@josephw

@divegeester said
But in another thread you said that the serpent was a “metaphor”.

You seem confused.

Your reading comprehension is weak.

I said the word "serpent" could be viewed as a metaphor.

Odd how you confuse and deceive yourself in your attempt to win an argument you lost before you ever posted in this forum.

@josephw said
Your reading comprehension is weak.

I said the word "serpent" could be viewed as a metaphor.

Odd how you confuse and deceive yourself in your attempt to win an argument you lost before you ever posted in this forum.

No, that’s not what you said.

You said the serpent was a metaphor.

Shall I show you the thread and page? I have it saved in anticipation that you would try to weasel out of saying it.

@divegeester said
It wasn’t a literal real tree with branches and roots and leaves Josephw, surely even you realise that?

Genesis 3:22
:..and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever:..

You have a serious issue with reading comprehension.

@divegeester said
In another thread you were adamant that the talking serpent was a metaphor.

You probably talk as garbled as you write. Can't imagine the fog in your thinking.

@divegeester said
You’re telling us readers that you believe that everything in Revelation, including all those things I listed in post, are real…as in literally real things?

Why are you so thick?

Some of the WORDS are metaphors for very real things. The "THINGS" the words represent are REAL.

Don't be so supercilious. Have you ever seen a "lake of fire"? Not a volcano of molten rock, but the one described in revelation of burning sulfur? Have you ever seen it with your own two eyes?

I didn't think so.

Get off you self righteous high horse. Stop trying to tell me what something isn't if you've never really seen what it actually is.

@josephw said
Satan is a real being. The term "serpent" is applied to Satan in the narrative of a real event that occurred in the real garden of Eden.

So there was no serpent? The word "serpent" was just a term that was applied to a being who was not literally a serpent? This is your stance on this?

@josephw said
You probably talk as garbled as you write. Can't imagine the fog in your thinking.

Is the talking serpent real or metaphor ?

Let me see how many times I can get you to flip flop on it

@josephw said
Why are you so thick?

Some of the WORDS are metaphors for very real things. The "THINGS" the words represent are REAL.

Don't be so supercilious. Have you ever seen a "lake of fire"? Not a volcano of molten rock, but the one described in revelation of burning sulfur? Have you ever seen it with your own two eyes?

I didn't think so.

Get off you self righteous high horse. Stop trying to tell me what something isn't if you've never really seen what it actually is.

You’re getting upset. So I’ll help you. Here’s what you said elsewhere:

Snakes can't talk.
It was Satan talking. "Serpent" is a metaphorical characterization of Satan.
That's all it is regardless of whether you or I or anyone else believes it is a true story or not.

So is the serpent a literal real talking serpent or is it a metaphor?
Come on Josephw make your mind up 😆

Here’s the link.

https://www.redhotpawn.com/forum/spirituality/made-in-the-image-of-god.192418/page-12

@fmf said
So there was no serpent? The word "serpent" was just a term that was applied to a being who was not literally a serpent? This is your stance on this?

Post two, page four.

@divegeester said
Is the talking serpent real or metaphor ?

Let me see how many times I can get you to flip flop on it

Let's see how many times you can regurgitate the same question before you begin to understand simple English.

@divegeester said
You’re getting upset. So I’ll help you. Here’s what you said elsewhere:

Snakes can't talk.
It was Satan talking. "Serpent" is a metaphorical characterization of Satan.
That's all it is regardless of whether you or I or anyone else believes it is a true story or not.

So is the serpent a literal real talking serpent or is it a metaphor?
Come on J ...[text shortened]... s the link.

https://www.redhotpawn.com/forum/spirituality/made-in-the-image-of-god.192418/page-12

Genesis 3:1
Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?

Wow! A talking snake! Who would have ever thunk it?!

@josephw said
And all the metaphors, allegories, idioms, parables and figures of speech are about realities.

So, the "serpent" is a metaphor and not literally a "serpent", right? And "the Garden of Eden" is an allegory, yes?

@josephw said
Let's see how many times you can regurgitate the same question before you begin to understand simple English.

Oh the irony.

It is you who does not appear to understand - and it is an affected prideful Gish gallop defensive crouch, I think ~ the simple English words "literally", "allegory" and "metaphor".

@josephw said
No you don't. If you had solid evidence it would be demonstrable.

On November 24, 1974, fossils of one of the oldest known human ancestors, an Australopithecus afarensis specimen nicknamed “Lucy,” were discovered in Hadar, Ethiopia. The team that excavated her remains, led by American paleoanthropologist Donald Johanson and French geologist Maurice Taieb, nicknamed the skeleton “Lucy” after the Beatles song “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds,” which was played at the celebration the day she was found.

Lucy, about 3.2 million years old, stood only a meter (3.5 feet) tall. She had powerful arms and long, curved toes that paleontologists think allowed her to climb trees as well as walk upright.

Lucy had a small brain like a chimpanzee, but the pelvis and leg bones were almost identical in function to those of modern humans, showing with certainty that Lucy's species were hominins that had stood upright and had walked erect.

https://www.nationalgeographic.org

@josephw said
Let's see how many times you can regurgitate the same question before you begin to understand simple English.

I can’t figure out if you are genuinely ignorant of what a metaphor is or confused and struggling about what it is you actually believe. I think it’s possibly a little of both as you seem to do this flip-flopping frequently.

But actually I think it is a ploy to hide your latent unbelief (actually just non acceptance) of difficult teaching you have received). I.e. I don’t think you really believe there was a talking serpent nor do you believe their is eternal suffering. What I think is going on here is you struggling to articulate your rational mind contradicting your years of ingrained doctrine.