Christians, which do you believe: the Bible is all literally true or that Jesus is God?

Question

Some Christians here claim that the Bible is all literally true because it is the "word of God" and everything God says is literally true.

Christians also claim that, as part of the Trinity, Jesus is God.

Yet the Bible claims that Jesus taught in parables. The Gospels list at least 33 of them.

The parables of Jesus are considered the prototype for the word 'parable' and it is defined as "a short allegorical story designed to illustrate or teach some truth, religious principle, or moral lesson." Two antonyms of allegory are fact and history.

In other words, a parable is not literally true.

So, we are faced with a problem. If Jesus is God, then sometimes God says things which aren't literally true. If everything that God says is literally true, Jesus is not God.

The two options are mutually exclusive. Which one do you believe in and why?

Answer 1

Your question is a bit sticky. The way you ask it, I believe BOTH that the Bible is literally true and that Christ is God.

What I do not believe, which is what I think you meant to infer, is that everything in the Bible must be taken literally. I do not believe this is what any Christian believes .... your logical example showing a good reason why.

If we take absolutely everything in the Bible literally, we destroy language idioms, context and a whole host of things; oh yeah, and God would have wings and a woolly white beard (literally).

Ath

Answer 2

Christians ignore the Council of Nicea, where the Emperor Constantine presided over a meeting to decide whether or not Jesus was divine or a prophet, etc.. Constantine drowned his wife in boiling water, killed his own son, and ordered that anyone that had the "old" version of the Bible after the Council should be executed on the spot, which pretty much explains why the Bible should NOT be taken literally. Another reason is that it has been translated into different languages where meanings are lost in translation, and the early copies of the Bible were not always exact, so if a mistake was made it was "the will of God" (maybe papyrus wasn't cheap!) so the actual literal words are probably lost to us forever. It was only about 150 years ago that the literal interpretation of the Bible started coming into vogue, and oddly this doesn't seem to make the obvious contradictions make this phenomenon any less prevalent to these people. Many will tell you that the Bible was meant to be interpreted literally, but they don't know their history if they make that claim.

Answer 3

WHILE Jesus is often called the Son of God in the Bible, nobody in the first century ever thought of him as being God the Son. Even the demons, who "believe there is one God," knew from their experience in the spirit realm that Jesus was not God. So, correctly, they addressed Jesus as the separate "Son of God." (James 2:19; Matthew 8:29) And when Jesus died, the pagan Roman soldiers standing by knew enough to say that what they had heard from his followers must be right, not that Jesus was God, but that "certainly this was God's Son."—Matthew 27:54.

Hence, the phrase "Son of God" refers to Jesus as a separate created being, not as part of a Trinity. As the Son of God, he could not be God himself, for John 1:18 says: "No one has ever seen God."—RS, Catholic edition.

The disciples viewed Jesus as the "one mediator between God and men," not as God himself. (1 Timothy 2:5) Since by definition a mediator is someone separate from those who need mediation, it would be a contradiction for Jesus to be one entity with either of the parties he is trying to reconcile. That would be a pretending to be something he is not.

The Bible is clear and consistent about the relationship of God to Jesus. Jehovah God alone is Almighty. He created the prehuman Jesus directly. Thus, Jesus had a beginning and could never be coequal with God in power or eternity.

Answer 4

Jesus is God and all cannot be taken literally in the Bible...there are many stories to explain a certain idea or concept God wants to get across...that idea or concept is literally true...

Answer 5

Circular logic is not designed to come to conclusions but to create confusion. The literal truth of the parables is that they were stories told by Jesus to present a certain point to his audience. Whether the story itself is a factual story does not change that it was told by Jesus and repeated for our edification and as such holds literal truth for us.

Answer 6

Yes,God is Jesus in the form of human!The in Bible Jesus refers to himself as us in more then a few places!Trinity = 3
"God the Father,God the SON,and God the Holy Spirit"

Because,I have Faith and I do read my Bible

Answer 7

Jesus is NOT God. He was a man. Perhaps a prophet but most likely a great teacher. Because we have no idea what he actually did, all we have are the words of many many many men, there is no way of knowing if anything in the bible is even close to true.
We do know that Paul, Constantine, Pope Gregory, St, Augustine and many more had a lot to gain by shaping, altering and fabricating the bible as it is today.

Answer 8

I believe Jesus is God and he spoke in parables that does not mean we take the parables litteral. the bible is God's truth

Answer 9

as an agnostic, but also a logical person, I must say your postulate holds no water.... the parables of jesus are presented as parables and nothing else. the question is therefore moot.

Answer 10

i believe there is a God, and that there is the son of God and his name is Jesus