I was listening to a video from Creation Live on the CMI website yesterday during lunch. They mentioned a person that wrote in to CMI and said, “Genesis is to be taken seriously, but not literally.” This leads me to believe that this person would take the rest of the Bible in similar fashion. Taking it seriously, but not literally? How bizarre is that? The history within the Bible has been well studied and verified by Archeologists. Since the inception of this field of research they have been studying civilizations from all over the world and no self-respecting Archeologist with any credibility has ever ventured into the Middle East or northeastern Africa without a Bible as a reference book. Archeology started back in the 16th century with historical studies emphasizing relics, artifacts and historic ruins, leading to modern Archeology as a field of study more than 230 years ago.
We must read the Bible and interpreted the Bible as it was written. It must be interpreted as the original readers or listeners would have understood it. The book of Genesis was written by God through Moses as history for the Israelite people. It could only be interpreted as history, as God intended it to be understood. Any other interpretation is a false interpretation, dreamt up to satisfy modern naturalism and humanism. As I’ve said before, we cannot listen to human interpretation that contradicts the Bible. Everything must reconcile with the Bible in accordance with God’s original meaning within the scripture. If you acquire any information, and that information does not reconcile with the Bible, its worthless information.
Taking anything seriously, but not literally can be dangerous. For instance: I take the stop sign seriously, but not literally. I take the commandment, “Thou shat not kill” seriously, but not literally. I take the Law of Gravity seriously, but not literally. What a wacky notion. The Bible is only open for interpretation by using other Biblical scripture to clarify. We must take scripture as it was written; if it’s history its history, if it’s prophesy its prophesy, if it’s a song with prophetic lyrics then that is exactly how it should be interpreted. Read the Bible as if it were written last week and printed yesterday. Read it as it was meant to be read and take it seriously and literally in accordance with the literary style in which each book was written.
“All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:” (2 Timothy 3:16)
It is also rich in true genuine history.