11-13-2006, 06:30 PM
FirefoxWiz Wrote:Papa Spot Wrote:I don't think that the stories in the Bible were ever intended to be taken literally.
What about the Rich man who lifted up his eyes in Hell?
I believe all the stories in the Bible were true, real happenings. 'Course I'm not trying to disprove or prove anything anyone believes here.
Yes, stories were a preferred method, but I believe they were TRUE stories. Telling a false story is just the same as lying, isn't it?!
~FW
No. Absolutely not. Something is only a lie if you intend for the person or people hearing it believe that it is true. Even Jesus called His stories parables. There's nothing in the Bible that indicates that Jesus ever meant for anyone to believe that the stories He told as parables ever actually happened. Take, for example the parable of the wise man who built his house on rock. Jesus said:
Quote:Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock.
He didn't say that those people will be like THE wise man who builds his house on a rock; he said they'll be like A wise man who builds his house on a rock. Nobody said, "I wonder who the wise man was?" They knew that there was no particular wise man that Jesus was talking about; it was just a story to illustrate a point. It wasn't a lie and it wasn't a deception because Jesus never intended for anyone to think he was talking about a particular wise man or a particular foolish man.