I think so that the snake talked. Can’t think of how this could be symbolic
Sure, it is vague to the natural mind how the Holy Spirit helps us interpret scripture. But I believe He can and does show us what is literal and what is symbolic.
I share your concern about anti-intellectualism, especially among clergy without or only with a bachelor’s in theology. A well rounded education improves one’s ability to provide pastoral care for others and proclaim the gospel clearly and faithfully.
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The serpent in the garden was reprenting Satan…in other words, Satan disguised as a serpent.
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If one is of a particular denomination, seminary education is lacking if it does not teach that denomination’s doctrine. That is one purpose of a denominational seminary.
When you write that you can’t think of how something that you think is literal could not possibly be symbolic, you highlight the very nature of the problem with literalism.
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Happens a lot, in your experience DrDale? Talking snakes and such?
It might very well be ‘the purpose of a denominational seminary.’
It most certainly is ‘the problem of a denominational seminary.’
And literalist views tend to obscure the deeper meaning in text. A snake chatted with Eve and convinced her to eat fruit, so therefore snakes and women are bad comes out of that thinking more than the concept of trusting God when temptation arises, sometimes with the least likely of messengers
It would not bother me if I get to heaven and find that something I thought was literal in scripture was really symbolic. It might bother me a little if something I thought was symbolic only was really literal. I want to understand Biblical narrative the best way possible, so that it can change me and cause me to grow.
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When the context makes a statement seem literal, I tend to also see that statement literal also. If the context has lots of non-literal or symbolic meanings, I tend to think a particular verse is symbolic also.
Yes, the serpent represented Satan, but I believe Eve experiences Satan as a serpent. Satan is a spirit, which one cannot see ordinarily.
This whole story is written as Hebrew poetry/mythology. It’s obvious when you compare the creation account of Genesis 1 and 2, they directly contradict one another and tell it different ways. It’s not a science book - it’s about humanity’s sin against God and His redemptive love.
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Sin is so real in God’s perfect creation that it caused death to come to the world after the first humans sinned. There was no death in the universe before that. So all fossils (evidences of death) are from the time after Adam was created. The long ages that evolutionists espouse are in direct contradiction to the fact that it is sin that brings death. All of nature changed after sin. The second law of thermodynamics was evident only after sin. The universe started to wind down, and slow down and cool off after sin. All death was originally because of sin. God did not create death. He created and creates life. The human story is within the time span of all of nature. That is how important humans are to God. He loves us. Everything He ever created and all natural processes are in some relationship to Man. All fossils ever found are from organisms who lived no longer ago than when man and woman walked the earth.
You have been disproven by science. Perhaps the problem is a version of Christianity that will stop an nothing to enforce lies in order to push literalism at any cost.
Hi,
Eve’s calm demeanor begs that she was used to talking with animals. Her response wasn’t “OMG that serpent just spoke.” Eve’s just answered the serpent’s question. So Eve’s actions lead me to believe that the serpent could talk, and this was not the first conversation. There is a familiarity there.
Remember also, that the serpent was perfect before the fall. Genesis 3:1 calls the serpent more subtle than any beast of the field.
We don’t know the capabilities of a perfect serpent
We are only assuming that because snakes (if that was what the serpent was) cannot speak now, they could not speak then. Also, speaking is not the only way to communicate. Did you ever see a dog stand at the door and whine? Does that behavior communicate to you that the dog wants to be outside? My guess, and its just a guess, is this wasn’t the first conversation Eve had with an animal.
Blessings
How do you say I have been disproven when science has not been able to find even a complex organ in stages of development before the organism needs that organ? Organs with irreducible complexity have not been found in incremental stages of development while there was a need for them already. Does science have an honest missing link that lived before modern humans or is that only speculation? Why have we not been able to find even one instance of life coming from non-life?
If Christianity is such a lie as you seem to assume, then whether scripture is literal or non-literal is not important. There is only lies for the Son of God to even recall about the first man or marriage or about the origin of sin and death. Maybe there is nothing that we can hold onto from Genesis and it would be good to detatch it from our Bibles.
Did God create a perfect world without death before Adam and Eve’s sin, or is death totally unrelated to sin as evolutionists would say? I believe that connection is clear throughout scripture, and it shows that the universe has only had fossils as long as there has been physical death and that has only been as long as Adam has been alive.
You miss what the story is teaching through allegory by taking it literally. Intellectual dishonesty.
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