Understanding God: speaks literally or symbolically

If one thinks about it, the heart of much of the confusion and divisiveness among many Christians, particularly along sect lines, involves confusion about when the Word of God in the Holy Bible is absolutely literal as stated, and when a certain about of symbolism is appropriate.

I was going to write a commentary about Revelation 22:15 for an entirely different blogging topic when I realized that this is a great passage to help people to understand how to correctly balance understanding of "literal" versus "symbolic." That, by the way, is an artificial debate, which results from trying to be lazy in one's discernment about the true meaning of anyone's spoken word, including God's. Excessive literalists are lazy in one direction (they don't want to think about it, just "tell me what to do" is their hope), while excessive symbolists are lazy in the other direction (they don't want to obey some of God's more difficult instructions and thus they hope to be wishy washy and say that it's not literal and thus need not be strictly followed). The truth is that the Word of God must of course be strictly followed, but God speaks in the lingua franca of the people (the common tongue of the time) and thus there will be moments of symbolic speech which takes nothing from the total truth and requirement of those meanings.

Revelation 22:15
Outside are the dogs, and the sorcerers, and the fornicators, and the murderers, and the idolaters, and everyone who lives and practices falsehood.

In the Book of Revelation John the Apostle has been taken in vision to heaven where he sees all that will take place at the End of Time, the Second Coming of Christ, the Final Judgment. In conclusion of this vision Jesus Christ is speaking to John through Christ's angel. Jesus has given John instructions about revealing all that he has seen and heard, and is giving a summation, which are the final words by him in the Christian Bible. Jesus has just finished praising those who "have the right to the tree of life" (in heaven and in the New Jerusalem), and he now, in Revelation 22:15, lists those who will be excluded from heaven (those who are "outside.")

You can now see why I chose this excellently clear passage to help you to work on your literal/symbolic discernment. What is the first group that Jesus lists will be outside of heaven, excluded from the heavenly city to come? "Outside are the dogs."

I am only half joking when I say that Bible literacy and common sense historical and cultural knowledge have become so low that someday soon young readers of these modern generations will worry that members of the canine species are excluded from heaven. After all, Jesus said that "dogs" will be excluded. This is the perfect example to start a personal effort for you to discern that the Bible is both literal and truthful throughout in meaning, but that one has a responsibility for understanding the plain, historic and cultural context of the language that God uses throughout. Obviously God is not speaking of excluding beagles, mutts, spaniels, retrievers, Pomeranians, etc from heaven. God is using a derogatory term for certain human beings, one that has been used for many centuries in many languages and cultures: dog.

I want to keep this commentary short and sweet so I'm not going to itemize what type of human behavior is so sinful that it renders a person being called "a dog." It was not that long ago that Americans would call someone who was deceitful a "dirty dog." So the term "dog" has an enduring longevity over the centuries to denote certain types of unworthy persons and if one reads about the cultural meaning of being "a dog" from Biblical times, you will realize that it's easier to recognize than to itemize.

The heart of what I am trying to convey is that here is a very obvious example of where everyone can agree that God is being exact in his meaning but using a symbolic term for a quantity that is not so precise. Compare that to another type of person on the list, which are the "murderers." A "murderer" is a much more precise term than a person who is "a dog." In fact, you can see that those are probably the opposite ends of the spectrum of precision in language, where murderer is a very precise term while "dog" is less precise to modern ears. However, in Biblical times and indeed to the present time in many cultures the meaning of "dog" is very well understood. Someone being called a dog by someone else knows exactly the derogatory tone of the term. Thus it is the Bible reader's responsibility to not gloss over the term "dog," but to understand that one must embrace the symbolic meaning to obtain precision of understanding. Thus one must be somewhat well educated in the vernacular of Biblical times, and that is not so much school smarts as common sense. As a hint much of what is behind the accusation of being a "dog" is a lack of honor. As modern society has lost and continues to lose much of its sense and understanding of honor, likewise it is in danger of missing a very specific admonition given with great clarity by Jesus Christ.

Both the person who thinks that Jesus meant beagles (literal) AND the person who thinks it's just a general symbolic word that doesn't merit much thought (symbolic) are in error. The term dog DOES denote a specific category of sinful and unworthy behavior that is being warned about.

Another very specific term, like murderers, that is easy to understand is "everyone who loves and practices falsehood." That is a literal lover's delight. Jesus Christ is warning that those who lie AND those who love lies will be excluded from heaven. There is no symbolism to obscure the meaning there.

Idolaters is also a specific term, and reading the Bible indicates that anything that is fashioned by human hands and then loved and worshipped by those hands is idolatry. Again, one must understand that a literal term can have a broad list of qualifying behaviors. Everyone should realize that there are many modern idolaters today even if they are not worshipping Baal or another Biblically cited false god, since they worship modern creations of the hands. Likewise the group "sorcerers" have a very specific meaning, though some might try to argue regarding what is a sorcery out of the list of many activities that are forbidden, such as magic, divining and so forth. In other words, idolaters and sorcerers are easy to understand and precise terms, but there is a temptation by humans to quibble about whether specific activities are included in those terms.

There is the remaining group, fornicators, that exactly straddles the literal and symbolic. Again, this demonstrates one must read and study the entire Bible to have genuine understanding of any of the parts. If one reads the Bible thoroughly, one understands that sometimes God is referring to literal sins of fornication (sexual activities) while other times God is using the same term to refer to those who are unfaithful to him, to their faith. It is impossible to study the Bible and not notice that sometimes God uses the terms fornicator, harlot and whore to refer to those who engage in illicit sexual behavior while other times God uses those exact same terms to refer to those who have faith in him and who then fall away from faith, or those who spread false faiths and their followers, to those who perform works on behalf of Satan, and those who, to use a modern term, cheapen God and his people.


So we have seen that in this one sentence we see the range from most symbolic to most literal:

(Symbolic) Dogs...fornicators... idolaters...sorcerers....everyone who loves and practices falsehood...murderers (Literal).

Whether Jesus Christ uses a term that is easy to understand in its literalness or more difficult to understand in its symbolic verbiage of the vernacular language, it makes no difference about how crucial they are to understand and to obey God in these matters. One cannot stand in front of God in Judgment and whine, "Well, I didn't know what you meant by 'dogs.'"

I hope that this has been an easy to understand and helpful place to start in recognizing that there really is NO "literal" versus "symbolic" difficulty in the Bible. One must simply recognize that God means to be understood, and hence he used the speech of the day in very clear terms. Moderns must continue to respect and understand the speech of the day of the Bible in order to obtain full and completely correct personal understanding of what God is saying.

Larry King mangles the Bible

I have a lot to blog about today. Sometimes there is a confluence of both ordinary secular events and cultist “antireligious” events that are reason to repeat ONCE AGAIN what I have taught previously, and today is one of those days.

Now, I don’t mind someone asking even the “dumbest” question (and remember, the only dumb question is the one that is not asked) over and over. In fact, that is a good sign because it indicates a mind and heart that is trying to understand and to change. I am annoyed, since it is based on alarm, when I have to repeat over and over what is IN THE BIBLE and plain for anyone to understand and see. I’m alarmed because never have I seen so many human beings have a willful refusal to understand even the facts of which they supposedly speak AND their doing so in a public forum in order to mislead others into error, sin, and ultimately damnation.

TV personality Larry King works my last nerve but I do watch him on occasion because I want to see specific people or topics that his show covers. The specific thing that annoys me about Mr. King is that even though he is a secular Jew (not a believer of God or his own faith) he feels informed enough to throw a damper on anyone else’s faith, should he be in a mood to do so. He, like most modern media false prophets, present an argument that sounds logical and erodes faith in his listeners, but is totally simplistic, ignorant, fallacious, and, frankly, in service of the prince of darkness. So this is why I MUST finally address in my blog this simultaneously whining and hostile “argument” that he makes regarding what the Bible says about homosexuality. By the way, I am not going to attack what he says about homosexuality (he thinks it’s great) because my views of tolerance are well known and articulated, even if people choose to ignore what I really feel. I have cited what Jesus himself has said on the matter, which many miss because he uses the term “eunuch” rather than homosexual. It is what Mr. King says about the nature of the Bible that infuriates me.

In a nutshell, Mr. King characterizes the Bible as an outdated book of “dos and don’ts.” He, with his usual self satisfied smugness, cites other Biblical law, such as prohibition from eating shellfish, as an example of an “out of date” Biblical law that no one pays attention to anymore, and argues that God’s prohibition against active homosexuality is likewise a law that is just out of date. If you haven’t watched him at work, let me describe how he thinks he has such a “killer argument.” Whenever he has a guest who is Christian and against homosexuality for Biblical reasons, he sneers at them, “Well, don’t you eat shellfish?” He thinks he has then done a slam dunk regarding 1) the person’s hypocrisy in their own faith and 2) the “fact” that the Bible is just a list of laws that no longer “apply” to modern people. Thus he thinks if a person eats shellfish they have demonstrated that the old Law of the Bible-ALL of it-no longer applies.

This is so arrogant and pig ignorant that I find myself clenching my teeth as I key this blogging.

Let me start with the first obvious point. The Bible is not “only” a list of dos and don’ts that are given at one point in time. The Bible was written by different authors over a period of many years and EACH author records what encounters Israel, and later both Jews and Gentiles, have had with God. In other words, the Bible records the ongoing conversation that God has with humans over hundreds, indeed thousands, of years. So it’s not like some old smelly guy wrote down the Bible in one sitting at one point in time and then as years go on the Bible “no longer applies.” Here’s a newsflash for people who mouth off about the Bible but don’t actually read it. Um, God actually NOTICES how people change and what they are doing and UPDATES what he tells them accordingly. Some law is absolute and fixed as being obligatory FOREVER and God confirms that periodically through his prophets. Other laws God RELEASES people from and CHANGES and that is recorded in the scripture.

Liberal secular unbelieving Jews are particularly frustrating to debate because they not only do not believe in God, or the divinity of the Bible’s word, as given by God through the Holy Spirit, but they “doubly” do not believe in Jesus and thus do not read and absolutely discard all that is in the Gospel, the New Testament. So here is how I’d like to wipe the smile off of Mr. King’s smug face.

Acts 11

Now the apostles and the brethren all over Judea heard that the Gentiles also had received the word of God. But when Peter went up to Jerusalem, they of the circumcision found fault with him, saying “Why didst thou visit men uncircumcised and eat with them?”

[For readers who don’t understand what was going on, here is a quick summary. Jesus preached only to the Jews, and stated that he himself was sent only to preach to the Jews. However, many Gentiles listened to him in the crowds that followed him, so by his role modeling we know that while his personal ministry was to the Jews that God intended that all should hear. Now, understand that the way Jews had self identification as Jews was that males were circumcised and all observed the food law as given by God to Moses. Thus “they of the circumcision” means “Jews,” while uncircumcised means “not Jews” hence “Gentiles.” Also “eating with them” means that Gentiles, not being Jews, do not follow God’s dietary laws. This is the snickering Mr. King’s question, about why Gentiles eat shellfish yet follow the rest of the Bible. I bet you can see where the scripture is going more clearly now, huh? “The Gentiles also had received the word of God.” So it’s not like only Jews converted to Christianity and then decided to stop following the dietary law (and thus eat shellfish). God allowed the word to be heard and believed by those who were not circumcised or following dietary laws and indeed, those who never even HEARD of the one true God of the Israelites, to hear and believe. ]

Then Peter began to explain the matter to them in order, saying, “I was praying in the city of Joppa and while in ecstasy I had a vision, a certain vessel coming down something like a great sheet, let down from heaven by its four corners, and it came right down to me. And gazing upon it, I began to observe, and I saw the four-footed creatures of the earth, and the wild beasts and the creeping things, and the birds of the air. And I also heard a voice saying to me, ‘Arise, Peter, kill and eat.’ And I said, ‘By no means, Lord, for nothing common or unclean has ever entered my mouth.’

[See, even as the Apostle of Jesus Peter hears God himself ordering Peter to eat food that is forbidden to them under dietary law and hence “unclean,” Peter replies to the Lord that he has never eaten anything unclean, and refuses to obey God to eat the unclean in his vision! Peter was sticking to the dietary law of the Jews, even as he had become the head Apostle, what Catholics call the Pope today, of Jesus Christ. Peter was sticking to the dietary law and even when God first tells him to eat the unclean in a vision, Peter refused, no doubt suspecting it was a temptation or a test by God of his fidelity to the Law.]

But the voice answered a second time, ‘What God has cleansed, do not thou call common.’ This happened three times, and then it was all drawn up back into heaven. And behold, immediately three men came to the house where I was, having been sent from Caesarea to me; and the Spirit bade me not to hesitate to go with them. And these six brethren also went with me, and we entered the man’s house. And he told us how he had seen the angel in his house stand and say to him, ‘Send to Joppa and fetch Simon, surnamed Peter; he will speak to thee words by which thou shalt be saved, thou and all thy household.’

[See, Peter is traveling among the Gentiles, where people are hearing the word, both from Peter and other disciples, but also directly from God, and believing. So these are adult non-Jews who thus are not circumcised nor follow dietary law, nor who have even heard of, necessarily, the one God. Peter is thus relating to these Jewish Christians how Gentiles are flocking to him in belief.]

But when I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them, just as it did upon us at the beginning. And I remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said, ‘John indeed baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’ Therefore, if God gave to them the same grace as he gave to us who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I should be able to interfere with God?” On hearing this they held their peace, and glorified God, saying, “Therefore to the Gentiles also God has given repentance unto life.”

OK, now do you see how ridiculous Mr. King is when he uses his favorite gay argument? If anyone actually reads the Bible before expounding on it, much worse, stating how inapplicable it is “today,” that would be a good thing. Mr. King would be able to read that God explicitly releases Christians from the dietary law so that they can belong and believe. Jews are FREE TO CONTINUE TO OBSERVE THE DIETARY LAW, SHOULD THEY CHOOSE. Thus many early Christians who were Jews, such as the original Apostles and disciples, continued to observe dietary law. However, they understood that they did not need to because God had explicitly opened the tent to allow in the Gentiles who never knew about God or his Law as given to the Israelites. So yes, duh, Mr. King, Christians eat shellfish, but they do so because God said it was OK to do so in the scriptures, not because they “felt like it” because they are “modern” and don’t need that old moth eaten “out of date” word of God (but oh wait, Mr. King does not believe the Bible is the word of God anyway).

I hope that this has helped those who are studying the Bible and hoping to better understand God to see this case study of how to actually cite the Bible and have a prayer of being accurate. God had continual dialogue throughout the time of the Bible’s historic events and he reaffirms Law and releases from Law according to his Will and what is the best for humans. God is mysterious but not in his interactions with humans. When it is his will that the Gospel be taken outside of the circle of observant Jews to now bring the Good Word to pagans and Gentiles, God released his people from required observance of law that would have excluded the Gentiles. Thus, blessed are Jews who continue to observe dietary law for love of God, but with the arrival of Jesus Christ, God released Jews from the dietary law in order to allow Gentiles, who had no God given Law, into the tent. However, through Jesus Christ God reaffirms the Commandments and other laws that continue to apply to all human beings, regardless of affiliation.

By the way, for brevity I just keyed in how Peter summarizes to the other Apostles and disciples what happened to him. His summary is Acts 11. You should read the whole events as they happened in Acts 10 for further understanding of what actually happened as they happened. It’s a chance to look over Saint Peter’s shoulder, all these years later, to see how God through the Holy Spirit guides him in reaching out to the Gentiles and discerning matters such as release from certain of the Law by God.

Bible Reading: Sirach 9:10-16

Sirach is one of the books that you find in the Catholic Bible; the Protestant bibles removed this book. It's one of my favorites. Here is the section about "Choice of Friends."

Sirach 9:10-16

Discard not an old friend,
for the new one cannot equal him.
A new friend is like new wine
which you drink with pleasure only when it has aged.
Envy not a sinner's fame,
for you know not what disaster awaits him.
Rejoice not at a proud man's success;
remember he will not reach death unpunished.
Keep far from the man who has power to kill,
and you will not be filled with the dread of death.
But if you approach him, offend him not,
lest he take away your life;
Know that you are stepping among snares
and walking over a net.
As best you can, take your neighbors'
measure,
and associate with the wise.
With the learned be intimate;
let all your conversation be about the law of
the Lord.
Have just men for your table companions;
in the fear of God be your glory.