How literal is the Christian interpretation?

Question

I've been wondering, just how literally do Christians take the Bible? I know some just take it symbolically, while others take it word-for-word. More specifically, the whole "God created the world in seven days" thing. Is that taken literally as seven of our days? Because if he created animals one day, and people the next...
...When did the dinosaurs fit in there?

If I'm taking something waaay too literally, I'm sorry, as someone who's not Christian I sometimes am way off with these things. It's just something I've been wondering.

To the one who pointed out that animals and humans were created on the same day, sorry. That was my bad.
And to everyone who says that they were hanging around with Adam and Eve: Um, you do realize that dinosaurs and humans never coexisted? Unless that belief is different too?

Answer 1

I'm one to believe that the seven days is more significant in it's number than it's actuality. Seven is wholeness, complete. Also what's interesting is that the ORDER thigns happened is exactly how scientists say it happened.

Also, no one argues that there's no time stamp on the "days"--instead, they are ambigious.

What's even MORE interesting is that the Christian creation story as well as every OTHER origin story begins with UTTER chaos. Kind of amazing when you put it together like that.

What astonishes me about the creation story and evolution in general is that for humanity and other complex life forms, it took a VERY specific combination of events to occur. It was a one in 10^100000000000000 power chance that we would occur as we do now! Kind of creepy when you think about it.

ALSO if you want to go into Adam and Eve, my translations have always led in the thinking that what made Adam and Eve so special, so human were their souls. Their neffish. THAT'S what made them so special! After Abel died, Adam went off on a depressed vacation away from Eve where he could have fathered MANY children with cro magnon women and even neanderthals! BUT they weren't fully human because their mother AND the father didn't both have souls!

Answer 2

I personally believe in the 7 literal days. The original Hebrew is the word for a 24 hour period, plus the light and darkness described each day make sense for a 24 hour period. The dinosaurs are described in Job, (tail like a cedar tree...) so there is no reason to believe they did not also live at the time of Adam and Eve.

There are a lot of questions asked. If a person believes in the flood it really helps explain the timeline better. Just think of how long it would have taken buildings in New Orleans to erode over time. But it happens overnight when a flood occurs. Same thing with the world wide flood.

Answer 3

Many things in the Bible are meant to be taken literally, and other things are symbolical, poetic, metaphorical, allegorical, etc. However those symbolical areas are still meant to convey a literal truth.

The Bible ("book of books") has many different literary devices and is comprised of over 66 books with a few more accepted (for reference) though not included into the "official canon". It was penned by people from all walks of life and by many different authors, over a 1500 year period of time. Yet, the marvelous truths are interwoven with such a degree of accuracy, it is considered a miracle of G-D in the making, as no man would have been able to forsee all the necessary correlations.

A unique book, which is debatably the most documented "book" in the world, has a general historical chronology. The correct interpretation of any given passage is usually compared and crossed referenced with many other passages to support any particular meaning.

While not a science text, many statements made in the Bible support or supplement much scientific data. Without going into specifics, the "creation" days do not have to mean a 24 hour period. "To the Lord, a day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years is as a day." The concept of time is better understood as a division, which is meant to separate one event from another. There is no loss of the truth that G-D created the Plant Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, Intersteller Space, Mankind, etc. if the days were 24 hour periods, or longer, but meant to divide the topics for creation. Most "Creation Scientists" believe that the fossil record supports dinosaurs as animals, and sea-creatures were created when animal life was created, and became extinct before and during the Great Flood during Noah's time. The fish fossils found in strata at the tops of our highest mountains imply that water at that level brought them there. Dinosaurs would have drowned in the flood.

Answer 4

So what? If it works for someone, why should it bother you? People are different from each other. the bottom line is do they learn about God what they need from that story? The Bible isnt' a science book, it's a book about God's character and his relatinoship to humans. What difference does it make if the work was made in 7 days or 7 billion days?

Answer 5

I'm one who takes it all literally. Because when I pray to God, I want literal solutions, not symbolic happy talk! And yes, I keep the 7th day Sabbath, as Jesus did, to celebrate that 7-day creation.

Dinosaurs are huge reptiles. Animals. Therefore, sixth day. And, wait a minute! My Bible says He created animals and people on the same day! (Day 6)

Answer 6

Genesis 1:1, 2 relates to a time before the six “days” outlined above. When these “days” commenced, the sun, moon, and stars were already in existence, their creation being referred to at Genesis 1:1. However, prior to these six “days” of creative activity “the earth proved to be formless and waste and there was darkness upon the surface of the watery deep.” (Ge 1:2) The 6 "days" were not 24-hour days.

Answer 7

In the countless examples you have stated, you're making the errors that there could be a organic clarification for them or they could no longer have got here approximately. in the learn of technological awareness ~ there are a number of problems, yet you anticipate explainability for them. many stuff are certainly explainable, and study is persevered over controversy. in the learn of The Bible ~ there are a number of problems, and we anticipate explainability for them. many stuff are certainly explainable, and study is persevered over controversy. whether, critics of The Bible at the instant are not honest-minded as they presume it to be accountable of errors incredibly of harmless. They confuse our fallible interpretations of it with Gods infallable revelation. There at the instant are not any medical or historic errors in the Bible ~ none! The Genesis account isn't symbolic. neither is the flood neither is the tale of Jonah. even nonetheless the super bang concept remains unproven and it won't be in a position to respond to questions like ~ the place did all the situation come from in the 1st place ~ evolutionists and atheists alike are particularly content cloth to have confidence it besides. So why is it so confusing to have confidence that God spoke each and everything into existence? If he's the author of all issues could he no longer reason Jonah to stay to inform the tale in the tummy of a fish? As for Jesus' miracles and his resurrection, there have been many eye witnesses to those issues. It takes approximately 2 generations or 80 years for a fantasy to advance ~ long after the eyewitnesses to the money owed have died. however the Apostles began coaching in the present day, and the 1st letters to the church homes interior the hot testomony have been written approximately 30 or 40 years after Jesus ascended into Heaven. it is incredibly confusing to propagate a fantasy mutually as the eyewitnesses are nonetheless alive. no longer in easy terms that, yet there are over 5,seven-hundred manuscripts that tutor the authenticity of the hot testomony on my own. maximum historical books have in easy terms one or 2. Such is the case with Alexander the super, and not something become even written approximately him until eventually 500 years after his dying.

Answer 8

Many things have to be taken into consideration. Who the letter was wrote to. In the church at Corinth they were having problems and they were addressed with specific instructions that pertained souly to them. The time period. If those who were under the law or if it was instructing those who were of the promise. Some things are directed toward the Jews and other things are addressed to the church. You really have to do extensive study and time with God to have true revelation of scripture.

Answer 9

how literal Christians take the bible will determine how knowledgeable each one is. A causal reader is not going to have the interpretation of a devoted reader that studys the word.

Answer 10

it depends some are maximists and some are minimalists.
literally or figuratively, some of each; Atheists don't believe in god and that means the lessons of the bible are just lessons to put into an intelligent working frame of reference .