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Yeah, you can take the literal MEANING from the parable or story, doesn't mean it LITERALLY happened. Thats why I believed God created everything, but I don't believe it LITERALLY happened in 6 days. It still portrays the message, or lesson
...Okay. Doesn't change the fact that Jesus spoke in parables and didn't tell literal stories, as was the original suggestion. I don't know why the fact that Rabbis also spoke in parables takes anything away from that.
Thanks for playing, but I can assure you I have a clue. The love of Christ shines forth yet again.
For Robin69 - Is it plausible that the story of the boy who cried wolf could happen? Did it happen, or was it created out of thin air to teach children a lesson, never meant to be taken literally?
Yes it is possible the boy who cried wolf could be a true story.
What we share should be edifying to the inner man. The text must be honored and still retained for other understandings as they present themselves. What I don't quite understand is why so many think they have to limit themselves to only one view to the exclusion of any others. Here is a small excerpt from an article on interpreting Scripture with links:
What is Pardes? Pardes [H6508] is a Hebrew word used in the Bible that means a forest, orchard, or park, and is referred to as Paradise. It corresponds with the Greek word paradeisos [G3857], which also means a park, Eden, or Paradise.
In Hebrew, Pardes is spelled, PRDS which is also an acronym for the Hebrew words Pshat, Remez, Derasha, Sod. Each word represents a different level of understanding the scriptures. Each level of understanding becomes deeper as revealed in the iceberg picture (upper right).
The journey into Pardes also represents our journey into deeper levels of intimacy with God our Father. It represents our journey into the relationship we once had in the Garden of Eden, hence the word Pardes ~ Paradise. (When finished here, please see our article on 4 Entered the Garden - a story from the Jewish Talmud on the dangers of the journey into Pardes.)
The four levels of Biblical understanding are: P [Pshat] - literal, simple - BREADTH
R [Remez] - parable, allegory - LENGTH
D [Derasha] - seek, search - DEPTH
S [Sod] - inner, mystical - HEIGHT
DIMENSIONS Jewish mysticism teaches us that the four levels of Biblical understanding are actually dimensions of meaning or interpretation. These dimensions as seen in the New Testament are the measurements of BREADTH, LENGTH, DEPTH, and HEIGHT, as revealed in Ephesians 3:18........
Ephesians 3:17-19
17 That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love,
18 May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height;
19 And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.
Many folks claim that they believe in a literal translation of the Bible and those who don't are in grave danger. Some people believe that there are sections which are not to be taken literally and are only meant to teach principles and truth. Explain why you think your position is correct.
I didn't bother to read the entire thread but I wanted to answer your question.
I read a book by Dinesh D'Souza, What's So Great About Christianity (the title is not a question by the way), and he begins early on by saying that the Bible is contextual. While there are some things I disagree with him about in his book, he was spot on there. I used to call myself a literalist but that wasn't really appropriate. The Bible contains all kinds of literary devices that are not intended to be taken literally (parables for example) though they have a very literal message (one that's not intended to be taken any way you want to). So contextual is the best description for how I take the Bible.
It's not a book of philosophy or fiction or a menu of choices.
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An amazing Song
