Jesus Christ appears in Lebanon!!

[CoxRox]

Well you have to be careful when taking things at face value.

Nope. No 'care' needed. In your example of body and blood of christ there are folks who would disagree with you and say they literally transform into flesh and blood. Then there are some who maintain they 'spiritually transform' (whateverthehelltheatmeans).

So since those that actually believe christianity to be true cannot agree on what is literal and what is figurative then it is left up to us, the reader, to decide.

6 days of creation, literal or figurative?
Talking donkeys, literal or figurative?
People living to be over 900 years old, literal or figurative?
Rich people cannot enter heaven, literal or figurative?
God spreading dung upon peoples faces, literal or figurative?

Who gets to be the authority in determining literal or figurative? The individual reader? Me? You? The corner preacher?

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About that article;

I saw nothing that would equate the "Kingdom of God" with this little display of light and magic.

Also I think it's worthy to note that in the first paragraph of that article it states "Unlike many other events, Jesus did not announce that it would happen..."

Kinda kills your whole theory about the kingdom of god meaning the transfig. as it was Jesus announcing it.

Dotard, you are correct that it is up to us to decide how we understand the Bible's claims and the more you study the Bible the history etc you are equipped to understand when things are literal and when they are not- but that's easy for me to say. I can't prove that is the case. You'd have to commit to considerable time exploring this claim of mine by reading the bible to see what I mean. I don't get bogged down by the different interpretations or doctrines as I know my own interpretation is just as likely to be incorrect. I will admit this. It can be tempting to throw it all away because of the divisions, etc within the 'christian' world and the differing beliefs etc. I, Catherine, find enough 'order' and clear talking, in the bible to enable me to understand it's overall message, or at least I think I do! An example of unambiguous talk (in my opinion) is when Jesus says: ''do to others what you would have them do to you'' Matt 7:12. '' Forgive people when they do wrong things to you. If you forgive them, your Father in heaven will also forgive you.'' Matt 6:14- again, that seems quite clear to me.

Your last point about Jesus not announcing the transfiguration is partly correct. He did not announce he would be 'transfigured'. He alluded to the Kingdom. The person who wrote the article has inadvertently caused confusion where there really isn't any- in my humble opinion. It doesn't say in the Bible that He didn't announce it before hand. That statement is the article writer's opinion.

Once you have a knowledge or understanding of the whole of the Bible, or history of God and his people etc, then you would understand, even if you didn't believe it, that the transfiguration, wasn't just a magic light show and that Jesus wasn't lying, but again that is my claim and probably not worth much.