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Things That Can Be Taken Literally In The Bible


Anastasia13

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I was contemplating fundamentalist interpretations of the Bible, and it occurred to me that a literal interpretation of the Bible would probably require a real presence belief in communion for them. I was wondering what other things might require beliefs that are not native to many such believers? Someone on the other board already mentioned John the Baptist being Elijah and someone else said "why not?" So what can you guys think of that demonstrates that some things in the Bible cannot be taken /would require an alteration in fundamentalist beliefs? (Only scriptural info please, since they don't listen to Church Fathers as any sort of authority.)

Edited by Light and Truth
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Basilisa Marie

I'd think that too...but I've never run into a fundamentalist that [i]doesn't [/i]say something to the effect of "Oh but that's [i]obviously [/i]a metaphor" when talking about transubstantiation. I think part of the problem is that even if you take the Bible "literally," you're still interpreting it. Like, "whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven" and "whoever's sins you forgive are forgiven" are used to help support Catholic teaching on the sacrament of confession (bah, I can't remember the citation references), but I know many fundamentalists rather interpret it as a call to forgive grievances against yourself.

If John the Baptist was literally Elijah, then wouldn't Christians be forced to believe in reincarnation? Are they okay with that? But even so they're ignoring John 1:21 where the Baptist is asked if he is Elijah and he says no. What about the two Genesis stories? How can both be taken literally simultaneously when their respective orders of events are in direct opposition with each other? Also, Matthew and Luke give two different genealogies for Joseph. The order in which the devil tempts Jesus is different in Matthew 4 and Luke 4.

How do fundamentalists (at least the ones you talk to) combine taking the Bible literally with the fact that the original texts of Hebrew (for the OT) don't have vowels, punctuation or capital letters or the original Greek (for the NT) doesn't have spaces, punctuation or capital letters...all of this leading to the fact that [i]someone [/i]has to interpret it?

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I had always wondered why Jesus is somehow able to use metaphors/ parables to teach, but the Holy Spirit is apparently somehow inept at using parables/metaphors to teach through the writers of the Bible...

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Basilisa Marie

[quote name='sixpence' timestamp='1320078166' post='2329371']
I had always wondered why Jesus is somehow able to use metaphors/ parables to teach, but the Holy Spirit is apparently somehow inept at using parables/metaphors to teach through the writers of the Bible...
[/quote]

I think many literalists take the parables to be accounts of things that actually happened and that Jesus knows about them because he's God.

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Tab'le De'Bah-Rye

st paul said "it is holy for men to have hair above there shoulders and women to have there hair below there shoulders,but this should not be argued about." This could be taken literally i assume,but to understand he did not say it is un-holy the other way around...
Jesus said "if your right hand causes you to sin cut it off,it is better to go into heaven with half your body than into ghenna whole." This can not be taken literally, possibly the right hand is a close friend or family member, though than also we must consider him also saying we must forgive 70 times 7 times and 70 * 7 = 1 year and 3 months in actual days, so considering that we must also consider that there must be contact many times over that period and the ongoing pressure to sin. Also possible to consider as an alternative the good samaritan and spending one dark night with somone whom has been seriously wounded. But even than the samaritan continues on his or her journey after that one dark night.

Okay hope that helps in some manner.
God bless you all
Jesus is LORD
JC "seek and you shall find,knock and the door will be opened."

St Paul "perseverance bears fruits of hope."
St Francessca Cabrini (the american saint.) "he that dares nothing recieves nothing,a misionary must be fearless."
St MAry Mackillop of the cross. "be eager in your desires,but patient in there accomplishment."

P.S. web search my quotes in the answer to your question on a reputable E.Bible...Somone reccommended me a web bible called E Sword , unsure if it is any good haven't checked it out yet.

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