Why is it so hard for people to accept the Bible as literal? That God meant what He said when He inspired it’s writing and that it still applies to today? That we can get all of the answers of today’s problems within it’s pages (with the help of the Holy Spirit)? It is very dangerous to say that some portions were written “figuratively” because our feeble minds couldn’t comprehend. I understand that God writes in parallels; like comparing Hosea and his unfaithful wife of harlotry to the unfaithful nation of Israel. Does that mean the whole book is written figuratively and never happened? I also understand that Jesus spoke in many parables. Typically it comes out and says “and Jesus spoke to them in parables saying…” Why can’t our “feeble minds” just believe that God knew what He was talking about when He spoke the scriptures. When we start deciding what God meant as figurative and what is literal, we open up a BIG can of worms. That’s what faith is. Call me naïve and uneducated. I happen to believe the earth was created in six literal days. Where does it say in scripture otherwise? If you show me IN SCRIPTURE, I will apologize publicly for this post. If we say that this how is God HAD to write it for our (once again) “feeble minds” to grasp any sort of concept of this magnificent work, we are putting limits on God’s creativity. If He didn’t want us to know how long it took to create the earth…literally…He just wouldn’t have mentioned it. He didn’t expect us to theorize about it. How many stars are in our night sky? The Bible doesn’t say. It’s because God didn’t think we needed to know, so He didn’t say it. We could take a wild guess, but what does it matter. It certainly doesn’t effect my salvation. “Neither does creation”, you say? Creation certainly does effect my salvation. If I can’t believe what the Bible says about creation, how can I believe what the Bible says about Jesus’ resurrection? Maybe it’s just a figurative parable that helps our “feeble minds” to understand something that God couldn’t come right out and say. (Disclaimer: Please don’t dwell on that thought; I don’t want a cult to form with this sort of crazy belief.) If we apply logic to everything that we read in the Bible, we will be in trouble. The Bible is not a logical book. In fact, if we don’t take the whole Bible on faith, you would have to be crazy to believe half of the stories contained in it? If someone told you that a man was walking on the water, or fed 5,000 people with a few loaves of bread and fishes, or that a man caused an ax head to float on the water would you believe it? Some things are hard to accept (without faith), but He tells it straight forward anyways. I don’t see in the scripture where it tells about the Neanderthal man. Or cave men (except maybe Elijah and a few others). Or man starting out as an ameba. No we did not start out as a tiny single celled creature and change into a hairy man with a huge forehead.
And it’s not just about creation, either. It’s many things. It’s about living a holy life. It’s about believing that God still heals today. It’s about living a life free of sin. It’s about trusting God to lead your life; where He sees fit.
Usually these are the same people that disregard the Old Testament as irrelevant today. Even if the old law(s) aren’t binding today (which I will agree with) most of them were given for health reasons, to reduce strife with neighbors, to settle disputes, etc. Maybe if we tried to abide by them today, we would get along better and be healthier people. True we are not bound by them, but they are still beneficial.
To sum it all up; Believe the Bible. If you call me weak or feeble minded because I believe the scripture completely; I might say that you are weak and feeble faith-ed because you don’t. I would also say that you are doing a great damage and injustice to yourself and whoever else you might be filling up with your feeble faith-ed, logical minded, smarter-than-God attitude. For me; I will believe that God had His and my best interest in mind when He inspired and spoke what He did. I and my household will believe it completely and wholly. As for those of you who don’t, prayerfully consider this; repent and believe.
God Bless!
“…holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord:” Heb. 12:14
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
Hi Troy.
I think we have probably had this conversation before, but I think there are many people who take the Bible seriously and literally but come to different conclusions.
I just did a little search and found this site about the six days of creation. http://maxpages.com/biblegems/Six_Days_of_Creation
In it, he talks about how the Hebrew word translated days can be translated epochs or, in common terms, a period of time. It is the choice of the translators to make it days and not period of time.
I believe the Bible is literal, but I believe sometimes we miss seeing how big the forest is when we just look at one of the trees all of the time. I'm not accusing you of this. I'm just rambling now. The point of the creation story that we are supposed to take is that God created the world. Arguing about whether the word should be translated "day" or "a period of time" is irrelevant to the literal meaning of that section of Scripture.
I really don't have an opinion on the subject because it is divisive and doesn't produce any fruit either way. I don't see the harm of some people believing in "a period of time" and I don't see the harm of people believing in "days" as long as both groups of people take the Bible as the authoritative word of God.
After rereading my comment, I also wanted to point out that I think people who take the Bible literally can, and do at times, disagree on what is meant to be learned from different passages of Scripture.
Hi Bryce.
If I was to say what I believe, I would say I believe in a literal six days. But I'm not willing to call someone loose and goosey with the Bible if they don't. I hate to be divisive, but I can see honest people coming up with different conclusions on that one.
And I think we need to believe in the sin of Adam & Eve, the curse that came from them sinning,
Bryce said:
"The one being divisive is the one who changes the text to suite their own priori."
Or the one who deals with the one being divisive in not a loving way. Divisiveness is more often done in the attitude in which we interact rather than the context of our message.
Bryce said:
"If one says “I really don't have an opinion on it because it is divisive.” What they are saying is they do have an opinion, and their opinion is--Genesis isn't very important."
I didn't say Genesis is very important. I'm not saying to throw it out. I believe understanding Genesis is important to understanding the rest of the Bible. I do however think that the literal six days is an issue that isn't essential to the faith. I would not make believing in a literal six days a test of fellowship. Would I teach it? Yes. But would I divide over it or make it an issue of proper Biblical interpretation? Nope. I am fond of the slogan "In essentials unity, in opinions liberty, in all things love." I feel the literal six days would not be an essential, but an opinion. It is not worth a church split over. We all, including myself, need to learn how to live together with liberty in opinions.
"Let's look a little more closely at the word in question used in Gen. 1. Contrary to what some believe, you can know precisely what the author was intending to portray by reading the context (There are other ways too, by looking at the pattern of Subject, Object and Verb for each language in narrative or poetic form). The word in question is 'day'. The Hebrew word for day is 'yom' or 'yowm'."
I feel that if it was so clear so many people in the know wouldn't disagree about it. Maybe they are disagreeing because of their own selfish motives, but I tend to think a lot of them are just trying to be honest with the text. If I'm not mistaken, the same word is used in the 1st chapter of Genesis as figurative in one point. But again, I'm not arguing for their stance. Someone that believed it would be the best to do that. I'm just stating that I don't think we can delegitimize someone's Christianity because of their stance on the six days.
I noticed a big mistake.
I wrote: "I didn't say Genesis is very important."
I meant to say: "I didn't say Genesis is not very important."
Post a Comment