Do You Take the Bible Literally?

Using the Bible's words literally rather than as general teachings

Published on January 25, 2006 By JillUser In Religion

I personally see way too many contradictions with the bible to take it literally. I can however understand it being used as a guide of general teachings. If you look at it as a compilation of stories to teach morality, I can see it as a very useful tool.

Can you take Jesus as your saviour and not take the bible as the word of God literally. Can you be christian and believe that God sent messages to mankind to be recorded in story form to teach right from wrong? If following the instructions of the Bible is the only path to salvation, what happens to all the people who are never introduced to the Bible?

Feel free to quote away. I am sincerely interested in opinions on the subject and how they are formed. I won't judge your opinion either way.

Comments (Page 7)

JillUser

on Jan 28, 2006

To those of you who take the bible literally, do you believe in capital punishment?

Dr Guy

on Jan 28, 2006

To those of you who take the bible literally, do you believe in capital punishment?

I dont take it literally, but I dont believe in capital punishment either.

AndyBaker

on Jan 29, 2006

People can believe it was inspired by God without taking it word for word. Mankind had a whole lot of tampering with it.

I think that's great. Couldn't agree more!

JillUser

on Jan 29, 2006

Thanks Andy. I just tend to think that if you are busy trying to take it word for word you are apt to miss the bigger picture. And why is it such a terrible thought that God passed lessons through men and due to the imperfect nature of man, it got a little messed up along the way? You can doubt the accuracy of the retelling of details yet still get the message, can't you?

But I am not one who believes there are restrictive, specific rules for reaching out to God. I don't believe you have to attend a church or pray in the name of Jesus or Mary or anyone else. I believe you can reach out in your own way and still find answers.

KarmaGirl

on Jan 30, 2006

"It's a book; it was written by aging men 70 years after the fact..."

Have you ever talked with an elderly person who could recall minute details from early in his or her life? Dates, what the weather was like on a certain day and so on? Some of the authors of the New Testament were among those who witnessed the life, death and ressurection of Jesus Christ.

The NT was written from about 70 AD to about 100 AD. Jesus died around 30 AD. So, that is 40 to 70 years after he died. They have done a lot of research on human remains from the middle ages (which would start 300 years after the NT was completed). Do you know how old the "old" people were? 45 years old. So, if Jesus was in his 30's when he died, he was quite "old" for the time period. To think that somebody met him when they were 5 years old and was able to write detailed accounts of him before they died at 45 doesn't seem very likely, and the later stories obviously weren't written by anyone who would have been alive when he was.

JillUser

on Jan 31, 2006

Have I seemed hostile toward christians on this thread? I need to know because as far as I can tell I posed questions with the intent of learning about how others think. I think I got a lot of insight from it and thought it was a very respectful conversation but a certain blogger recently accused me of being hostile toward christians. I just can't figure out where that came from.

HC1240

on Jan 31, 2006

To those of you who take the bible literally, do you believe in capital punishment?

I take it literally and figuratively (posted somewhere above), and I do believe in capital punishment.

I don't think you've seemed hostile on this thread.

JillUser

on Feb 01, 2006

Thanks for answering both questions HC! No judgement either way on capital punishment, just trying to see what people feel about it and where they are coming from.

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