WWUTT 2655 Q&A Studying Church History, the Torah Observance Movement, the Lindsey Clancy Case

Questions About Church History, Torah Observance, and Spiritual Evil

Would studying church history lead someone into Eastern Orthodoxy? What is Torah observance and why is this teaching dangerous? And was Lindsay Clancy under the influence of a demon? The answers when we understand the text.

This is When We Understand The Text, a daily Bible study in the Word of God, that we may be conformed to the image of Christ. Tell all your friends about our ministry at www .utt .com. Here once again is Pastor Gabe.

Thank you Becky.

You're welcome. Another solar eclipse this week. Yeah. It wasn't here in the United States. Actually, there was a portion of the United States that could see it. Uh-huh. But only part of it. Okay. And it was like in the far northeast side.

Oh, got it. But the total solar eclipse passed over Greenland, Iceland, and Spain. Oh, fun. A lot of those great photos that we've been seeing came out of Spain. Nice.

Aren't they usually the ones to like miss it? Spain to miss it? Yeah, no, like miss the total eclipses that have been.

Like Greenland and Iceland, are you saying they miss total solar eclipses?

Yeah, like whenever we have them, they're not usually on the list to see it.

Oh, they can be seen anywhere in the world. Yeah? It just depends on the path of the moon. The lineup.

Yeah. I guess. I just don't normally hear those countries being like, oh yeah, you can only see it from these.

Well, of course, because it's only important when it's in the United States. Oh, well, that's true. That's why you don't hear about the solar eclipse in those countries.

I am a little on the, what do you call that? In my own little bubble. Yeah, right. In our American bubble. We're the privileged side of the world. Oh my goodness. It is so irritating though. Anyway, I'm glad they had some good pictures that came out of this.

Probably the best solar eclipse photos I've ever seen. Yeah. And not just because you have so much heads up about solar eclipses these days, and we have so many electronic devices that can take such great pictures, but this one was close to the horizon.

It wasn't high up in the air. It was close to the horizon line. Right. So people were able to line up such great shots. Yeah. Of things taking place in front of the solar eclipse. They had planned for weeks out exactly, you know, here's the kind of photo we're going to take.

Put some forethought into that. Yeah.

I mean, they look fantastic. They do. But anyway, the whole reason I opened talking about that is because Psalm 19 is a great Psalm to come to in light of. Yeah, in light of. In the dimming of the sun because of the solar eclipse.

The heavens declare the glory of God and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours out speech and night to night reveals knowledge. There is no speech nor are there words whose voice is not heard.

Their voice goes out through all the earth and their words to the end of the world. In them he has set a tent for the sun, which comes out like a bridegroom leaving his chamber and like a strong man runs its course with joy.

It's rising is from the end of the heavens and its circuit to the, is to the end of them. And there is nothing hidden from its heat. Except when the moon passes in front of it, then. Yes.

A lot of things are hidden. A little bit hidden, but not for long.

Some of the coolest videos that I saw of the solar eclipse were time-lapse of the moon passing in front of the sun. And you're watching the shadow shift from one side. Oh yeah. Across you're in the shadow.

And then the shadow is on the other side. So you're like, you're watching the shadow move as the moon comes across the sun. Yeah. It was a completely clear day, not a cloud in the sky. Oh, that's really cool.

And so you could see all the neat shadow effects that are caused by a solar eclipse. There was that picture. One of the most famous pictures that came out of it was a skateboarder doing his jump in front of the solar eclipse.

Yeah.

That was just crazy. And it was lined up in such a way that he, it looks like he's inside. Yeah.

In the loop. Like in the loop. The loop or the circle that's created by the, that effect of the moon being in front of the sun. It was really cool. Oh man. I loved, I loved seeing the solar eclipses. The best one was the one that we saw in Kansas because there wasn't a cloud in the sky that day.

Oh yeah. That was amazing. That was pretty remarkable. Marysville, Kansas was where we were.

And it was really neat because we like, you really got a feel for it because we weren't really in town per se. No, we were outside of town. Outside of town. And there was, there were trees around us and lots of nature.

And even though it wasn't like full on nature, we weren't like in a field or anything, but it was really cool. Cause the, like the crickets started chirping and the birds that were chirping got really quiet.

It was like almost like nighttime had confused them or they were confused. I know it was saying everything backwards. No, it was, it was funny. It was cause the, everything got dark. Yeah. In the,.

In the total solar eclipse. Right. It was immediate. Immediate was just darkness. Yeah. And as soon as it was that dark, the birds stopped and the cricket started up. Yeah. Like immediately.

It was crazy. And then the sun came back out and it flopped again. Right back the other way. Animals are so confused. They're going, Oh, the birds are like, Oh, well we're singing again. We're back. We're singing.

I feel like that night just didn't even happen.

Well in Marysville, we were right on the edge of totality. So I think it only lasted like 40 or 50 seconds or something like that. Very long. That was still, I think we traveled two hours from home just to get that far.

Yeah. But then when we saw it in Texas a couple of years ago, that was longer. I think that was, that was probably close to two minutes or something. I was going to say it was a couple of minutes. Yeah.

Cause I was like, okay, now we're like, we pointed out all the differences to the kids again. And then we were just waiting. And waiting. I was like, wow,.

This lasts a little bit longer. Well, that one we got to see, plus there was cloud cover. So you're seeing, you're seeing the, the, the black circle of the sun hidden behind the moon. And then clouds came over.

So I kind of wanted, I wanted to see it, but I also wanted to experience what's it, what does it look like when it happens and you can't see it. Right. And there's the cloud cover simultaneously. So I got to experience both that time with the second eclipse.

Yeah. I would love to see another one, but there's not going to be another cross country, solar eclipse like that in our lifetime. Oh, really? So we had two of those within how many years was that? Seven years of each other or something like that.

Something like that. And then there won't be another one again in our lifetime, though. There will be other solar eclipses that'll happen in the United States. It just won't be as, as, as grand an experience as that was.

Yeah. One went from the far Northwest corner of the U .S. down to the Southeast corner. Right. And then this one, this last one, just a couple of years ago, that was in Texas. I think it started in Texas and then went up to the Northeast.

Okay. If I remember right. I don't remember.

So anyway. I, I really, as a kid, I never paid attention to it actually having a path. It was just suddenly we're heading outside with our cardboard boxes because, you know, you can't look directly at it, but you can look at the reflection of it happening in your box.

And anyway, I don't know how to explain it, but it was like a really old school. And I remember doing that in Kansas, but I never knew that it was going to happen. And I, I didn't know.

Right. I, yeah, I remember that in middle school, middle school or something like that. No, I was elementary. Well, yeah, but you were younger. You were younger than me. Well, yeah, but I mean, I was still in sublet.

Okay. I was young, young. Well, maybe I was like sixth grade or something then. But yeah, I remember us going out to the football field and they gave us popsicles or something. And then they did the thing on the paper where we can see the.

Right. In Harrington. Yeah.

Yes. So anyway, when I was a little bit older for those that don't know, that wasn't interesting to me. It was like, okay, well, who cares?

But then when I got to see a real one, like the full solar eclipse, I was like, this is incredible. So then when the second one came through a couple of years ago, I, there were some people online that were saying like where I live, it's going to be 95 covered.

So is that enough? And I'm like, I'm, I'm messaging those people, complete strangers. And I'm like, no, you can't, it can't be 95%. You've got it. Right. You only have to go like the distant 20 minutes or something.

Just go over there and see the, the total eclipse. It's so amazing. Okay. So I pulled this up. Now the next solar eclipse will be visible in the United States, January 26th of 2028. Hey, right after my birthday, but that's partial.

Okay. So the next total solar eclipse will be in Alaska. Oh, of course. On March 30th,.

2033. Well, you know why we're just going to have to go the distance.

And then the next, the next total eclipse in the lower 48 will happen on August the 22nd, 2044. Oh, wow. So almost 20 years from now. Okay. And then there's going to be, there will be another coast to coast total eclipse in our lifetime.

That's the next year in 2045. Lord willing, right? Which will go from Northern California down to Florida. So that, wow. That is another coast to coast. That's, that's a long way. We, we would not see that here in Arizona.

So you would have to go further North to see that. But anyway, that's 20 years away before that happens. 19 years. I was under the impression it was going to be like another hundred years or something like that before the next coast to coast.

It just didn't sound right, but I mean, I don't know anything about how it is.

It is amazing how we can track the sun and the moon that far and know, yeah, exactly. And we can know to the mile exactly where the shadow is going to be. Right. That is wild. Yes. But of course it said in Genesis that let, you know, God said, let us create sun and moon and stars to Mark the times and the seasons.

Amen. So. It is for us to know it runs like clockwork exactly as God intended it to. All right. So we are, we're in the Friday edition of when we understand the text and we take questions from the listeners and you can send those questions to when we understand the text at gmail .com.

That's the email address or the voicemail. Go to www .utt .com and click on the voicemail tab there on the top right corner of the page. Last week, we answered a question about counseling. If somebody needs counseling, who should they go to first?

And we recommended your pastor, right? That doesn't mean that you shouldn't ever go to a therapist. You had said something about going to a pastor first and then to a biblical counselor. And I hope it didn't sound like we don't approve of biblical counselors because we very much do.

Oh yeah. We didn't give a big push for it because the question mostly had to do with where is your pastor involved in this process? But biblical counseling is a great go-to. And I would hope that a pastor knows good biblical counselors and could recommend them.

Definitely. If you need to be able to take that step. We have a biblical counselor at our church and our friend, Sonia, that has been on this program before. She has studied, gone through the entire course of ACBC.

Isn't that right? Isn't it ACBC she's studying? Yes. She's working on it. Okay.

But she's not done yet. No, not done yet. She's not Dr. Sonia Walker yet. I think she's going for her masters. Masters. Gotcha. Yeah,.

I think so. So anyway, Wayne, just from down the road in Vail, Arizona, emailed us after our counseling question last week. Awesome. He said, Gabe and Becky misspelled both of our names, but he said, I have been so blessed by your podcast ministry for the last four years.

I was listening to the Q and A episode that came out on August the 7th, and I would definitely like to give a positive testimony for biblical or new thetic counseling. I was called to preach and shepherd the body of Christ in 2015 down here in Vail.

I have preached at a number of churches around the area and am currently a preaching and teaching elder at Vail Valley Baptist church, though not the pastor. I know of your church. You had a conference down there a year or two ago.

I think it was. I was invited to come down, but it just, it didn't match my schedule. I can't remember the reason why I didn't make it. Yeah.

I don't remember either, but it was something that just couldn't shift. Pastor Dominic though, was one of the speakers there. So I know he was,.

He was able to make it down there. But anyway, he said, as I came through 2020, I ended up having crippling anxiety flare up. I had never had that as an issue through the previous 53 years of my life.

While I did get on meds prescribed by my PCP, all that did was take the edge off. I was blessed to be pointed in the direction of a gentleman. I knew who was a retired New Thetic counselor. He spent eight months working with me and developing the biblical tools to manage my anxiety.

While the anxiety was not gone away. God blessed that man's work with me to allow the Holy spirit within me to manage the anxiety and to continue to be productive and joyful. I would definitely encourage folks to first go to the pastor.

As I agree, that is the best first place to go for counseling, but I would definitely put New Thetic counseling as second on my list before I would go to a secular counselor. Just my opinion. Again, thank you so much for ministering to this sinner's heart down here in Vail.

May God continue to bless your family and all that you do. I appreciate it very much. Wayne. Yes. Thank you. And I know we've heard from you and your wife before. Yes. I was going to say, say hi to your wife.

Appreciate hearing from you guys. This next question comes from, I did not copy the name down. That's so funny. Anyway. Hi, pastor Gabe. I really appreciate your podcast and your approach to theology.

So I was hoping you might have a recommendation for me. My brother, Mike is currently incarcerated and has really started devouring the Bible. He's also become very interested in early church history and has kind of veered into Eastern Orthodoxy coming from an evangelical perspective.

I have some concerns, but I also want to encourage him to genuinely investigate the history and theology for himself, rather than just tell him what to believe. Are there any books you'd recommend that would be particularly helpful for someone in his situation, especially something dealing with early church history, the development of doctrine and the differences between evangelical Protestantism and Eastern Orthodoxy.

Studying Church History Without Eastern Orthodox Bias

I'd really appreciate any recommendations you have. Thank you. Well, you're welcome. Anonymous person whose name I forgot to write down. Now what he's studying is actually not church history. What he's getting is a piecemealed version of church history that is likely put together by somebody who's of the Eastern Orthodox persuasion.

So people who will make comments about, I studied church history and I became Roman Catholic, or I studied church history and I became Eastern Orthodox. As if following church history is going to lead you to one of those two places, but they have a certain version of church history that they have made.

Of course. I know people who've studied church history and led into Protestantism. Wes Huff, as a matter of fact, the apologist, he has said the complete opposite. He studied church history and became Protestant.

Right. And has laid out exactly why church history brings you in that direction, not leads automatically into Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy, which actually veer away from sound teaching of the Bible.

It is not a continued tradition of the early church and the apostolic ministry. So what sort of books could you recommend to your brother that would help him out? If he has a passion for church history, wants to continue learning it, but will lead him in the right direction instead of having this Eastern Orthodox bias in whatever it is that he's reading.

So first of all, I would recommend church history in plain language by Bruce Shelley. Right now, that book is less than 20 bucks on Amazon. Oh, nice. And that's kind of, that's been like the leading book for the last several years regarding a good, concise summary of church history.

Now I say concise, but it's a big book. Yeah. Of course, church history is very long. It is. And it keeps getting longer. It just keeps getting longer.

It's not getting any shorter here, folks. So it's good not to summarize a lot of that, like diminish what actually happened. Oh yeah. It's good to get all of the facts. Yeah. And figure out,.

Oh, okay, that's what happened there. And church history is very messy. It is. By the way, it's very messy. The existence of the Roman Catholic church and the Eastern Orthodox are because church history is very messy.

Yes. But they do not have a monopoly on church history. So that's, that's the first book that I would recommend. A lot of pastors recommending that one today. I think that's even a textbook in some seminary classes.

If you take a church history course, they're probably going to recommend to you church history in plain language by Bruce Shelley. And as I said, it's on sale right now on Amazon. You can get it for less than 20 bucks.

That's a good deal because I think that book, that book usually goes for about 40. Oh, wow. So a great deal on it at the present. Definitely. The next one I would recommend is a little bit longer. It's five volumes as a matter of fact, and that's 2000 years of Christ power by Nick Needham.

It's not a complicated read. It's just like Bruce Shelley's book in plain language. It's the same with Needham's book. He puts it on a very easy to read level. It's just a lot. It's a lot more since you have that in five volumes.

Now, because it's five volumes, it's going to cost you more. I looked at the set on, or at heritage books since we mentioned heritage books last week. So if you go to heritagebooks .org, the full five volume set is 150 bucks.

So that means you're paying about $30 a book. You can find it cheaper than that. And you could probably piecemeal it together where you're finding a book here and a book there and, and finding them for lower prices and we'll probably end up spending less than 150.

Sure. Although it could cost you more in shipping. I don't know.

Oh yeah. That's where the, that's where the deal comes in. Yeah. The, the weight alone is a lot. Right. Not, not anything against like people paying too much for shipping, but it really does cost that much.

Yeah, that's true.

But then there's other places where you can pick up copies of that. I'm sure you could probably find it a little bit cheaper just right now. It's not on sale at heritage books. It's going to cost you a little bit more, but those are the two that I would recommend first church history in plain language.

And then 2000 years of Christ power. If you want something a little more broad, you would grab that book up there above you from Simon at a car. Yeah. That one is called church history. I don't recommend that one as like, if you're wanting to do a deep dive into church history, that's not your book.

That one, this one I got for the kids for homeschooling.

Yeah. We used that for family devotions and stuff. That one's easy to go through together as a family. But if somebody is doing a deep dive, that, that one's going to be very elementary. It's going to be a very surface level.

Look at church history stuff. It's got some great cliff notes, kinds of things in it. Yeah. True. A very good summary of stuff. It is in order. So you're, you're going through history as you're reading the book, but not one of the deeper ones.

That's,.

That's more interesting to adults. Yeah, probably.

If somebody is reading enough church history that they think Eastern orthodoxy is the way to go, then they need to read something a little more clear. Yeah. Am I right? Yes. Something is going to give you a more robust kind of gathering of what's happened in the past.

Yes. Thank you for your question. Again, anonymous person who's unintentionally anonymous just because I didn't copy your name down. Side note.

Okay. So the church history in plain English also has a workbook.

It does. There is like a study guide that goes along with it. Yeah. I thought that was kind of cool. And I do have both, but I don't know where the study guide is because I never actually used it. Oh really?

It came with the copy that I bought, but I don't think I ever looked at it. So it didn't stay together with my, with my church history book. So it's around here somewhere. It is. All right. Next question comes from Brandon.

He says, hello, I emailed a couple of months ago about a particular author who teaches on Torah observance, et cetera. Would you be willing to elaborate a little more on this Torah observance movement and its potential dangers?

Continue your faithful commitment to the scripture. Well, I think one of the things that I said about it is that the Torah observance is really like Hebrew roots movement under another name. It's the same kind of problems, same legalism, same heresies.

It may not be exactly the same tradition as the Hebrew roots, but it's pretty close to that. I gotcha. So the, the main gist of, well, I can summarize it this way. Torah observance is, uh, Pharisaicalism come back to life.

Okay. So let's do what the Pharisees taught us to do. That's essentially what it is. It is, um, nothing new under the sun. Yeah, right. Exactly. I mean, there's this kind of stuff the church has had to deal with for 2000 years.

There are people that are claiming, no, we, we do still have to keep all of the law. We have to keep all of the feast days, the festivals, you have to keep the Sabbath. The Sabbath has to be on Saturday.

If you're worshiping on Sunday, then you're worshiping on a day that was actually a Roman invention. And that's pagan. You still have to be circumcised. I mean, it's all the same stuff that the Jerusalem council was confronting in Acts chapter 15, same stuff you read about in Galatians, where, where Paul says, you know, we were under a guardian.

We were under the law as our guardian, but now we have the gospel. Yeah. So we are no longer under the law. We are under grace Hebrews, the book of Hebrews as well. I don't know how a person gets through the books of Galatians and Hebrews and still continues to be Torah observant.

They are exactly the same thing. Yeah.

Mike, are you just totally nixing that important part of the Bible that gets repeated quite a bit? Yeah.

I mean, if you, if you think what Paul says in Galatians, if you think that you still need to be circumcised in order to be a proper Christian, then the gospel is of no use to you. What's the point of the gospel.

If you still have to do all of these other works in order to be saved. Yeah. And, and it, like I said, it tends to be very, very legalistic. It tends to be, you have to do this, this, and this, and it always comes down to two things.

This, this is how you can usually spot the Torah observant guys. It's on these two doctrines. The Sabbath is Saturday. Okay. And you still have to keep the dietary laws. It's those two, like those are pinnacle over everything else.

And, and I'll have these guys that will say to me, well, you believe that we don't have to keep the law. I said, where have I said that? Where have I ever told anybody that you don't have to keep the law?

I've absolutely said that in my teaching, but there are law gospel distinctions. So you still have to love neighbor. You still have to love God. That's law. Yeah. Just because we have been saved by faith doesn't mean that there are commands we no longer have to follow.

So then they'll, then they'll follow that up with no, no, no, no, no, no. I mean, certain things of the law. Oh, really certain things like what certain things. And I know exactly what's coming next. Well, do you worship on Saturday or on Sunday?

Do you keep the dietary laws? I worship on Sunday and I don't have to keep the dietary laws because Jesus said in Mark chapter seven, or at least Mark seven says, thus he declared all foods clean. And we find this in other places.

Days and food are exactly the two doctrines that Paul talks about in Romans 14 as being opinions that we should not divide over. Right? Then you have the statement in Colossians chapter two, let no one pass judgment on you with regards to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath.

These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. Then the apostle Paul in first Timothy four, this spirit expressly says that in later times, some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared, who forbid marriage and require abstinence from foods that God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth for everything created by God is good and nothing is to be rejected.

If it is received with thanksgiving for it is made holy by the word of God and prayer. And so I will say right there, the apostle Paul says, if you are still imposing upon people that there are foods that they cannot eat or else they make themselves impure, then you are actually teaching the doctrines of demons and they will respond this way.

They will go, Oh really? So Leviticus 11 is the doctrine of demons. And I will reply, if you're imposing that on people, yes it is because you are taking it out of context and twisting the word and making it legally binding on people when it is not legally binding on anyone anymore.

Right? The purpose of the dietary laws. This was why I went through that whole thing when we were in acts chapter 10 and I made that very long two part episode. Yeah. Went way over my usual time to make sure that those things were stated clearly.

The purpose of the dietary laws were to keep the Jews and the Gentiles distinct. And you see that in acts 10 and 11. Peter saying to Jesus, I've never been defiled by eating foods like this. I've never been defiled by these things.

And Jesus replying to him, do not call unclean what God has made clean. And then in the next chapter, when he's recalling to the Jews, what he witnessed when he went to the house of Cornelius and had been there with the Gentiles, the Jews came to Peter at the beginning of chapter 11 and said, why did you go into the house of a Gentile and eat with them?

So they're, they're specifically saying, why did you eat with the Gentiles? Yeah. And Peter saying, because the Lord told me don't call unclean what God has called clean. So if there's anybody, when you cite that passage in acts chapter 10, if there's anybody that says to you, well, that was about the Gentiles are clean.

No, it was specifically about food because they actually talk about Peter eating with the Gentiles in acts 11. The dietary laws kept the Jew and Gentile distinct. But now as said in Ephesians chapter two, that dividing wall of hostility and all of its ordinances have been broken down.

Right. And what was two people have now been made one in Christ Jesus, Jew and Gentile together. We are the people of God. And so there's no need anymore for those laws that kept those distinctions and those separations.

So eat, drink, and be Mary in Christ, giving glory to God through him for all the good food, like bacon and pork that he has given to us. You do not have to feel like you're doing anything unclean by, by eating these foods.

So again, that's the problem with the Torah observant movement. It's just legalism. Yeah. And it's imposing upon people laws that even the Bible has called demonic. If you are imposing those things upon people and saying you're impure, if you eat pork, then you are being demonic.

Yeah. You are actually being satanic in the way that you are burdening people with laws that we are not meant to be burdened by Paul, even saying in first Corinthians, eating and drinking does not commend us to God and neither does it separate us from God.

True. So you are not made impure by what goes in. You are made impure because your heart is wicked. Right? That's what makes you impure before God. And we are purified by faith in Christ who cleanses us and makes us new.

Amen. All right. Well, I think that covers everything that you were going to be with me on. All right. This next question that I'm going to answer, Becky doesn't want to have anything to do with this question.

This is a hard topic to discuss and she would rather not be here for it, but it has to do with the trial that's going on right now concerning a woman named Lindsay Clancy. And if anybody is curious about this case and some of the spiritual aspects to it, as a matter of fact, we're going to talk about that next after I take this quick break.

Yes. Babe, it was great to have you. Thank you. Always wonderful to have you on the program. And don't forget, you can email when we understand the text at gmail .com or go to www .utt .com and click on that voicemail tab.

Biblical Inerrancy and the Ascension Accounts

God bless. Adam Hamilton is the founding pastor of Church of the Resurrection outside of Kansas City, the largest United Methodist church in the country. He's also running for U .S. Senate in the state of Kansas.

In a recent sermon, Hamilton said that the Bible is full of contradictions, but the example that he gave really demonstrates his own ignorance about what the Bible says. Listen to this story he told about a debate he had with another pastor who believes the Bible is inerrant.

If I could prove just one mistake in the Bible, will I have won the debate? He said, absolutely. I said, okay, well, I can think of hundreds, but let me just give you one. I said, where did Jesus ascend to heaven from?

And he stopped for a second. I said, so you do remember, right? Let me just show you on the map here. In Luke's gospel, Jesus ascends to heaven from the Mount of Olives by Jerusalem. In Matthew's gospel, Jesus ascends to heaven from the Galilee.

I said, now look, there's like 75, depending on the route, 75 to 90 miles difference between these two towns. Matthew says one, Luke says the other, they can't both be right. So one of them is wrong. I don't know what you want to call that, but one of them has the place wrong.

The location wrong. One of them is by the sea of Galilee. One of them is in Jerusalem. So I said, it seems to me that I just showed you one mistake in scripture.

No, Matthew did not say that Jesus ascended into heaven from a mountain in Galilee. At the end of his gospel, it says Jesus taught his disciples in Galilee and gave them the great commission, but it does not say he ascended to heaven from there, nor does it say at the end of Luke's gospel that Jesus ascended from the Mount of Olives.

That's actually in the book of Acts and in Acts one, three, it says that for 40 days between Jesus resurrection and his ascension, he appeared to his disciples, showing them that he was alive by many convincing proofs.

And he taught them about the kingdom of God. Then as he was speaking, he was lifted up from their midst and they returned to Jerusalem, rejoicing from the Mount of Olives. The Bible does not contradict itself.