How is taking the Bible literally to be considered 'putting God in a box'? For me it's simply - God said it, I believe it, that settles it.
The corollary to your argument is that God has lied to you - yet the Bible clearly states God is incapable of sin and can not tolerate it in his Holy Presence. Don't bother replying - I can guess that your going to tell me Genesis is mostly myth and fable and recorded by mere man therefore full of error and mis-interpreted statements. Hardly!!!
Jesus studied the Bible and affirmed the old testament - Please please please try digging a little deeper into your faith rather than relying on worldly experts and their opinions.
http://www.newadvent.org/library/docs_jp02tc.htm
Unless you are a Biblical scholar and have read the Bible in its original languages (and understand the contextual subtleties in those languages), there is no way for you to know exactly what God said.
The corollary to your argument is that God has lied to you - yet the Bible clearly states God is incapable of sin and can not tolerate it in his Holy Presence. Don't bother replying - I can guess that your going to tell me Genesis is mostly myth and fable and recorded by mere man therefore full of error and mis-interpreted statements. Hardly!!!
It depends on the context. The purpose of the Bible is to provide spiritual direction. It interacts with history but is always looking at the soul. Thus from a spiritual basis one gets the message pretty clearly: God created the Universe and filled the void. Man was pretty late in the game. Man is here to love God. Woman and Man are for each other. And the whole thing is about Love. Lingustic subtelties don't matter at that level. And in general, the framework established by Genesis is, IMHO, quite correct. But scholar's can't even agree on the original language use of the word "day" in the original language.
Jesus studied the Bible and affirmed the old testament - Please please please try digging a little deeper into your faith rather than relying on worldly experts and their opinions.
Jesus did indeed affirm the Old Testament. It is the foundation for His work and words. But by saying "yes, all that is correct" doesn't add clarity, just authority.
I mean, there are two versions of The Ten Commandments! The Bible contradicts itself "factually" all over the place. Even the story of the road to Damascus has two different versions (which gets worse when read in the original).
This isn't God lying to anyone. It is using a spiritual guide to address non-spiritual matters.