Do you believe that while Jesus was present on earth in bodily form, that God the Father was in heaven? Was God the Holy Spirit present both in heaven and on earth while Jesus was on earth and the Father was in heaven?
When in the world, the Lord dealt with two states - the Son of Man state and the Son of God state, as indicated in Scripture. God is omnipotent, omniscience and omnipresent and is present everywhere - in heaven and earth always. After the glorification (temptation of the cross), the Lord became Divine Human thus allowing conjunction with all mankind.
While we can derive spiritual meanings from literal events, that does not make such doctrine unless the Holy Spirit does so in Scripture, and any postulation by us of spiritual meaning of literal events must be in accordance with the principles and precepts of what Scripture states, as there is hardly any limits to what men can do in allegorizing, and must NOT replace the literal event,
I read today, “Neither did Naphtali drive out the inhabitants of Beth–shemesh, nor the inhabitants of Beth–anath; but he dwelt among the Canaanites, the inhabitants of the land: nevertheless the inhabitants of Beth–shemesh and of Beth–anath became tributaries unto them. “ (Judges 1:33)
And that God reproved them for so doing saying, , “And ye shall make no league with the inhabitants of this land; ye shall throw down their altars: but ye have not obeyed my voice: why have ye done this? Wherefore I also said, I will not drive them out from before you; but they shall be as thorns in your sides, and their gods shall be a snare unto you. “ (Judges 2:2-3)
Now i can derive spiritual application from this to mean that if we disobey, “put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof, “ (Romans 13:14) then we will have to live with chastising thorns we must regularly overcome, but which could have had deliverance from if we had not drawn back in faith.
However, this is an interpretation that, while it seems to have warrant, would not be an article of faith such as the Deity of Christ, and it cannot replace the text as a literal event.
Rome does this in its approved notes in its official American Bible by teaching that Genesis 2 (Adam and Eve and creation details) and Gn. 3 (the story of the Fall), Gn. 4:1-16 (Cain and Abel), Gn. 6-8 (Noah and the Flood), and Gn. 11:1-9 (Tower of Babel: the footnotes on which state, in part, “an imaginative origin of the diversity of the languages among the various peoples inhabiting the earth”) are “folktales,” using allegory to teach a religious lesson.
And that the such things as that the Bible’s attribution of Divine sanction to wars of conquest, “cannot be qualified as revelation from God.”
Likewise “cloud, angels (blasting trumpets), smoke, fire, earthquakes,lighting, thunder, war, calamities, lies and persecution are Biblical figures of speech.”
In addition, even the ages of the patriarchs after the flood are deemed to be “artificial and devoid of historical value.” (Genesis 11:10-26)
It additionally conveys such things as that Matthew placed Jesus in Egypt to convince his readers that Jesus was the real Israel, and may have only represented Jesus giving the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew, to show that Jesus was like Moses who received the law on Mount Sinai.
All of which impugns the overall literal nature the O.T. historical accounts, and as Scripture interprets Scripture, we see that the Holy Spirit refers to such stories as being literal historical events (Adam and Eve: Mt. 19:4; Abraham, Issac, Exodus and Moses: Acts 7; Rm. 4; Heb. 11; Jonah and the fish: Mt. 12:39-41; Balaam and the donkey: 2Pt. 2:15; Jude. 1:1; Rev. 2:14). Indeed “the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety” (2Cor. 11:3; Rev. 12:9), and if Jonah did not spend 3 days and 3 nights in the belly of the whale then neither did the Lord, while Israel’s history is always and inclusively treated as literal.
More here: http://peacebyjesus.tripod.com/ancients_on_scripture.html#Remarks
Of course, Borg takes this to a whole new level, in which only half the Bible is truly Scripture, and literal meanings are replaced at will with his subjective spiritual meanings. And which akin to Mary Baker Eddy(http://peacebyjesus.tripod.com/bible_versus_s.c.c.s.html).
The fall of Adam is said by Borg to be the apostasy of the church, and the Final Judgment is made to be an event that has already happened in 1757, while his new church is the New Jerusalem of Rv. 22, and such texts as Mk. 16:16 are imagined to mean that “unless a man is regenerated by the truths of faith (i.e. Swedenborg’s “truths”), and lives a life according to them, he cannot be saved.”
While Borg emphasizes love, it is not a Biblical love for the Truth but a love of Borg’s mind and one that will lead one to Hell as “another Jesus, whom we have not preached,” another spirit,” “another gospel,” by false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ.” “ (2 Corinthians 11:4,13)