The Bible in the Age of Fulfillment

Live from the Mecca of Mormonism, SALT LAKE CITY, Utah. This is Heart of the Matter – where we are working through together how to live the Christian life in the Age of Fulfillment – and I’m your host, Shawn McCraney.

My Journey with the Bible

Show 31A Literally? Really?
Taped July 14th, 2020
Aired July 20th, 2020

I started in at early morning seminary as a Mormon kid. I continued on as a full-time missionary for the Mormon church in my late teens. I taught through it once as an LDS Seminary Teacher as a young married man, and then leaving Mormonism, I entered the Calvary Chapel School of Ministry and went through the entire thing twice with Chuck Smith teaching it to me verse by verse. I have read and studied it every day for nearly twenty-five years straight. And for the past ten or so years, I have prepared two different 90-minute verse-by-verse teachings out of the New Testament every week.

The Bible.

So many ways to read it, so many ways people understand it, teach, and apply it – and still, so many divisions over it, and what it says, and how to interpret it. We have the “every word of it is true,” people out there. We have the “we must take it literally” people. The people “who spiritualize its contents,” and. Then we have those who believe it’s mostly metaphor or even a made-up myth.

For the amount of time I have (and continue to) put into the study and research of it, I think that I have a right to voice my views on and about it tonight– one that holds water in my estimation, and one that eliminates the untenable assumptions many people make about it while at the same time affirming its invaluable purpose and meaning in believers' lives everywhere.

Literal vs. Spiritual Interpretation

The Bible is literally true in its principles and messages and purpose, but let’s be clear it cannot in many places be taken literally. We are working together to try and break the faith free from Christian Craziness which includes overzealousness and that means pushing to eliminate practices and views out of it that cause the world to say: “I want nothing to do with being of that faith of wackos,” which is caused by overzealous, uncontextual, misappropriation, often hyper-literal teaching of the Bible text.

Imagine two sets of parents:

One set is hyper-literal Biblicists, and the other use the Bible to garner principles of truth by the Spirit in love. The damage done by hyper-literal Biblicists to their children (and even the world) around them is proverbial. They are the ones who talk about not suffering a witch to live, that to spare the rod is to spoil the child (so they beat their children) and that God hates fags. But look at the other parents who gently take the general principles of faith and love and guide their children by them, not falling into that quagmire of biblical literalism, but allowing the fruit of the Spirit to work in and through them as they raise their young.

I am telling you straight-up – the more literal zealous and fanatical parents are with their children the more damaged those children wind up being – with many of them abandoning the faith altogether when they see the truth of things. Most of my biggest critics have children who have walked from the faith because of the zeal with which those critics use the Bible to kill others with.

Tonight, let me address the notion that the Bible must be taken literally and I want to do this by citing several passages familiar with most of us, and I am just going to pull from the synoptic gospels: Ready?

In Matthew 5:29-30 Jesus says:

29 And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell.
30 And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell.

Should we take these words today literally? I don’t want an explanation, I just want to know if I should take what Jesus says literally?

How about Matthew 5:42: Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away.

That is what the Lord says: Should we do this without exception. I live downtown and…

Understanding Literal Interpretation in Scripture

A homeless man asks me to borrow my car? Should I give it Him? My friend wants $10,000.00 – yes or no. The scripture says, “Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away.” We have biblical literalists, and scripture citing folks wandering all over this world correcting everyone by and through it – but what are we to do? Listen to them and their views and explanation of scripture or trust in the fact that God has given us His Spirit and REASON to decide for ourselves what the passages mean and how they ought to be applied.

Biblical Passages in Context

Jesus also said in Matthew 6:34: Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. Really? Take NO thought at all for tomorrow? At all? That would make for a very chaotic life would it not, which would lead to very unloving actions for those who love and rely on us. Perhaps we have to judge ourselves by the Spirit what Jesus meant.

In Matthew 7:7 Jesus says: “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.” Should believers receive this literally? We have times when people with very sick relatives that are dying ask God earnestly to heal them. They ask – repeatedly – to heal them. And it is NOT given them. What gives? Is it true and literal or does it need to be considered in light of other factors too, which render it nonliteral?

Expressions and Interpretations

How about something less fretful, like Matthew 8:34 where it says: And, behold, the whole city came out to meet Jesus: and when they saw him, they besought him that he would depart out of their coasts. Was it the WHOLE city? It was a city on the other side of Ger Gess a nos, and it could have been everyone, but isn’t this a better example of a Hebraistic expression?

Matthew 27:9 says: Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy the prophet, saying, And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of him that was valued, whom they of the children of Israel did value. Is this true? Because nowhere does Jeremiah the prophet say this. Zechariah does but not Jeremiah. What are we to believe? How about discerning Jesus attitude? In Matthew 8:21 we read: “And another of his disciples said unto him, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father. 22 But Jesus said unto him, Follow me; and let the dead bury their dead. Is that literal? Should this be the advice we give to people who are mourning over the passing of their parents. I don’t think so.

Let’s grab a few from Mark:

Mark 9:41 For whosoever shall give you a cup of water to drink in my name, because ye belong to Christ, verily I say unto you, he shall not lose his reward. So, if a person (then) gave a cup of water to an apostle in his name they would not lose their reward. They are mean otherwise, and hurtful but because they gave a cup of water to a disciple their reward was assured? These passages have to be considered in context and are not literally applied.

Mark 10:21 Then Jesus beholding him loved him, and said unto him, One thing thou lackest: go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, take up the cross, and follow me. Of course, we could say that this was Jesus advice to this man and that would be a great way to approach the words but if this advice is to be literal to us today . . . really?

Literal versus Nonliteral Application

This is an interesting one. It deals with the men who tortured Jesus before crucifying him and is says:

Mark 15:19 And they smote him on the head with a reed, and did spit upon him, and bowing their knees worshipped him. It says that they worshipped him. That is what it says. Word perfect? Were they? If so that’s an odd way to do it.

Additionally, Christians are big on saying that none are righteous, no not one, that the law and the prophets were impossible to keep and as a result all were sinful. Listen to these passages from Luke talking about John

Exegesis and Interpretation of Scriptural Righteousness

The Question of Righteousness

Scriptural Examples of Being Filled with the Holy Spirit

The Baptists parents:

Luke 1:5
5 There was in the days of Herod, the king of Judaea, a certain priest named Zacharias, of the course of Abia: and his wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elisabeth.
6 And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless.

Repeat the last verse.

Is this true? Should we believe what it says? Should we take it literally? If so, what do we do with the other passages in Scripture that say there is none righteous, and that nobody ever walked blamelessly in “all of the commandments and ordinances of the Lord?”

Now, in the faith we often speak of Jesus paying for sin therefore enabling the Holy Spirit to dwell within us by faith in His name; that nobody had the Holy Spirit in them prior to the suffering of Christ on the cross. I’m sure you have heard this. And then we say that the Holy Spirit only worked on people in the Old Testament, and that it was on the day of Pentecost that the Holy Spirit was able to be inside the heart of human beings or to fill them. This is standard Holy Spirit 101 rhetoric, right?

Luke 1:15 For he shall be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink; and he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother's womb.

Huh? What?

And then . . .

Luke 1:41 And it came to pass, that, when Elisabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb; and Elisabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost:

Huh? What?

And then . . .
Luke 1:67 And his father Zacharias was filled with the Holy Ghost, and prophesied, saying,

How to accept this, receive this, interpret it all?

Now to our King James Onliest people out there, who claim the King James is the ONLY proper translation and is absolutely correct. Well, Luke 2:1 says in the King James:

“And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed.”

Our saving grace in this passage is that the Greek word for world there is NOT kosmos but oikomenea, meaning all the land or area. BUT . . . the King James says world there! True right or not.

Literalism and Contradictions in Scripture

Then to some of the biggies:

Luke 14:26 If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.

Literal? TELL ME NOW? LITERAL OR NOT? NOW. TELL ME?

Here’s a tough one. Ready? Luke 16:9 where Jesus says:

“And I say unto you, Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness; that, when ye fail, they may receive you into everlasting habitations.”

Literal? How?

How about a straight up literal contradiction?

Luke 21:16 And ye shall be betrayed both by parents, and brethren, and kinsfolks, and friends; and some of you shall they cause to be put to death. (Got that)
17 And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake.
18 But there shall not an hair of your head perish.

You will be put to death BUT not a hair of your head will vanish!???
Are we to think that they would die but Jesus wants to reassure them that their hairs will remain in place?

How about a couple from John and a little detail in the story of Jesus and the apostles being on a boat and:

John 6:21 Then they willingly received him into the ship: and immediately the ship was at the land whither they went.

I heard a radio pastor teach that the boat was immediately transported to land in this occasion.

What about Jesus' words in John 6:51 when he said:

I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.

And then:

John 6:54 Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day.

I haven’t even touched the Old Testament nor the Epistle, where things like Paul saying:

“I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me” are said in Philippians 4:13 but leaves us wondering,

Does that mean Paul can kiss . . .

Understanding Literalism

his elbow, breath underwater, jump to the sun and dance on its surface or are we to use reason, logic and the Spirit of God to teach us how to understand these things? This is scaping the surface folks and its to illustrate that there has to be a death to Bible thumping, passage citing, zealous, street screaming literalists and let this beautiful written word, full of reasonable life-principles be our guide?

Death to Literalism

Want to hear your thoughts SO write them below and we will talk about them tomorrow night – HERE . . . on heart of the Matter.