The best way to read the Bible is just to assume that everything is literal unless it is obvious that something is figurative. A lot of people will do the opposite and say that most of the Bible is figurative, and almost nothing is literal. This is just people wanting to believe in the lie of evolution who think that they can somehow reconcile it with the Bible.
Evolution is shot down in the first chapter of the Bible, which teaches that the days of Creation were literal, 24-hour days and that everything brings forth after its own kind, yet people still fall for the false doctrine of theistic evolution. Phony preachers like Billy Graham will try to compromise and say that perhaps God breathed into a certain ape-man and called him Adam. Many will go a step further and say that the entire story of Adam and Eve is symbolic.
All of the Jewish Rabbis that we spoke to when making the film, Marching to Zion, basically said that Adam and Eve are symbolic because modern-day Jews believe in evolution. Unfortunately, it’s not just the Jews that teach this. Even churches within so-called Christian denominations will teach that the story of Adam and Eve and other major events in the Bible never took place.
How could Adam be a figurative guy if he had children whose names are listed in genealogies leading up to other important events? We know that the Old Testament characters are real since they are listed in detailed genealogies that explain where various nations came from and lay out the very lineage of Christ going all the way back to Adam.The Bible calls Jesus the second Adam, and if you don’t believe that Jesus is a real person, then you aren’t saved. You can’t have it both ways. Obviously, both Adams were literal. Many of the stories in the Old Testament contain symbolism that foreshadowed the coming Messiah, but they are still true stories.
The other problem with saying Adam was some kind of ape is that the Bible teaches that sin entered the world through Adam. If you tried to fit evolution in with the Bible, you’d have all kinds of sin and death happening before Adam ever came on the scene.
“Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:” Romans 5:12
Here is the sermon Literal vs. Figurative, where I also discuss some things that actually are figurative.
2 comments:
Well Said. This is why the Gospel is a stumbling block to them that perish. I was sent to Catholic high school and my teachers disputed literal creation and Jesus' miracles over and over. I was fed up and told them "If you can believe somebody [Jesus] rose from the dead, why can't you believe any other supernatural event in the bible?" Naturally, they did not have a response for me. In my opinion Christ's resurrection is the most "impossible" seeming miracle that if you can accept it, all the other miracles will be possible as well but if you can't get past that one, you stumbled on the stumbling block because it doesn't fit your greek wisdom or your jewish sign. Blessing to you pastor.
There is a cult, mostly based in Southern Africa, called the Old Apostolic Church. They REALLY need to watch that sermon "Literal vs Figurative".
Their cult-unique doctrine is "spiritual interpretation", meaning that you are not allowed to read anything in the Bible literally, so it has to be figurative - but since a lot of the Bible clearly is literal, they have to have "the Holy Spirit" while reading the Bible to help them interpret what the literal stuff actually means spiritually. So for example, if "Jesus wept" then the verse cannot mean "Jesus wept" - so they have to be indwelled with "the Holy Spirit" to interpret what this actually means spiritually.
Result: they reject creation, they reject Adam and Eve, they reject the flood, Samson's account, they reject a literal Jesus (they believe THEY are collectively Jesus), they reject the Rapture and the millennial reign. Anything that literally happened is considered to be a spiritual lesson only, and they mess that up as well. Also it makes the OAC a cult in that you are so confused, and cannot read the Bible as it's written, so they rely on their clergy to interpret it for them. But then you get the rebels :-) who try to read it for themselves anyway, and get the "spiritual interpretation" for themselves - with crazy results. I've heard about them claiming God came literally in the flesh as Seth to overcome the literal battle of good vs evil which was actually Cain vs Abel (??!!), or where they say that when Genesis 1:1 says God created the earth, it actually means God created man. And Genesis 1 is a massive source of confusion for them.
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