The Dangers Of Literalism

Accessing Strongs Dictionary...


Bible Tools Metaphysics Metamath Creationism Revelation The Gospels Commentary
Creationism Who And What Is God? Introduction Who And What Is God? Who And What Are We? The Greatest Lie Of Satan By The Same Word The Lexis And The Lucis The Creation Account Introduction An Entry Point Into The Creation Account Let There Be Spacetime Past, Present And Future Apparent Rapid Expansion And A Big Bang Plants Without Gravity Or Electromagnetism? No Plants On The Third Day Two Great Lights, Gravity & Electromagnetism Creatures And Fowl From The Waters Cattle Lead To Men To Keep Them Made In The Image Of God What Are The Chances? Introduction Objections To Evolution Seven Days And Not Seven Ages The Deep No Water Jacket For The Earth A Mist To Water The Ground Why Plants Are Not Alive To God The Order Of The Addition Of Life Any Alien Life Elsewhere? The Flood And A Change Of Physics God Is Still Active Introduction The Ark Of His Testament The Flood In The Days Of Noah Where Did Mrs Cain Come From? God Chooses To Be Involved The Fall Of Man The Garden, Was It There? Freedom And Disobedience The Fall Was Universal The Curse Of Death, The Sting Of Sin The Serpent Spake Introduction The Dialectic Vs. The Didactic The Dialectic - The Beguiling Of Eve The Didactic - The Tempatation Of Christ Luciferian Philosophy 2001 - A Space Odyssey The Osirian Cycle All Judgment Given To Christ Ordo Ab Chao Lust Of The Eyes Lust Of The Flesh The Pride Of Life Dialectics Invalidate Dialectics Introduction The Fixed Viewpoint Of Identity The Paradigm Shift To Identity The Limit Of Contradiction To The Left Or Right (Freedom) Dialectic Convergence To Synthesis The Eradication Of Faith The Flesh - The Strength Of Sin The Promises Of The Serpent The Reward Of God Dialectic Logic Introduction The Success Of The Dialectic Logical AND Logical NOT Logical OR Logical XOR Naive Set Theory Do Numbers Lie? Greeks, Time And Commensurability The Dialectic Method In Research Like Unto The Most High? Introduction God And Subgroup Addition Like Unto The Most High? Left, Right, Somewhere In The Middle A Proverb Against Babylon Hurting The Oil And The Wine Back In The Saddle Again Dialectic Chaos The God Of This World I Didn't Put My Name To That! The Lake Of Fire Introduction The Trumpets To Wormwood The Four Beasts The Three Woes - The Unholy Trinity A Brief Mystery Of Time The Restrainer The Great Tribulation Three Spirits As Frogs The Way Of The Kings Of The East The Lake Of Fire Written In Black And White Determinism And Predestination Introduction It Is Not In Man To Direct His Steps The Uncertainty Principle Higher Than Your Ways The Purpose Of Iniquity The Predestination Checklist Approaching Pleasure, Avoiding Pain The Tower Of Babel Introduction The Biblical Account A Centre Of Learning The Group Dynamic The Question Of Power Corrupt? Absolutely Some Odds And Ends Introduction Dinosaurs In The Book Of Job Science Is Not Irrelevant The Dangers Of Literalism Is This Some Sort Of Joke? Faith In The Face Of The Evidence - So Called Science Ultrafilters And Creation (ZPE?) Infinite Descent Introduction Good Creators, Redeemable Creation If God Has A Creator As Long As It Takes Every Device Of Evil Overcome The Enemy Is Justified? No Argument Of Infinite Descent All Creators Agree One Redeemer Of All The Argument Against Infinite Descent	The Dangers Of Literalism I have shown in my interpretation of the creation account, that of the flood and my study of the book of revelation that there is not so much an analogy in the text to other scientific and mathematical principles, but an embedding of meaning in the language used itself. That "word pictures" and equivalencies of language given to bronze age and iron age people - the recipients of the text (that not only made sense to them at the time), ensured the continuation of the scripture kept intact for us today whom now have the language necessary to reveal the embeddding of God's intended meaning. (God has the ability to preserve his word intact.) The objection that this is sleight of hand I critically dismiss; there are too many such intersecting principles in revelation and the book of genesis for this to be a mere "trick". The dangers of anyone killing others and of mass violence caused by taking the scriptures literally has essentially been left in the past except for by the fanatical today. Even to the priest of the dark ages, who could not himself read and would also have had you burned at the stake for reading the bible (thus taking away the power of the church to interpret in God's place, the crime of "usurping all" the power of the pontiff from the throne in the vatican down to the illiterate priest in the diocese) would be unaware of the scriptures. Then there was, through ignorance a great gulf in history where the scriptures were not taken literally, or even "at all" after any particular manner. Why blame God for the lack of enlightenment? If the critical objection is that the account was given to the bronze age nomad in terms of 20th century relativistic science and study and was kept intact in the basic language they had then, some three thousand years ago and then some; then why lay the blame for a lack of enlightenment at God's door if we were not yet enlightened enough to understand it? Clearly God intended no restraint on our mind's own freedom - being a device of the enemy to do so. What would the illiterate priest have made of a seminary that taught him about the "righteous light of God" that can not agree on whether today comes before tomorrow or at the same time; or whether the curvature of space-time back on itself is causally paradoxical? The priest was not enlightened, although the account itself through its embedded language is clearly enlightened. The literalist would look at the text and state that all that is written within was performed as stated by God. None of this has been lost in the interpretation. the embedding preserves the meaning. Other parts of the scripture such as in revelation - that of the 'apocalyptic' imagery is interpreted in the sense that God will not lose one of His elect to the dragon (besides Judas.) Even the appearance of God having removed himself far off from us is only an illusion according to the pattern the world is described as existing within. No one today, or indeed in Jesus' own day expected burning mountains to fall from the sky, unless God spoke it would certainly happen : indeed from the interpretation of the imagery in the text this has already occurred as in the embedding's account: No one expected a scarlet beast to parade across the seas either, with the world drowning underneath - then or now: So clearly (thanks James) there is a historical precedent for considering that the text indicates something higher than literalism. The greatest danger of the text is not its meaning, or its truth - but the literal nature that non-believers assume the text to have! Clearly the christian today is ridiculed by the atheist and secular minded that the bible is a book full of children's stories with no relevance today, and is clearly invalidated by observations based on the universe visible today. That universe is clearly explained by the text itself, and after the manner of our own knowledge which we apply to understand the world around us. How strange that the danger of literalism comes from the unbelief of those without the discernment to read the scripture; that the unruly children for whom the stories are meant have long rejected them because they and their forebears have not grown up enough to read them! Just as the christian who can not interpret can now and swiftly engage the scripture, those that reject it on the basis of literalism are themselves made foolish - where will they turn when they are shown to be as children with only a child's spiritual reading level? Continue To Next Page Return To Section Start Return To Previous Page