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| II. Intrepration of the Bible Is the Bible to be taken literally? That is, are the sayings of Christ to be taken at face value? John Chapter 3: 1: There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews: 2: The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him. 3: Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. 4: Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born? 5: Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. 6: That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7: Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. I want to make 2 points from this excerpt. #1) Does "born again" have a literal meaning like Nicodemus thought? #2) verse 6, echos John 6:63. There is a again a clear distinction being made between flesh and spirit. Are there other versus in the Bible that are not to be taken literally? LUKE 3:16: John answered, saying unto them all, I indeed baptize you with water; but one mightier than I cometh, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to unloose: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire: Fire ???? I know the Christian practice of baptism is my immersing or annointing with water. But I have never heard of any Christian church practicing burning or branding. Could "Fire" have a different meaning other than the literal one? Matthew Chapter 5 29: And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell. 30: And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell. What does this mean? I know of no Christian churches that practice dismemberment. It is the spirit that quickeneth the flesh profiteth nothing Could "body", "right eye", and "right hand" refer to the spirit and not the flesh? Luke 9: 59: And he said unto another, Follow me. But he said, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father. 60: Jesus said unto him, Let the dead bury their dead: but go thou and preach the kingdom of God. Can dead people bury dead people? Could "dead" have a different meaning other than the literal one? Some Christians believe that in the last days the dead shall rise from their graves. I challenge the literal meaning of this based on Jesus' words in Luke 9:60 I may go into more detail about this in the future but I think if one reads the Bible carefully, one will see that such terms as body, bread, water, manna, food, life, death, and many others have symbolic meanings rather than literal ones. Based on this, my next page is going to deal with Baptism, and Jesus: God and Son of God. |
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