One of the more informative podcasts I listen to regularly is Issues Etc. Recently, they interviewed Joel Heck, who’s written a very inexpensive book entitled In the Beginning, God: Creation from God’s Perspective, which examines the questions surrounding the historicity and interpretation of Genesis.
I was impressed with his answers, and learned some new reasons why Genesis should be interpreted as history, not metaphor, and that Chapter 2 should be seen, not as a recapitulation, but as a detailed examination of the 6th day (the creation of man). His explanation of why the verbs in Chapter 2 should be interpreted as past tense (God “had planted”, not God “planted”) easily clears up the ‘problems’ with chronologies. Download the mp3 here.
I already asked this question before and nobody made any attempt to answer it, so I ask again. Why is it so important to take the Bible as literal, historical fact and not as allegory and metaphor?
Is not the Christian religion based on living life by Christ’s example? Taking from the Bible leasons from his life and applying it to our own? Once we start insisting every single word of the Bible is fact, truth and God’s will, do we not run into some very difficult problems that are the root cause for driving so many people away from the Christian faith?
Sorry it’s taken so long for me to answer! Hopefully, you subscribed to the comments on this post!
Please see my response at http://www.wholereason.com/2011/09/why-is-it-so-i…