Wrestling With Faith
Is the Bible to be understand as being figurative or literal?
This is a great question! 2 Timothy 3:16-17 says, "All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work."
All scripture comes from God. We understand it as God's words to us. All of it is important and useful for helping us grow and develop as believers in Jesus Christ. When you look at the Bible you cannot say that all of it was figurative and you cannot say that all of it was literal. Jesus used parables that were designed help us understand God's word. Some things are a hyperbole, designed as an exaggerated point to draw emphasis to a point. Some parts of scripture meant to be understood literal to us today. Other parts require interpretation because it is relevant to us in its meaning but the what was stated doesn't have a direct application to our cultural context but when we understand the authors original meaning we can apply that meaning to our current cultural context.
The Bible holds many different types of literary writing styles. There is poetry, songs, narratives, historical recordings, parables, and prophetic messages. There are even some sections of scripture that have a dualistic meaning. This means that it had a message that was directly addressing a current situation in the day related to its writing, and the same sections of scripture also holds a message that relates to prophetic as it relates to things that are yet to come.
So, the short answer is that some parts of the Bible are to be understood as being figurative and other parts of the Bible are to be understood as literal. I hopes this helps shed so light of understanding to this question.
If you have other questions please email them to pastorsteve@laxnazarene.com. I strive to answer questions that I receive from what we can understand from the Bible.
This is a great question! 2 Timothy 3:16-17 says, "All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work."
All scripture comes from God. We understand it as God's words to us. All of it is important and useful for helping us grow and develop as believers in Jesus Christ. When you look at the Bible you cannot say that all of it was figurative and you cannot say that all of it was literal. Jesus used parables that were designed help us understand God's word. Some things are a hyperbole, designed as an exaggerated point to draw emphasis to a point. Some parts of scripture meant to be understood literal to us today. Other parts require interpretation because it is relevant to us in its meaning but the what was stated doesn't have a direct application to our cultural context but when we understand the authors original meaning we can apply that meaning to our current cultural context.
The Bible holds many different types of literary writing styles. There is poetry, songs, narratives, historical recordings, parables, and prophetic messages. There are even some sections of scripture that have a dualistic meaning. This means that it had a message that was directly addressing a current situation in the day related to its writing, and the same sections of scripture also holds a message that relates to prophetic as it relates to things that are yet to come.
So, the short answer is that some parts of the Bible are to be understood as being figurative and other parts of the Bible are to be understood as literal. I hopes this helps shed so light of understanding to this question.
If you have other questions please email them to pastorsteve@laxnazarene.com. I strive to answer questions that I receive from what we can understand from the Bible.
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