I'm a christian and some things are a little hard to grasp. manly the old Testament stuff. Adam and Eve, Jonah and the Whale, Job, The Walls of Jericho.
I believe it to a certain extent but some of the stories really do seem like metaphors. So how do you deal?
2007-12-07 04:22:30 · 22 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
Nothing is impossible with God. When you trully and fully grasp who God is, there is no room to question because He is, was, and ever shall be. I do believe in God's written word to be complete Truth. God caused the lame to walk, the blind to see, the Red Sea to part, Jonah to not be devoured by the whale, He walked on water...but most magnificent is He died on a cross for you and me, but death could not keep Him....He rose again, is alive and well and I'm sure He gets a kick out of pompous temporal men who try to scrutinize and anayze His soveriegnty when we have the intelligence of a speck of dust compared to the ways and the thoughts of God. How do I deal? I love Him, therefore I trust Him. Satan will keep you chasing things that don't really matter to keep you from what does matter. If you learn this, you will attain gems of Wisdom.
2007-12-07 04:59:17 · answer #1 · answered by HeVn Bd 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Because some of it IS fairy tale - but it is supposed to be! The Bible is not a history, nor a science textbook. It is a collection of many books (at least 66, although some versions have more). Each of the books contains writings of various genres, like: letters, laws, histories, genealogies, apocalypses, parables, myth (stories that contain a true message, but are not necessarily truth in themselves), wisdom sayings, songs, love stories, poems, .... and so on. You are not meant to read the whole thing as a textbook on everything that happened. It was never intended to be a book like that. There is very little, in fact nothing, to disprove the factual statements in the Bible that I am aware of. However, there are plenty of things people treat as factual history, even though it was not intended to be. E.g., there was no actual "good Samaritan." This is just a teaching story - and the message in it is a very good one. Did Jesus exist? Yes. This is supported by other books beside the Bible. Did Moses exist? That one is harder to prove, one way or the other. However, he was also around a very long time ago, and so there are few surviving records of the time. You have to read the Bible very carefully.
2016-05-22 00:35:10 · answer #2 · answered by ? 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I am a Christian - and don't necessarily to ascribe to the absolute literal truth of every word in the Bible - I think a lot of it is parable, allegorical, etc. - but even some of the stories that many Christians believe (ie Adam and Eve, Noah's ark) I would still be very generous with my faith to say - there are lessons to be learned and wisdom to be gained from a serious reading of the Bible - if you have God's Holy Spirit on your heart to guide you in practical interpretation.
But it is the great paradox of the Bible - without the Holy Spirit it will mean very little to you; and often seem confusing even contradictory.
At its heart it is a very spiritual book - a parable for the saved, not a textbook for the damned.
2007-12-07 05:51:54 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
If you will read some of the writings found from the first known civilization, the Sumerians, you will understand why so much cruelty and hard to believe. The old testament was written from these writing.
Carbon dated 6,000 yrs. Stories of the creation of Adam and Eve, Noah and the flood, destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, garden of Eden and especially the Nifilims that are mentioned in the Bible as Demon's. Check the web for Anunnaki, Sumer, and Nifilims, where the giants came from.
2007-12-07 19:15:51 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
If the texts indicate a metaphor-then its a metaphor. If the texts indicate narration, like 'Jonah and the big fish', then it is to be interpreted as a literal event.
If you can not believe that God created the universe and all that in it is, the flood, the ark, the whole thing-then why would you believe in Jesus for your salvation?
If part of it is a fairy tale, how can you tell another part isn't?
2007-12-07 04:30:41 · answer #5 · answered by Higgy Baby 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
By faith. You also have to understand time frame. For a day in God's mind may be a thousand years in ours.
Second, we must understand that most of the things written in the bible are based upon moral lessons. If you read a scripture example Jonah. The overall lesson is not that Jonah was swallowed by a whale. rather it is a lesson is sin, repentance, and forgiveness.
What helps me. Is I always look for the " moral of the story." The rest you must take on faith.
2007-12-07 04:31:16 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 1⤋
Like...all of it?
You know, I heard that 60% of grown adults in America believe the Noah's Ark fable literally. LITERALLY. At least, that's what they say when asked. So work backwards from that one. They believe that an old man matched up every species on earth, including maybe the dinosaurs (!), and got them to copulate on a big boat while God destroyed the world in a tantrum.
Maybe it's just me, but I don't credit people who believe this with the ability to distinguish crap from Shinola, let alone to deal with the other absurdities in the Good Book.
"If God could walk on water and create the universe I think destroying city walls would be no problem for him." Yeah, I guess you're right. Of course, all you're saying is that if you believe one ridiculous thing, you might as well believe them all.
2007-12-07 04:30:47 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 3⤊ 1⤋
Fundamentalists think it all really happened - Adam and Eve, Noah's ark and the flood, etc.
Some think those parts of the Bible are allegorical. Much like how Jesus used to tell parables to get a point across to mainly uneducated crowds.
2007-12-07 04:38:29 · answer #8 · answered by sandand_surf 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
"a little hard to grasp"
no kidding. You are not the only one that has that problem. Studying the Bible is intense and takes a lot of other books or other people to make things understandable.
That is where faith comes in. Believe in things as they are and as truth.
In cases where I don't understand, I just postpone judgments and conclusion till a later time. In many cases, when I least was expecting it, things became clear.
2007-12-07 04:34:11 · answer #9 · answered by Rafita49 3 · 1⤊ 1⤋
I think most are metaphors and over exaggerated to get the point of the story across. I don't think the whole world flooded. Back then they still thought the world was flat but I'm sure they had a bad flood that affected their "world" and the 40 days was just to exaggerate how long it rained. That's just my thought on the question.
2007-12-07 04:30:23 · answer #10 · answered by Bellaboo 3 · 1⤊ 1⤋