“We take the Bible literally,” was strongly and boldly emphasized in the stream of Christendom I grew up in. The Bible church/Bible institute movement began back in the 1800s as a response to many Protestants’ rejection of the inspiration of Scripture. Modernism denied the Bible came from a divine source; it was all of man. Hence, the Bible’s claim ’Thus saith the Lord’ and being ‘God-breathed’ was not true. So, “we take the Bible literally” was, in part, a declaration of interpreting the Bible according to its own claim of being God’s revelation to man. For that conviction, I am grateful.
However, believing the Bible to be the word of God does not necessarily mean one rightly represents the Bible or interprets it according to its Divine intent.
- Bible believing Jews of Jesus’ day profoundly misunderstood their Scriptures as to who and what their own Messiah would be and do (Lk. 24:25-27).
- After Christ’s resurrection and ascension, many ‘Israelites’ with a “zeal for God” refused to forsake their wrong understanding of the Bible – confirming they were not saved (John 5:29-46; Romans 9:35-10:4).
- Other Jewish Bible believers who claimed Jesus was the Messiah, yet with wrong understanding, taught a false Gospel from the Bible (Gal. 1:6-10; Acts 15:1-5).
- A few years later, Christ’s Apostle Paul called out Bible believers among the Gentile Christians who were leading others to fruitless discussion and confidently making false assertions (Titus 1:10; I Tim 1:5-7). Their faulty Bible teaching upset entire households and undermined the apostolic goal of unity within the visible church which was “love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith” (I Tim. 1:5).
The Bible uses figurative and hyperbolic language to convey eternal, weighty and momentous realities.
In our day, there are teachers who claim to believe the Bible to be inspired, yet their method of interpretation leads to factiousness, prideful ignorance, and an undermining of the preeminence of Christ. While this simple essay addresses in general ‘wooden literalism’ there is a specific brand of it I have in mind. In the Bible church movement (and elsewhere), there is what is labeled hyper-dispensationalism or Bullingerism. Here and here are links that address it.
Note, my focus is not on the new believer in Christ faultily growing in their understanding of the Bible. My focus is not on humble, mature Christians who struggle to grasp the depths and continuity of God’s Word. My focus, as you will see, are teachers who claim a precision in their interpretation that no one who came before them had, and all presently who don’t agree with their conclusions are, therefore, blind.
The word “literally”
Among Bible believing scholars today, many would define their method of interpretation as the ‘literal, grammatical, historical’ method. Here you will see a link to a debate in the camp of those who “take the Bible literally.”
Go back some years — to the 1500s and 1600s and the time of the Reformation. If you heard the word “literal” in reference to the Bible, likely you would have understood the word as coming from the Latin sensus literalis. The point I am making is that ‘literal interpretation’ is not a recent American invention; it has deep historical roots.
Here is some help from RC Sproul:
What is meant by sensus literalis is not that every text in the Scriptures is given a “woodenly literal” interpretation, but rather that we must interpret the Bible in the sense in which it is written. Parables are interpreted as parables, symbols as symbols, poetry as poetry, didactic literature as didactic literature, historical narrative as historical narrative, occasional letters as occasional letters. That principle of literal interpretation is the same principle we use to interpret any written source responsibly.1
Five observations on interpreting the Bible literally
First, all written and spoken human language are symbolic.
Right now, your eyes are scanning little squiggly marks on a screen or page that symbolically represent what my mind understands, and what I am trying to convey to you. These little squiggly lines are symbolic representatives. God designed His image bearers to convey in symbols what we imagine, what we understand, our knowledge of truth and reality. In our amazingly complex and layered use of symbols we have developed multiple genres (historical narrative, poetry, etc.). And in each of those genres, there is inevitably the use of figurative language. Some examples will help.
Historians of our day may write of ‘storm clouds that gathered over Europe’ referring to political and economic turmoil that brought about World War II.
It is possible to be a teacher or preacher in the camp of “the Bible is God-breathed” and lead others to fruitless discussion and false assertions, and even false gospels that only damn.
Love songs and romantic poetry abound in figurative language. “My love for you burns with the heat of 10,000 suns.” So, put on the sunscreen, sweetheart.
Apostles Paul and Peter tell us that the Holy Spirit superintended men to record in written human language (symbolic representation) what God determined to be revealed (II Tim. 3:17; II Peter 1:20-21). The result is multiple forms of writing and figurative description on every page of the Old and New testaments.
Second, big events and weighty truths call for over-sized language.
Authors use exaggerated descriptions (hyperbole) for emphasis and to describe significant truths, or momentous or highly unusual occurrences.
Sometimes hyperbole even uses non-sensical descriptions. A news story may say “rain poured down from the heavens in sheets yesterday in Pueblo. Many residents exclaimed ‘it had rained cats and dogs’.”
Coloradoans would not wonder if local vet clinics had to treat a boatload of injured cats and dogs that had fallen from the sky. Nor would they assume queen-size fitted sheets holding water came down from the atmosphere above Pueblo.
Those exaggerated and figurative descriptions sought to convey a momentous and unusual reality — four inches of rain fell in Pueblo in less than 90 minutes. Hence, the exaggerated language.
The Bible uses figurative and hyperbolic language to convey eternal, weighty and momentous realities. Let me give one (there are like, literally, boatloads).
Isaiah 19:1 — The oracle concerning Egypt. Behold, the LORD is riding on a swift cloud and is about to come to Egypt; The idols of Egypt will tremble at His presence, And the heart of the Egyptians will melt within them. The all-powerful, no-beginning/no-ending Divine Being — who is not of material substance but is spirit — was NOT about to physically surf on a fast-moving cloud into Cairo. Rather, Isaiah (superintended by the Holy Spirit) is pronouncing God’s judgment on Egypt for their idolatry and opposition against God and His people. As a result, according to God’s decree, civic unrest in powerful Egypt would greatly reduce their political, economic influence and military power in that part of the world (19:2-3).
Third, God started it.
We use figurative and hyperbolic ways of communicating because we are image bearers of an unfathomably glorious God. He started it – for His glory and our awe-filled, reverent worship. From the get-go He not only communicated to humans in human language, but God also used figurative language. Consider what He said after Cain murdered his brother Abel: “The voice of your brother’s blood is crying to me from the ground…” (Gen. 4:10). Did Abel’s blood ‘literally’ have an audible voice? Did his blood talk in human language after it drained from his body and soaked into the dirt? No. Cain’s murder of his righteous brother Abel was of horrific moral significance and demanded a just response to the evil Cain had committed.
Or how about the LORD’s promised blessing to Abraham: I will greatly multiply your seed as the stars of the heavens and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your seed shall possess the gate of their enemies (Genesis 22:17). There is no record of Abraham trying to get an exact number of descendants he could expect at the family reunion. There is record of Abraham believing God would fulfill the promise of offspring beyond his comprehension – and his reverent confidence being credited to him as righteousness (Gen. 15:5-6; Romans 4:9, 22; Gal. 3:6).
Fourth, fruitless discussion and false assertions.
It is possible to be a teacher or preacher in the camp of “the Bible is God-breathed” and lead others to fruitless discussion and false assertions, and even false gospels that only damn (Titus 1:10; I Tim 1:6-7; Gal. 1:6-10; 2). One way this happens is wooden literalism. Let me illustrate.
“For every beast of the forest is Mine, the cattle on a thousand hills” — Psalm 50:10. Wooden literalism would assert that “God does not own the cattle on 1,001 hills, or 997 hills. He owns them on exactly 1,000 hills! The Bible says it; I believe it. That settles it!” By interpreting the psalm this way, wooden literalism distracts from the psalm’s moral and spiritual point. The psalm confronted Israel’s lack of awe and gratitude for God’s sovereignty and providing all their needs. Their low view of God not only resulted in them offering up sacrifices as though they were doing God a favor; it resulted in treating His moral law with indifference (50:16-21). Wooden literalism would have us speculating which forest and where the 1,000 hills are in Israel. Whereas sensus literalis and the counsel from the rest of the Bible would have us recognize our own sinful disposition to regard God and His provision and law lightly and prompt repentance, contrition and hope in Christ (see Romans 1:18-3:18).
Wooden literalism’s rigidly uniform interpretive method detracts and diminishes the multi-faceted ways all the Spirit-wrought Scriptures ultimately humble sinners and point them to the preeminence of Christ (II Timothy 3:14-17; Matthew 11:25-29; I Tim. 2:5; 3:14-16; Eph. 1:15-22; Col. 1:15-28; John 5:29-46; Romans 9:35-10:4).
Wooden literalism has resulted in God-belittling factions among Christ’s people (Titus 3:9-11). It has produced teachers who claim a precision of interpretation that no one who came before them had. These teachers’ alleged superior understanding of the Bible — unique to them — dismisses all other professing Christians as at best blind. In claiming no one else in church history has ever had the right interpretation, they often reject any aid from creeds or confessions from the history of the Church.
Ironically, those who insist on their literal interpretation as being pure and undefiled from man-made systems and traditions, have fallen into beliefs akin to ancient gnosticism. The Gnostics claim of superior, undefiled knowledge separated them from the messiness of the visible church and God’s earthy history of redemption. Ultimately, in their claim of superior understanding they rejected the non-negotiable mystery of the only true Gospel – that Jesus is truly God and truly man.
Fifth, there is something infinitely bigger going on.
Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways. – Romans 11:33. It’s possible to claim a high view of Scripture; but lack humble adoration of the Triune God of Scripture. The infinite glory of God and His plans and promises established before the foundation of the world that are fulfilled and administered by His Son, Jesus Christ (Eph. 1:3-14), require use of figurative and exaggerated language to humble us in our finite sin-soaked arrogant, self-confident state (Romans 3:9-18). Humans are amazing creatures, but we are more akin to toddlers learning to talk when it comes to our knowledge of the Eternal and Holy. The man Christ Jesus is the only man who fully and perfectly knows the Father and explains Him (Matthew 11:25-30; John 1:1-14; Col. 1:13-20; I Tim. 2:5). Worship Him.
By common confession, great is the mystery of godliness:
He who was revealed in the flesh, Was vindicated in the Spirit,
Seen by angels, Proclaimed among the nations, Believed on in the world,
Taken up in glory.
– I Timothy 3:16
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