Must the Truth Be Literal?
One of the biggest areas of controversy in modern
Christianity lies in the interpretation of miracles, signs, and wonders. Was
the world really created in only
seven days? Did the Flood really
cover all of planet Earth? Did Moses really
part the Red Sea? Did Jesus really
rise from the dead? Or were all these things really just metaphors intended to teach spiritual lessons?
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Some believe that the literal interpretation of every
word in scripture is absolutely indispensible. The argument states that if
these miraculous events didn’t really
happen exactly as described in the Bible, then there would be no reason to
trust anything which is in the Bible.
For example, consider the creation story from Genesis,
Chapter 1. Some have argued that the validity of the entire Bible rests upon
the acceptance of a literal seven day creation week. The argument goes on to
imply (or state outright) that any Christian who does not believe that God
completed His work and rested over the course of seven 24-hour days (calculated
the same way we measure time today) is no Christian at all. This same type of
literalism must also be applied to every other out-of-the-ordinary event
recorded in scripture. For some, failure to adhere to the literal
interpretation of such passages is tantamount to heresy, and an indication that
such an individual cannot really be a
Christian. Salvation itself becomes dependent upon believing every word in a
literal sense.
On the other side of the coin, we have those who see
the passages in question all as purely symbolic. These people view the creation
story, the flood, and (in extreme cases) even Jesus’ resurrection and ascension
as nothing more than poetic imagery. Those who cling to the literal
interpretations are often viewed as weak-minded and unenlightened.
Regarding Genesis 1, adherents to the symbolic
interpretation turn to scientific evidence which indicates that the universe
has been around for billions of years. Carbon dating, the fossil record, and
Darwinian evolution are all seen as valid evidence which repudiates the
literalist view. They believe that only by interpreting difficult Biblical
passages as symbolic can the Bible be reconciled with science, and that this reconciliation
is vital if the church hopes to remain relevant in an increasingly secular
society. Symbolists argue that the old-fashioned notion that creation happened
in 192 hours is a backwards-thinking point of view. In their minds, such
literalism keeps potential converts (particularly highly-educated
intellectuals) from ever experiencing salvation and coming into the church.
So the question inevitably arises: “Who is right?”
A little background before I try to answer that: I did
not grow up in a churchgoing home, and I was a self-declared agnostic until the
age of 26. One of my reasons for being skeptical of Christianity throughout my
youth was my love for science, though I never was able to say for sure that God
was just an imaginary grandfather in the sky, either. Even after my salvation
by God’s grace, I continued to struggle with miraculous events as portrayed in
the Bible. It wasn’t until I was around 40 years old that I finally began to
realize that the problem was not the Bible, nor was it science.
The question
of “who is right?” is, in and of itself, the problem.
But how can
that be? Shouldn’t we try to understand the Bible? Are you saying it’s not important
to determine what is true or what is false?
That is most definitely NOT what I’m saying! I
certainly believe that the truth of the Bible is of the utmost importance. But
we are imperfect beings, and we have to realize that we are not going to fully
grasp the Truth until we stand before His throne. God’s ways are not our ways,
nor are our thoughts His thoughts (see Isaiah
55:8). Indeed, now we only dimly understand the Lord and his ways (see 1Corinthians
13:12). No matter how much we study, meditate, pray, and submit to God, we
will continue to be challenged by a wall of our own misunderstanding until this
life is over.
The first passage of scripture that REALLY cracked
through my personal wall of confusion was Proverbs 3:5-6…
Trust in
the Lord with all your heart,
And lean not on your own understanding;
And lean not on your own understanding;
In all your
ways acknowledge Him,
And He shall direct your paths. (NKJV)
And He shall direct your paths. (NKJV)
Trusting the Lord is the most important thing. You
see, my personal stance on whether
Genesis 1 is literal or symbolic is not important. If your take-away regarding
this chapter is an understanding of the process
of creation (whether literal or
symbolic), then you have missed the point altogether. The important fact is
stated clearly in the first sentence: “In
the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” Acknowledging that the
universe around us is something which God created (rather than something to be
worshiped on its own or something which just randomly came into existence because of a cosmic accident) is important. Crediting God with what He has done is
important. Whether I (or you) view the subsequent verses as literal or symbolic is
hardly worth noting. Furthermore, my faith in God is not threatened by the
possibility that I might misunderstand certain passages of scripture. That’s
actually why I need Jesus to begin with: I am imperfect, and I don’t understand
everything.
Do you believe that it took God seven of our 24-hour
days to finish creation? That’s fine. How does it affect your life? What
difference has it made in you? How does it make you more like Christ?
Do you believe that it took God billions of years to
create our universe and that the seven days of creation are metaphorical? That’s fine. How does it affect your life? What difference
has it made in you? How does it make you more like Christ?
If you answer either of those questions with something
other than “There is a God who created all things, including myself, and He
alone has the right to choose what He does with His creations, including me,
and therefore it behooves me to serve Him rather than myself,” (or some similar
conclusion which exalts God above all else) then you have missed the point.
Most of the passages which describe miraculous events
can be viewed in the same way, insofar as the spiritual lesson which is taught
is of far greater importance than the retelling of the historical event (see Romans
15:4). Indeed, the Bible would be of very limited importance to us if the
point of it all was to be nothing more than a historical record (although great
evidence has accumulated to support much of the historical content presented
therein).
There is, however, one miraculous event which we, as Christians, must simply take at face value. 1
Corinthians 15:14-16 states plainly that Christ’s resurrection is an
indispensible fact of our faith. If Jesus did not literally rise from the dead,
then according to the apostle Paul, everything we believe about Him is in vain.
If Jesus was not literally raised from the dead, as stated multiple times in
the New Testament by multiple sources, then Christianity is a sham. It would be
humanity’s greatest and longest-believed lie. Christ’s resurrection is not
something a Christian can categorize as simple metaphor. It is “un-do-without-able,” not because I believe it, but because the Bible explicitly singles out this one miracle as being the central fact of Christianity.
In the end, Christianity can be boiled down to a
series of short statements:
- There is a God.
- He created everything.
- Humans brought sin into the world by disobeying God.
- Payment for sin requires a death.
- Jesus died in our place to pay for our sins.
- Jesus defeated death by His resurrection.
- Because we trust in Jesus, we will share in His eternal life when our mortal life is over.
Always seek to understand the truths of the Bible, but beware of judging what other Christians believe based on your own understanding. Yes, we are definitely supposed to be on the lookout for false teachings, but that is another topic altogether. The point of Christianity is
to transform Jesus’ followers so that we may glorify Him as we become more like
Him. The point is that Jesus changes us (meaning me, and meaning you), up to and including what we believe to be true regarding Him, God the Father, the Holy Spirit, and the Word of God - our Bible.
Please… Don’t miss the point.
The Bible is the only authority to the truth of the Word of God, however, most scientist of the world never heard of Isaiah 55:8-9; which states; “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
ReplyDeleteFrom this point, this post is from an essay I wrote in 2005; Problems with science will always remain in the mind of mankind. Why?
Well, there are several reasons, but one is the fact that scientific reasoning and scientific observation can only hold good so long and in so far as the Law of Causality holds good. We must assume a pre-existing state of affairs which has given rise to the observed effect; we must assume that this observed effect is itself antecedent to a subsequent state of affairs. These facts also includes the beliefs of the Creationist. Neither their science nor any science of mankind can go back to the absolute beginnings of things, or forward to the absolute ends of things. It cannot reason about the way matter and energy came into existence, or how they might cease to exist; it cannot reason about time or space, as such, but only in the relations of these to phenomena that can be observed. It does not deal with things themselves, but only with the relations between things.
Since under these conditions science can afford no information, it is not to be wondered at that the hypotheses that have been framed from time to time to “explain” the first chapter of Genesis, or to express it in scientific terms, are not wholly satisfactory. At one time the chapter was interpreted to mean that the entire universe was called into existence about 6,000 years ago, in six days of twenty-four hours each. Later it was recognized that both geology and astronomy seemed to indicate the existence of matter for untold millions of years instead of some six thousand. It was then pointed out that, so far as the narrative was concerned, there was more than likely a period of duration that is impossible for man to examine between its first verse and its fourth; and some have suggested that the six days of creation were six days of twenty-four hours each, in which, after some great cataclysm of time between each ended 6,000 years ago, in which God shaped the face of the earth and replenished it for the habitation of man, the preceding geological ages being left entirely unnoticed. However, we have proof that say man was in parts of the world more than 6,000 years ago.
Some writers have confined the cataclysm and renewal to a small portion of the earth’s surface to “Eden,” and its neighborhood. Other commentators have laid stress on the truth revealed in Scripture that “one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day,” and have urged the argument that the six days of creation were really vast periods of time, during which the earth’s geological changes and the evolution of its varied forms of life were running their course. Others, again, have urged that the six days of creation were six literal days, but instead of being consecutive were, as stated above, separated by long ages. And yet again, as no man was present during any part of the creation period, save Adam, it has been suggested that the Divine revelation of it was given to Moses in seven successive visions or dreams, which constituted the “six days” in which the chief facts of creation were set forth, and a seventh day on which God rested.
Conclusion, until we can answer the above questions with facts instead of assumptions, we will never be able to completely understand the global warming and cooling that brings Ice ages, any more than we can understand the ways of God (Isaiah 55:8-9). All I can say with any known certainty is that God never changes (Malachi 3:6), but man is always chasing Change.