Should I be in Starbucks, and a gaggle of women prone to wandering loose interpretation of Scripture entered in spite of poor map reading to have a Bible study on the rapture... then personal eye gouging should be taken literally, correct? 😂
I love your writing, keep it up! I will be sharing it.
Hahaha! I've never had the experienced all seeing all my metaphors wrapped up in one but this made me laugh. And thanks so much for your support and encouragement Alexander!
As a conservative Christian, I feel a little mischaracterized (maybe because I don’t know a lot of others). Anyway, I grew up being taught to interpret the Bible from a literal perspective on trying to learn what the author meant. So in poetry look for the pictures painted, in narrative understand the story and the expressions of hyperbole and symbolism… Now, I haven’t been bit by the eschatological bug yet, but my understanding there is to interpret it like how some of Daniel’s prophecy has come true like how the leopard/cheetah represented Alexander the Great. It is a pretty close one to one literal correlation. If the rising nations as represented by animals and horns were one-to-one, then I think other parts could be one-to-one representations. Is this form of literal interpretation what you meant by eye-gouging or do you mean something different?
Thanks for your feedback John! I absolutely agree with you that there are many many conservative Christians who don't struggle to read the Bible as literature. I'm also a conservative Christian and have learned this in the conservative branch of the church as well. I tried to word it carefully but I'm very sorry it still came across as an attack on all/most conservative Christians. My goal is to point out a bigger movement that we see today both in and out of the church that either despises or has no use for literature - and the way that this affected much of the church today.
To your second point, of course that's a huge topic. One example of what I mean would be that there are many verses in the Old Testament referencing the sun, moon, and stars falling from the sky. In that context these were clear illusions to the falling of major cities or kings, etc. You can find this language in Ezekiel, Joel, and many other places in the O.T. This was decreation language that indicated the major destruction of a powerful city.
When the New Testament picks up that same literary reference (sun and moon falling from the sky), it would have been clear to those Christians that that language was an expression, again a reference to leaders and cities falling such as when Jerusalem fell in 70AD. Some Christians today read it literally like the sun and moon will really fall from the sky. Does that make sense? I can recommend resources if you are interested in a deeper study of what I'm getting at.
Should I be in Starbucks, and a gaggle of women prone to wandering loose interpretation of Scripture entered in spite of poor map reading to have a Bible study on the rapture... then personal eye gouging should be taken literally, correct? 😂
I love your writing, keep it up! I will be sharing it.
Hahaha! I've never had the experienced all seeing all my metaphors wrapped up in one but this made me laugh. And thanks so much for your support and encouragement Alexander!
Come on! Keep it coming, babe. Good stuff.
Hi Noelle,
Thank you for the post, I enjoyed reading it.
As a conservative Christian, I feel a little mischaracterized (maybe because I don’t know a lot of others). Anyway, I grew up being taught to interpret the Bible from a literal perspective on trying to learn what the author meant. So in poetry look for the pictures painted, in narrative understand the story and the expressions of hyperbole and symbolism… Now, I haven’t been bit by the eschatological bug yet, but my understanding there is to interpret it like how some of Daniel’s prophecy has come true like how the leopard/cheetah represented Alexander the Great. It is a pretty close one to one literal correlation. If the rising nations as represented by animals and horns were one-to-one, then I think other parts could be one-to-one representations. Is this form of literal interpretation what you meant by eye-gouging or do you mean something different?
Thank you!
Thanks for your feedback John! I absolutely agree with you that there are many many conservative Christians who don't struggle to read the Bible as literature. I'm also a conservative Christian and have learned this in the conservative branch of the church as well. I tried to word it carefully but I'm very sorry it still came across as an attack on all/most conservative Christians. My goal is to point out a bigger movement that we see today both in and out of the church that either despises or has no use for literature - and the way that this affected much of the church today.
To your second point, of course that's a huge topic. One example of what I mean would be that there are many verses in the Old Testament referencing the sun, moon, and stars falling from the sky. In that context these were clear illusions to the falling of major cities or kings, etc. You can find this language in Ezekiel, Joel, and many other places in the O.T. This was decreation language that indicated the major destruction of a powerful city.
When the New Testament picks up that same literary reference (sun and moon falling from the sky), it would have been clear to those Christians that that language was an expression, again a reference to leaders and cities falling such as when Jerusalem fell in 70AD. Some Christians today read it literally like the sun and moon will really fall from the sky. Does that make sense? I can recommend resources if you are interested in a deeper study of what I'm getting at.
Thanks Noelle! In regard to eschatology, yes that makes sense. 😃
Thank you for clarifying your meaning. 🙂