Is the Bible the inspired Word of God? Or, are they the stories of simple people, who lacking scientific sophistication, had to rely on their imagination to make sense of the cosmos. Look at the biblical passage below:

Babel, the ornament of kingdoms, shall be as God’s overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah; the tziim shall lie there, their houses shall be filled with ochim, and the daughters of the owl shall dwell there, and the satyrs shall dance there; the ijim shall answer in her palaces, and the dragons in the palaces of her delight. (Isa. 13:19, 21, 22)

The Holy World contains stories of talking serpents, fearful giants, satyrs, and great dragons. These are also the sorts of creatures that one expects to find in mythologies and fairy tales. To say that something is a myth or fairy tale is to imply that it has no ontological status—that it isn’t something real. Why then would an all-foreseeing and infinitely wise Creator make use of such fantastic creatures knowing full well that these stories would eventually come under the scrutiny of the post modern world?

Can entities have real existence independent of what the physical world shows us? Can creatures exist within the laws of higher orders of reality? And, could these creatures be relevant to our everyday lives by having a real causal influence on what happens in the world?

We often describe Hitler as a monster. Yet, physically, he fully possessed the same human features as everyone else. So where does the hideous disfigurement reside?

When we see someone perform self-less acts to help others why do we say to that person “How big of you to do that?” And, why do we often refer to a selfish individual as a “small person?” What kind of non-physical metrics are we instinctively applying to the stature of people that we deal with everyday?

Why are the people we encounter in life seen on the one hand as being sharks, snakes in the grass, parasites, or wolves in sheep’s clothing, and on the other hand, seen as being innocent as doves or gentle as lambs? Isn’t it obvious that these images help to portray qualities that we are detecting from people’s true inner realities?

Therefore, are we abandoning modern scientific positivism and degenerating into superstitious goat-herders by such imaginative forays? If we can make use of this symbolic representation to express a more real picture of things operating underneath the surface, why can’t God?

In terms of salvation, isn’t it this inner reality of the human heart and mind that religion seeks to address and offer its guidance?

Posted on February 2, 2008by thegodguy

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