It all depends on the author’s intent. If the author (God) intended the statement to be literal, then we darn well better take it literally. If it was a metaphor, then it’s dumb to take it literally.
But I don’t think you or I are capable of deciding where a given passage falls along that spectrum. I mean, you can tell me that it isn’t the point whether Samson slew 100 or 10,000, but then there’d be a liberal theologian over there who will tell me that it isn’t the point whether there’s a real Satan or not. Or that it isn’t the point whether Christ actually rose or not.
You see? I share some of your concerns about the forest for the trees, but like you said, man is fallible, so I can’t trust myself or trust you to be always right about which passages to take literally and which not to.
I think we can, however, trust the Church *as a whole*—because even though it is made up of individually fallible men, Christ promised it infallibility as a whole: He said that the gates of Hell would never prevail against it, and that it was the pillar and ground of the truth.
So I see that the Church over 2000 years all over the world taught a literal resurrection of Christ. So I believe that literally. I see that the Church for 2000 years over the world taught the literal existence of Satan. So I believe that too. But the Church over 2000 years—even though it was adamant that the world was created in six literal days—was all over the map in terms of what kinds of days they were.
I think we’re in agreement...:)
I just get frustrated when so many evangelizing opportunities are blown because someone demands that a highly illogical - and in fact, scientifically provable lie - is held up as what one must believe if you’re a Christian.
These are fun to discuss in Sunday afternoons when digesting the meal; in public, it should be the central tenets of the Bible: God created all (how is irrelevant), God loves us, and God sacrificed His Son so that we could experience a relationship with God once again.
All else is simply window dressing!