(April 30, 2015 at 8:13 pm)Jericho Wrote:(April 30, 2015 at 4:53 pm)Lek Wrote: The verse is correct. It is inspired and profitable for those things. It's not inspired for scientific accuracy. It's inspired to be useful for the purpose God intended it for. The story of "the three little pigs" is not historically or scientifically correct, but it wasn't written for that reason. It was written to teach a lesson about life and that's what we read it for. God inspired the bible to lead us to Christ and that's what it's profitable for.
So, are you admitting that the Bible is not to be taken literally? Pardon me, but many theists would argue that it is a literal account of historical events. Also, if you suggest that it is simply inspired material, rather than the actual words of God, then that basically just confirms our arguments against theists. By saying that it was inspired, and not a compilation of literal facts, then doesn't that make the stories untrue...and therefore proving that your God doesn't exist because he doesn't lie? Last time I checked, fairy tales or stories are not true, and are actually lies.
Jesus spoke in parables quite frequently. The parables were not true historical accounts, but rather stories to teach specific lessons. Jesus was not lying, but rather using a teaching device. If we understand the parables in the way Jesus intended us to, then we are reading them literally. Reading the bible literally means to read it as it was intended to be understood. If someone says that the sun "moved across the sky", they don't really mean that the sun moved across the sky, but only that it appeared to do so. We want to understand myths as such and historical facts as such. Of course, it's not always easy to determine what is myth and what is historical fact. Jesus said that he would send the "Counselor", the Holy Spirit, to his followers. When I read the scriptures, I read them under the guidance of the Holy Spirit who leads me to the truth. We usually start out as christians with little knowledge of the bible and grow in knowledge throughout our lifetimes. So, I believe we should strive to interpret the bible literally, but I don't interpret "literal" as everything being a historic or scientific fact. I view "literal" as reading it as it was intended to be read. All christians don't agree with me, and that's okay. Jesus never said that in order to be saved, we needed to understand every passage in the bible.
