Symbolic or Does God Mean What He Says?
Reading the bible is an adventure like no other anyone can endeavor to navigate. In this voyage one will encounter stories that will bend the ability of one’s mental capacity, and one will have to come to grips with the events being read. Are these events something that did in reality happen or were these stories placed here to give us an allegory of something God is trying to explain to our human minds? That is what I will be challenging you with in this, The Second Scroll.
A Talking Snake?
Now the serpent was more subtil more than every beast of the field.” This quality of the serpent was in itself innocent, and even admirable, but it was made use of by the tempter to deceive Eve; for, it has been remarked, she would not be surprised on finding herself spoken to by so sagacious a creature. If this be so, it follows that Eve must have dwelt in Paradise long enough to have learned something of the habits of the animals around her, though she had never studied them so earnestly as Adam, not having felt that need of a companion which had made even his state of happiness so dull.
“And he said unto the woman.” — the leading point of the narrative is that the temptation came upon man from without, and through the woman. Such questions, therefore, as whether it were a real serpent or Satan under a serpent-like form, whether it spoke with a real voice, and whether the narrative describes a literal occurrence or is allegorical, are better left unanswered. God has given us the account of man’s temptation and fall, and the entry of sin into the world, in this actual form; and the more reverent course is to draw from the narrative the lessons it was evidently intended to teach us, and not enter upon too curious speculations. We are dealing with records of a vast antiquity, given to man when he was in a state of great simplicity, and we cannot expect to find them as easy to understand as the pages of modern history.
“Yea, hath God said?” — There is a tone of surprise in these words, as if the tempter could not bring himself to believe that such a command had been given. Can it really be true, he asks, that Elohim has subjected you to such a prohibition? How unworthy and wrong of Him! Neither the serpent nor the woman use the title—common throughout this section—of Jehovah-Elohim, a sure sign that there was a thoughtful purpose in giving this appellation to the Deity. It is the impersonal God of creation to whom the tempter refers, and the woman follows his guidance, forgetting that it was Jehovah, the loving personal Being in covenant with them, who had really given them the command.
Now the question I bring to this scroll is, did all this actually occur, or was the serpent speaking, and Eve answering the serpent, really only symbolic? Is this all an allegory?
Noah’s Flood (Genesis 7:12-17)
And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights. In the selfsame day entered Noah, and Shem, and Ham, and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and Noah’s wife, and the three wives of his sons with them, into the ark; They, and every beast after his kind, and all the cattle after their kind, and every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind, and every fowl after his kind, every bird of every sort. And they went in unto Noah into the ark, two and two of all flesh, wherein is the breath of life. And they that went in, went in male and female of all flesh, as God had commanded him: and the LORD shut him in. And the flood was forty days upon the earth; and the waters increased, and bare up the ark, and it was lift up above the earth. And the waters prevailed, and were increased greatly upon the earth; and the ark went upon the face of the waters. And the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth; and all the high hills, that were under the whole heaven, were covered. Fifteen cubits upward did the waters prevail; and the mountains were covered.
These verses in Genesis testify about the global flood that was 21 feet above the highest mountains. Noah collected the male and female of each animal and they came to the ark on their own, and they went in and God shut the massive door of the ark. The waters were upon the earth for several months. So again, did this flood actually occur or is it symbolic and an allegory as so many renown bible scholars claim?
The Overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah Genesis 19:24-25
Then the LORD rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the LORD out of heaven; And he overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the ground. But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt. And Abraham gat up early in the morning to the place where he stood before the LORD: And he looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the plain, and beheld, and, lo, the smoke of the country went up as the smoke of a furnace.
Now here again we are face with the choices to believe that there were actually two large cities containing over a million inhabitants that God, not a natural disaster, but God himself rained down brimstone and fire from heaven upon them. Was God’s idea of urban renewal something that we should believe as literal or again, something symbolic? Lot’s wife looked back toward the cities and she became a pillar of salt. Where do we draw the line as to what is literal and actually happened and something we’re supposed to take as symbolic? And who is qualified to make that decision as which is symbolic or literal? Was anybody there that saw what happened, and were they there to hear what actually transpired? Was there a great terrible sound similar to nuclear detonations raining down from the sky? Nobody knows. Those self-exalted bible scholars and “theologians” can only give their conjecture, and nothing else. It is nothing more than their opinion, based on nothing that can be brought forth as definitive concrete proof.
Moses. Ah, Moses.
Were those 10 plagues described in the Bible from Genesis chapters 7 through 12 real events that happened? What about the pillar of fire that the Lord God sent the Hebrews by night, was that a fignewton of their imagination? And the pillar which became thick smoke by day that went before the Jews to guide their journey? This is real Star Trek fiction or is the Bible saying it just as it happened?
Moses in Deep Water
And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and the LORD caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided. And the children of Israel went into the midst of the sea upon the dry ground: and the waters were a wall unto them on their right hand, and on their left. And the Egyptians pursued, and went in after them to the midst of the sea, even all Pharaoh’s horses, his chariots, and his horsemen. And it came to pass, that in the morning watch the LORD looked unto the host of the Egyptians through the pillar of fire and of the cloud, and troubled the host of the Egyptians, And took off their chariot wheels, that they drave them heavily: so that the Egyptians said, Let us flee from the face of Israel; for the LORD fighteth for them against the Egyptians.
And the LORD said unto Moses, “Stretch out thine hand over the sea, that the waters may come again upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots, and upon their horsemen.” And Moses stretched forth his hand over the sea, and the sea returned to his strength when the morning appeared; and the Egyptians fled against it; and the LORD overthrew the Egyptians in the midst of the sea. And the waters returned, and covered the chariots, and the horsemen, and all the host of Pharaoh that came into the sea after them; there remained not so much as one of them. But the children of Israel walked upon dry land in the midst of the sea; and the waters were a wall unto them on their right hand, and on their left.
Now I have read some theologians who say that actually where the Israelites crossed the Red Sea, the water was only about 6 inches deep. I ask then would they, who make that minimizing claim, be able to divide a 6-inch deep sea themselves? I think not. So do we believe it happened as the bible proclaims, and as we have seen in some pretty good movies or is it something we are supposed to take as symbolic and look at the message instead? I believe the bible account. Look when the Lord caused the waters to go back it was by a strong East wind. The Israelites crossed on a dry seabed, with a wall of water on their left side and a wall of water on their right side. But notice that when the downstream side of the sea should have gone on toward the ocean, it too was a wall on the right side. If that water was only 6 inches deep, then is God calling that 6 inches of water a wall of water?
And Water Came Forth From the Rock.
Moses took his staff and when he had struck the rock, water came gushing out enough that the people drank and watered their livestock as well. Moses of course did this twice, and the first time in Exodus 17:6 in which he was obedient and did as the Lord commanded and smote the rock once. Moses did this again in Numbers 20:11 but this time in disobedience and he smote the rock twice, but water came out for the people again. Now Moses was able to accomplish this because God told him to. If I tried to do that without God telling me to do it I could sledgehammer rocks from the east to the west coast and I wouldn’t get a drop of water out of any. But the question again is; “did these things happen literally?
…And The Earth Swallowed Them Up
Here we read of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram standing to rebel against Moses and claiming nobody had made him the leader over them. This was not true as we see what action God took to put down the contagion of rebellion.
In Numbers 16:32-34 we read; And Moses said, Hereby ye shall know that the LORD hath sent me to do all these works; for I have not done them of mine own mind. If these men die the common death of all men, or if they be visited after the visitation of all men; then the LORD hath not sent me. But if the LORD make a new thing, and the earth open her mouth, and swallow them up, with all that appertain unto them, and they go down quick into the pit; then ye shall understand that these men have provoked the LORD.
And it came to pass, as he had made an end of speaking all these words, that the ground clave asunder that was under them: And the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed them up, and their houses, and all the men that appertained unto Korah, and all their goods. They, and all that appertained to them, went down alive into the pit, and the earth closed upon them: and they perished from among the congregation. And all Israel that were round about them fled at the cry of them: for they said, Lest the earth swallow us up also.
When Moses had tried more than twice to convince these men to repent and they would not, the earth immediately opened up wide and entire tribes went down into hell alive. No sooner the last one had fallen in that the earth immediately closed up again. People have a great difficulty believing that such stories like this one cannot be meant to be literal, but if I can believe that God said, “Let there be light” and light was, then I believe what the book says. So is it literal or not?
Sun, Stand Thou Still Upon Gibeon…
Joshua 10:12-14. Then spake Joshua to the LORD in the day when the LORD delivered up the Amorites before the children of Israel, and he said in the sight of Israel, “Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon; and thou, Moon, in the valley of Ajalon.” And the sun stood still, and the moon stayed, until the people had avenged themselves upon their enemies. Is not this written in the book of Jasher? So the sun stood still in the midst of heaven, and hasted not to go down about a whole day. And there was no day like that before it or after it, that the LORD hearkened unto the voice of a man: for the LORD fought for Israel.
Understanding astronomy as I do, as one of my absolute favorite subjects, in order for the sun and the moon to remain stationary overhead and not go down for a whole day and one half, and the moon to remain also, there is only way for that to occur. The earth would have had to stop in its rotation. So did the earth stop in its rotation or not? How could it stop? How could it start rotating again after Joshua finished what God had told him to do? See throughout all of scripture, there are countless stories like these that show God overriding the natural world, and performing acts of supernatural events. What do you believe? Why do you believe what you do? Fact is whatever explanation we choose to accept and believe it is going to be based solely on what our finite minds can accept. That is why we search out that “evidence” to fit our narrative, but in reality, our evidence is no evidence at all because I can’t prove that what I present is beyond dispute. It is nothing more than my word against yours.
And Locusts Came Forth From the Pit
Revelation Chapter 9:1-11 describes this event; And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit. And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit. And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth: and unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power. And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree; but only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads. And to them it was given that they should not kill them, but that they should be tormented five months: and their torment was as the torment of a scorpion, when he striketh a man. And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them. And the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses prepared unto battle; and on their heads were as it were crowns like gold, and their faces were as the faces of men. And they had hair as the hair of women, and their teeth were as the teeth of lions. And they had breastplates, as it were breastplates of iron; and the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots of many horses running to battle. And they had tails like unto scorpions, and there were stings in their tails: and their power was to hurt men five months. And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon.
Theologians like the famous Hal Lindsey translate all this as being symbolic and that these locusts are probably going to be helicopters. They go on to explain the thundering sound of the wings as described in Revelation 9:9 as the sounds of hoof beats or a “thud-thud-thud” sound which they say describes the known sound of a helicopter. I have a problem with the hair like women being on a helicopter. And the disconnect comes in when I read that they will issue forth a sting that will torment men for five months, and the poison that they sting with (or spray from a tail nozzle of the helicopter as Lindsey suggests) will be so painful that men will seek to die and death will not come. The enormity of the pain will be so grievous, that it will drive men insane and they will attempt self-destruction but they will not be able to die.
This revelation in chapter nine certainly describes a terrifying event and a swarm of giant hideous locusts coming forth from a huge smoking pit in the earth, but is it real or is it Memorex? Are we to take this description as it is written in the Book of revelation or look for symbolic explanations?
Lazarus! Come Forth!
Jesus said, Take ye away the stone. Martha, the sister of him that was dead, saith unto him, Lord, “by this time he stinketh: for he hath been dead four days.” Jesus saith unto her, Said I not unto thee, that, if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God? Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead was laid. And Jesus lifted up his eyes, and said, Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me. And I knew that thou hearest me always: but because of the people which stand by I said it, that they may believe that thou hast sent me. And when he thus had spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth. And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with graveclothes: and his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, Loose him, and let him go.
Here we have a man that had died and was sealed in an airtight chamber and the doorway sealed by a great stone. The great stone was rolled into place and the seal made sure to prevent the stink of a decomposing body to leak into the air. The tomb was not a grand majestic room with lots of room for other deceased, but a small tomb carved out of the sandstone rock allowing space for the body of Lazarus to be carried in and laid on a shelf in the carved out rock inside. Lazarus, if he was not dead when he was placed in there, would certainly be dead when they opened the tomb because after 4 days he would have died from suffocation. Now in this event, our Lord Jesus was personally involved, so is our Lord making an allegory about raising a man who had died and been in the sealed tomb for 4 days? Was Lazarus dead? The scripture does say they rolled away the stone where the dead was laid. Did Jesus recall his spirit from Paradise and Abraham’s bosom, and restore his body? Lazarus body certainly would have had considerable decomposition after 4 days.
God Created the Heaven and the Earth
Genesis 1:1 begins; “In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth.” The ultimate of all events described in the bible that cause men to assign a symbolic, allegory or other views comes down to man’s finite mind. So let us address the creation. If my mind cannot grasp and accept that God could actually put together an entire universe with all its worlds, stars and galaxies already in mature stages, then I will probably choose to believe that creation was done over millions of years and I would say that fossilized records prove my point. In this case I am using my mind and recognizing I have certain limitations, and I will transfer that logic over to God and place some limitations on him, because my mind says there are just some things that can’t be possible. Dang, then God messes up everything I think when he says, “With God, all things are possible.” If I can accept a God without limits, then I have no problem accepting a literal 6-day creation period with rest on the seventh day. And you say, “But it’s not possible that these fossils could be created in the few months of Noah’s flood.” My answer is, “But that’s your own reasoning based on no evidence except what someone told you in a book or article. You weren’t there in Noah’s flood.” Everything you believe is based on information you have gathered from others or the world around you, and you interpret that information based on your own mind’s limited or finite abilities and reasoning. We believe only those things which give comfort to our minds.
Everything I believe or not believe is all based on my own line of reasoning based on what in my background has planted the seeds of this line of thinking. If a man has a limited appreciation of the value of human life, then he is probably not going to believe that anyone would give their own lives to save someone else. Faith in the crucifixion, death, and resurrection of our Lord to give us salvation and eternal life is going to be very hard for some people’s finite mind and reasoning to accept. Everything we believe or read in the word of God, we will either accept it or reject it all based on our particular line of reasoning.
Something as basic as our accepting the gift of salvation at our beginning was based on no facts, and no proofs, except on what somebody told us or we heard someone preach. So we believed we were born-again, but we don’t have any proof that we are. They may have told you that your name was written down in the Lamb’s Book of Life, but you didn’t see any book. You believe there is a God, but you’ve never seen him. You believe there is a Hell, but you’ve never seen Hell. You believe in angels, but you’ve never seen one. You read the bible and everything it says in there but you don’t have any proof that any of it is true. You read scriptures that say “by his stripes we were healed.” But you don’t have any proof that this is true either. So you believe, and accept those things based on your own finite mind’s reasoning. So you see, everything we believe that is written in the word is done so through our faith which is something that comes from God.
But see, our faith is something that does come with proof because our spirits react to it. I.e., I know water is wet when it’s poured over me and I’m standing there drenched. I know the Holy Spirit is real because I feel the effects not only on my spirit but on my emotions as well. See, my faith allows me to love the Lord so much that as much as I would love to sing to him, I cannot. Why? Because from the first syllable of the first word of any song I start to sing to him, my voice chokes with deep profound love and emotion. My singing to him becomes very garbled with deep groaning from the midst of my being. But I try until there is no voice left, and I’m drowning in a river of my tears. You see, the presence of the Lord is very vivid in those times, and with the faith he gave me, I believe that he is. The word of God tells us that “Our Lord inhabits our praise.” When our praise rises from our hearts, from our spirits, God inhabits that praise. When that praise comes from our own flesh we only receive emotional pleasure. That’s why you can see some people just praising without any effects being visible while another person is reduced to jelly.
Praise
When I look up in the night sky, and I see the work of your hands; there’s the moon and all the stars that you have made. And I cannot understand how this could be, it’s such a mystery, just how you know about, or care, or bother, with anyone like me.
Oh Jehovah, Lord of Majesty, the Glory of your name fills earth, and overflows the heavens you have made. And you teach the babes and infants here to praise you Lord in many ways; to magnify your name, you silence wisdom while children give you praise.
And yet you made me only, a little lower than the angels; and put a crown of your glory on my head; and you have put me in charge of so many things that you’ve made; and everything is put under your feet.
I don’t know what others may believe about the miraculous events I have written here and all of the hundreds of other spectacular and supernatural events written in the bible, but as for me I believe God says exactly what he means to say, and means exactly what he said. Numbers 23:19 says; “God is not a man that he should lie; neither the son of man that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? Or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?” God is not like a man that says one thing and then denies that he said it; neither does he change his mind about what he said. When God says something, then he will do and has done exactly what he said he was going to do; and if God speaks a new thing, then he will do exactly as he has said. He doesn’t say one thing and mean another. He is not an author of confusion.
So I believe the serpent spoke to Eve, and I believe there was a literal global flood that destroyed all mankind and animals except for 8 souls in the ark. I believe God rained down brimstone and fire and totally destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah out of existence so that their remains have never been found to this day. I believe there were ten plagues in Egypt as they are described in the book. I believe there was a literal pillar of fire that sat behind the Israelites’ camp by night, and it became a pillar of smoke by day that removed to the front to lead the way. I believe God caused water to flow like a river from a rock, enough to water over a million people and tens of thousands of livestock, and I believe the earth did open wide and swallow Dathan and all his households for rebellion and that they went down alive into the pit. I believe Lazarus died literally and had been dead for 4 days, and that Jesus raised him back to life again. I believe God created the heavens and the earth in the first six days with the morning and the evening making each day, and that he rested on the seventh day and that’s why he called it the Sabbath. And I believe that when God says in the Book of Revelation that locusts came out of the smoking pit, and if he said they were locusts, then he means locusts!
I just take God at his word. Whatever God has said, then that word is forever settled in my heart. Who am I to rephrase what God said and who am I to say God didn’t mean what he said, and that some things are to be taken symbolically. I have not found a scripture from Genesis 1:1 to Revelation 22:21 that say that some things that God said are not literal but symbolic. If I had found such a scripture in the word, then I would fear that my eternal salvation may well be in jeopardy.
There are hundreds of supernatural events that are recounted in the bible and it is up to each person to receive those events written as literal or symbolic, and God will never condemn you for which way you believe. It is not what is the most important after all. When we get to heaven, all these things and all these disagreements and conjectures will disappear away as childish things, for we will know all things even as we are known. All the pain we endured on the earth, with all the disappointments and failures will fade away into nothing when our attention is focused on the Holy One sitting on the throne. Then the only thing which will capture our whole attention will be our Lord with the Glory surrounding him as we and all the multitude of heaven’s angels break out in praise and worship such as this whole of creation has never seen or heard. Our praise will reverberate from one end of the universe to the other.
Glory! Hallelujah to His name. Amen?
The Genesis Oracles 
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