of Christ, by isolating passages of scripture, even whole books of scripture, from the context of the Bible as a whole. [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+Corinthians+2%3A11-16&version=RSVCE 1 Corinthians 2:11-16 "we have the mind of Christ"]. [https://www.biblegateway.com/verse/en/Sirach%203%3A24 "Their own opinion has misled many" Sirach 3:24] (see [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2+Peter+3%3A16-17&version=RSVCE 2 Peter 3:16-17] and [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2+Peter+1%3A19-2%3A1&version=RSVCE 2 Peter 1:19–2:1]).
:[[Specious reasoning|Speciously apparent]] contradictions in the biblical text have been seen as a willing or ''unwilling'' pretext for [[apostasy]] from the faith. Many have been so [[scandal]]ized by what they think are inconsistencies in the Bible that they have decided that Christian belief is [[Logical fallacy|wrong]]ly founded on [[falsehood]]s and [[myth]]s without any basis in reality and therefore cannot be true (''"so why should we believe it?"''). The majority of [[Christian apologetics|Christian apologists]] cite the parable of the sower of the seed, and the meaning of "Satan" as "accuser, faultfinder", the [[Devil]], taking away the word (Matthew 13:18-30]). There are Christians who place their faith solely in Christ and the truth of the Bible alone without relying on the Church, and there are Christians who place their faith in Christ and the Church alone without relying solely on understanding the truth of the Bible. The simple faith of those untroubled by "contradictions" rests on the belief that ultimately all mysteries will be revealed in heaven. [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalms+131&version=RSVCE Psalm 131]. :Those whose faith dismisses, even strenuously resists, on ''doctrinal principle'', all appeals to supportive arguments based on reasonable logic and scholarly research outside of the Bible, in defense of the reasonable truth of Christianity, are said to have "blind faith". They are presented by liberal [[Skepticism|skeptics]] as evidence of the "ignorant stupidity" of Christian belief. But they represent only a small minority among Christian believers in the truth of the Bible and the claims of the Christian faith of the apostles. They have been misled (Matthew 22:29; Mark 12:24). They claim to know the Bible, but they do not know the Bible. They utterly ignore (''disobey, don't believe'') the scripture that says, "'''and ''be'' ready always to ''give'' an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you'''" ([https://www.biblegateway.com/verse/en/1Peter%203%3A15 1 Peter 3:15]).
:The Christian teaching that '''scripture does not contradict itself''', that it is illicit and wrong to interpret it that way, is not ''explicitly'' found in any written text of the Bible, but it is an ''implicit'' part of apostolic oral tradition ([https://www.biblegateway.com/verse/en/2Thessalonians%202%3A15 2 Thessalonians 2:15]]).