There is often confusion among both Christians and non-believers about what certain passages of the Word of God mean. Some taken out of context may sound silly or go against what we know is true. The old saw “The Bible means what it says and says what it means” has to be understood within the passage’s context. It is the context that we’ll look at in this blog post.
Let’s start with what the Bible is. The Bible is a collection of 66 ancient documents, fully inspired by the God of the universe, presented to man over more than fifteen centuries through more than forty writers. If you look at the words directly spoken by God and recorded in the Bible, you’ll see that God, though He is all-knowing, doesn’t use a lot of big words. Those are left to theologians and philosophers. C.S.Lewis once said we should write to express and not to impress. God seems to agree. The Bible is meant to be understood. He writes to express though sometimes we misunderstand.
The biggest contributor to Bible misinterpretation, I think, is that we think since every word is inspired, every word or expression must be taken hyper-literally. For example, Deut. 23:11 says the sun sets (ESV), but when evening comes, he shall bathe himself in water, and as the sun sets, he may come inside the camp. We know the sun doesn’t set, the earth rotates, yet many Bible critics will use this to say the Bible is archaic and non-scientific. Interesting, they don’t criticize papers like the L.A.Times or N.Y.Times when they give the times for sunrise and sunset. No, “the sun sets” is a figure of speech and should be understood as such.
Another similar criticism is to claim the Bible says the earth is flat because it has corners: Isa. 11:12 (ESV) He will raise a signal for the nations and will assemble the banished of Israel, and gather the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth. Like the example of sunsets, this seems like a silly idea to push, but many Bible critics are willing to cite this as an example of the Bible’s errors or archaic misunderstandings.
The Bible not only uses figures of speech, but it also uses figurative language. God will, for instance, use anthropomorphic language that many will misunderstand and turn into doctrine. Mormons, for instance, believe God is just an exalted man with a physical body. So they will use this symbolic language to try to support their view:
God has an arm: Isa. 53:1 (ESV) Who has believed what he has heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
God has hands: Deut. 2:15 (ESV) For indeed the hand of the Lord was against them, to destroy them from the camp, until they had perished.
There are more examples (Ps. 33:18; Deut. 8:3), but these will suffice. The problem is that when you begin to accept figurative language, you are forced to accept all figurative language:
God is a bird: Ps. 91:4 (ESV) He will cover you with his pinions, and under his wings you will find refuge;
God is a blast furnace: Heb. 12:29 (ESV) for our God is a consuming fire
Lastly for this blog post, I’d like to address the poetic language of the Bible.
Isa. 55:12 is a good example of this: (ESV) “For you shall go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and the hills before you shall break forth into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.”
No, the hills didn’t sing or the trees clap their hands. This is obviously poetic language expressing great joy.
Why is this important?
This may sound odd or sacrilegious, but, in some ways, the Bible should be read like a local newspaper. If there is language that doesn’t sound right in the context of the passage, we should check to see if it is a figure of speech, figurative, or poetic language. Read the passage in context.
There are lots of other tactics Bible skeptics use, but these are the simplest and silliest ones. Don’t let someone push you with these or other examples. They are only looking to discount the amazing Bible we hold in our hands, God’s communication directly to us. This Bible has stood against skeptics for thousands of years, and it will not be changed:
Matt. 5:18 (ESV) For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished.
Believers Armed and Dangerous 