Question: .

What is a good response to someone who tells me not to take the Bible literally?

-Rick

Answer:

Dear Rick,

My response would depend on the definition (yours and the person who advised you) of the word "literal." On one end of the spectrum, there are some who do not accept that the 66 books of the bible include poetry, idioms, proverbs, prophecies, metaphors, parables, laws, etc., etc. that make up the Bible. They read every portion of the Bible as they would another. To read a law as one would poetry, and vice versa would be a tragic mistake. People who do not read the Bible as God inspired it (in human language, using the laws and limitations of language) often misunderstand - reading it in a woodenly literal way.

On the other hand, there are those who would allegorize everything in the Bible so that virtually nothing is to be understood as literal. This approach is also problematic, and often springs from the denial of a core teaching of Christianity, that the Bible is the inspired word of God.

A great book on this topic is "How To Read the Bible for all its Worth" by Fee and Stuart, available at most Christian bookstores.

In Christ,

Greg Albrecht