dear graceful leonard -
ah, gee, just about had my reponse to you finished and my computer lost it. so i will try to reconstruct it.
how literal do i take the Bible?
i take it very literally.
God created our fourth-dimensional world of Space and Time in SIX literal days. On the seventh day He rested from all that creating, but He did not rest from being God.
Adam and Eve were the very first humans on the earth, and they walked and talked with a pre-incarnate Jesus/God in the garen of Eden (literal place).
Jonah was literally three days and three nights in the belly of a great fish, and when the fish spat him out he believed, boy did he ever believe!
"Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego in the fiery furnace were tossed," and lived to tell the tale, probably because of that fourth guy WHO suddenly appeard with them in the flames - yup, Jesus again. (unfortunatley the three guards WHO tossed the three hebrew children in, died shortly aftewards, from their severe burns.)
Noah had a ark, and three sons: Shem, Ham and Japheth (from whom all human beings on the earth today descended from). and though i do not own a piece of that boat, i do believe it was REAL. thought i must say owing a piece of the ark would be nice.
so, the way i understand things, if a person, a place, or a thing, is NAMED in the Bible, it was a true historical fact.
Abrahan, Issac, Jacob - real.
Ruth, Queen Ester, Deborah - real.
BTW a lot of christian denominations say the story of the rich man and lazareth is a parable (object lesson) but i say it was a true, literal telling as lazareth was named.
now, for something that i believe is representational in the Bible, thought it too, has a very literal meaning, the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. they represent the anti-christ, a real man that will come to earth one day to rule. evangelical christians like myself say this TIME is very close now. so close we can almost hear "the approaching hoof-beats".
White Horse and Rider: repesents the anti-christ coming as a conquerer with a bow, without arrows (meaning he will come to rule, but not by force, as we usually understand force).
Red Horse and Rider: seen by most of the world as a man of PEACE, the anti-christ will still use WAR when necessary to further his agenda.
Black Horse and Rider: the anti-christ will also bring famine and plague to the world.
Pale Horse: the anti-christ (or his minions) will kill one fourth of mankind to accomplish his new world order.
and one personal note about that pale horse of revelation, chapter 6 KJV:
the KJV calles him a
pale horse but the original greek word is
chloris which is the greek word for green. so what we really have is a GREEN HORSE for horse number four. something else that is most interesting about this pale/green horse is that MOST artists illustrate him as green!
hum .. fast track to God, among creative people?
but have i inadvertently DISPROVED the Bible wrong with this? absolutely not! the innerrantcy is in the greek and hebrew texts, not in any latin, english, french or german translation. once again the archaeologists have come to the rescue, and as we find ever older and older COPIES of the original hebrew and greek texts, the WORDS in them are almost identical, and more importantly, the MESSAGE has not in any way altered. SEE books on the Dead Sea scrolls, modern manuscript discoveries, ETC. but i do sincerely believe the KJV is the BEST translation/copy we have to read, study and discern from. but as pointed out earlier, only the ORIGINALS (which someone pointed out correctly, no longer exist -that we know of-) are the ones totally
without error. but the best argument i have for putting my FAITH and belief in the KJV is, God said His Word would always exist for people wishing to obtain His wisdom and His good pleasure. And if that promise is true (which it is, like ALL His promises) He has to provide me a book i can read and understand. which BTW He has.
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dear Clara Listensprechen -
God is everywhere! as our TOM said once: "He is even up the leg of Mrs. Piermont's trousers!" which BTW was absolutley true.
of course I am a literalist! proudly. if you make the Bible non-literal, you can make it say anything you wish, which would make it totally useless, especially RE SALVATION purposes, anyWHO.
a TOTALLY righteous God can not forgive sin. sin has to be paid for. sin was paid for in full for mankind 2000 years ago on the cross of golgatha by Jesus Christ.
and there had to be ORIGINAL documents, sometime in the past, otherwise we wouldn't have their COPIES today.
au contraire, Jesus spoke in extended metaphors, He called them parables they are very good object lessons, eventhough they are made up stories.
most theologins and Bible scholars are being taught wrong at the seminary level. sadly, the same can be said of many of my own denonation's (Southern Baptist) colleges, so of course i can no longer agree with them. take out the Blood of Christ from your teaching, and the Trinity, and the Rapture, and the Virgin Birth, and Hell, and The Judgement ... well, then you just have another RELIGION. the RELATIONSHIP with a personal God, who loved you so much that He was willing to die for you, is totally lost.
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love,
pattie anne
