A schism exists within modern Christianity, between those who believe the bible in its entirety to be literally true, and those who believe that it is best understood as conveying divine truths via symbol or allegory.
I must confess, I feel the biblical literalists have gravely erred by ignoring the living example of the Word of God. Jesus Christ, as we know, is the Word of God. Jesus is the Word of God made flesh. The same Word that was spoken in the beginning. The same Word that has spoken throughout thousands of years of prophecy. The same Word that speaks to us throughout the entirety of scripture. This Word was made flesh, and became human in the person of Jesus Christ. And when the Word was made flesh, when the Word took on human form and undertook his earthly ministry, how did he speak? How did he teach?
To a very great extent, the Word of God, Jesus Christ, spoke in parable. Allegory. Symbol. The Word of God couched his meaning in stories and tales with a divine moral concealed therein. The Word of God made a point of doing so, even explaining to his uncomprehending disciples (Matt 13:10) that this was the way of the Word. Parable. Symbol. Allegory. Not literalism.
Does the way of the Word of God change? Is not the Word of God eternal? If Jesus Christ - the Word of God incarnate - speaks and teaches throughout his ministry via parable, symbol, and allegory, shall we expect anything different from that same Word of God which has spoken to us and is speaking to us throughout all of scripture?
Seems like simplicity to me. I was aware from a very young age that certain bible stories were expressing deeper truths, truths whose validity did not depend upon the factuality or historicity of the narrative. God's truth was independent from and transcended such mean, petty considerations. By the age of 9 years old, I had already come to realize that the story of Eve's creation was probably true, but that it was also was there to explain why men have one less rib than women do. I figured that out for myself. No one had to tell me that.*
There is truth, and then there is truth. Divine truth does not live or die by the historicity of the story that is used by God to convey that truth. The Word of God has spoken divine truths to us in many ways. From within historical stories, certainly. But also through symbol, allegory, parable.
So how do we know which stories are which? A better question would be: why does it matter to us? Whatever way God's Word chooses to speak, the truth value is not the story. The story is a mere happenstance. The truth value is in the greater moral truth that uplifts one's soul. It doesn't matter if there was a historical "good Samaritan": the truth is to recognize you do not hate based on the group a person belongs to. Even the damn Samaritans! It doesn't matter if there was or wasn't a "Prodigal Son" in history who corresponds to the one in the story Jesus told his rapt listeners. The truth is that love forgives, without begrudging: love celebrates the return of one lost.
Early Christians understood and accepted spiritual truths. They knew the importance of sacred mystery, they knew that it was not necessary for us to have a perfect understanding of all facts and facets. Only we - we who have grown far from God in years and in our hearts, we who have grown proud in our insistence that we can indeed know the bald facts of all things - we have retreated into a stubborn, defiant insistence upon the literal truth of each story the Word has ever told to us. We insist upon this, because we have lost our spiritual certainty, and our faith in God's divine truth. We seek to yoke and bind God's truth to a mere pedestrian factualness.
Yet this is not the way of the Word of God, and it never was. No, this is our way, the of the stubborn, proud, uncomprehending human mind. We seek to confine God's Word within the limits of our own dim and literal understanding.
It simply will not fit.
Those who claim the Word of God speaks to us in limited terms of literal fact, eschewing all symbol and allegory - these literalists defy Christ's own explicit word and example. I won't go so far as to say they are blasphemers - pronouncing on their soul or state of sin, this is not my call. But I can pronounce on their view. Their view is ignorant. Their view is small-minded. But it is not merely ignorant, and not merely small-minded: their view is biblically untenable. It is contrary to scripture. Biblical literalism is unbiblical.
A follower of Christ ought to know better.
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