Does God Expect Us To Believe Everything In The Bible Like The Flood, Etc.?
By Mike Edwards
Who blames those who morally question the story of the Flood in the Bible? We condemn people drowning just one child in a bathtub or a litter of puppies in the river. Why does God supposedly not blink an eye killing millions? People loss their faith in God or don’t bother with God when blindly insisted every story in the Bible is meant to be taken literally or as scientific fact.
Did God really drown the world minus eight in a global flood?
Ancient literature that predated Genesis wrote about local floods in their lands. It is not fabrication when a local flood is used to illustrate global human problems. This was a common literary practice in Ancient Near East times. Remember, books in the Old Testament were written for Israelites, not us modern readers. The story in the garden and the Flood can illustrate destruction is more likely when following human wisdom rather than God’s wisdom.
Were Adam and Eve really the first couple?
If the writers never intended the Global Flood to be taken literal, it is possible the Adam and Eve story wasn’t meant to be read as historical or scientific fact. Scientists, who believe in the authority of Scriptures, have provided overwhelming genetic evidence that the human race couldn’t have originated from a single couple but through a population of some thousands of individuals. Believing this evidence doesn’t mean one is denying God. See https://biologos.org
Talking serpents and magical trees could be literary devices to discuss a relationship between God and humans. Maybe it isn’t coincidental that serpents in ancient near eastern literature symbolized evil. Genesis intends to tell us that God is the Creator, not how God actually did it. Many biblical scholars are convinced beginning stories in Genesis were written to convey God’s desire to bring order from chaos. Writers had no intentional of giving a scientific account. We only assume that.
But didn’t Jesus and Paul assume Adam and Eve were historical figure?
Paul and Jesus in the New Testament did refer to Adam as described in the Old Testament. This doesn’t necessarily mean Adam and Eve had to be historical but were excepted as representatives of the first humans for the purpose of talking about God. The Apostle Paul, who wrote a great deal of the New Testament, may have even thought Adam was historical. That doesn’t mean Paul isn’t still capable of revealing God to us.
What are we to believe about God?
Many have good reasons to not believe all the stories in the Bible were intended to be historically factual. Let’s don’t insist all believe the same way if they are convinced otherwise. We cannot know with certainty the intent of writers thousands of years ago. Relax! Literature can’t mean anything. Only extremists don’t accept that their interpretations feed their hunger for power and control rather than love and freedom. Read the Bible with a questioning spirit motivated by love and putting oneself in another’s shoes. That seems to be God’s main message.
