This is what someone said to me about the bible
recently:
Quote: "But you can't believe in that nonsense, no matter how much you want to. For instance you can't believe that Santa Claus is real, or if you pray hard enough an apple will go up instead of fall on the ground. Because you have learned how gravity works and you know the story of Santa Claus. Only if you are ignorant like a little child, could you believe that sort of things. Knowledge has a lot to do with that, it restricts the domain of believable things. You would probably not believe that there was a man who build a wooden boat and in it put two of each kind of animals, while God let it rain for months and the whole earth became one big sea. With your mind you've gathered too much knowledge to believe a fairytale like that. So you give it a different interpretation, it is a symbolic story", end of Quote.
But it's not helpful if the yardstick that we use to evaluate truth, is reduced to only that which can be determined through our own observation and knowledge. Because God doesn't keep to boundaries that we set for what can be seen as possible or impossible within the framework of human thinking. Unfortunately the idea that something is only real if it can be explained through natural processes has been gaining in popularity. That viewpoint is often brought forward as being the best, if not the only way, to approach any and all problems. As if there is a monopoly on how we may interpret things, or what is the defining factor in coming to a conclusion about something. What doesn't conform to the rules of logical reasoning, or can't be verified experimentally, is at best seen as mere speculation or fantasy. In principle I actually agree with that. How else can lawyers, medical researchers, or any analysts do their job if they don't follow strict guidelines? But, in determining the credibility of the biblical stories, we mustn't overlook something very important. What we ourselves can reasonably observe and establish around us and in the greater universe and what we learn from that, doesn't tell us everything about what God can or can't do, or who he really is. Because what we observe is the creation, not God. Although the bible does say that the heavens declare his glory and the skies declare the work of his hands, Psalm 19:1. And also that what may be known about God is made plain to people, for his invisible qualities, eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood from his workmanship, Romans 1:20. So, what may be known about him has been clearly seen and understood from what he's made. It is presented as definitely not illogical for anybody to come to the conclusion that something so grand as the universe is the work of someone great. At the same time it is also made clear that the creation is not God himself. Perhaps it's a bit similar with for example a top of the range Ferrari, you don't see the people who made the car possible by looking at it. What you do see is some of their amazing qualities shining through, like the design, craftsmanship, experience, technological know how and no doubt a good dose of enthusiasm that went into that splendid looking and powerfully performing machine. Of course we do have the added advantage of knowing quite a lot about the experiential world of car designers/builders, for they are human beings like us. But we don't fully know the experiential world of the maker of everything that is, for we see only what he has made and what that tells us about him. It's much more difficult to find out who God really is and everything he can or can't do. Unless he decides to reveal that to us and if there is a creator and we live in and only see his creation, then that's not an unreasonable line of thought. The bible is then not unreasonable either in what it sets out to do, meeting certain criteria, in that it tells us who God is, what he can or can't do and a lot of things about us, in great detail. Perhaps making a universe should have been enough to convince even the staunchest critic that if he can do that, there's really nothing he can't do. But in case we missed it, God took to getting his biography published. And as if that wasn't enough, he did something completely new and came to us in Christ, filling us in on everything, reconciling the world to himself, letting us in on the grand design, his eternal purpose that he accomplished in Christ Jesus, Ephesians 3:11.
That taken into
consideration, it's not always wise with the knowledge that we have, to give a
different interpretation to certain biblical stories that don't fit in with our
own experience or perception. To write them off as mere fairy tales that have
only symbolic value. Personally I think it would have been more worrisome and
less acceptable if some of the biblical stories didn't have an element of
fairytaleishness in them. For any God worth his salt must at least be able to
do things that are somewhat above the natural. To only do things that everyone
else can do, then we could manage very well on our own couldn't we? But in the
bible God says as it were "I can do things that you can't! I can put two
of each kind of animal in a wooden boat built by a man. And nothing that goes
on that boat shall be lost no matter how high the water comes!"
"Nonsense!"
you might say, "that's just not possible!"
But if God couldn't do some fairytale stuff, than he
couldn't have raised us from the death the moment we might have wanted to live
a little longer, but couldn't because for us that's impossible. Not that it's
only about that. Whoever is in Christ will not be lost, but he is not only the
Savior that brings us to a safe haven. We also find in him the ultimate reason
why we are here and a refuge to find help and support against all the things in
life that sometimes are too much for us and that we often don't have an answer
for. When we get to know Jesus in our life there is also an extraordinary peace
that we can experience and enjoy, together with the love of Christ that passes
all understanding. And you express that to the outside world too, for what is a
love that you feel if your fellow human beings notice nothing of it. And that's
what God is doing it for, because some of the miracles in the bible are nothing
compared to what God can do in a human being, look at Jesus. And we? We, all of
us, are destined and called, (if we want that), to be transformed to the image
of the Son, ( to be like Jesus), that he would be the first born among many
brothers, (and sisters), Romans 8:29. And what did Jesus say, "When the
Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?" (Luke 18:8)
