So, how do we know when to read the Bible literally vs. reading it figuratively? Well, again, as we’re going to see over and over again: we make that decision the same way that we do it in normal conversation. And basically, the way we do it in normal human conversation is that we assume…
One of the things that sometimes divides what we might call “conservative” Christianity from “liberal” Christianity has to do with whether or not someone claims to believe in the “literal” meaning of the Bible. This is an incredibly misleading concept and we all need to stop getting hung-up on it. The real question is not…
In the last installment of Bible Basics, we made the point that a passage means only what its A(a)uthor[1] intended it to mean. A right interpretation is one that matches up with what the A(a)uthor of the passage meant when H(h)e wrote it. However, while there is typically only one meaning of a biblical passage…
The goal of biblical interpretation is simple: to understand what God meant by each thing He said in the Bible. Here’s one of the most important things to keep in mind when interpreting the Bible: God is the one who decides what a passage means. He’s the ultimate author of the Bible, so God…and the…