Literal vs Metaphor challenge

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I am not here to trick you or make you look bad or insult you in any fashion, I am not your enemy. Its a scriptural question that goes to the heart of sharing the gospel in my opinion according to scripture. Jesus shared the answer.

@chaney3 said
Indeed.
This thread is a classic example of interpreting the bible to fit one's own ideal of how things should be, and shouldn't be.

If you agree, it's literal.
If you disagree, it's either a metaphor, or could not possibly be endorsed by Jesus.

Maybe that's why Christianity has hundreds of denominations.

This thread is a classic example of interpreting the bible to fit one's own ideal of how things should be, and shouldn't be.

If you agree, it's literal.
If you disagree, it's either a metaphor, or could not possibly be endorsed by Jesus.

Of course the worst are those who claim to take everything as it's written. None of them take everything literally, yet pretend that they do. Their complete lack of integrity renders them incapable of rational discussion of scripture.

All literalists who truly take everything literally have committed suicide:
Mark 8
24Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. 25“For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.

Maybe that's why Christianity has hundreds of denominations.

Indeed. The Bible is widely open to interpretation.

What's interesting is that with all the widely divergent ideas about what the Bible says and doesn't say and what is the will of God and isn't the will of God, almost all of them believe that they have the "Holy Spirit" guiding them. Clearly either most or none of them have the guidance of the "Holy Spirit" or it's a very ineffectual spirit.

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You seem to be concerned about how my response would affect an Atheist. My question was how do all of us come to Christ, the answer to that is God draws us to Him.

@thinkofone said
This thread is a classic example of interpreting the bible to fit one's own ideal of how things should be, and shouldn't be.

If you agree, it's literal.
If you disagree, it's either a metaphor, or could not possibly be endorsed by Jesus.

Of course the worst are those who claim to take everything as it's written. None of them take everything literally, yet ...[text shortened]... ither most or none of them have the guidance of the "Holy Spirit" or it's a very ineffectual spirit.

Everything is open to interpretation that doesn’t mean unchanging truth isn’t real, it’s just that we will look at it with our own mistaken interpretation.

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I'm not quick to dismiss scripture out of hand to the point of denying what is
written as irrelevant as you do, because it goes against what you think is mean or
whatever it is you use to deny the Word.

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I tell you I believe it and why, you don't believe that, you read what is there and you
don't believe that. Not much can get through to you since you just deny what you
don 't like you reject out of hand.

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Above the word of God, no.
I believe our own personal tastes and desires are not a good yard stick, since they
can take us into very dark places.
There is nothing solid there, the truth of it would and could change with the wind.

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Were we just talking about a chapter, I've never rejected metaphors are not used,
but that said they are used because they represent something. You cannot just
dismiss out of hand some truth because a metaphor was used to convey is.