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The Bible is not a collection of "sacred stories". The Bible is God's Holy Word. It contains the history of the world and the promises of things to come. Whenever people who call themselves Christian tell me that they believe the Bible is a collection of sacred stories, that tells me they have found something in the Bible that they don't believe, and rather than admit their unbelief they cook up ways in which the offending passages could be seen as metaphorically true, or as allegorical tales teaching some sort of lesson.
The problem is, once you feel free to decide that one part of the Bible should not be believed literally, how do you know when to stop?
If you can pick and choose which parts of the Bible you want to consider literal and which parts you want to consider metaphor or allegory, if you can say the creation story is not literal, then what is to stop you from saying that the virgin birth was not literal? What's to stop you from saying that the story of the resurrection of Christ was not literal?
As long as you're choosing to believe whatever you want to believe, what's to stop you from believing that God doesn't literally exist but is a metaphor for the parts of the human mind dealing with love, empathy, compassion, and enlightened self-interest, or that the devil doesn't literally exist but is a metaphor for the parts of the human mind dealing with hatred, apathy, malice, and unenlightened self-centeredness? What's to stop you from believing that the remission of sins is not literal but is a metaphor for learning to love and forgive yourself?
In short, what's to stop you from becoming Christians in name only, who are for all intents and purposes secular humanists?
John 3:12 If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things?
Pastor Billy-Reuben
The problem is, once you feel free to decide that one part of the Bible should not be believed literally, how do you know when to stop?
If you can pick and choose which parts of the Bible you want to consider literal and which parts you want to consider metaphor or allegory, if you can say the creation story is not literal, then what is to stop you from saying that the virgin birth was not literal? What's to stop you from saying that the story of the resurrection of Christ was not literal?
As long as you're choosing to believe whatever you want to believe, what's to stop you from believing that God doesn't literally exist but is a metaphor for the parts of the human mind dealing with love, empathy, compassion, and enlightened self-interest, or that the devil doesn't literally exist but is a metaphor for the parts of the human mind dealing with hatred, apathy, malice, and unenlightened self-centeredness? What's to stop you from believing that the remission of sins is not literal but is a metaphor for learning to love and forgive yourself?
In short, what's to stop you from becoming Christians in name only, who are for all intents and purposes secular humanists?
John 3:12 If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things?
Pastor Billy-Reuben
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