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Carolyn ArendsCarolyn Arends

Wrestling with Angels

Defending Scripture. Literally.

Not everything the Bible has to say should be literally interpreted. But that doesn't make it less powerful.

J. I. Packer likens our relationship with God to that of a two-year-old with a father who has a brain of Einsteinian proportions. To make relationship possible, the father will have to accommodate himself to the toddler he loves. The child will know her daddy, but she won't completely comprehend him. What the father reveals to the daughter will be true, as far as it goes. But there will always be more.

We shouldn't be surprised (or worried) that in his overtures to us God uses every kind of language available—straightforward (but culturally lensed) historical narrative, analogy, metaphor, parable, poetry, apocalyptic vision, and, hallelujah, the Word made flesh, Jesus. The best way to receive his Word is with the humble conviction that not only can we find what we're looking for, it (he) will be more than we could hope for, imagine, or fully comprehend. That's the best news there is.

Literally.

Go to ChristianBibleStudies.com for "Defending Scripture. Literally," a Bible study based on this article.


Related Elsewhere:

Previous columns by Carolyn Arends include:

The Other Prodigal Son | The Prodigal's coming-home gala was for both sons. (February 13, 2012)
Hardworking Sloths: Disguising Spiritual Laziness | The lazy culprit behind our busyness. (June 13, 2011)
Satan's a Goner | A lesson from a headless snake. (March 25, 2011)
Relationship That Leads to Life | Why God's Law is good news. (August 11, 2010)

Wrestling with Angels

Carolyn Arends

Carolyn Arends

Singer/songwriter and author Carolyn Arends has written and released 9 albums and penned 2 books, including Wrestling With Angels (Harvest House/Conversantlife.com). She is a regular reviewer for Christianity Today Movies and a list of her blogs can be found at CarolynArends.com. Her bimonthly "Wrestling With Angels" column has appeared in Christianity Today since 2008.


From Issue:
April 2012, Vol. 56, No. 4, Pg 68, "Defending Scripture. Literally."
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Comments

Displaying 1–3 of 33 comments

Daniel Hartshorn

May 09, 2012  7:23am

I just found this. Fascinating! "Most Ancient Hebrew Biblical Inscription Deciphered, Scholar Says" "The significance of this breakthrough relates to the fact that at least some of the biblical scriptures were composed hundreds of years before the dates presented today in research and that the Kingdom of Israel already existed at that time." English translaton of the deciphered text: 1' you shall not do [it], but worship the [Lord]. 2' Judge the sla[ve] and the wid[ow] / Judge the orph[an] 3' [and] the stranger. [Pl]ead for the infant / plead for the po[or and] 4' the widow. Rehabilitate [the poor] at the hands of the king. 5' Protect the po[or and] the slave / [supp]ort the stranger. Take that you so-called OT scholars who sneer at an early dating of the OT.

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Duane D Watts

May 08, 2012  11:14pm

My Theologian friend may be right that Genesis 1 and 2 are not science text, but that leaves us with a vacuum. In this vacuum steps scientists, the offspring of fallen man in a fallen creation, and we are to buy into their creation myth because they have scientific evidence. Their version is replacement theology for our "creation myth" (which by the way DOES subject us to natural theology). But the real reason for my comment was to beg, BEG someone to answer what the LORD wishes us to glean from this: And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam and he slept; and He took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh thereof, and the rib which the LORD God had taken from man, made He a woman and brought her unto the man. And Adam said "this is now bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh, she shall be called woman because she was taken out of man". I implore you oh learned ones, cipher to me the meaning of this vision.

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Glen Waugh

May 08, 2012  6:44pm

... the Word of truth, coming as it does, as a whole, from one and the same Divine Author, is its own context. That is to say, a particular passage is to be regarded not only in the relation it bears to its own ... context; but, in the relation which it bears to the Word of God as a whole. It may not be intended to teach science, chronology, or history ... but, everything that it records will be in perfect harmony with whatever is true of any or all of these. Scientia means knowledge, and nothing in Scripture will be found to contradict what we really know, which is true science. Much that goes by the name of "science" is only hypothesis; and, in much more, supposition is so mixed up with knowledge that the result is vitiated. All must be brought to the bar of the Divine Word. That Word as a whole is the context for its every part. All that is outside the two covers of the Word of God must be judged by what is within. We must not reverse this process. (E.W. Bullinger)

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