I read a few articles recently that essentially attack the credibility of the Bible. It is something believers should expect from a culture that is increasingly antagonistic against what the Bible teaches and the Christian faith founded upon it.
Critics question its inspiration, historicity, and the accuracy of its preservation. If they can’t dissuade believers with those arguments they will try to convince us we are interpreting it wrong. They will say the Bible is not meant to be taken literally.
Literally, really?
So, should we take the Scriptures literally? The answer to that question is both, yes and no. The answer is yes in one sense, and no in another sense. Let me explain.
A little while ago, I was reacquainted with a friend of mine from forty years ago. He was a believer then, but now claimed to be an agnostic. I was somewhat stunned by this revelation because he had been an avid student of the Scriptures and a defender of the faith.
As I spoke with him about this reversal of belief, he told me he no longer believed the Bible to be the Word of God. His explanation was inane. He pointed to Job 16:13, which reads, “His arrows surround me. Without mercy He spits my kidneys open; He pours my gall on the ground.”
My friend asked, “Are we to believe God literally split Job’s kidneys open?” The obvious answer is no, such a wound would have been fatal and Job would not have survived to tell about it.
Job had lost his children and wealth catastrophically in one day and was beset with a miserable disease at this time. By saying his kidneys had been “split open,” Job was clearly using a metaphor to describe the deeply emotional and internal anguish he was experiencing from the loss of his children that accompanied his physical suffering.
If we believe, and I do, that the Divine Author inspired human authors to pen His words, then it is not irrational to think God condescended to use the literary devices of men, such as metaphors, idioms, foreshadowing, prolepsis, etcetera, to convey His truth through men to men.
Anyone who has had medical problems with their kidneys know how painful they can be, and Job is simply using a metaphor to explain his emotional and internal pain, and that pain is every bit as real and literal as what he is experiencing physically.
If we believe, and I do, that the Divine Author inspired human authors to pen His words, then it is not irrational to think God condescended to use the literary devices of men, such as metaphors, idioms, foreshadowing, prolepsis, etcetera, to convey His truth through men to men.
The Scriptures convey literal truth.
The Scriptures are God’s revelation of the truth about reality as it actually is always, and in their context should be understood as conveying literal truth whether they are referring to the natural order or the supernatural realm.
There are no truly intellectual arguments against the trustworthiness of the Scriptures, only pitiable laments from those who stubbornly refuse to submit to God and His Word.
Jesus prayed to the Father that believers would be sanctified in the truth and then declared, “Your word is truth,” John 17:17. If Jesus believed God’s word is the truth, shouldn’t we?
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