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Is everything in the Bible a parable ?
gmik:
Darren here is the way I took it. NOT THE REAL THING being what is important spiritually. Not the real thing that God wants us to learn. Yes they were all living people doing their thing, but they were to show us THE REAL SPIRITUAL THING that God has intended all along.
I do this all day in my classroom and parents show children this. We give them lessons or examples to show something else. What we use as examples are real but we want them to learn the "higher" lesson.
PKnowler:
Darren,
I believe the Bible is a parable because the natural parallels spiritual truths. That doesn't make the natural not real. All that you see, the order of things, nature, Bible History, etc, are all pointing to something much higher in the spiritual realm. It's like an allegory. Like how a natural marriage relationship represents our relationship with Christ as His bride. Etc.,
That's my short answer. Here are some scriptures that came to mind.
2 Cor 4:18
So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
Romans 1:20
For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities--his eternal power and divine nature--have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.
Col 2:17
These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ.
Heb 8:5
They serve at a sanctuary that is a copy and shadow of what is in heaven. This is why Moses was warned when he was about to build the tabernacle: "See to it that you make everything according to the pattern shown you on the mountain."
Heb 10:1
The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming--not the realities themselves. For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship.
1 Corinthians 15:45
So it is written: "The first man Adam became a living being"; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit. 46 The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual. 47 The first man was of the dust of the earth, the second man from heaven. 48 As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the man from heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. 49 And just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man, so shall we bear the likeness of the man from heaven.
DWIGHT:
Darren,
Have you ever heard Ray say....the bible never means what it says.....but it means what it means! Example: If thine eye offend thee pluck it out. It says that, but it doesn't mean that. It means something spiritually deeper. The stories of David and such are literal stories, but they all have spiritual meanings, so what they say is not what they mean. We cannot see spirit with flesh and blood; we can only see spirit with spirit. That's why flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. That's why Christianity cannot see because they read the scriptures with their carnal (flesh and blood) eyes.
Your brother,
Dwight
YellowStone:
Thanks Gena, Paula and Dwight,
I hear your words and understand them, but my question still remains unanswered:
Was Christ a real person, were his miracles real. Did Peter really try to walk on water?
Or is all of this just a story? :(
I pray to my Father that it is not. For I know that Christ taught in parables, meaning that the stories simulated a deeper, spiritual meaning that was hidden to those he was speaking.
But I DO NOT KNOW, nor has God given me eyes to see that Moses, Abraham, Jacob, David, Solomon, Joseph, Christ, James, Peter, John and Paul are fictious ie, not real.
Ray writes: http://www.forums.bible-truths.com/index.php/topic,2834.0.html
A parable is a physical story which points to a SPIRITUAL TRUTH. As God creates "A NEW HEAVEN AND A NEW EARTH," just what is there about this present heaven and earth that will "LITERALLY" last eternally? Besides I did not say that "The Bible is One Giant FICTION," now did I? No, I said that the Bible is one giant PARABLE. And the contents of a parable (not the Bible, but a PARABLE, are fictitious. ALL of the "literal" history, etc., in the Bible is NOT THE REAL THING. It is merely the ways and means TO THE REAL THING, which is Spiritual. "First that which is natural; and AFTERWARD that which is SPIRITUAL" (I Cor. 15:46).
Either Jesus was born, walked the Earth, died; was ressurected on the third day and then ascended to his Father or he did not.
Brothers and Sisters, either: "ALL of the "literal" history, etc., in the Bible is NOT THE REAL THING." is either Correct or it is Not.
Please, please let me know if you do not understand my question, I will try to make it clearer.
A lost brother, :(
Darren
YellowStone:
--- Quote from: Dwight on March 07, 2007, 10:08:14 PM ---Darren,
Have you ever heard Ray say....the bible never means what it says.....but it means what it means! Example: If thine eye offend thee pluck it out. It says that, but it doesn't mean that. It means something spiritually deeper. The stories of David and such are literal stories, but they all have spiritual meanings, so what they say is not what they mean. We cannot see spirit with flesh and blood; we can only see spirit with spirit. That's why flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. That's why Christianity cannot see because they read the scriptures with their carnal (flesh and blood) eyes.
Your brother,
Dwight
--- End quote ---
Dwight, I fully understand the difference between the words Jesus used and his intent. But I do not understand your use of the word stories in the above bolded text.
Let me explain (try) We all realize that the Scriptures for the most part were penned many years after the actual event. That Moses is credited (I believe) for the Genesis Account. However, when you say "The stories of David and such are literal stories" do you rather mean (for the most part, allowing for any discrepancies between the various scribes over the eons) "The stories of David and such are stories of literal events"
If this is what you meant, then one can assume that David was the "literal" son of Jacob, as well as the "literal" father of Solomon.
Help me out here please brother,
Darren
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