There is a prevalent way of thinking today that divides Christians into two basic groups: those who "take the Bible literally" and those who do not. I used to think this way as well, until I started studying the Bible and realized that Biblical interpretation is much more nuanced than that.
The reality is that no one, I repeat, no one, takes the Bible completely literally. Not even the most conservative, narrow minded Bible thumpers take everything in the Bible literally. How can I make such a bold, sweeping assertion? It's simple. Just click on the illustration below.
Some things in the Bible, like any other collection of literature, are obviously and indisputably metaphorical. A metaphor is simply a figure of speech. I use them. You use them. Authors from every time, place, and language have utilized them. It's only natural that the Biblical writers would as well.
Of course this does not mean that we can pick and choose what we want to take as literal and what we want to take as metaphorical. The Bible is a cohesive unit, not a smorgasbord. There are ways of discerning when a statement is literal and when it is intended by the author to be a metaphor. So please don't say, "Well, I don't like this part of the Bible so I'm going to say it's a metaphor. That way I can just ignore it."
If you actually want to believe in the Bible as your greatest authority, you'll have to learn how to honestly discern the difference between metaphor and literality in Scripture. As the Biblical books were written thousands of years ago in different languages on the other side of the world, that can get a bit complicated sometimes. But it's not impossible.
After finishing high school, I didn’t have a clue what career I should pursue. So I decided to take another year to think about it and make a decision. But a year later, it seemed like I was no closer to the answers. So I decided to go to Bible school for a year or two, hoping to have God tell me at Bible college what career he was calling me to. I soon got involved in the music department at Bible school, and decided that since music has been my passion for all my life, I should pursue a career in music.
However, it was a difficult decision, and this year I've been asking myself, what sane person would gamble on a career in music, an extremely competitive industry, with no back-up plan?
But now I think I’m starting to realize that my purpose in life is not to be successful in the music industry, or any other industry. My purpose is to be God’s servant. That is my career. That is my calling. That is the reason why I am on this earth. In what forms that will take throughout my life, I don't fully know. But I do know that I am in God’s hands, and as long as I remain his servant, He will guide me to the right schools, the right cities, the right jobs, and the right spouse. As long as I am God’s servant, it really doesn’t matter all that much whether I become a famous singer-songwriter or a garbage collector. Wherever God puts me, that’s the perfect spot for me.
Read more:
So You Wanna Be a Rock Star – Keith Green
"As he was passing by the house where Jeff Thatcher lived, he saw a new girl in the garden – a lovely little blue-eyed creature with yellow hair plaited into two long tails, white summer frock, and embroidered pantalettes. The fresh-crowned hero fell without firing a shot."
– The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
Sometimes I wonder who Jesus's first crush was. It's not really something that we tend to think about, is it? But Jesus was a human being after all. He was a child, and he was a teenager, and he even went through through puberty. At least, I sure hope he did. His voice would have been quite high pitched if he didn't.
As Jesus was almost certainly celibate for his entire time on earth, there isn't really any way of knowing who he was attracted to. However, I think it's an interesting question because it relates to a number of issues such as sexuality, celibacy, Jesus's human nature, and Jesus's mostly unknown childhood and adolescence.
