Submit your own questionBack Q: How do we know which parts of the bible are to be taken literally and which parts are to be taken figuratively? Your response to the genealogy question is a good example of something that cannot be taken literally.
Submitted by William Levy 8/11/2004 10:27:23 AM
A: The bible usually explains itself (because you have to take it as a whole and not one verse singularly)
ie -- throughout the bible the fig tree represents Israel.
--references to the Rock refer to Jesus
-- one thousand yearscan be as a single day and a single day as a thousand years -- etc.
Where the bible does not explain itself, you have to question if it is a social or cultural element.
2 Timoth 2:15 says -- ´study to show yourself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.´
There are very good reference books available for the difficult passages that have the knowledge and experience of countless scholars at your fingertips, BUT a most trustworthy guide is the leading and guidance of the Holy Spirit to open up the eyes of our understanding -- I John 2:27 -´The anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you ; but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shalll abide in Him´
Another scripture is -- John 16:13 -- Howbeit when He, the Spirit of Truth, is come, He will guide you into alll truth; for He shall not speak of Himself; but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak: and He will show you things to come..
I have learned more by the Spirit of God and the life application of biblical passages than I have learned from any other sources and I know that those truths have transformed my life and continue to transform it.
