The Old Testament is like watching old historical movies and modern musicals, and I think most of those based on myth transition easily. ‘Exodus’, ‘Ben Hur’, ‘Joseph and the Amazing Multi…’etc, etc. Some are indeed based on true stories, but most were God’s way of imparting great truths to the mass populations of those times, by the way of ‘ Myth’. I love myths, but it’s important to differentiate between truth and myth!! This is why we should not take the statements recorded in these stories as Truth, Doctrine, Law, though often the stories are written to explain God’s law, for simple people to understand, and ‘get it’. For children they have often been paraphrased as ‘story boards’ with the felt cutouts representing the people in the Bible stories, just as children especially recognise the felt people in the stories. I’m reading a lot of paperbacks by John Shelby Spong, and I think he has got it right! If anyone is wondering, I like these books: ‘The Sins of Scripture’ and ‘Eternal Life: A New Vision’. Comments, please!
So this is why we should stop quoting some of their details as laws to be used in the 20th century. For example, dreams and visions demonstrate ways God can speak to people in an imaginative way, rather than just saying ‘You must do this’ or ‘Do not do that’. Do you follow me?
Examples: t…
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