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To sum
up our Holy Bible discussion, we share an idea from Marcus J. Borg’s The Heart of Christianity. A recognized biblical scholar and author, Borg
proposes that there are two ways to view the Holy Bible—literally and
metaphorically. (We could also include words such as poetically, historically,
symbolically, spiritually, etc.) Those who take the Bible literally believe
that all the words are exactly true as written. Those who consider the Bible to
be largely metaphorical take a non-literal or more-than-literal approach. They
search for deeper meaning to the Bible’s verses, passages and stories.
We,
likewise, concur with Borg that if we dwell on only the words in the Holy
Bible, we might miss the message that God is trying to pass on to humans. Let’s
use the Creation story in the first chapter of Genesis as an example. The
literal view is that an all-powerful God waved a “magic wand” and created His
entire Universe, or at least our planet Earth, in six (24-hour) “days,” then
took a “day” off to rest. That’s exactly what the Bible says happened; and many
fundamentalists subscribe to the literal validity of this scriptural passage as
described by the words on the page.
The
metaphorical view, however, looks beyond the story and sees a benevolent God
creating a wonderful place for humans to inhabit, providing them with plants
and animals to sustain their lives and, finally, creating us humans ourselves
to live and enjoy life here on planet Earth. The seventh “day of rest” does not
imply that God worked too hard and needed rest. He’s all-powerful, for heaven’s
sake. Why would He need to rest? Rather, the “day of rest” reference is probably
a message to us earthlings that we should not devote 100 percent of our lives
to work, that we need some downtime to make the most of our lives and to live
as soulful children of a benevolent and loving Creator, taking a break from
work to enjoy God’s gifts and the fruits of our labor.
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